Summary

Gautries Rake, near Chapel-en-le-Frith in Derbyshire is an extremely well-preserved example of a linear sequence of lead mine workings exemplifying the lead mining and ore processing techniques developed from the medieval period to the late C19 in the Derbyshire orefield.

Source: Historic England

Details

The area of protection includes the earthwork, buried, standing and rock-cut remains of Gautries Rake, an extensive lead mining complex dating from at least the late C17. The site is located in the Peak Forest Liberty (the district within which the miners worked, governed by a set of laws and customs),
on the southern side of Gautries Hill, in the northernmost sector of the Derbyshire ore field. It is some four kilometres to the east of Chapel-en-le-Frith, close to where the Carboniferous limestone landscape of the White Peak and the gritstone landscape of the Dark Peak meet.

The area of protection is centred on SK 10066 80803. It is linear in shape and extends from east to west for approximately 1.1 kilometres from the western side of the Perryfoot Road at SK1061980818 to SK0597380838, the westernmost end of the area of mining activity. The workings cover an area of six hectares, and are wholly contained within a belland yard plantation (woodland occupying an area of former lead mine activity enclosed within substantial drystone walls, erected to prevent livestock grazing on contaminated ground). They are continuous along the line of the vein, which in some areas was split into two, necessitating parallel extraction and processing areas. The mining of the site developed incrementally along a rake vein; the earthwork, buried and standing remains representing the surviving elements of this activity.

The area of protection is made up of a series of earthwork, buried and surface remains which include numerous shafts, open cuts (a vein worked open to daylight) dressing floors (primary lead ore processing areas) buddles (shallow pits, sometimes lined, in gently sloping ground used to separate lead ore from adherent soil by means of gently flowing water) buddle dams (a large earth dam into which was deposited the sludge resulting from buddling), water storage, ore dressing and settling ponds, extensive hillocks (mounds of spoil produced by excavation and dressing and crushing processes) and lengths of retained tramway and mine road. The area is enclosed within long, near parallel belland yard walls, breached in two areas by wall-lined crossings giving access from one side of the rake to the other from adjacent fields.

Gautries Rake extends upwards on Gautries Hill in an easterly direction from Perry Dale at SK1061980785, the first evidence of workings being a retained pond, above which is believed to be a collapsed adit entrance (a horizontal opening by which a mine is entered or drained). Beyond this point the land rises steeply to a substantial retained embankment with visible areas of stone-rubble retaining wall along its southern flank. The area at its top (west) end is thought to be a loading platform associated with the early re-working of adjacent hillocks. At SK1035980771 a track bounded by low parallel drystone walls crosses the rake, giving access to fields immediately to the north and south, and to a track running parallel to the belland yard north wall, then in a north-westerly direction downhill to Perryfoot Farm and the Sparrowpit to Castleton road (henceforth referred to as ‘the road’), crossing Coalpithole Rake during the descent. 50 metres to the west of the walled crossing is a dressing floor sited upon a backfilled section of the rake. There are low re-worked hillocks to the south-west of the dressing floor and a capped shaft to the east. Extending approximately 150 metres further west are a series of four shafts with associated low hillocks and spoil heaps extending towards the belland yard south wall. In this area, the rake vein appears as a pair of parallel excavations, the southern part of which is visible as a wide opencut with a capped shaft at its eastern end. Approximately 60 metres further west is a second walled crossing, at which point, on its north side, the track beyond the belland yard north wall commences. For the next 180 metres west of the crossing, sections of the rake vein are visible, the southern one wider than that to the north. A section of mine roadway running between the belland yard south wall and the rake is also visible at this point. At the end of this section at SK0987980790 is a dressing floor with a small circular water storage pond of approximately 0.6 metres depth, and three further ponds, those to the east and centre near circular in shape, whilst the pond furthest west is near-rectangular with a 1 metre earth embankment to the south. These are linked by short leats (an open watercourse taking water away from to and from mine workings or water mill sites) and are believed to be ore processing ponds associated with the dressing floor to the south, which has its edge defined by a steep earthwork surviving up to 2 metres in height. North of the westernmost ore processing pond is an L-shaped rubble bank, surviving up to 0.6 metres in height, to the east of which is a short length of stone-lined channel thought to be a trunk buddle (a variant form of the means of separating lead ore from adherent material).

To the north-east of the water storage pond is an oval hollow aligned with the rake vein, believed to be the remains of a collapsed engine shaft. 30 metres west of the dressing floor and ponds is a section of mine road which extends westwards for 200 metres to the western end of the belland yard enclosure. Midway along the section of road, to the north, is a dressing floor with an elongated buddle dam, delineated on its south side by a well-defined earthwork bank surviving up to 1.5 metres in height. On the dressing floor is a stone-lined buddle approximately 2 metres in length and the remains of another stone lined feature, thought possibly to be a second buddle of the type previously described. Also associated with the dressing floor are a circular pond and the remains of walls and rubble banks. On the north side of the rake vein are a series of shafts extending both east and west of the dressing floor area and its associated ponds and banks. This section of the rake was known in the C19 as ‘Fortunate Mine’ and the concentration of features in this area is thought to include its main shaft and dressing floor areas. The western end of the belland yard widens northwards and then returns to a short section of walling which extends south-eastwards to meet the end of the belland yard south wall at SK0957380838.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING
The area of protection is almost entirely defined by drystone belland yard walls. From the eastern end of the protected area at SK1061980818 the line steps inside the field boundary wall and extends south for a short distance, then turns to follows the line of the mine workings to the belland yard wall defining the southern limit of the area of protection westwards to a junction of boundary walls at SK0918980800. Here it steps southwards for a short distance, still following the line of the belland yard wall, then continues westwards to SK0959380806, where it turns north-westwards to SK0957380838, then north-eastwards before curving back in an easterly direction, following the line of the belland yard wall to define the remaining extent of the area of protection on its northern boundary to SK1053280791, where it turns to the north-east to meet the Perrydale road at SK1061980818.

All modern post and wire fences, road and track surfaces and signage are excluded from the scheduling although the ground beneath all these features is included.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Gautries Rake, a lead mine worked from at least as early as the late C17, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Survival: Gautries Rake is an exceptionally well-preserved site displaying a diversity of surviving features, many of which have been destroyed by later phases of mining activity on similar sites in Derbyshire;
* Diversity: the site retains a diverse range of features representing the extraction and ore processing stages of lead mining in Derbyshire. Such features have the potential to enhance our knowledge and understanding of the county’s nationally significant lead mining industry, of the chronological depth of the site in question and of the place it held in the wider economic and social landscape;
* Documentary Evidence: the historical context of mining at Gautries Rake is provided by Barmote Court records, with more specific details relating to the establishment and operation of the Peak Forest Mining Company;
* Group Value: the group value of the many different features contained within the site enhances its national significance. The sum of the whole transcends the significance of individual components and provides an example of what was once a far more extensive, multi-period and regionally distinctive mining landscape;
* Potential: the diverse range of features represented at Gautries Rake have the potential to explain the development and chronological range of the mine working at the site, as well as to 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, J H, Lead Mining in Derbyshire: History, Development and Drainage. Volume 2 Millers Dale to Alport and Dovedale, (2008)
Rieuwerts, JH, Lead Mining In Derbyshire:History, Development and Drainage, (2010)
Rieuwerts, JH, Lead Mining In Derbyshire: History, Development and Drainage 4: The Area South of the Via Gellia, (2012)
Rieuwerts, JH, Lead Mining in Derbyshire: History,Development and Drainage. Volume 1. Castelton to the River Wye., (2007)
Barnatt, J, 'Mining History' in Excavation and Conservation at How Grove, Dirtlow Rake, Castleton, Derbyshire, (2002)
Barnatt, J, Bevan, B , 'Antiquity 76 pp.50-56' in Gardoms Edge: A Landscape Through Time, (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 Report, 1995,
Cranstone, D. , Monuments Protection Programme: The Lead Industry Step 1 Report, 1992,
Cranstone,D., Monuments Protection Programme: The Lead Industry Step 3 Report , 1994,
John Barnatt, Lathkill Dale National Nature Reserve Archaeological Survey, 2005,

Source: Historic England