Scheduled Monument: SNAKE MINE NUCLEATED LEAD MINE, 275M SSW OF HOPTON QUARRIES (1014592)

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 flat rod systems, transport systems such as railways and inclines, and water power and water supply features such as wheel pits, dams and leats. The majority of nucleated lead mines also included ore works where the ore, once extracted, was processed. The majority of nucleated lead mines are of 18th to 20th century date, earlier mining being normally by rake or hush (a gully or ravine partly excavated by use of a controlled torrent of water to reveal or exploit a vein of mineral ore). They 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 upland landscapes. It is estimated that at least 10,000 sites, exist the majority being small mines of limited importance, although the important early remains at many larger mines have been greatly modified or destroyed by continued working or modern reworking. A sample of the better preserved sites, illustrating the regional, chronological and technological range of the class, is considered to merit protection. Snake Mine is a good and reasonably well preserved example of a small enclosed 19th century lead mining operation which retains a good variety of mining and ore-working features. DETAILS Snake Mine is located on the western edge of Middleton Moor in the south eastern uplands of the limestone plateau of Derbyshire. The monument includes a walled enclosure containing the remains of a small 19th century nucleated lead mine which comprise both mineworkings and associated ore works. The remains include an oval shaft mound revetted on all sides by drystone walling. The mound measures c.30m by c.20m and is terraced into the hillside on its north east side where there is a ramped access onto the top of the mound. On the mound there is the main shaft, a climbing shaft, a gin-circle, and a ruined building or `coe'. Horse-powered winding gear would have occupied the gin-circle and it is likely that lead ore coming up out of the shaft was broken up in the coe. Next to the coe is a ramp leading off the mound to a terrace which runs round the west face of the shaft mound. This terrace has a slight gradient and probably served as a washing floor for separating ore from waste materials. Built into the side of the mound on this terrace are the remains of another coe which contains a tunnel giving horizontal access to the shaft and may also have been used as a site office. There is, in addition, a settling tank also used in ore separation. Excluded from the scheduling are a single and two double telegraph poles, and modern fencing round the boundaries of the enclosure, although the ground beneath these features is included together with the field boundary walls which are integral to the site. SELECTED SOURCES Book Reference - Author: Cranstone, J. - Title: The Lead Industry: Step 3 Recommendation - Date: 1994 - Type: DESC TEXT - Description: Site: Derbyshire 34 Book Reference - Author: Ford, T.D. and Rieuwerts, J. (eds.) - Title: Lead Mining in the Peak District - Date: 1968 - Page References: 111-112 - Type: DESC TEXT