Monument record MDR6718 - Bretton or Birds Cupola, Eyam Edge, Eyam

The cupola (SK 209775) was shown on Burdett's map (1762-7), and there are documentary references to the purchase of lead by Barkers at White's or Bretton Cupola after 1803. Accounts continue up to 1813, at about which time Robert Middleton, who collected ore for Barkers, bought premises at Bretton belonging to the late Mr Birds' estate. Farey, in 1811, records the cupola as occupied by Samuel White. Today the Bretton site has few above surface features, although there are considerable quantities of cinder and slag in the hummocks. Some masonry may indicate the site of a chimney. The adjacent wood is known as Birds Plantation. (1) Bird's Wood Cupola (SK 2091 7745). Rough area of slag heaps and possibly the foundations of the lead smelting cupola, known to have closed in 1815-20 after having been erected in c. 1770 (3)