Carsington Pasture Lead Mines

Overview

Carsington Pasture, spared the Parliamentary Enclosure Acts that walled off most of Derbyshire, preserves an open, unwalled landscape of early 17th-century lead mines -- Great Rake, Nickalum and Perseverance among them -- worked, on rare evidence, since the medieval period.

History

Carsington Pasture, for reasons not recorded, escaped the Parliamentary Enclosure Acts that partitioned most of Derbyshire with stone walls, leaving it -- still grazing land as of 1974 -- devoid of enclosure walls and open across its 'very interesting' early 17th-century lead mines. Named workings include Perseverance, Hewardstone, Brett Knowl and Young Flaxpiece mines, with the larger Great Rake, Nickalum and Perseverance mines among the most substantial. Rare direct relationships between the mining remains and an underlying series of bank-and-ditch field boundaries suggest lead mining here may have begun at a medieval date or earlier, though documentary evidence for lead from 'Carson' only goes back to the 16th century, and little is known of the pasture's mining before the end of the 18th century -- after which, from 1792, a fairly complete series of ore accounts survives for many of its mines, including Flaxpiece, Breck Hollow, Conway Knowl, Swang and Waterholes. Great Rake Mine kept an early 20th-century horizontal winding engine house, whose concrete mounting beds survive along with a displaced crushing wheel, a winch, the earthworks of an inclined tramway and a probable ruined powder house; within an earlier flat dressing floor are ruined coes, other buildings and a probable gin circle. Nickalum Mine retains a walled belland yard and, nearby, large buddle dams; Perseverance Mine has shafts, a gin circle, coes, a stone-lined buddle and a buddle dam of its own. The many smaller mines across the pasture show small belland yards, hillock-top dressing floors, coes and water-storage or ore-dressing ponds, with capped shafts across the area giving access to underground vein and pipe workings. A 2006 walkover survey, carried out ahead of a proposed wind farm, identified a derelict building and pit head as the remains of Breck Hollow Mine, and a later descent into that mine found one of its two coes had a climbing shaft at its centre. In early summer 2004 the eastern half of the pasture suffered extensive damage when used for the National Landrover Trials, with deep wheel ruts cut across hillocks and hollows, one ruined coe robbed of stone to fill a hollow, and a wall clipped by vehicles. Part of the site was scheduled as a nationally important monument in March 2013.

Geology

Lead-bearing veins and pipe workings across an unenclosed upland pasture, with rare direct stratigraphic relationships to underlying medieval field boundaries.

Workings

An open, unwalled landscape of small and large lead mines, including Great Rake (with an early 20th-century winding engine house), Nickalum and Perseverance, plus numerous smaller named workings.

Closure

No reliable closure date has yet been located; a fairly complete series of ore accounts survives from 1792 for many of the pasture's mines.

What remains

Part scheduled as a nationally important monument since March 2013; the eastern half suffered significant off-road-vehicle damage in 2004.

Extensive hillocks and shafts survive across the pasture, including Great Rake's engine house mountings, tramway earthworks and powder house, Nickalum's belland yard, and Perseverance's gin circle and buddle.

Nearby mines

• Golconda Mine — 1.2 km NE
• Chariot Mine — 1.3 km NE
• Bondog Hole Mine — 2.9 km NE
• Hopton Wood Quarries and Middleton Mine — 3.4 km NE
• Via Gellia Lead Mines — 3.5 km NE

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.

• Carsington Pasture escaped the Parliamentary Enclosure Acts and remains devoid of stone walls, containing very interesting disused lead mines of the early 17th century, still in use as grazing land as of 1974; named mines include Perseverance, Hewardstone, Brett Knowl and Young Flaxpiece, with Great Rake, Nickalum and Perseverance among the largest. ¹
• Great Rake Mine's early 20th-century horizontal winding engine house left concrete mounting beds, a displaced crushing wheel, a winch and tramway earthworks; a 2006 walkover survey ahead of a proposed wind farm identified a derelict building and pit head as the remains of Breck Hollow Mine. ¹
• Rare direct relationships between mining remains and underlying bank-and-ditch field boundaries suggest lead mining on Carsington Pasture may date to the medieval period or earlier; the site was part-scheduled as a nationally important monument in March 2013. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Derbyshire HER: Lead mining remains, Carsington Pasture, Carsington (MDR3252) — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record
2. (primary) Carsington Pasture, Nickalum, Perserverance, West Head, Break Hollow and other small mines and medieval field boundaries, Carsington, Derbyshire — AncientMonuments.uk (mirroring the Historic England scheduling record)

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