The reforming Quakers built housing, a school with compulsory education for both boys and girls, public baths and a washhouse for the miners and their families. Nenthead was the first village in the UK to have a free lending library in its reading room and electric street lighting from excess power generated by the mines.

The company was a leader in refining silver from lead and this would go to the Mint, coins produced from it having a mark to distinguish its origins.

Other pioneers associated with Nenthead are civil engineer John Smeaton who, at the peak of his powers, built the Nent Force Level which became known as Smeaton’s Folly after hydraulic pumps were invented and used to drain the mines. And John MacAdam built the roads around Nenthead after visiting and discovering how bad they were!