Skip to main content

Monument record MDR3057 - Bonsall Leys Lead Mines, Bonsall

Type and Period (10)

  • (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD (between))
  • (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
  • (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
  • (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
  • (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
  • (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
  • (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
  • (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
  • (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
  • ? (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Protected Status/Designation

Full Description

[Centred] SK 265 572 Bonsall lead mines. Extensive area of lead mining, with numerous coes, shafts and several buddles. Two periods of activity may be distinguished. The more recent is represented by the spoil heaps, recognisable by the light colour of the waste rock. The numerous small grass-grown hollows and upcast-mounds are older, shallow workings, perhaps of 17th century date, closely spaced in lines following the veins of ore. (1). A considerable area of disturbance marks this site. Many of the mine shafts and spoil heaps are published. Recent diggings have taken place but they do not appear to have been very extensive. (2). Includes areas of intensely worked small mines, typifying the Miner/Owner/Farmer practice of exploitation in the Derbyshire orefield in the 17 to 18th century. The area includes Haveamongieus Rake to the west and tangential to the main rakes (SK 2635 5725). The whole area was worked from the 1540s to the 1800s, always on a small scale and only ever down to the level of the Matlock Lower Lava c.150ft below. Adjacent to the above are the Bonsall Scrims, a series of ten to eleven close set parallel scrims, now apparent as grass covered trenches c.10ft deep. Originally they would have been worked to c.30-40ft deep. This is one of only two such examples, the other being Ramslow Scrim. The lack of coes in this scrim area suggests that they are of early date. (3,4). The lead mines became a scheduled monument on the 9th October 1986. (See the scheduled monument for a detailed description). (5). Photographic record. (6,7). Surface hillocks, shafts buddling dams etc. (8). Bonsall Leys Mines consist of rakes, scrins, waste heaps/hillocks, coes, shafts, buddles and a possible cog and rung gin circle. (10). Bonsall Lees Mines are an extensive area of hillocks and hollows on many small veins and occasional pipe workings, sometimes partially reworked, occasionally leaving opencuts. There are many capped shafts, some retaining fine beehives, and ruined coes, mostly rectangular but including circular examples, sometimes associated with small dressing floors on flat hillock tops, some walled, and/ or small belland yards. Two walls are circular and may have contained cog and rung gin engines. One area retains fine and densely packed examples of all these features. Other surface features include several stone-lined buddles, including one well-known restored example on the side of a hillock, the entrance to a slabbed haulage level on the valley side, and the entrance to a very small level nearby. The Bonsall Lees Mines are documented as active in the 1540s. (11) A further good example of a stone-lined buddle has been identified at Bonsall Leys Mines. (12) Site monitoring has been carried out and site appears not to be under threat. (13) There are a number of features that make up this area, as the Moor has one of the greatest concentrations of the remains of former lead mining activity in this part of the county. Hundreds of shafts with associated spoil heaps and areas of disturbed ground are near to many collapsed limed kilns. At SK 266573 is the site of the former Bonsall Mines and nearby are the remains of manycrude limekilns built on the moor. At a concentration of old shafts at SK256584 are the remains of two small cranes. (14)

Sources/Archives (14)

  • <1> Bibliographic reference: Beresford, M W & St Joseph, J K S. 1979. Medieval England. An Aerial Survey. 2nd ed.. pp 259-260, fig. 109.
  • <2> Personal Observation: F1 BHS 11-MAY-66.
  • <3> Unpublished document: Kiernan, D (University of Sheffield). 1985. Technical, Economic and Social Change in the Derbyshire Lead Industry. PhD Thesis, Sheffield Univ..
  • <4> Unpublished document: Rieuwerts, J. 1981. A Technological History of the Drainage of the Derbyshire. PhD Thesis, Leicester University.
  • <5> Scheduling record: English Heritage. 1998. Scheduling Notification. 30940. Cat. No.: 276.
  • <6> Photograph: Peak District National Park Authority (PDNPA). Slide Collection. 9601.1.
  • <7> Photograph: Peak District National Park Authority (PDNPA). Black and white photograph collection. 479.23.
  • <8> Index: Council for British Archaeology (CBA). CBA Industrial Archaeology Report Card. Bonsall Lees Mine.
  • <9> Map: Ordnance Survey (OS). 1896-1900. OS County Series, 2nd edition (1st revision), scale 1:2500 (c. 25" to one mile). Derbyshire XXXIV.5.
  • <10> Unpublished document: Taylor, H (PDNPA). 1998. Leys Farm, Bonsall and Ible, Derbyshire, archaeological survey 1998. pp 21-23, illus, features 54-62.
  • <11> Bibliographic reference: Barnatt, J. 2004. An Inventory of Regionally & Nationally Important Lead Mining Sites in the Peak District. Vol. 2: Corpus of Sites. p 145-7, site no. 107.
  • <12> Bibliographic reference: Barnatt, J. 2005. Updated Inventory of Regionally & Nationally Important Lead Mining Sites in the Peak District.. p 4, site no. 107.
  • <13> Unpublished document: Marriott, J (PDNPA). 2012. Scheduled Monument Monitoring Form: Bonsall Leys Lead Mine.
  • <14> Bibliographic reference: Fowkes, D (ed.). 1997. Derbyshire Industrial Archaeology. A Gazetteer of Sites. Part IV. Derbyshire Dales. p 11.

Map

Find a placename, postcode or grid reference

Map layers

Base layers

Info

Record list

Tools

Location

Grid reference Centred SK 26432 57331 (1201m by 1022m) (Approximate)
Civil Parish BONSALL, DERBYSHIRE DALES, DERBYSHIRE

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Events/Activities (3)

  • EDR3237
  • EDR4097
  • EDR1008

Please contact the HER for details.

External Links (0)

Record last edited

Sep 1 2015 9:46AM

Comments and Feedback

Do you have any more information about this record? Please feel free to comment with information and photographs, or ask any questions, using the "Disqus" tool below. Comments are moderated, and we aim to respond/publish as soon as possible.