Broadmeadow Lead Mine

Overview

Broadmeadow Mine, at Alport, was worked by the Alport Mining Company with a hydraulic pumping engine sold off in 1852 and later installed at Winster's Wills Founder Mine; its underground levels, explored by cavers from the 1960s, once fed water to two of the company's engine shafts.

History

Broadmeadow Mine's engine shaft, immediately west of a row of former Alport Mining Company cottages, is a drift entrance with a further section beyond a collapse, reached via a nearby shaft; the drift itself carried water from the river, via raised launders, to the Broadmeadow engine shaft, where a hydraulic engine chamber lies deep underground. A plan of the entrance and shaft, the 'Broadmeadow Shale Gate', was surveyed by the Eccles Caving Club on 5 July 1970 and is held by the British Geological Survey. The engine shaft, also called the Blyth (or Blith) Engine Shaft, housed a hydraulic pumping engine similar to a Trevithick design, possibly modified by John Darlington. The Alport Mining Company sold it at auction on 26 July 1852; the engine was afterwards installed in the Wills Founder Shaft at Winster, from where it was later recovered by the North Staffordshire Mining Group and is now displayed in the Peak District Mines Historical Society's mining museum at Matlock Bath. Underground, workings from Broadmeadow's shaft ran along Croshaw Pipe, Oldfield Pipe and Sutton Vein, and connected south-west via Old Cross Vein toward Danger Mine, over ground worked so extensively that little mineralisation was left to find by the time cavers explored it. A drainage level in the wood above Alport village, explored and surveyed by the Eccles Caving Club after a lengthy dig through two collapses, carried water to both the Broadmeadow and neighbouring Guy engine shafts. The cottages beside the mine, along with a barn opposite that served as an office, were confirmed by a former miner, Mr G. E. Bacon, to have belonged to the Alport Mining Company; the office is thought to have been used while the company worked Prospect Mine, its last working mine (see that record).

Geology

Lead-bearing pipe and vein workings (Croshaw Pipe, Oldfield Pipe, Sutton Vein and Old Cross Vein) connecting underground toward the neighbouring Danger Mine.

Workings

A drift and engine shaft complex, drained by a launder-fed level from the river; the engine shaft once housed a hydraulic pumping engine, sold in 1852 and moved to Winster's Wills Founder Mine.

Closure

The pumping engine was sold at auction on 26 July 1852; underground exploration (not economic mining) continued into the 1960s and 70s, when much of the accessible ground was found already worked out.

What remains

A large depression and mine hillock mark the run-in engine shaft; the former company cottages, altered and partly rebuilt, still stand nearby.

The engine shaft site survives as a depression and spoil hillock; the row of Alport Mining Company cottages and an aqueduct-fed adit entrance in the wood above the village also survive.

Related mines

• Guy Mine — Both worked by the Alport Mining Company; a drainage level fed both the Guy and Broadmeadow engine shafts.
• Prospect Lead Mine — Both worked by the Alport Mining Company; the company used a building opposite Broadmeadow as its office while working Prospect, its last mine.
• Wheels Rake Wheelhouse Shaft — The Shining Sough, draining Wheels Rake, was dug through by cavers until it broke into Broadmeadow Mine's own workings near its main shaft.

Nearby mines

• Guy Mine — 0.0 km E
• Prospect Lead Mine — 0.4 km SE
• Wheels Rake Wheelhouse Shaft — 0.7 km NE
• Kirkmeadow Mine — 1.2 km E
• Alport Mines — 1.4 km NW

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• Broadmeadow Mine is a drift entrance, with a further section beyond a collapse entered via a nearby shaft, which took water from the river via raised launders through the drift to Broadmeadow Shaft, where there is a hydraulic engine chamber deep underground. ¹
• A plan of the Broadmeadow Shale Gate entrance and shaft was surveyed by the Eccles Caving Club and is dated 5 July 1970, held by the British Geological Survey via the Peak District Mines Historical Society. ²
• The Broadmeadow (or Blyth) Engine Shaft housed a hydraulic pumping engine, similar to a Trevithick design and possibly modified by John Darlington, sold by the Alport Mining Company at auction on 26 July 1852 and afterwards installed in the Wills Founder Shaft at Winster, now displayed in the PDMHS mining museum at Matlock Bath. ³
• A drainage level in the wood above Alport, explored and surveyed by the Eccles Caving Club after digging through two collapses, carried water to both the Broadmeadow and Guy engine shafts. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Derbyshire HER: Broadmeadow Lead Mine - Shale Drift, Cliff Lane, Alport (MDR14015) — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record
2. (primary) BGS mine plan: The Broadmeadow Shale Gate, Alport-by-Youlgrave (survey by Eccles Caving Club, 1970) — British Geological Survey / Peak District Mines Historical Society
3. (secondary) Alport Mines and Soughs — Pegasus Caving Club

Record created: 16 September 2026 · Last researched: 16 September 2026