The teeth of people who lived in medieval England have revealed a disturbing history of industrial pollution. Archaeologists studying communities in Derbyshire’s Peak District have found that children were exposed to exceptionally high levels of lead as early as the seventh century, sometimes matching or exceeding those recorded in industrial cities more than a thousand years later.
The findings, published this month in the journal Antiquity, provide the first securely dated evidence that lead production had resumed in the Peak District by the middle of the seventh century, following the end of Roman rule in Britain. They also reveal how one of medieval Europe’s most important industries affected the communities involved in mining and smelting.
The research, led by the University of Nottingham in collaboration with the British Geological Survey, the University of Sheffield, York Archaeology and Castleton Historical Society, used chemical traces preserved in human tooth enamel to reconstruct centuries of lead exposure. This approach allowed researchers to investigate the development of an industry whose archaeological traces had largely disappeared through centuries of mining and re-smelting.
Medieval industry revealed through human teeth
Map showing the location of Castleton and other sites associated with medieval lead production in England and Europe (top), and the principal archaeological sites and mining centres in Derbyshire’s Peak District (bottom). Image: Anna Bloxam and Christopher Loveluck / Antiquity (2026).
The Peak District was one of western Europe’s largest lead-producing regions during the Middle Ages. However, archaeologists have struggled to establish precisely when production resumed after the Roman period. Much of the physical evidence was destroyed or disturbed when earlier mining waste was repeatedly re-smelted between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.
To overcome this problem, researchers examined chemical traces preserved in human tooth enamel. Unlike bones, tooth enamel does not remodel after forming. It therefore preserves evidence of substances absorbed during childhood. By measuring lead concentrations in teeth that formed between approximately four and twelve years of age, the researchers could reconstruct childhood exposure to pollution centuries after the individuals had died.
The study, led by Christopher Loveluck, Professor of Medieval European Archaeology at the University of Nottingham, examined 15 medieval individuals from three cemeteries: Wigber Low, dating to the seventh century; Joule Yard at Castleton, with burials dating from the seventh to eleventh centuries; and Spital Field at Castleton, used between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Two Iron Age individuals from nearby Eldon Hole were also analysed for comparison.
Children exposed to extraordinary levels of pollution
Gold-bound beaver-tooth pendant from the Wigber Low cemetery (mid-7th century). Image courtesy Sheffield Museums Trust
The results revealed that lead exposure was already substantial in the seventh century. Of the 15 medieval individuals examined, 14 had lead concentrations exceeding 10 parts per million in their tooth enamel, while four had concentrations above 40 parts per million. Some of these measurements were comparable to, or higher than, those found in people living in heavily industrialised British cities between approximately 1750 and 1850.
Lead is a toxic metal capable of damaging the nervous system, kidneys and reproductive system. In medieval mining communities, exposure could have occurred through contaminated dust, fumes and materials associated with extracting and processing ore.
Children may have been particularly vulnerable. Archaeological evidence from medieval mining operations at Melle in western France suggests that children could have helped wash and prepare ore before smelting. Even those not directly involved in this work could have been exposed simply by living near industrial activities.
By the eighth century, pollution appears to have become widespread around Castleton. All five individuals examined from Joule Yard had lead concentrations above 25 parts per million, suggesting that entire households were living in heavily contaminated environments.
Social status and the dangers of lead production
The Castleton cemetery. Photo by Colin Merrony & Anna Bloxam
The researchers also found evidence that exposure to lead varied according to social position. At Wigber Low, two men buried with weapons had comparatively low lead concentrations of 2 and 10.9 parts per million. By contrast, a man buried without grave goods had a concentration of 29.5 parts per million, while a young woman had a concentration of 69.1 parts per million.
These differences suggest that wealthier individuals may have controlled or benefited from lead production without necessarily participating in its most hazardous activities. People from less privileged households, meanwhile, may have been more directly involved in preparing ore and smelting metal.
The researchers suggest that the growing wealth visible in seventh-century burials could be connected to renewed demand for lead, particularly for Christian church construction.
The findings also shed light on the possible health consequences for women in these communities. Three women examined in the study died between approximately 17 and 25 years of age, having experienced elevated lead exposure during childhood. Although the researchers cannot establish that lead poisoning caused their premature deaths, they suggest that the relationship deserves further investigation.
“We know from modern studies that lead can have profoundly harmful effects on the health and development of children: there is no safe level of exposure,” said Anna Bloxam, Co-Director of the Castleton excavations. “All the individuals included in our study survived into adulthood, but they were exposed to lead while they were young and growing. We can tell from their skeletons that most of the men we studied lived until middle or old age, whereas the women primarily died much earlier, in young adulthood.
“Our results indicate that in these mining communities, girls and boys alike were raised in dangerously polluted home environments. This exposure will likely have caused negative health effects in life, and perhaps contributed to higher rates of premature death among women of child-bearing age.”
One possible concern was pregnancy, during which lead previously stored in the bones can be released into the bloodstream, potentially increasing risks to both mother and child.
Really pleased to see this published – lots of interesting results from some my favourite Peak District sites 😊
The new evidence also helps explain the development of the Peak District’s mining industry over several centuries. Lead production was already an important activity in Roman Britain, with large-scale extraction taking place in Derbyshire from around AD 80. Although production was long thought to have declined substantially after Roman rule ended, the new findings demonstrate that the industry had revived by the middle of the seventh century.
By the ninth century, lead from Wirksworth was sufficiently valuable to be used as a form of rent. A charter summary attributed to 835 records a nobleman named Humberht paying lead to the monastery at Repton, with the metal to be transported to Canterbury.
The Domesday Book of 1086 subsequently recorded mines and smelting centres at several Derbyshire locations, including Matlock, Wirksworth, Bakewell and Ashford.
Production reached its medieval height between approximately 1180 and 1215. The researchers found that the two individuals with the highest lead concentrations at Spital Field dated to the late twelfth or thirteenth centuries, corresponding closely with this period of intensive mining.
These results also match environmental evidence from Alpine ice cores and Scandinavian lake sediments, which record a major rise in atmospheric lead pollution around 1200, attributed largely to British production.
The study further suggests that mining communities were remarkably stable. Isotopic analysis indicated that most individuals had grown up locally, suggesting that mining and smelting skills were passed down through generations rather than depending heavily on incoming workers.
Understanding the lives of medieval mining communities
The research builds on decades of archaeological investigations in the Peak District, including excavations at Castleton led by researchers from the University of Sheffield and Castleton Historical Society.
“Our recent excavations in Castleton have provided a lot of new information about the people living in the Hope Valley during the medieval period,” said Colin Merrony of the University of Sheffield. “We now understand more about the size of the population in the valley, and we can see from the archaeological evidence that these working communities were involved in industries which required hard physical labour. However, this study has enabled us, for the first time, to see beyond this broader understanding and to look more deeply into the profound impact lead production had on individuals and the communities they lived in.”
The findings demonstrate how medieval industry could create severe environmental pollution long before the Industrial Revolution. They also offer a new way of identifying metal-producing communities elsewhere in medieval Europe through chemical evidence preserved in human remains.
The results will contribute to a developing medieval archaeological research agenda for the Peak District National Park, funded by Historic England. A temporary exhibition planned for autumn and winter 2026–27 will present the findings alongside archaeological discoveries from Castleton.
The study, “Social dynamics of toxic metal industry in medieval Europe: Peak District lead production, AD 600–1500”, by Christopher P. Loveluck, Hannah J. O’Regan, Anna Bloxam, Catrin Fear, Jane Evans, Simon Chenery, Carolyn Chenery, Colin Merrony, Fiona E. Moore and Angela Darlington, was published in Antiquity. Click here to read it.
Top Image: Otis Historical Archives Nat’l Museum of Health & Medicine / Wikimedia Commons
The teeth of people who lived in medieval England have revealed a disturbing history of industrial pollution. Archaeologists studying communities in Derbyshire’s Peak District have found that children were exposed to exceptionally high levels of lead as early as the seventh century, sometimes matching or exceeding those recorded in industrial cities more than a thousand years later.
The findings, published this month in the journal Antiquity, provide the first securely dated evidence that lead production had resumed in the Peak District by the middle of the seventh century, following the end of Roman rule in Britain. They also reveal how one of medieval Europe’s most important industries affected the communities involved in mining and smelting.
The research, led by the University of Nottingham in collaboration with the British Geological Survey, the University of Sheffield, York Archaeology and Castleton Historical Society, used chemical traces preserved in human tooth enamel to reconstruct centuries of lead exposure. This approach allowed researchers to investigate the development of an industry whose archaeological traces had largely disappeared through centuries of mining and re-smelting.
Medieval industry revealed through human teeth
The Peak District was one of western Europe’s largest lead-producing regions during the Middle Ages. However, archaeologists have struggled to establish precisely when production resumed after the Roman period. Much of the physical evidence was destroyed or disturbed when earlier mining waste was repeatedly re-smelted between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.
To overcome this problem, researchers examined chemical traces preserved in human tooth enamel. Unlike bones, tooth enamel does not remodel after forming. It therefore preserves evidence of substances absorbed during childhood. By measuring lead concentrations in teeth that formed between approximately four and twelve years of age, the researchers could reconstruct childhood exposure to pollution centuries after the individuals had died.
The study, led by Christopher Loveluck, Professor of Medieval European Archaeology at the University of Nottingham, examined 15 medieval individuals from three cemeteries: Wigber Low, dating to the seventh century; Joule Yard at Castleton, with burials dating from the seventh to eleventh centuries; and Spital Field at Castleton, used between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Two Iron Age individuals from nearby Eldon Hole were also analysed for comparison.
Children exposed to extraordinary levels of pollution
The results revealed that lead exposure was already substantial in the seventh century. Of the 15 medieval individuals examined, 14 had lead concentrations exceeding 10 parts per million in their tooth enamel, while four had concentrations above 40 parts per million. Some of these measurements were comparable to, or higher than, those found in people living in heavily industrialised British cities between approximately 1750 and 1850.
Lead is a toxic metal capable of damaging the nervous system, kidneys and reproductive system. In medieval mining communities, exposure could have occurred through contaminated dust, fumes and materials associated with extracting and processing ore.
Children may have been particularly vulnerable. Archaeological evidence from medieval mining operations at Melle in western France suggests that children could have helped wash and prepare ore before smelting. Even those not directly involved in this work could have been exposed simply by living near industrial activities.
By the eighth century, pollution appears to have become widespread around Castleton. All five individuals examined from Joule Yard had lead concentrations above 25 parts per million, suggesting that entire households were living in heavily contaminated environments.
Social status and the dangers of lead production
The researchers also found evidence that exposure to lead varied according to social position. At Wigber Low, two men buried with weapons had comparatively low lead concentrations of 2 and 10.9 parts per million. By contrast, a man buried without grave goods had a concentration of 29.5 parts per million, while a young woman had a concentration of 69.1 parts per million.
These differences suggest that wealthier individuals may have controlled or benefited from lead production without necessarily participating in its most hazardous activities. People from less privileged households, meanwhile, may have been more directly involved in preparing ore and smelting metal.
The researchers suggest that the growing wealth visible in seventh-century burials could be connected to renewed demand for lead, particularly for Christian church construction.
The findings also shed light on the possible health consequences for women in these communities. Three women examined in the study died between approximately 17 and 25 years of age, having experienced elevated lead exposure during childhood. Although the researchers cannot establish that lead poisoning caused their premature deaths, they suggest that the relationship deserves further investigation.
“We know from modern studies that lead can have profoundly harmful effects on the health and development of children: there is no safe level of exposure,” said Anna Bloxam, Co-Director of the Castleton excavations. “All the individuals included in our study survived into adulthood, but they were exposed to lead while they were young and growing. We can tell from their skeletons that most of the men we studied lived until middle or old age, whereas the women primarily died much earlier, in young adulthood.
“Our results indicate that in these mining communities, girls and boys alike were raised in dangerously polluted home environments. This exposure will likely have caused negative health effects in life, and perhaps contributed to higher rates of premature death among women of child-bearing age.”
One possible concern was pregnancy, during which lead previously stored in the bones can be released into the bloodstream, potentially increasing risks to both mother and child.
The medieval lead mining boom
The new evidence also helps explain the development of the Peak District’s mining industry over several centuries. Lead production was already an important activity in Roman Britain, with large-scale extraction taking place in Derbyshire from around AD 80. Although production was long thought to have declined substantially after Roman rule ended, the new findings demonstrate that the industry had revived by the middle of the seventh century.
By the ninth century, lead from Wirksworth was sufficiently valuable to be used as a form of rent. A charter summary attributed to 835 records a nobleman named Humberht paying lead to the monastery at Repton, with the metal to be transported to Canterbury.
The Domesday Book of 1086 subsequently recorded mines and smelting centres at several Derbyshire locations, including Matlock, Wirksworth, Bakewell and Ashford.
Production reached its medieval height between approximately 1180 and 1215. The researchers found that the two individuals with the highest lead concentrations at Spital Field dated to the late twelfth or thirteenth centuries, corresponding closely with this period of intensive mining.
These results also match environmental evidence from Alpine ice cores and Scandinavian lake sediments, which record a major rise in atmospheric lead pollution around 1200, attributed largely to British production.
The study further suggests that mining communities were remarkably stable. Isotopic analysis indicated that most individuals had grown up locally, suggesting that mining and smelting skills were passed down through generations rather than depending heavily on incoming workers.
Understanding the lives of medieval mining communities
The research builds on decades of archaeological investigations in the Peak District, including excavations at Castleton led by researchers from the University of Sheffield and Castleton Historical Society.
“Our recent excavations in Castleton have provided a lot of new information about the people living in the Hope Valley during the medieval period,” said Colin Merrony of the University of Sheffield. “We now understand more about the size of the population in the valley, and we can see from the archaeological evidence that these working communities were involved in industries which required hard physical labour. However, this study has enabled us, for the first time, to see beyond this broader understanding and to look more deeply into the profound impact lead production had on individuals and the communities they lived in.”
The findings demonstrate how medieval industry could create severe environmental pollution long before the Industrial Revolution. They also offer a new way of identifying metal-producing communities elsewhere in medieval Europe through chemical evidence preserved in human remains.
The results will contribute to a developing medieval archaeological research agenda for the Peak District National Park, funded by Historic England. A temporary exhibition planned for autumn and winter 2026–27 will present the findings alongside archaeological discoveries from Castleton.
The study, “Social dynamics of toxic metal industry in medieval Europe: Peak District lead production, AD 600–1500”, by Christopher P. Loveluck, Hannah J. O’Regan, Anna Bloxam, Catrin Fear, Jane Evans, Simon Chenery, Carolyn Chenery, Colin Merrony, Fiona E. Moore and Angela Darlington, was published in Antiquity. Click here to read it.
Top Image: Otis Historical Archives Nat’l Museum of Health & Medicine / Wikimedia Commons
Subscribe to Medievalverse
Related Posts