Monument record MDR8635 - Lead mining area, Horse Dale, Bonsall

Extensive area of post-medieval mining remains, principally waste mounds and shafts, with some coes extending along Horse Dale as well as up the dale sides and beyond, including the area encompassed by the lynchets SMR 9615 and 9619. The superimposition of mining remains on lynchets demonstrates an important chronological relationship. The heaps are often crossed by subsequent field walls, which appear to fossilize the earlier, Medieval, field system. (1). Horsedale Mines are well-preserved small hillocks on a series of small veins. There are capped shafts, shallow opencuts, a possible stone-lined buddle, and probable water storage and/or ore-dressing ponds. Shafts on higher hillocks, some with walls to provide shelter to the small dressing floors on their flat tops. There are several ruined coes. There is also a mining complex comprising a high but small hillock, with coe and internal shaft, a dressing floor embanked at its edge, and a hollow to one side that may be an ore-dressing pit. Some of the hillocks overlie medieval lynchets. In the valley nearby there is a low sough bolt with strong water flow. Capped shafts nearby could potentially give access to the sough. (2).