Hill's Venture Lead Mine

Overview

Hill's Venture, at the western end of the four-mile Moss Rake vein, keeps one of Derbyshire's rare surviving crushing wheels still sitting on its dressing floor, and a shaft barely a foot across, sunk purely to ventilate the workings below.

History

Hill's Venture sits at the western end of Moss Rake, a master vein running some four miles from Bradwell, where it terminates abruptly against an intrusion of dolerite -- locally, the Peak Forest Sill. Moss Rake was worked here from at least the 1670s to the mid-19th century, and may first have been mined as early as the mid-13th century. The western part of the Hill's Venture site preserves part of this rake as a series of shaft mounds; among them is a remarkably small shaft, only around 0.3 metres across, interpreted as a ventilation shaft rather than a working one, too narrow to have raised ore or admitted a miner. In the eastern part of the site a dressing floor survives, partly enclosed by a low wall, where raw material from the mine was broken and washed to concentrate its lead content; within the enclosure are pits, further shaft mounds, ruined structures and heaps of dressing waste. The dressing floor also keeps a rare survival: a gritstone crushing wheel, 1.2 metres in diameter and 0.3 metres thick, which rolled on an axle around a track of stone or iron to break up ore -- a typical piece of Derbyshire dressing equipment until the close of the 19th century, but one only very rarely found still in place. Its survival in situ on the dressing floor means its buried trackbed almost certainly survives beneath it too. Nearby, the associated Boggart Hole Vein and Royal Oak Mine -- much of the latter reworked within a now-ruined belland yard wall -- add a further crushing circle and wheel, and a water storage or dew pond, to the wider group of workings at this end of the rake.

Geology

The western end of Moss Rake, a four-mile lead-bearing master vein running from Bradwell, terminating here against an intrusion of dolerite (the Peak Forest Sill).

Workings

Shaft mounds along the rake, including a 0.3m ventilation shaft, and a walled dressing floor keeping a rare in-situ gritstone crushing wheel.

Closure

Moss Rake was worked here to the mid-19th century; no more precise closure date for this specific site was found in the sources read.

What remains

Scheduled as a nationally important monument; the crushing wheel survives in situ on the dressing floor.

Shaft mounds, a narrow ventilation shaft, a walled dressing floor with pits and ruined structures, and an in-situ gritstone crushing wheel survive.

Related mines

• Moss Rake — Hill's Venture lies at the western end of the same four-mile Moss Rake vein, where it terminates against the Peak Forest Sill dolerite intrusion.

Nearby mines

• Oxlow Rake Lead Mines — 1.1 km NE
• Eldon Hill Crushing Circle — 2.0 km N
• Hazard Mine — 2.3 km NE
• Slitherstone and Linacre Lead Mines — 2.3 km N
• Gautries Rake — 2.8 km NW

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.

• Moss Rake was worked at Hill's Venture from at least the 1670s to the mid-19th century, and may first have been mined in the mid-13th century, terminating here against an intrusion of dolerite; a remarkably small shaft of about 0.3m diameter among the shaft mounds has been interpreted as a ventilation shaft. ¹
• The dressing floor at Hill's Venture keeps a rare gritstone crushing wheel, 1.2m in diameter and 0.3m thick, still in situ, a typical component of Derbyshire ore dressing until the end of the 19th century but only very rarely surviving in place. ¹
• The wider group of workings at this end of Moss Rake also includes Boggart Hole Vein and Royal Oak Mine, the latter much reworked within a ruined belland yard wall, adding a further crushing circle and wheel and a water storage or dew pond. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Derbyshire HER: Moss Rake and Royal Oak Mine, Tideswell and Peak Forest (MDR1747) — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record
2. (primary) Hill's Venture lead mine, Peak Forest, Derbyshire — AncientMonuments.uk (mirroring the Historic England scheduling record)

Record created: 16 September 2026 · Last researched: 16 September 2026