EQUIPMENT from a smelting mill that closed 100 years ago is being kept in the garden of one the workers' relatives.

The Blackton lead smelting mill, which employed 125 men, was dismantled at Eggleston, near Barnard Castle, in 1904.

As well as the mill jobs lost, many others in the village were put out of work as contractors, carriers and suppliers were forced out of business.

Retired farmer Arthur Bainbridge's grandfather, Joe, and his great uncle, William, were among the many forced to leave the village to find work.

Mr Bainbridge's relatives moved to Darlington and found work at the North Road railway workshops.

Mr Bainbridge said: "The impact on this small village was as severe as it would be in Barnard Castle today if the Glaxo drugs factory closed. Everyone depended on the smelting mill. The closure must have been very traumatic."

The company had built a lot of high quality stone houses in the area, and at the time of the closure it put many of them up for sale at an auction.

Mr Bainbridge still has a relic from the mill - a Patterson Pan used for taking silver from the lead ore.

It is now used as a flower tub in his son, William's garden.