Monument record MDR8771 - Long Rake Mine, Long Rake and Moor Lane, Youlgreave

One of the longest rakes in Derbyshire with very impressive open sections. Long Rake mine had a very old-fashioned mine and treatment plant still working in the early 1980's as an ore fired plant. (1) Long Rake opencuts. Wide opencuts and disturbed hillocks within a long belland yard. One deep opencut leads to extensive underground stopes worked for calcite in the 19th and 20th centuries. Here unstable workings include large stopers, ring-arched levels with tramways, timber ore chutes and an engine shaft with fittings and ladderways. There are also reworked hillocks and two temporarily open shafts (which in spring 2003 appeared to be being prepared for backfilling). (2) Long Rake Mine. The 20th century headgear and one storey horizonatal winding engine house (engine recent moved) of the calcite mine. The main engine shaft is no longer safely accessible from the surface. (3) Youlgreave is a formerly important lead-mining parish with few significant surface remains. Five lead mines continued to be listed in 1857, but by 1904 there was only the Long Rake Spar Co. Some former lead-mining activity is evident along Long Rake but much of it has been destroyed through modern mining work. Disturbed ground, depressions and heaps of stone indicate former-lead mining areas. (4) In June 1910, a letter from J T Woods published in 'Financial News' noted that the chert in the mine was present in 'huge blocks forming the walls of Long Rake near Parsley Hay Station'. In September that same year Long Rake Mine was purchased by James Moores who was at this time obtaining chert from Deep Rake at Longstone Edge, although it seems unlikely that he worked chert at Long Rake. (5)