Dovegang Mine

Overview

Dovegang, running for around 200 acres between Cromford and Middleton, was already considered an ancient mine by 1652 — and became the site of Derbyshire's first ever sough, a pioneering piece of Dutch-engineered drainage that unwatered the mine and opened the way for centuries more lead mining across the county.

History

The Dovegang mines took their name from the Dove Gange vein, which ran east to west from Black Rocks to Middleton and, with its tributary veins, covered an area of some 200 acres. The mine was already regarded as 'ancient' by 1652, and lead had been worked in the wider Wirksworth area since Roman times, with Repton Abbey recorded as owning mines there as early as the 800s AD. Flooding was a persistent problem until Derbyshire's first sough, the Longhead Sough, was driven between 1629 and 1636 by the Dutch drainage engineer Sir Cornelius Vermuyden — the same engineer later responsible for draining the Fens — to unwater the Dovegang workings at Cromford. A 1632 record describes a shaft known as the Gyn Pitt, apparently 240 feet deep. From 1638 to 1654 the Dovegang formed its own separate mining liberty, its 200 acres on Cromford Moor made highly productive once Vermuyden's drainage scheme had done its work.

Geology

The mine worked the Dove Gange vein and its tributaries within the Derbyshire orefield of the White Peak, a hydrothermal, non-magmatic mineralised system distinct from the granite-related lodes of Cornwall and Devon.

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

Workings

The Gyn Pitt shaft reached a recorded depth of around 240 feet by 1632; the Longhead Sough, driven by Cornelius Vermuyden between 1629 and 1636, was Derbyshire's first sough and unwatered the Dovegang workings, opening the ground to further working as its own 200-acre mining liberty from 1638.

Closure

No single closure date is recorded; the mine's veins were worked down gradually over the following centuries as the district's lead mining declined.

What remains

The site is now managed as the Gang Mine nature reserve by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, valued for lead-tolerant plant species including spring sandwort and alpine pennycress growing on its old spoil heaps.

Spoil heaps, some topped with capped mine shafts, survive across the former mining ground, now managed as a nature reserve.

The reserve has a number of old mine shafts which are normally capped but may be liable to soil movement — visitors are asked to stay on the marked paths.

Recorded claims

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

• The mine was already regarded as 'ancient' by 1652; a 1632 record describes the Gyn Pitt shaft as apparently 240 feet deep. ^1,2
• The Longhead Sough, Derbyshire's first sough, was driven between 1629 and 1636 by the Dutch engineer Sir Cornelius Vermuyden to unwater the Dovegang workings. ^1,2
• The reserve takes its name from 'gangue', the term for the waste minerals dumped around the shafts; the resulting lead-rich spoil supports nationally rare lead-tolerant plants including spring sandwort and alpine pennycress (locally known as leadwort). A restored dew pond on the site, originally a livestock drinking place, now provides habitat for amphibians including the great crested newt. ³

Sources

1. (secondary) Derbyshire lead mining history — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Dovegang Mines — Mines and Minerals in Derbyshire
3. (secondary) Gang Mine (Nature Reserve) — Derbyshire Wildlife Trust

Record created: 23 August 2026 · Last researched: 28 August 2026