Monument record MDR1342 - Highlow Mines, Glead Rake and Hard Rake, Ashford-in-the-Water and Sheldon

Surface and shallow workings, showing evidence of small mines, tips and grooves of rakes. (1). An intensively worked area, possibly split into separate contemporary small ownerships/leases. (2). Lead mining remains in the eastern third of this area were surveyed in 1999. Surface remains include small rakes and scrins criss-crossing each other. There is a series of pits and shaft hollows with low upcast up to 0.5m high and a small circular belland yard with ruined walls and a shaft hollow which is first shown on the 1922 Ordnance Survey Map. Highlow lead rakes are recorded as working from the 17th to 19th centuries and are mentioned as being currently worked by Farey in 1811. Further east are large waste heaps up to c.1.5m high with frequent hollows and some shafts. There are two belland yards, both predating 1880, and a ruined two-storey building with evidence of a fireplace, which may have been associated with the lead mining. Further hillocks, many reworked, shafts and hollows survive in the woodland. The workings at Hard Rake were first recorded in 1671, and Hard Rake mine was mentioned by Farey in 1811 as a lead and calamine (zinc oxide) mine. A swallow provided draining for the mine by at least 1752. (3). Lead mining remains in the western third of this area were surveyed in 2003 and include hollows, hillocks and shafts. The hillocks are up to 1.2m high and the hollows are up to 2m deep. Some deeper hollows may be run-in shafts. There is little documentary evidence for the working of Highlow Mines before the 18th century, although it is almost certain that the veins and pipes had been extensively worked by that time. In the 1730s a Newcomen Engine was installed in a field just to the east of the surveyed area, with the aim of mining below a thick layer of decomposed lava or volcanic ash known locally as a wayboard. This attempt proved unsuccessful and was abandoned in the 1760s. (4) A fine example of rake and multiple veins with hillocks, opencuts, run-in shafts and small belland yards. In one part there is an exceptional area of seven small belland yards and possible collapsed beehive shaft caps. There was also once a Newcomen engine house and sub-surface evidence may remain. The hillock here contains cinders. To the west of Hard Rake Mine [SMR 458] is a ruined building which may have been a mine reckoning house. (5).