Lead Miners' Heyday: the Great Days of Mining in Wirksworth
Lead miners’ heyday: the great days of mining in Wirksworth and the Low Peak of Derbyshire by Ron Slack © Ronald Slack 2000 ISBN By the same author Brassington forebears: 1700-1900. 1984 Paupers Venture/Childrens Fortune: The lead mines and miners of Brassington, Derbyshire. 1986 Near to this place…Brassington church memorials 1674-. 1988 Lands and lead miners: a history of Brassington, in Derbyshire. 1991 Man at war: John Gell in his troubled time. 1997 1 Contents Foreword and acknowledgements Chapter 1 “The custome of the mine” Chapter 2 The industry, pre-war and pre-sough Chapter 3 Trouble and strife Chapter 4 Civil War and the lead trade Chapter 5 Mine soughs Chapter 6 After the soughs – ownership, production and trade Chapter 7 Rights and wrongs Chapter 8 Development and decline 2 Foreword For almost two thousand years, from the Roman occupation until the nineteenth century, there was an important lead industry in Wirksworth and its neighbourhood. The industry’s greatest period came in the late sixteenth century, after technical improvements and an expansion of the trade, and lasted until the late eighteenth century. This is an examination of the working of the industry and of developments during these two centuries. From the sixteenth century onwards there is a large body of written material arising from the way in which the industry was organised. This book is largely based on such documentary evidence preserved in the Derbyshire Record Office and the Derbyshire County Library, in particular the archive accumulated over several centuries by the Gell family of Hopton, now in the DRO, and the microfilm copy of the Wolley manuscripts in the Local Studies Library at Matlock.
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