Haslowfield Mine

Overview

An eighteenth-century lead level in Hopton Wood beside the Via Gellia near Matlock, known variously as Haslowfield Level, Spinney Level, Hopton Water Level and Anglo-Saxon Mine. It is a coffin-shaped adit driven into the limestone after a vein, and it survives with an unusual amount of its original fabric: stone-built passage, herringbone-pattern roof supports, stone stemples and remnants of the wooden rails that carried ore and waste out. Archaeological work around 1970 recorded rails still in position underground.

History

The mine is believed to date mainly from the eighteenth century and belongs to the lead industry that worked the whole Peak District. It is a level rather than a shaft mine: a horizontal adit driven into the hillside, which let the miners reach the lead-bearing vein and drained the workings behind them at the same time. That dual purpose is why one of its names is Hopton Water Level.

The miners followed a mineral vein into the limestone and opened a network of passages from it. What makes the mine significant is not its output, which is not recorded, but how much of its working fabric survived abandonment: sections of stone-built passage, unusual herringbone-pattern roof supports, stone stemples, and remnants of the wooden rails used to move ore and waste. Archaeological investigations around 1970 found wooden rails still in position underground. A ruined coe, the small stone building a Derbyshire miner used at the mouth of his working, survives near the entrance.

Geology

Carboniferous limestone of the Derbyshire orefield, cut by the lead veins the Via Gellia mines followed. The Via Gellia is a dry limestone valley whose sides are pierced by levels and soughs, driven both to reach ore and to take water out of the workings; the Derbyshire Historic Environment Record treats the mines and soughs of the valley as one group.

Geological setting: Veins and Lodes (well documented example)

Workings

An old coffin-type level, narrow and high in section, driven after the vein. Its roof was held up by stone supports set in an unusual herringbone pattern and by stone stemples, and wooden rails ran along it to move ore and waste to the entrance. A coe stood at the mouth. The workings are a network of passages off the main level rather than a single drivage.

Closure

No closure date is recorded. The mine was abandoned and flooded, and there is no output figure for it in any source.

What remains

The adit is flooded for most of the year because a collapse inside is acting as a dam. Inside, the stone-built passage, the herringbone roof supports and the stemples survive, and the ruined coe stands near the entrance. The site lies in Hopton Wood beside the Via Gellia.

A ruined coe stands near the level mouth in Hopton Wood.

Related mines

• Via Gellia Lead Mines — Haslowfield is one of the lead levels and soughs of the Via Gellia, treated as a single group by the county record; it is named on the Via Gellia record.

Recorded claims

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

• The mine is known as Spinney Level, Haslowfield Level, Hopton Water Level and Anglo-Saxon Mine, and lies in Hopton Wood beside the Via Gellia near Matlock. ¹
• The mine is believed to date mainly from the eighteenth century and is an old coffin-type level, driven horizontally into the hillside to reach the vein and drain the workings. ^1,2
• Sections of stone-built passage survive with unusual herringbone-pattern roof supports, stone stemples and remnants of wooden rails; archaeological investigations around 1970 recorded wooden rails still in position underground, and a ruined coe stands near the entrance. ^1,2
• The adit is flooded for most of the year because a collapse inside acts as a dam. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (observational) Spinney Level, Matlock — GRONK Urban Exploration
2. (observational) Spinney Level, Matlock, Derbyshire, August 2022 — 28DaysLater
3. (primary) Via Gellia Mines and Soughs — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record MDR12392 — Derbyshire County Council

Record created: 9 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026