Monument record MDR9051 - Merry Tom Mine, lead mine (or Trusty Friend Mine)

Merry Tom mine, also known as Trusty Friend Mine, was worked from about 1750 to 1880; there are three known levels on the vein having a vertical range of about 300ft (1) The entrance to the Lower Level adit, just below the B5023 Middleton Road, is almost set into a wall which supports the road. The level enters a stope where some stout wooden staging still survives. (1) The Merry Tom Vein has been heavily worked and three levels were driven along it, the lowest running just under the B5023 road to Middleton. In the mid 19th c. the title to Merry Tom Vein included Cityfolds Vein which crosses it at right angles. The founder meer and shaft of Cityfolds are immediately NE of Merry Tom, indicating that it was discovered by the working of the latter. In May 1865, William Brooks, a Middleton miner, sold the combined title to these veins for £5 to Wass and Nehemiah Doxey. In 1884, E. Brooks, another Middleton miner owned part of the title and it seems that he bought Doxey's shares in both this and the Thumper Sitch titles. A. H. Stokes (1880) commented that Merry Tom was named after the unusual personality of one of the miners. (2)