Driggith Mine

Overview

A once-profitable Caldbeck Fells lead and copper mine, worked to three underground levels, that was reopened for barytes in the 1920s before finally closing after repeated changes of ownership in the 1940s.

History

Driggith Mine, at the head of Driggith Beck, was probably first worked in the 17th or 18th century for lead and copper ore, alongside smaller quantities of zinc blende and barytes; its lead ore carried around 25 ounces of silver per ton. Three levels were driven — at thirty, sixty and ninety fathoms — with the sixty-fathom level the most productive. The mine was initially very profitable but grew less so over time and had been abandoned by around 1842 (recorded as abandoned 'about thirty-five years' before an 1877 account). It was reopened in 1926 to work its barytes veins, and changed ownership no fewer than three times during the 1940s before finally closing for good.

Geology

Driggith works low-temperature lead-zinc-copper veins — the Driggith Main Vein and South Vein — developed in a north-east/south-west fracture system within the Eycott Volcanic Group, alongside separate east-west barytes-bearing veins worked in the 20th century.

Workings

Underground working reached three levels at thirty, sixty and ninety fathoms depth, with the sixty-fathom level the most productive of the mine's lead and copper output.

Closure

Initially very profitable but less so over time, and abandoned by around 1842.

What remains

Little survives to see on the surface today beyond scattered scrap metal, shaft structures and pulley equipment; the levels themselves are largely water-filled or collapsed, with no passages considered safe to explore.

Scattered shaft structures, pulley equipment and scrap metal remain on the surface.

Related mines

• Sandbed Mine — Sandbed worked a continuation of the same Roughton Gill South lode as the older, adjoining Driggith mine, taking over as Driggith's own workings were exhausted.

Recorded claims

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

• The Driggith-Sandbeds vein carries galena, sphalerite and chalcopyrite in a quartz-and-barite gangue, and is notable among mineral collectors for well-crystallised pyromorphite from its high opencast workings and secondary minerals including adamite, anglesite, cerussite and linarite from the lower level dumps. ¹
• Driggith was one of several Caldbeck Fells mines reworked for barytes once wartime demand made the mineral valuable; alongside neighbours such as Potts Gill, East Potts Gill and the Sandbeds mines, the district as a whole produced around 150,000 tons of dressed barytes before the last of the Caldbeck barytes workings closed in 1966. ²
• Driggith changed ownership no fewer than three times during the 1940s while working its barytes veins, a period of instability shared with other small Caldbeck barytes operations reopened for the same wartime demand. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Driggith Mine, Caldbeck — Old Cumbria Gazetteer
2. (secondary) Barytes — Industrial History of Cumbria
3. (secondary) Driggith Mine

Record created: 22 August 2026 · Last researched: 28 August 2026