Chewton Mineries

Overview

Chewton Mineries, immediately north of St Cuthbert's on the Mendip Hills, was the neighbouring lead 'liberty' controlled by the Waldegrave family — a mine whose medieval workings only became consistently profitable once 18th-century Cornish miners arrived to resmelt the waste earlier generations had left behind.

History

Lead working at Chewton is first documented in 1541, though mining almost certainly began earlier still. The medieval and early workings were never especially profitable, and it took the arrival of Cornish miners in the mid-18th century, notably Nicholas Ennor, to introduce new smelting technology and begin systematically resmelting the district's old lead-rich waste slag — locally known as 'slimes' — that earlier, less efficient furnaces had left behind. Chewton's liberty lay immediately north of the neighbouring St Cuthbert's liberty at Priddy, and the two operations were repeatedly drawn into disputes over water rights needed to work their respective grounds. Output remained modest by comparison with other Mendip workings — around 100 tons a year against several hundred at more productive mines — and by 1868 the mine returned no production at all; that year a change of ownership established the Waldegrave Lead Smelting Company, and output rose sharply to 500 tons the following year, though it fell back to 477 tons by 1872. The smelter was finally abandoned in 1881, after which the remaining lead-rich slimes were sold on to a Bristol smelting works; that secondary venture itself failed by 1883, when the site closed for good.

Geology

The mine worked lead veins within the Triassic Dolomitic Conglomerate of the Mendip Hills, part of the same orefield worked at the neighbouring St Cuthbert's liberty and at Charterhouse.

Geological setting: Hydrothermal Deposits (well documented example), Veins and Lodes (well documented example)

Workings

Much of the mine's later output came not from fresh ore but from reprocessing centuries of accumulated lead-rich smelting slag, a technique introduced by Cornish miners in the mid-18th century that let the operation extract value from waste earlier, cruder furnaces had been unable to recover.

Closure

The smelter closed in 1881, and a final attempt to sell the site's remaining lead-rich slimes to an outside smelter failed by 1883, ending mining at Chewton for good.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Recorded claims

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

• Output was around 100 tons a year against several hundred tons at more productive Mendip mines; under the Waldegrave Lead Smelting Company output rose to 500 tons in 1869 before falling back to 477 tons by 1872. ¹

Sources

1. (secondary) Lead Mines — Chewton Mendip History
2. (primary) Chewton Priddy Mine Plan (BGS Mine Plans Catalogue) — British Geological Survey / The Coal Authority
3. (primary) History of lead mining — British Geological Survey (Foundations of the Mendips)

Record created: 22 August 2026 · Last researched: 22 August 2026