Monument record MDR14027 - Oxclose, Lee Wood, Lee Close, and Noon Nick Lead Mines, Off Bonsall Lane, Snitterton

Many scattered hillocks with shafts, mostly to pipe workings, some partially reworked, others intact. Surface features at Ash Plantation include a buddling complex, with a long leat from a shaft above, a stone-lined buddle at the base with adjacent ruined walls of a possible coe and/or small yards, and a high hillock and buddle dam below. Below there is another stone-lined buddle and a small buddle dam. Further east there is a ruined coe with a cupboard in one wall. At the Lee Close Mines there is a ruined coe and a water storage or ore-dressing pond with an associated tramway and buddle dam. Below the Lee Close Mines there is the open tail of Lee Close/White Hillocks Sough [SMR 12702] and a possible lower collapsed sough and/or haulage level tail, associated with a fine large coe with wall cupboard, and a large partially reworked hillock with associated buddle dams below. At the Oxclose Mines [SMR 12732] there are the lower walls of a Newcomen engine house and a nearby cinder heap. At the Lee Wood Mines and nearby veins there is a stone-lined buddle, a possible gin circle and a ruined coe. At Noon Nick (Jug Holes) there is an impressive open pipe-cavern entrance. At surface there is a water storage pond, a tramway-cutting to a 19th century level entrance (now altered), and platforms associated with a 20th century inclined tramway. Underground features at Oxclose Mine [SMR 12732] include extensive pipe workings, a fine coffin level sough known as the Crowholt Level, and a 20th century inclined tramway. There are many inscriptions, the earliest dating to 1623. The Lee Wood Pipes are known to be accessible (the character of the workings is currently poorly documented). Noon Nick also has a 19th century arched level and a 20th century fluorspar-extraction tramway and tubs. It also has a 17th century inscription in the roof of one chamber, next to a small shaft to surface, made before the chamber deposits were removed. Lee Close/White Hillocks Sough [SMR 12702] can still be followed for some distance underground and may be the earliest accessible hand-picked level in the orefield. It links with workings above and both have a variety of tramway rails. The Lee Wood Pipes are known to be accessible (character workings currently poorly documented). Both the Oxclose [SMR 12732] and Noon Nick Mines are documented as working in the 1530s. Noon Nick Mine has a 17th century miner's inscription in the roof of one of the chambers. The site as a whole has extensive surface evidence for the relative age of mining and medieval strip lynchets/ridge and furrow. [see also Northern Dale Lead Mines SMR 12728] (1) Evidence for firesetting with coal has been found at Noon Nick Mine. The workings above Lee Close/White Hillocks Sough [SMR 12702] have several miners' inscriptions. (2)