http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/lead-pollution-ancient-ice-cores-may-track-rise-and-fall-medieval-kings

In medieval times, the picturesque region around Peveril Castle in the U.K.'s Peak District was a center of lead mining and an “industrial landscape.”

In the Peak District of the United Kingdom, the picturesque village of Castleton nestles at the foot of a limestone outcrop crowned by a medieval castle. Today, hikers flock to the natural beauty of this region, home to the United Kingdom’s first national park. But 800 years ago, the wild moors and wooded gorges were “covered in toxic lead pollution,” says archaeologist Chris Loveluck of the University of Nottingham. “The royal hunting forest near the castle was an industrial landscape.”