Beans and Bacon Mine

Overview

Beans and Bacon Mine is a scheduled ancient monument on Bonsall Moor, Derbyshire, notable for displaying, within one small lead-mining site, nearly every method of rock-breaking used in the district's long history.

History

Beans and Bacon Mine worked lead on Bonsall Moor near the village of Bonsall in Derbyshire, one of an intensively mined group of workings across the moor that also included mines locally known as Mule Spinner, Frogs Hole, Cackle Mackle and Wanton Legs -- no explanation for any of these names, including Beans and Bacon's own, has been documented. Workings at the site date back to at least 1740, and some are believed to be medieval; its last recorded working ran from 1920 to 1925. The site's five surviving coes (stone surface sheds), one of which contains the founder shaft, sit over workings descending more than 55 metres (180 feet). The mine is notable for showing, within one small area, multiple successive rock-breaking methods used across the district's mining history: plug-and-feather splitting, gad-and-wedge hand-breaking, and gunpowder blasting -- one of only two sites known to demonstrate this range of techniques on such a small scale. The site was scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as a monument of national importance.

Workings

Worked lead via a shaft with five surface coes, one housing the founder shaft; the site preserves evidence of plug-and-feather, gad-and-wedge and gunpowder rock-breaking methods used in succession across the district's history.

What remains

Scheduled as an ancient monument of national importance; the workings remain accessible enough to require occasional intervention, as in a September 2014 incident in which a young cow fell into the mine's entrance workings and was rescued via a lower adit entrance.

Five stone coes survive on the surface, one containing the founder shaft.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Workings at the site date back to at least 1740, with some believed to be medieval; its last recorded working ran from 1920 to 1925. The site is one of only two known to demonstrate plug-and-feather, gad-and-wedge and gunpowder rock-breaking methods together on such a small scale, and was scheduled as an ancient monument under the 1979 Act. ¹
• In September 2014, a young cow fell into the mine's entrance workings; cave rescuers located a lower adit entrance roughly thirty metres from the trapped animal, enlarged and cleared it, and freed the cow to the surface unharmed. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Beans and Bacon mine — Wikipedia
2. (observational) 373: Beans & Bacon Mine, Bonsall Moor, Matlock — Derbyshire Cave Rescue Organisation

Record created: 2 September 2026 · Last researched: 2 September 2026