Summary
A mine worked for lead from the C16 and C17, and for calcite from the late C19 to 1931.
Reasons for Designation
Putwell Hill Mine, the vein of which was worked for lead in the late C16 and C17, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Survival: it is a well-preserved site displaying chronological depth and illustrating process and technological development, from the apparently older hilltop workings to the continued working of the hillside minerals, the surviving earthworks and structures of which have a defining presence in the landscape;
* Documentary Evidence: there is documentary evidence of working on Putwell Hill at least as early as the late C16;
* Rarity: Putwell Hill Mine illustrates well the distinctive Derbyshire mining tradition, reflected in the range and character of surviving features;
* Group Value: Putwell Hill Mine sits within an area of well-preserved mining remains, with Lees and Dove Rakes to the north, and evidence of mining between. It illustrates the extent and intensity of exploitation of this regionally distinct mining landscape;
* Potential: the range of surface remains and buried archaeological deposits, and the survival of underground stopes, contain the potential to make a substantial contribution to our understanding of the extraction of the mineral, its on-site processing and, more broadly, to the historical and technological development of lead mining in Derbyshire.
History
Lead mining in Derbyshire may have begun as early as the Late Bronze Age indicated by the discovery of lead artefacts at Mam Tor and Gardoms Edge, but no archaeological evidence for mining, ore processing or smelting has been recorded (Barnatt, Bevan and Edmonds 2002). In the Roman period written sources provide evidence for a national industry, while inscriptions on lead 'pigs' (ingots of smelted metal) and their distribution indicate production in Derbyshire, the Mendips, South Shropshire, and the Yorkshire Pennines. Again, the mines themselves are elusive and remain so into the Medieval period. 'Lead works' mentioned in the Domesday Survey may refer to mining or smelting, but there is documentary evidence of mining at, for example, the Nestus Mines, Matlock Bath and Tideslow Rake. At Tideswell there are also many Bole Hills (a primitive smelting furnace) with vestiges of slag remaining where lead was smelted. Two other pieces of evidence dating from the medieval period are of fundamental importance: the earliest written laws of lead mining from the Ashbourne Inquisition of 1288, and the carving of a medieval miner in Wirksworth church (moved from Bonsal Church in the C19), which is probably even earlier.
In the Middle Ages a royalty of a thirteenth of all ore mined (known as a 'lot') was paid to the Crown and a tenth (or 'tithe') was claimed by the church. The Peak was a free mining area with wide and unusual privileges and the 'free' miners were allowed to work by very liberal laws which enabled them to search for lead ore in the 'liberties'; anywhere but churchyards, gardens, orchards and highways. The miners had right of access, water and space to both mine and dump their waste without regard to the land users or owners wishes. To control mining, mineral courts were set up with a Steward and Barmaster, representing the Duchies, including Devonshire, Rutland, and Lancaster, and other landowners as lords of their own liberties, as well as a Grand Jury of 24 men (12 since 1851-52) appointed for six months to control each of the different areas. The laws grew in complexity through time and were not fully listed until the mid-C17 when Thomas Manlove, a Barmoot Steward, wrote them down 'in metre'. The mining laws were formalised in 1851-52. The court still sits today, made up of men who have a wide knowledge of the miners and mining field.
Documentary sources dating to the C12 and C14 provide evidence of 11 and possibly 12 mining sites of one or more workings in Derbyshire. Work would have started as opencasts (veins which were worked from the surface to a depth of c30-40 feet) and would eventually have gone further underground. In reality there were probably many more mines for which no documentation survives. The evidence for mining during the C15 and C16 comes primarily from the written versions of the laws and customs between 1288 and 1525, and from an increasing number of specific mines for which we have documentary evidence, often in the form of court case records. As knowledge of ore deposits increased many more mines were worked and in excess of 100 are individually documented, although many groups of miners could be at work along a single vein. Evidence in contemporary documents of technological development includes the underground use of gunpowder to break rock (1660s), drainage using horse-powered pumps (c1579-1581) and long drainage soughs (1627 onwards). Extensive archaeological evidence shows that firesetting using coal was commonly practiced in the C16 and C17, with its use overlapping with gunpowder from the 1660s to early 1700s.
The C17 witnessed rapid expansion in both geological knowledge and technical advance. As a consequence of improvements in smelting technology during the last quarter of the C16 the old underground workings and surface hillocks of many large mines were extensively reworked. The use of gunpowder blasting for rock breakage from the late-C17 made working mines to a greater depth easier, but these required more efficient ventilation, gained by sinking shafts at regular intervals. The driving of soughs to dewater mines was crucial and these became common.
The depth of workings and shafts increased through the C18 from up to 700ft to in excess of 900ft in some cases. The first Newcomen engine was installed between 1716 and 1719 and a 40ft diameter water wheel was recorded in 1747. Haulage was also transformed in the C18; baskets and sleds were gradually superseded at larger mines by the introduction of small, plain wheeled wagons running along wooden rails. Iron railed tramways became relatively common in the C19. Haulage to the surface continued to use traditional stows, although horse gins were also in use in most medium to large mines.
In the C19 profitable sources of ore became scarce and increased competition from other orefields led to a decline in the importance of, and production at, the Peak District mines. A series of expensive ventures using steam engines to enable work at depth were launched but most were not economically sustainable. As with all previous centuries, small scale underground production by miner-farmers and other part-time workers, and low-paid reworking of hillocks for residual lead ore, continued. With the exception of Millclose Mine at Darley Bridge, worked until 1939, little profitable mining for lead was carried out from the 1880s onwards. From the early C20 to the present, lead mining sites have been extensively reworked for minerals originally discarded by the lead miners. Those of economic worth are primarily fluorspar, barites and calcite, while lead ore is still a valuable by-product.
The vein at Putwell Hill was worked for lead in the late C16 and C17, and for calamine by 1803, with a section towards the west end of the scheduled area known as the 'Callamine Mine'. By the late 1870s the vein was apparently solely worked for calcite, and continued to be so until 1931, although Historic Ordnance Survey (OS) maps of 1879 and 1898 describe the Monsaldale Mine complex, at the east end of the rake, as a lead and spar mine (although the area to the east of the track from the railway is referred to as an 'Old Lead Mine'), while on the 1922 OS map it is described solely as a spar mine. The maps show the development of the complex, with the chimney appearing between 1898 and 1922. Good access to rail transport is likely to have contributed to the economic viability of the mine, and to its capacity to diversify into alternative mineral extraction.
Another group of buildings, at the top of the slope of Putwell Hill, west of the main open cut into the vein and outside the scheduled area, are said to date to before 1811. Although these have been interpreted by some as being associated with lead mining, their form suggests an agricultural function.
Details
The scheduled area includes the earthwork, buried, standing and rock cut remains of Putwell Hill Mine. The area includes the vein as it runs across Putwell Hill down to the old railway line in Monsal Dale, with evidence for lead mining present as a series of earthworks and buried and standing remains. These include Monsaldale Lead and Spar Mine, close to the old railway line, as well as shafts, waste hillocks, open cuts (vein working open to daylight) and belland yard walls (walls built around contaminated land to keep out stock).
The vein is marked by two lengths of open cut, a longer, wide section running up the steep hillside from Monsaldale Mine and a shorter narrow section of about 50 metres running along the top of the hillside to the west. An eastern opencut has been capped with concrete beams. The entrance to a blocked stope (an excavation from which ore has been extracted) can be seen as a vertical fissure in the rock face on the west side of the old railway embankment, the upper part stacked with deads (waste material) supported on a wedged rock. A tumbled stone wall that runs up the hillside parallel to the east open cut is part of the wall that enclosed the cut, expanding westwards as the cut was lengthened. At the top of the hillside, to the west of the main open cut, a stone wall encloses an area of hillocks and a line of shaft hollows. Another area of hillocks to the west of this, south of the ruinous buildings, is enclosed by a tumbled stone walled belland yard, including a possible meerstone (marker stone). The shaft hollows continue to the south of the track, up to the west open cut and beyond. To the south of these is a linear embankment, shown on historic OS maps from 1879.
Elements of the mine complex buildings towards the east end of the rake survive in a ruinous condition, including the chimney, which stands to about 7 metres, as well as stone, brick and concrete buildings and a series of interlinked, stone-built structures to the south. Opposite these, on the west side of the track is a stone structure that has the appearance of a bridge abutment, and may relate to what appears to be a line of communication shown on the 1922 OS map crossing the track from one section of the mine to another. A short length of track, a sunken roadway running south-east from this point, is included in the scheduling. To the north-west of the mine buildings, beyond the scheduled area, is an early C20 quarry.
EXTENT OF SCHEDULING
The scheduled area includes an irregular corridor of land running from the old railway up the steep east side of Putwell Hill, and continuing to the west along the hillside above Monsal Dale. The corridor contains all mineral workings associated with Putwell Hill Mine, including the late C19 buildings of Monsaldale Mine, as well as all earthwork remains.
At the east end, the scheduled area includes the stope entrance in the railway embankment and encloses the main opencut and the C19 mine structures. The south-west corner at the embankment is at SK1792671874, and at this end the scheduling is about 52 metres wide. From the south-west corner the south scheduling boundary travels west, meeting the roadway to the east of the mine buildings at SK1784171844, where the line turns south following the east side of the roadway for a distance of about 45 metres before returning, forming a spur about 15 metres wide at its widest point. The south scheduling boundary then continues west, meeting a track running south-east to north-west at SK1773171787. At this point the corridor containing the opencut is at its widest, at about 65 metres. From here, the south boundary follows the curve of the track, turning south at SK1760371758 to form a sub-rectangle 22 metres by 53 metres. The west side of this follows a field boundary to rejoin the scheduling corridor enclosing the rake just south of the track. It then travels on a trajectory slightly south of west, the end of the scheduled area marked by the next field boundary to the west at SK1692371598. The line is straight except for a slight belling out to the south between SK1723071659 and SK1704471620. Here the west end of the scheduled corridor is at its widest at about 55 metres.
From the railway embankment in the east, as it climbs the steep hillside the north boundary follows a straight line almost parallel to that to the south boundary, apart from a scoop about 47 metres wide by 19 metres deep, its east corner at SK1778471880. This cuts in to exclude the C20 quarry. The north boundary runs up the hillside to the field boundary at SK1765571834, from where it follows the field boundary west, then south for about 23 metres before turning west to take in the belland yard between the ruinous structures to the north and the track to the south. This area measures about 22 metres from north to the track in the south, and 97 metres from east to west, where it joins the track, which it continues to follow for the remainder of its length, ending at the field boundary to the west.
All modern structures not specifically mentioned in the scheduling description, including track surfaces, fence and gate posts, are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included.
