MineArchive

Records of historic and abandoned mines across Britain, with sources, photographs and links to further material.

2451 mines · 71 fictional mines · 874 disasters · updated October 2026

Mines 2451
Every published mine, A–Z, with filters
Regions 99
Grouped by county and district
Commodities 75
What was dug, and where
Terms & Methods 345
Mining vocabulary and methods, explained
Geology 18
Why the minerals were where they were
Disasters 874
Major incidents, researched like a mine
Operators 2502
The companies and boards behind the mines
Map
Mines and disasters by place and year
Fictional 71
Mines from books, film and games
Culture 121
Songs, clubs, libraries and art the pits produced

Recently added

Mine	Region	Worked	Commodities
Plump Hill Dolomite Quarry A Forest of Dean lime and road-stone quarry where orchids now grow on the floor.	Forest of Dean	Late 1800s–Early 1900s	Limestone
Wensley Quarry A Wensleydale quarry that once sent limestone by train to the Teesside steelworks.	North Yorkshire	1947–Still active	Limestone
Laffack Colliery A St Helens colliery of the 1760s whose 1850s records read as a roll of explosions, falls and overwinds.	Merseyside	1769 (first record)–After 1875	Coal
North Hetton Colliery A Moorsley pit of 1821 with its own brickworks and school, closed with its sister the Hazard in 1935.	Tyne and Wear	1821 (sinking also dated 1826)–1935	Coal
Westbury Brook Ironstone Mine A Forest of Dean mine sunk to feed the Dowlais ironworks, which produced nearly a million tons of ore.	Forest of Dean	Late 1830s–1893	Iron
Ty'n-y-bryn Quarry A Dolwyddelan slate quarry with a rare standard-gauge incline running straight to its mill.	Conwy	1840s–1914 (Penllyn via its mill to 1924)	Slate
King Barrow Quarry Victorian Portland quarries where the quarrymen dug into Roman burials and beehive chambers.	Dorset	1800s–c. 1900	Limestone
Yeolands Quarry One of Portland's deepest quarries, once earmarked for an Eden Project-style Jurassic park.	Dorset	to 2000s (largely redundant)	Limestone
Perryfield Quarry Portland Stone Firms' main quarry, whose Whitbed went into Westminster Abbey and Waterloo Bridge.	Dorset	1890s–Still active	Limestone
Cambrian Quarry Glyn Ceiriog's big slate quarry, with a tunnel railway and a chairman who paid its wages himself.	Wrexham	1857 (company–15 March 1947	Slate
Tytherington Quarry A railway-age limestone quarry near Thornbury, still sending stone out by train.	South Gloucestershire	1872–Still active	Limestone
Fairy Cave Quarry A Mendip quarry that broke into some 4.5 kilometres of cave passage before planning ran out.	Somerset	1920s–1977	Limestone

Featured mines

Upleatham Ironstone Mine — North Yorkshire, Iron
A Cleveland ironstone mine whose owners were allowed to take the stone from under Upleatham village, bringing down more than half of it, the Hall included, between 1890 and 1905.
Calverton Colliery — Nottinghamshire, Coal
The National Coal Board's first new colliery: a Bestwood air shaft of 1937 that grew a pit, and a village four times its old size.
Elsecar Colliery — South Yorkshire, Coal
The Fitzwilliam colliery whose 1795 Newcomen engine is the only one left anywhere in the world on the spot it was built for.
Whatley Quarry — Somerset, Limestone
Deliberately planned to be invisible from every public road, and cut so deep into the Mendip plateau that its stone reaches London by train because the south east has none of its own.
Glenbuck Colliery — East Ayrshire, Coal
A now-vanished Ayrshire mining village that produced 50 professional footballers in 50 years, including Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, whose four older brothers all played for the village's own junior side.
Combe Down Stone Mines — Somerset, Limestone
Ten years and 400,000 cubic metres of concrete were needed just to stop a Georgian stone mine collapsing under the village built on top of it.