Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Silverstrand (sic) 1790 Hothf

• Silverband Mine 1859 OS

Etymology

Silver Band, 1742 NWm 188, Silverstrand (sic)1790Hothf , Silverband Mine 1859OS , a compound of silver (v. seolfor ) and e.ModE  band 'projecting ridge' (cf. The Band i, 204supra ); if not an error, -strands in the 1790 form is from ME  strand 'stream' (cf. Strands Beck ii, 112supra ) and would denote one of the 'hushes' here. The name describes a place where silver was mined, chiefly by hushing or allowing a dammed-up body of water to be released down a slope to wash away earth and other material to expose the ore. On Dun Fell and other neighbouring hills as far south as Stainmore many old dams and hushes are found in the vicinity of lead mines. Robinson writing in 1709 of the minerals in this ridge of mountains says: 'the third elevation…is called by the name of Silverband , so called from richness of the ore, which when refined by art yields a valuable product of silver', and it was partly on account of the silver content that the lead ores were mined (cf. British Regional Geology : Northern England , HMSO 1953, 10). There are frequent references in PR to miners in the 18th and 19th centuries (cf. PR 25–8, 33, 34, 36, 45, etc.), including John Grey, 'a poor smelter from Cornwall' (ib 51); in 1742 Sam. Storey and Thomas Parker were indicted for hushing for lead ore at Silver Band, so polluting Newbiggin Beck (NWm 188); cf. Old Hush (ii, 111supra ).