Greenhead Gill Mine

Overview

An Elizabethan lead mine in the narrow valley of Greenhead Gill above Grasmere, worked by German miners for the Company of Mines Royal from the mid-1560s until 1573. A company inventory of 1586 describes its stamphouse with a waterwheel, twelve stamps and a loft where the workmen slept, and the site is one of the few relatively undisturbed Elizabethan lead mining complexes left, scheduled as a monument since 1997.

History

Documentary sources say German miners and engineers began work at Grasmere in 1564, although that may refer to a smithy nearby rather than the mines, where work may not have started until later in the decade. Galena and its gangue were mined here until 1573, when the mine closed down; the venture was not a success. The company's account books for 1569 mention one of the two shafts on the west side of the gill, St Benedict's. An inventory of all the Company of Mines Royal's property at Grasmere, drawn up in 1586, describes the main building as a stamphouse 36 feet by 31 feet with a waterwheel, twelve stamps and a loft for the workmen to sleep in, with a small room behind it, perhaps sleeping quarters or an office, and another small building with a slated roof. It lists eleven square box buddles sunk into the ground, three supports for the launder that fed the waterwheel, and a 'rowle wagon servinge for within the Mynes', which suggests the German miners used an underground wagonway. A drilled level at the southern end of the site shows some later work, and one of the northern buildings may belong to an unrecorded venture of the early 19th century. The remains were scheduled on 8 April 1997.

Geology

Galena in a vein worked from open casts, two shafts and an adit on the west side of the gill.

Workings

Small open casts and two shafts on the west side of the gill, one of them St Benedict's, an adit, and a partly blocked drilled level at the southern end. On the flatter ground on the east side, two groups of buildings about 140 metres apart, a washing or dressing floor covered in broken veinstone, square depressions thought to be the sites of box buddles, two bridge abutments either side of the gill, and a leat cut diagonally across the fellside from Rowantree Gill to drive the waterwheel for the stamps and buddles. A short trial nearby, about ten metres long, found no mineralisation.

Closure

The mine closed in 1573 after less than a decade and was not a success. The Company of Mines Royal still listed its property there in 1586. A drilled level and one building suggest a small later venture, perhaps in the early 19th century, of which no record survives.

What remains

A scheduled monument, described by Historic England as one of the few relatively undisturbed Elizabethan lead mining complexes. Two drystone buildings survive to between one and 1.4 metres high, one about three metres square and the other 4.7 by 3.4 metres with a doorway in its east wall, together with the dressing floor, the buddle pits, the bridge abutments, the course of the leat and fragments of substantial walls on terracing at the southern end.

Drystone buildings and walls, a dressing floor, box buddle pits, bridge abutments, a leat, open casts, two shafts, an adit and a drilled level.

Redevelopment

None: the remains are protected as a scheduled monument on the open fell.

Nearby mines

• Banks Slate Quarry, Chapel Stile — 4.4 km SW
• Elterwater Quarry — 4.4 km SW
• Loughrigg Fell Slate Quarry — 4.6 km SW
• Lords Quarry — 4.7 km SW
• Kirkstone Slate Quarry — 5.2 km E

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.

• German miners and engineers began work at Grasmere in 1564, though possibly at a smithy rather than the mines, and galena was mined here until 1573. ^1,2
• The mine was worked from about 1565 to 1573. ³
• A Company of Mines Royal inventory of 1586 describes a stamphouse 36 by 31 feet with a waterwheel, 12 stamps and a sleeping loft, and 11 box buddles. ²
• The 1586 inventory lists a 'rowle wagon servinge for within the Mynes', suggesting an underground wagonway. ²
• St Benedict's shaft is mentioned in the company's account books for 1569. ²
• The lead mine and ore works were scheduled on 8 April 1997 (list entry 1015651). ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Lead and Zinc — Industrial History of Cumbria
2. (primary) Lead mine and ore works at Greenhead Gill, Grasmere (list entry 1015651) — Historic England scheduling text, reproduced by ancientmonuments.uk
3. (secondary) Grasmere Mine — Buddlepit Mine Database

Record created: 18 September 2026 · Last researched: 18 September 2026