LAXEY Visitor Guide and Laxey Heritage Trail Explore the heritage of Laxey from the “Wheel” to the shore. The Laxey Laxey Laxey village is situated on the east coast of the Isle of Man. The village extends for just over 2 kilometres from the mine workings in its upper reaches - Wheel identifiable by the famous Laxey Wheel, along the steep sided glen in a south easterly direction, to the picturesque and unspoilt tiny harbour at the North The Laxey Wheel was designed by end of a wide bay. It is from here i.e. ‘Old Laxey’ the original historic Manx engineer Robert Casement. The wheel’s axle was forged by the settlement of fishermen’s crofts that the village has evolved. Mersey Iron Works of Liverpool but the cast iron rims were made on the Island by Gelling’s Foundry at Douglas. The The Great Laxey Mine timbers of the wheel were shaped by In 1999, the Laxey and Lonan Heritage Trust Manx artisans and the whole structure The Laxey mine was extensive and at it’s peak the Great Laxey Mining Company began the restoration of the surface section of employed over 600 miners. Consequently the mining company became responsible the former tramway. A bequest from the was assembled here on the Island. The for the establishment and development of much of the village as it exists to this estate of the late Lt Col R S Glenn funded the wheel has a diameter of over 22 metres, day. During this time, two main areas were developed. First being the harbour building of two fully working replicas of the (72 feet 6 inches), and a width of 1.8 area: used to bring in supplies as well as transporting the lead and zinc from the original Ant and Bee. The restored Great metres (6 feet). It is capable of pumping mines off Island, and secondly along the valley towards the main mining areas, Laxey Mine Railway was officially opened on 1136 litres (250 gallons) of water per located about a mile inland from the harbour. In addition a number of larger 25th September, 2004. Passengers can now minute from a depth of almost 457.2 properties were constructed on the hills around the valley, these were typically the ride in a tiny carriage along the line where metres (1,500 feet). The mine shaft from homes of the managers and supervisors who ran and operated the mine, many of loaded wagons of ore were once hauled from which the water was pumped was sited which are identified as part of the Heritage Trail. the mine. The railway, a quarter of a mile in about 410 metres (450 yards) from the length, runs up the valley from the former great wheel. The power from the wheel Washing Floors, now the Valley Gardens, to was transmitted to the pumping the main adit entrance where there is a picnic mechanism by a series of rods supported The Great Laxey Mine Railway site, footpath and information boards by and running along an imposing explaining the mining features. masonry viaduct. Mining for lead and zinc began at Laxey in about 1780. By the mid 1870s the Great The Laxey Wheel is only a short walk away. The official opening of this huge wheel Laxey Mine was one of the richest and most successful metal mines in Britain. Shafts had The line runs beneath the main Laxey to took place in September 1854 when the been sunk to depths of over 2000 feet deep and nearly 1000 men, together with a few Ramsey road and the Manx Electric Railway Wheel was set in motion by the women and young lads, worked at the mine. The main level of the mine was known as through the longest railway tunnel on the Honourable Charles Hope, the the Adit Level. It entered the hillside beneath the Laxey Wheel, connecting with each of Island! the shafts deep underground and having a maximum length of nearly 1 1/2 miles. Lieutenant Governor of the Island. The Steam trains normally run on Saturdays and A tramway ran along the entire length of the adit level and was used to carry the mined wheel was named ‘Lady Isabella’ in Bank Holidays, from Easter until the end of honour of the Governor’s wife. The ore out of the mine to the Washing Floors where the ore was prepared for sale. The September (and every Sunday during tramway wagons were originally hauled by ponies but in 1877 they were replaced by two 150th anniversary of the Lady Isabella August). Please check with Laxey Tourist was celebrated in 2004 when a re- 19 inch gauge steam locomotives built by Stephen Lewin of Poole, Dorset. Named Ant Information for further details. and Bee they remained in use until the mine closed in 1929 and were broken up for scrap enactment of the original ceremony took a few years later. place at the Wheel. Since 1989 The Lady Isabella has been administered by Manx National Heritage and is a fantastic starting point for the ‘Heritage Trail’ detailed in this leaflet. 2 Photo courtesy of Lily Publications / Department of Tourism and Leisure 3 Old Washing Floors The Snaefell Mine Waterwheel An essential part of the mining process was the separation of the waste stone The Snaefell Mine was situated from the precious ores in preparation for its transportation to the market at the head of the Laxey Valley place. These processes were carried out on the area known as the ‘washing on the lower slope of Snaefell floors’. The entire ‘dressing’ process was carried out by water power and four water wheels operated in this area, driving machinery known as ‘jiggers, Mountain. The remains of the crushers & buddles’. During the peak years of production over 300 people mine can be seen today from (men, women & boys) worked on the washing floors preparing the ore for the tramcars of the Snaefell shipment. Although much of the machinery was dismantled following the Mountain Railway as they climb Second World War, there are still many areas of interest & clues to the towards the Bungalow station. former use of the site. In 1865 a 15.4 metre (50 1/2 feet) diameter Ore was brought out of the mine in ore caused the ores and remaining waste waterwheel was built to pump water from trucks, hauled by one of two steam stone to separate into layers due to their the mine. It was supplied by L & G Howell engines named ‘Ant’ or ‘Bee’. The ore was differing densities. of the Hawarden Ironworks in Flintshire. tipped from the wagon down the stone The waste stone removed from the chat When the mine finally closed in 1908, the waterwheel was sold and then chutes known as ‘teams’ into storage table, crushers and jiggers was tipped re-erected at Blisland in Cornwall, being used to pump slurry from a china clay bunkers below where the ore awaited the next to the river, on the upstream side of pit. In the 1970s, the components of the wheel were preserved by the Trevithick first stage of the dressing process. During the main road. Eventually the heap of Society and were stored for a number of years at a Welsh mining museum. the 1870s the original set of teams were stones, known as ‘the deads’, towered abandoned and new teams were In 2003, the Laxey Mines Research Group, in conjunction with the Laxey and over the houses of Dumbells Terrace. constructed at the northern end of the Lonan Heritage Trust, reached agreement with the Trevithick Society to return The deads remained a conspicuous washing floors at right angles to the the components to Laxey and re-erect the waterwheel in the Valley Gardens, the feature of the Laxey valley until the original set. former Great Laxey Mine washing floors. All the waterwheel components were Second World War. Some stone was fully refurbished, new woodwork was fashioned, a new water supply and Ore was taken from the teams to a grate, removed to be used on a scheme to aqueduct were constructed and a new footbridge placed over the river. An appeal located near the position of the present widen the northern end of Douglas to raise funds for the restoration proved very popular and the waterwheel was stone stage area, to be thoroughly Promenade. The vast majority of the rebuilt and officially set in washed. The mixture of stone and ore stone was removed to be used as infill motion as Lady Evelyn on was broken by hand into small pieces for the runway of the RAF station 20th August 2006. and tipped onto a large revolving constructed at Jurby in the north of the wooden table known as the ‘chat’ table, Island. By 1943 the deads had all but The restoration team where waste stone was hand picked and disappeared. together with Evelyn Jones removed. After undergoing a number of whom the Wheel was named mechanical crushing processes the ore after are pictured left. was tipped into the ‘jiggers’. These were, For further details in their simplest form, large sieves into of the Snaefell which the ore was placed and which Waterwheel, log onto were then vibrated in wooden boxes www.snaefellwheel.com filled with water. The ‘jigging’ process 4 5 LAXEY Heritage Trail As a guide the walk will take approximately two hours to complete at a leisurely pace. See Heritage Trail Map at the back of this guide. superseded ponies in the 1870s to bring George’s Guild founded by John Ruskin, used for a joiner’s ore out of the mine via the main adit, and reopened as such in 1881.