Summary

A multi-phase lead mining complex.

Source: Historic England

Details

The monument includes the standing ruins, earthworks and buried remains of the Lathkill Dale and Mandale mines.

At the eastern extent of the scheduled area is the stone-lintelled portal or outlet of Mandale Sough. The Sough goit (man-made ditch), probably built in 1840, is about 320m long and has drystone walled sides; it lies adjacent to, and lower than, the river, terminating at approximately SK20006615. To the north-west of the Sough outlet is a wheelpit, built to house a large waterwheel in the 1840s, visible at the foot of a steep drop. Above it to one side there is a leat, arched-over with ashlar stonework to allow mine tubs to pass above it to the outlet for the water supply to the overshot waterwheel. South-east of the wheelpit, the rectangular, limestone and sandstone-built Mandale Mine Cornish engine house survives to 6m in height, the northern bob wall on which the beam of the engine was supported being the best preserved. The below-ground remains of the boiler house lie adjacent; it is recorded as containing two Cornish boilers. Other mine entrances in addition to the sough are visible: a capped shaft between the waterwheel pit and the engine house, an inclined adit entrance 20m further north-west, with a capped shaft nearby with adjacent gin platform which links with the shaft below, and an adit entrance on a side vein to the west called Aqueduct Level. Halfway up the daleside are the remains of a circular chimney with a section of a flue with an arched roof. A number of hillocks and terraces survive in the vicinity of these remains; one terrace behind the boiler house had a small possible building, perhaps the documented mine smithy, while to the south there is a very large but badly robbed hillock, a surviving part of its flat dressing-floor top retains paving. Nearby there is ruined coe (miner's hut). The header launder terrace continues east from its arched outlet and is preserved in its entirety except where it crossed the river. Visible as an earthwork until the steep drop interrupts it, water was carried by wooden launders (supported water channels) from its meeting with an aqueduct whose ruined stone piers survive in good condition by a bend in the river at SK19526660. The aqueduct has six rectangular piers with walled abutments to either end, all of which have been reduced to some extent.

The remains of complex mining activity pertaining to the Lathkill Dale Mine extends from SK18836580 at the west end eastwards for approximately 600m n the north side of the river to the Bateman's House complex at the east end (see below) centred at SK19436584 on the south side of the river. An extensive area of amorphous hillocks and shallow open cuts remain between the north bank of the river and the track. A prominent hillock, about 3m high, and a shaft, marks the location of the main shaft at the mine. This hillock has a flat top which may have supported a gin engine. Further shafts and the remains of coes are apparent along the vein, whilst relict walling may mark belland yards. The position of the waterwheel lies at the east end of these workings close to the river bank at approximately SK19166578. A large stone wheelpit approximately 2.5m and at least 4m deep indicates the position of the wheel installed in 1836 and dismantled by 1861. The structures associated with the waterwheel on the north side of the river are no longer extant, but their foundations will survive as buried features. The waterwheel probably powered both winding and pumping. Near to the waterwheel are ruins of the mine’s smithy and ore house. Further to the east on the north side of the river is the ruin of the stone-built powder house, positioned approximately half-way between Bateman's House and the mine workings.

On the south side of the river, opposite the wheel pit, is the breast wall for the launder for the waterwheel constructed of coursed limestone block and standing to a height of approximately 5m. To either side are buttresses with fair walled faces to the river; at the top of the wall is a level platform for the launder, fed by the aqueduct leat running immediately to the south. For the most part, this 1400m leat survives as a deep depression with drystone walling along a terrace on the south side of the river. It is fed by a pond towards the west end of the dale at SK18506577. The pond is approximately 30m wide and 60m long and is held back by a 1m high weir with sluices. On the south side of the river, near to the pond, a retaining wall supports a short funnelled extension to the pond which leads to the aqueduct leat. The sluices on the north side of the pond have been replaced with concrete structures.

Bateman’s House is located at SK19436584. The building is constructed with coursed limestone and is roofless and ruinous, but was of two storeys with stone mullion windows; it was consolidated several years ago by English Heritage and Natural England. It was enlarged in two phases in the mid C19. The shaft beneath the house, accessed via a second adjacent shaft top, was associated with the Dakeyne engine that used to lie below ground at sough level.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING
The scheduled area aims to include all the earthworks, ruins and buried remains of the Lathkill Dale and Mandale mines. The line is therefore drawn from the point at which the Mandale Mine sough enters the river at SK20006615 and follows the line of a modern wire fence on the north side of the track to a steep sided valley. It then follows the eastern upper edge of the valley. When the valley narrows to approximately 10m the line crosses to the other side, following the upper edge of an outcrop south and south-west, dropping south at the outcrop's end to a footpath and trackway. This line is intended to protect the remains of shafts and earthworks, the Mandale engine house and wheelpit, its leat and aqueduct, canalised riverbank, mining remains of Lathkill Dale Mine to the aqueduct feeder pond at the west end of the site at approximately SK18476576, and diverting to the north side of the track to take in the ruined powder house and pond of Lathkill Dale Mine. At the west end of the feeder pond, the monument boundary crosses to the southern riverbank and extends 40m south of it to protect the remains of the aqueduct leat and associated earthworks, the remains of the waterwheel structures, the ruins of the Bateman's House complex and associated shafts and earthworks. The boundary of the monument runs eastwards parallel to the leat to the aqueduct piers when it crosses the river to run along the north bank of the river, terminating at the point where the goit enters into it. Modern fences and the surface of the modern trackway are not included in this scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Lathkill Dale and Mandale Mines and soughs are scheduled for the following principal reasons.
* Rarity: Lathkill Dale and Mandale mines are rare survivals of mining activity dating from at least the C16 through to the late C19, with well-preserved remains of individually rare features such as the remains of shafts, coes, gin circles, stopes, engine houses and other buildings, crushing circles, ponds and buddles, in addition to water management structures such as the aqueduct and aqueduct leat;
* Survival and Diversity: It is an exceptionally well-preserved site displaying a diversity of multi-phased surviving features;
* Documentary and Archaeological Evidence: the 2005 archaeological survey of Lathkill Dale and Mandale mines in addition to the documentary research into the mine adds considerably to its national importance;
* Group Value (association): the mines are located within an area of well-preserved mining remains, the best surviving of which are designated as scheduled monuments. Together, these sites provide evidence for both the historical and technological development of what was once a far more extensive, multi-period and regionally distinct mining landscape;
* Potential: the diverse range of components represented at Lathkill Dale and Mandale mines have the potential to explain the development of the mine working and its chronological range as well as contribute to the understanding of the historical and technological development of lead mining in Derbyshire.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Barnatt, J, Penny, R, The Lead Legacy. The prospects for the Peak Districts Mining Heritage, (2004)
Barnatt, J, Smith, K, The Peak District, (2004)
Ford, D, Rieuwerts, JH (eds), Lead Mining in the Peak District, (1983)
Rieuwerts, J H, Lead Mining in Derbyshire: History, Development and Drainage. Volume 2 Millers Dale to Alport and Dovedale, (2008)
Barnatt, J, Bevan, B , 'Antiquity 76 pp.50-56' in Gardoms Edge: A Landscape Through Time, (2002)
Other
Barnatt and Rieuwerts, The Lead Mine Affected Landscape of the Peak District, 1995, Report commissioned by EH
English Nature, Lathkill Dale National Nature Reserve: History, 1996, Pamphlet
John Barnatt, Lathkill Dale National Nature Reserve Archaeological Survey, 2005,

Source: Historic England