Reasons for Designation
Nucleated lead mines are a prominent type of field monument produced by lead
mining. They consist of a range of features grouped around the adits and/or
shafts of a mine. The simplest examples contain merely a shaft or adit with
associated spoil tip, but more complex and (in general) later examples may
include remains of engine houses for pumping and/or winding from shafts,
housing, lodging shops and offices, powder houses for storing gunpowder, power
transmission features such as wheel pits, dams and leats. The majority of
nucleated lead mines also included ore works, where the mixture of ore and
waste rock extracted from the ground was separated ('dressed') to form a
smeltable concentrate. The range of processes used can be summarised as:
picking out of clean lumps of ore and waste; breaking down of lumps to smaller
sizes (either by manual hammering or mechanical crushing); sorting of broken
material by size; separation of gravel-sized material by shaking on a sieve in
a tub of water ('jigging'); and separation of finer material by washing away
the lighter waste in a current of water ('buddling'). The field remains of ore
works vary widely and include the remains of crushing devices, separating
structures and tanks, tips of distinctive waste from the various processes,
together with associated water supply and power installations, such as wheel
pits and, more rarely, steam engine houses.
The majority of nucleated lead mines with ore works are of 18th to 20th
century date, earlier mining being normally by rake or hush and including
scattered ore dressing features (a 'hush' is a gully or ravine partly
excavated by use of a controlled torrent of water to reveal or exploit a vein
of mineral ore). Nucleated lead mines often illustrate the great advances in
industrial technology associated with the period known as the Industrial
Revolution and, sometimes, also inform an understanding of the great changes
in social conditions which accompanied it. Because of the greatly increased
scale of working associated with nucleated mining such features can be a major
component of many upland landscapes. It is estimated that several thousand
sites exist, the majority being small mines of limited importance, although
the important early remains of many larger mines have often been greatly
modified or destroyed by continued working or by modern reworking. A sample of
the better preserved sites, illustrating the regional, chronological and
technological range of the class, is considered to merit protection.
Odin mine is a well preserved and well documented lead working site with a
wide variety of mining and ore processing remains. The importance of the area
associated with Engine Sough lies in its demonstration of the techniques and
technologies used to locate and extract lead ore in a geologically complex
area. Soughs were horizontal tunnels dug specifically for draining water away
from underground mineworkings. Although they are common features in
association with Derbyshire lead mines, they are rare elsewhere in the
country. Well preserved examples like Engine Sough are, therefore, considered
to be of national importance.
Details
The monument is located below Mam Tor and includes part of Engine Sough
together with an adjacent area of mineworkings which are part of Odin Mine.
Odin is an extensive mine and further mineworkings exist to east and west.
These have not been included in the scheduling due to their isolation from the
core area. Another part of Odin Mine, occurring on the limestone to the east,
is the subject of a separate scheduling.
On the north east side of the monument the remains include mine shafts and
spoil tips which are partly enclosed on the north and west sides by the
remains of a drystone wall. The mine site is approached from the south east by
a mine-related cart track which runs alongside the field boundary wall and
continues towards Mam Tor. On the south west side, the monument includes two
mounds located c.30m apart which mark the location of shafts sunk during the
construction of Engine Sough. The sough and the adjacent mineworkings are
located on shale at its interface with the limestone plateau to the south and
east of Mam Tor. They were driven into the shale specifically to seek the
veins of lead ore which were hard to follow underground because of the
complexities of the beds of shale and limestone.
Odin Mine is a multi-period mine which was reputedly worked during the tenth
century though the earliest written reference which appears to mention it by
name dates to 1260. The limestone was certainly worked by 1600, though
workings on the shale are probably later than this. The mine was in continuous
operation between 1704 and 1867.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
