Monument record MDR11576 - Calcite mine, Hay Dale, Wheston

The mine is about 25-30m from the day to a collapse at the apparent end. It may originally have been worked for lead, but its most recent use was certainly for calcite. The most recent working can be seen to have cut through an earlier working. The calcite vein can be seen in the roof and reduces from some four feet in width to less than two feet near the end - probably the reason for the cessation of mining. Calcite and any waste was hauled out of the mine on a railed incline - sleepers and some rails survive. Outside the mine, the slightly raised course of the railway can be traced, curving towards two ore chutes. There is the body of a Jubilee-type tipping mine wagon nearby. The later working was almost certainly 1950s-1960s. The existence of a small railway shown on the 1922 OS 25" map suggests the earlier phase of (calcite) working observed underground was from that period. A substantial number of small mines for fluorspar and calcite were worked at these two periods; however, very few are left and this site is a particularly valuable example of a nearly vanished type of mining. (1) Substantial remains of a small drift lead mine in use until quite recently. Most of the railway track from the mouth of the mine to the loading chute is in situ. The remains of a wagon lies beside a footpath. (2)