Summary

Mining complex consisting of Arbourseats Veins and Sough, Wardlow Sough, Nay Green Mine and washing ponds, Hading Vein and Seedlow Rake.

Source: Historic England

Details

The scheduled area is the large mining complex including Arbourseats Veins and Sough, Wardlow Sough, Nay Green Mine and washing floors, Hading Vein and Seedlow Rake. The area is approximately 21 hectares in extent and is centred at grid reference SK1729674712. The mining features are located along Tansley Dale which runs east to west for approximately 0.5km and joins at the eastern end with Cressbrook Dale which runs southwards.

The monument survives as a series of earthworks, buried deposits and standing features which include belland yard walls (walls built around a contaminated area to keep cattle away), ruined coes (stone built shelters or sheds), open cuts (veins worked open to daylight), dressing floors (areas where ore is processed, ie, crushed or washed), ponds, shafts, water channels, and soughs (a horizontal channel for draining water from mines).

Arbourseats Vein ranges west from Cressbrook Dale and terminates at the upper (western) end of Tansley Dale, close to an engine shaft, which is observable in aerial photographs. Access into the mine and sough is by an open cut on the western slope of Cressbrook Dale. Hading Vein ranges along the south side of Arbourseats Vein and extends further up to the belland yard at the west end of Tansley Dale. Between Arbourseats Vein and Hading Vein at the eastern end is a mining feature that has been interpreted as wall footings. Further to the north, in the eastern half of Tansley Dale, is a shorter, un-named, vein that divides into two at the western end. On the north side of Tansley Dale, Seedlow Rake ranges from Wardlow Sough in Cressbrook Dale in the east and terminates at the belland yard at the west end of Tansley Dale. To the north of Seedlow Rake another un-named scrin (a vein under c0.5m in width) ranges south-eastwards obliquely down the side of Cressbrook Dale and is clearly evident as an earthwork.

At the west end of Tansley Dale there is a belland yard, roughly semi-circular in shape, with a run-in shaft, gin circle and coe. The coe is shown on the 1880 OS map and survives as a ruined stone structure. Slightly further east, on the north side of Tansley Dale, is the remains of a possible belland yard wall. Further to the east are two open cuts along Seedlow Rake, and along the bottom of Tansley Dale is Arbourseats Mine, centred at grid reference SK1708874745, which is referred to on the 1880 OS map as ‘Old Lead Mine’. This concentrated area of activity contains the earthwork remains of mining features interpreted as a small belland yard with a flat-topped dressing floor hillock, a ruined coe, a grilled but blocked shaft, a water storage pond, and a possible small rectangular ore-dressing pit. The 1880 OS map clearly shows the belland yard, approximately rectangular in shape, and the coe within.

Further east, at the confluence with Cressbrook Dale, a line of very denuded shaft hillocks run from the north-east extent of Tansley Dale down into the valley floor. They are closely spaced and have been interpreted as air shafts on a very early sough. Slightly to the north of this feature an un-named scrin ranges south eastwards obliquely down the side of Cressbrook Dale. Parallel to this on the south side is a drystone walled channel which is recorded in the Lead Legacy publication as leading to an underground level (or perhaps sough) with an internal shaft down to unstable workings. At the foot of the walled channel is a large flat-topped dressing floor hillock, centred at grid reference SK1720874869.

To the east of this feature, near the bottom of the east slope of Cressbrook Dale are two cross-cut levels to the vein nearby to the north. The historic OS maps label a total of seven old lead mines along Cressbrook Dale some of which are apparent as scrins. About mid-way along the valley near the bottom of the east slope is Wardlow Sough and goit (an open drain at surface that takes water from the sough to a stream or river). The sough, which is now blocked, has a stone-lined channel which would have fed water into the series of large Nay Green ore washing ponds located further south in the valley floor, centred at grid reference SK1744974618. Nearby to the east is Nay Green Mine where there is a long accessible level with internal shafts to depth (The Lead Legacy, 2004).
On the west side of the valley is the run-in Arbourseats sough tail and a series of open cuts along Arbourseats Vein and Hading Vein. The spoil from these workings part-blocks the valley bottom and creates a dam for the Nay Green washing ponds.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING
The area of protection includes all the mining features, and the ground beneath, within the site which is defined by dry stone walling on the west, north and south sides of Tansley Dale. At the confluence of Cressbrook Dale it takes in the area of mining activity to the north at grid reference SK1726674913 and to the south at grid reference SK1742974538, and is defined on the east side by dry stone walling. Excluded from the scheduling are all modern fences, fence posts, any made-up surfaces of trackways, and the ruined agricultural building on the north side at the west end of Tansley Dale; although the land beneath all of these is included.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

The mining complex consisting of Arbourseats Veins and Sough, Wardlow Sough, Nay Green Mine and washing ponds, Hading Vein and Seedlow Rake, dating from the C18 and C19 but with earlier origins, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Survival: it is a well-preserved site displaying a diversity of C18 and C19 surviving features. Many other mining sites have been extensively reworked during later phases of activity, especially in the C20, obscuring or eradicating earlier evidence, whereas the limited area that was reworked at Arbourseats has ensured the survival of many earlier features across the monument.
* Diversity: the site retains a diverse range of C18 and C19 features representing the extraction and dressing process. Such a range has the potential to enhance our knowledge and understanding of the full process flow of the industry, the methods used, the chronological depth of the site and the place it held in the wider economic and social landscape;
* Rarity: the large group of Nay Green ore washing ponds, fed by a stone-lined goit from Wardlow Sough, is a rare feature;
* Documentary Evidence: documentary sources exist that give some information about the mining activity at Arbourseats, and the survey of the site included in the Lead Legacy publication (2004) is an important archaeological document;
* Group Value: the clustering of mine complexes at Arbourseats Veins and Sough, Wardlow Sough, and Nay Green Mine and washing ponds, adds group value and enhances the national importance of this site. The sum of the whole is even more significant than the individual components and provides an example of what was once a far more extensive, multi-period and regionally distinct mining landscape.
* Potential: the diverse range of components represented at the site have the potential to explain the development of the mine working, possibly from the C17, 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, Smith, K, The Peak District, (2004)
Barnatt, J, Penny, R, The Lead Legacy. The prospects for the Peak Districts Mining Heritage, (2004)
Rieuwerts, JH, Lead Mining in Derbyshire: History, Development and Drainage in 4 volumes, (2007)
Willies, L, Parker, H, Peak District Mining and Quarrying, (2004)
Barnatt, J, Bevan, B , 'Antiquity 76 pp.50-56' in Gardoms Edge: A Landscape Through Time, (2002)
Barnatt, J, 'Mining History' in Excavation and Conservation at How Grove, Dirtlow Rake, Castleton, Derbyshire, (2002)
Barnatt, J, 'Mining History' in High Rake Mine, Little Hucklow Derbyshire excavation and conservation at an important C19 mine, (2011)
Other
Chitty, G, Monuments Protection Programme: The Lead Industry Step 4, 1995,
Cranstone, D, MPP The Lead Industry Step 1 Report, (1992)
John Barnatt, Lathkill Dale National Nature Reserve Archaeological Survey, 2005,

Source: Historic England