Great Red Soil Mine

Overview

A Peak District lead mine within the same scheduled walled enclosure as Magpie and Maypit, best known today for the replica horse gin standing on the site of its 1831 engine shaft, and for giving its name to the Great Redsoil vein at the centre of the 1833 dispute between Magpie and Maypit.

History

Great Red Soil Mine lies within the same walled enclosure as Magpie, Dirty Red Soil, Maypit and Horsesteps mines and a limekiln, some 700 metres south of Sheldon, protected together as a single Scheduled Monument. It gave its name to the Great Redsoil vein -- the vein Magpie and Maypit miners fought over in 1833, lighting underground fires to smoke each other out of contested ground, in an incident that killed three Maypit men (see Disasters, below, on the linked Maypit Mine record). An engine shaft was sunk at Great Red Soil in 1831 to work the vein; a replica horse gin, of the kind that would have wound ore and men to the surface using horse power before steam engines became widespread, now stands on the site of that shaft as one of the enclosure's more visible surviving features.

Workings

Worked via an engine shaft sunk in 1831, targeting the Great Redsoil vein; a replica horse gin now marks the shaft's site.

Closure

No reliable specific closure date for Great Red Soil itself has been located, distinct from Magpie's own much better-documented closure history.

What remains

A replica horse gin stands on the site of the 1831 engine shaft, one of the more visible reconstructed features within the shared scheduled enclosure.

A replica horse gin on the site of the 1831 engine shaft; other surface remains lie within the shared walled enclosure alongside Magpie, Dirty Red Soil, Maypit and Horsesteps.

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.

• An engine shaft was sunk at Great Red Soil in 1831; a replica horse gin now stands on its site. ^1,2
• Great Red Soil gave its name to the Great Redsoil vein, the vein Magpie and Maypit miners disputed in 1833. ¹

Photographs & further reading

This page doesn't try to reproduce everything — these are the best original sources found for this mine.

Sources

1. (secondary) Magpie Mine History — Peak District Mines Historical Society
2. (primary) Magpie, Dirty Red Soil, Maypit, Horsesteps and Great Red Soil lead mines and a limekiln (List Entry 1019490) — Historic England

Record created: 31 August 2026 · Last researched: 1 September 2026