Official records of mining in the area go back at least as far as 1898. Before that it is likely, due to the particularly craggy nature of the valley, that the local dry stone walls and stone for housing were taken from the slopes around the valley, even as far back as the Bronze Age. There are two main open cast mines in the valley. The first is Jumb Quarry, situated within a few hundred yards of the early settlement at Tongue House, suggesting that the two may have been coexisting in some form or other. However the general proliferation of rock in this part of Kentmere means the early inhabitants may easily have taken their building material from almost anywhere in the valley, so it is by no means certain.