Doc Mine

Overview

A collapsed shaft in 1977 cut off half of Doc Mine's workings, sealing away a lower level that once ran clear across Stormy Point -- close by Bronze Age surface remains that predate the mine itself by thousands of years.

History

Doc Mine, at Stormy Point on Alderley Edge, sits in two distinct parts, of which only the upper section -- a cross-shaped set of workings -- remains open today. Outside the mine's entrance are genuine Bronze Age remains, though the mine itself, opened along the Stormy Point Fault in Engine Vein Conglomerate and Wilmslow Sandstone, is understood to be a largely 19th-century working with connections to the neighbouring Pillar Mine. From the entrance, a sloping passage descends to a pair of crossed faults where copper was probably worked; hand-picked passages survive in the roof of the near-surface sections, evidence of some of the mine's earliest working. Just beyond the bottom of the entrance slope, an opening once led into a lower level of the mine running from outside the entrance of Pillar Mine right along the Stormy Point Fault -- a substantial extension, now severely cut off. A sealed shaft entrance still survives into this lower section, but the passage beyond it is now badly truncated following the collapse of an old surface shaft in 1977. Where still accessible before the collapse, this lower level was known to extend right across Stormy Point in a trial passage, reaching a large chamber with a passage at its top that may connect through to the nearby Rock Shaft, though this section is now permanently inaccessible. The mine's water-filled upper section carries a drowning risk, and the whole site is now kept within a fenced enclosure. Doc Mine forms part of the reworking phase that took place under James Michell and the Alderley Edge Mining Company between 1857 and 1877, alongside the larger West and Wood Mines and the smaller Brynlow and Engine Vein workings, and appears by name on the 1878 Abandonment Plan documenting the full extent of the complex's workings at closure.

Geology

A copper working on the Stormy Point Fault in Engine Vein Conglomerate and Wilmslow Sandstone, connected underground to the neighbouring Pillar Mine.

Workings

An upper cross-shaped section with a sloping passage to crossed faults, and a lower level running the length of Stormy Point, now cut off by a 1977 shaft collapse, with a sealed shaft entrance still surviving.

Closure

Reworked by the Alderley Edge Mining Company under James Michell between 1857 and 1877; documented on the 1878 Abandonment Plan.

What remains

Owned by the National Trust; kept within a fenced enclosure, with a known drowning risk in its water-filled upper section.

Bronze Age surface remains outside the entrance, the upper cross-shaped mine section, a sealed lower-level shaft entrance, and hand-picked roof passages survive.

Related mines

• Alderley Edge Mines — One of the named workings within the wider Alderley Edge Mines complex, reworked under James Michell's 1857-1877 operation.

Nearby mines

• Engine Vein — 0.1 km SW
• Alderley Edge Mines — 0.2 km SE
• Brynlow Mine — 0.2 km S
• Hough Level — 0.2 km E
• Saddlebole Mine — 0.2 km SW

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.

• Outside Doc Mine, there are Bronze Age remains; Doc Mine itself is in two distinct parts with the upper cross-shaped section now the only section open, going down a sloping passage to a pair of crossed faults where copper was probably found. ¹
• There is still a shaft entrance (sealed) into the lower section but the passage is now severely truncated since there was a collapse on an old shaft to surface [in 1977]; beyond the collapse and now inaccessible, the mine extends right across Stormy Point in a trial passage until a large chamber is reached which has a passage at the top that might connect to Rock Shaft. ¹
• The Pillar and Doc mines are small, shallow mines near Stormy Point, with Bronze Age mines lying between them; they are around 50 metres long and 10 metres deep at present, and the so-called Doc Mine extends across Stormy Point to forefield but may connect with a shaft at its western end. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Derbyshire Caving Club: Other Mines (Doc Mine entry, Alderley Edge mines pages) — Derbyshire Caving Club (leaseholders and surveyors of the Alderley Edge mines for the National Trust)
2. (secondary) Alderley Edge Mines — Wikipedia

Record created: 31 August 2026 · Last researched: 17 September 2026