Feature Chatsworth and Buxton: built on copper! Visitors to the Peak District marvel at the The man splendour of Chatsworth House and the who made a fortune elegance of the Crescents at Buxton — but from copper: how many will know that the fourth Duke William Cavendish, of Devonshire financed these wonders with the 4th Duke of the revenue from a single copper mine? Devonshire. Steve Brown reports.
ISITORS to the beautiful understanding the processes - and tranquil - upper of ore extraction and metal VManifold Valley today production from pre-history would scarcely believe that the to the post medieval period green and verdant hillsides of and for the interpretation Ecton were once the scene of of the same to both industrial activity on a huge professionals and the public. scale, both above and below ground. The discerning might Ecton Mine is one of only two notice pock marks and shafts English sites where there is on the hillsides or spoil heaps evidence of mining pre-history, hidden in the woodlands but the other being at Alderley all is peaceful now. Yet this was Edge in Cheshire. Evidence the site of the Peak District`s discovered at the mine only only copper mine and an recently clearly demonstrates industrial enterprise of great the mining of ore there in the local and national significance. Bronze Age. Worked extensively from the 17th century, it was Recognising this, in 2008 also home to some of the most the National Trust purchased innovative mining technology just over 21 acres of land in history and its rich veins of worked on a lease by two from the estate of the former ore were meeting about 50 per companies of “adventurers”, owner of the Ecton Mine cent of the UK’s demand for the fourth Duke of Devonshire which included buildings copper in the 1780s when the saw the potential for large of national importance to mine was at its most productive revenues when a massive the UK’s industrial heritage and providing employment for pipe deposit, rich in ore, was and set about, with the some 400 workers. The copper discovered in 1760 and chose assistance of the Ecton Mines was largely used in brass and to work the mines with “in- Educational Trust, developing as a sheath for the wooden house” labour at great profit the area’s massive potential for hulls of ships. Previously until the 1820s. At its peak in
The wooded entrance to the The Powder House at Ecton, The entrance to the Ecton National Trust’s Ecton Hill site. where the explosive were stored. Deep Level tunnel.
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1786, the mine produced over of the site and wanted to ore at Ecton is chalcopyrite 4,000 tonnes of copper ore at preserve it for the benefit of (CuFeS2) and the main ore a profit to the Duke of £40,000 others. After Geoff`s death, body ran in an irregular vertical per annum - the equivalent of the Ecton Mines Educational “pipe” about 90 feet wide east £6 million today! However, Trust was established in 2005 to west. The mine became in the late 1780s, the ore as per his wishes and now synonymous with innovation; it began to run out so the Duke owns Salts Level, the adjacent saw the first use of gunpowder decided to return to leasing out upper dressing floors for (black powder) in mining in the mineral rights to others. the minerals, the adjacent 1665; in 1767 an underground Mining continued with varying field studies centre and the canal was in use below the degrees of success through the mineral rights for Ecton Hill. Apes Tor level, where boats The Engine House high on 19th century, finally ceasing took ore to the shaft bottom, Ecton Hill is a reminder of the area’s rich insutrial history. in about 1891. The mine itself, The mine at Ecton lies within from where it was taken to the mineral rights and the a complex area of distorted the surface for dressing. ponds - where it was mixed associated land was eventually limestone rock containing a with water and poured down purchased in the 1950s by source of copper ore which is Women and children worked a sloping surface to separate the late Geoff Cox, a mining unusual in the Peak District, on the dressing floors: Women out the denser ores from engineer, who recognised being normally associated used hammers to break up the the rock residues. Evidence the historical significance with lead mining. The main ore into small pieces and boys of these dressing floors and then barrowed the ore to a ‘buddles’ still remain today shed where young girls sorted on the site among the trees it into three different grades. It above the valley road and they “It saw the first use of gunpowder was then beaten down further are classified as ‘Scheduled in mining in 1665” into finer grades, then taken to Monuments’. As the mining the ‘buddles’ - large artificial became deeper to follow the
A view of some of the mine’s old buildings and spoil heaps taken around 1905-7, also showing Ecton Church, which may have been built for the men working on the Manifold Valley Railway, which opened in 1904. Courtesy of Staffordshire Museum Service.
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ore, the need to pump water one tonne so a balance rope grant from Natural England, can learn more about its out of the mine became ever was added and this eventually roof repairs, structural work fascinating history. greater and an underground had a separate shaft provided and site improvements were water pumping engine housed after an accident in which carried out last summer. This The National Trust is also now within a vast man-made cavern the balance weight fell down year, work will be carried out running “Ecton Overground was built in 1783, raising water the main shaft, fortunately on the interior of the engine And Underground” tours, up to Ecton Sough. The Deep without causing any injury. house which, at one time, had taking visitors across the Ecton pipe was eventually An innovative system of a tall chimney reminiscent of hill before venturing into the worked to a depth of 330 dials indicating depths was the engine houses above the depths of Salts Level to see metres (1,090 feet) below the connected to the engine, Cornish tin mines but this what remains of the workings ridge top. By then, something enabling the operator to judge collapsed when the engine underground. After the heavy far more powerful than the when a load of ore from the house fell into disuse and metal gates guarding the horse gin at the top of the depths had reached a spot in while its remains are obvious underground entrance have shaft was required to wind the main shaft where it could there are no plans to return it been swung open, parties can the ore up from the depths. be unloaded into a level to to its original glory. The small be taken some 100 metres Thus, in 1788 a steam-powered be taken out of the mine. The powder house was constructed into the hillside along a tunnel winding engine of the latest mine workings eventually to store explosives used in the leading to the main shaft and type built by Boulton and Watt reached 400 metres (1,300 mine; thick walls and a light ore pipe workings where from Birmingham was installed feet) below the surface but roof ensured miners toiled in an engine house (now the ore deposits were very that any with pick and thought to be the oldest mine much smaller by then. unfortunate The National shovel by winding engine house in the explosion candlelight world) at the top of the main After the National Trust would be Trust is also now to hew the shaft. Students at the Field acquired the land at Ecton Hill directed running “Ecton precious Study Centre can now inspect in 2008 a management plan upwards ore from the for themselves copies of the for the site was developed rather than Overground And depths. original technical drawings and is now being followed outwards! Underground” tours for the engine to see how it through. As well as its Paul The tunnels was set up within the engine industrial heritage, the site Mortimer, into the mine house (the original drawings contains woodland and mixed the National through are within the Boulton archive grassland including some Trust’s Projects Officer in the unproductive rock were cut at Birmingham Museum). This fine plants like wild thyme, White Peak area, said they by the miners for a “bargain” engine lifted ore from Ecton fragrant orchid and mountain planned to provide a small - the price per fathom of Deep Level but also raised pansy. A schedule of work number of interpretation stone worked agreed with enough water from the depths was drawn up to repair the boards on the site plus a the mine owners. Often the to supply its own needs! The engine house and the powder “listening post” within the outlines of the chisel strokes winding rope alone weighed house and, with the help of a engine house so that visitors made by the miners can be seen on the walls and the roofs of the tunnels they made. Veins of minerals can still be seen sparkling in the beams of head torches. The deepest of the hewn caverns is now flooded to a depth of over 1,000 feet, a scarcely believable feat given the tools available and the working conditions the miners endured.
Editor’s Note: The National Trust is running two such tours this year and hopes to run more in 2014: all relevant safety equipment is provided but visitors should ensure that they themselves have adequate clothing and footwear for both parts of the tour. Details of the tours and how to book can be found on the National Trust events website at www.nationaltrust. org.uk/white-peak/. Buxton’s stunning Crescent – built with the profits from the Ecton copper mine.
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