Hopping Pipe Mine

Overview

A lead and fluorspar mine at Upperwood above Matlock Bath, also recorded as Upperwood Mine, Crowther's or simply the Fluorspar Mine. It appears on the Ordnance Survey only from the early twentieth century, when it was being worked for both minerals, and mine explorers remember fluorspar being trammed out of its adit and loaded by hand into lorries in the 1940s and 1950s. The Derbyshire Historic Environment Record dates the working 1901 to 1960 and names Banks and Barton as its last operators; the adit is now sealed.

History

Hopping Pipe Mine stands on the west side of the lane that runs from Holme Road up to the hamlet of Upperwood, on the hillside above Matlock Bath. The Derbyshire Historic Environment Record knows it as Hopping Pipe Mine, Upperwood Mine, Crowther's or the Fluorspar Mine, and records it as a lead and fluorspar mine with an adit, worked between 1901 and 1960. It is marked as 'Hopping Pipe Mine (Lead & Fluor Spar)' on the Ordnance Survey 25-inch county series of 1912-21 but is absent from the earlier editions, so the working as mapped is a twentieth-century one, whatever older lead workings the pipe itself may represent. The record notes that the mine was worked latterly by Banks and Barton, and a 1973 Council for British Archaeology report card contrasted its methods with those of Derbyshire Stone at the nearby Speedwell Mine. Mine explorers writing on AditNow place it in a complex of workings around Upperwood that includes Tear Breeches, the Royal Mine, the Fluorspar Cavern and Speedwell, and recall fluorspar being mined there through the 1940s and 1950s, hauled out along rails and loaded by hand into small lorries for processing elsewhere in Derbyshire; they add that the complex had a reputation for instability. Peter Naylor published an account of the mine in the Peak District Mines Historical Society's bulletin in 1987, and Roger Flindall and Andrew Hayes wrote on the Tear Breeches, Hopping, Fluor Spar and Speedwell complex.

Geology

A pipe working -- a mineralised cavity in the limestone rather than a simple vein -- carrying lead ore and fluorspar, the fluorspar becoming the object of the twentieth-century working.

Geological setting: Hydrothermal Deposits (historical documentary reference)

Workings

Worked from an adit whose tramway was of roughly 24-inch gauge. A drystone cabin with a corrugated iron roof stood at SK 2911 5807 as site office and store; its foundations survive in the undergrowth and the retaining wall beside the lane is still standing.

Closure

The Derbyshire Historic Environment Record gives the working a span of 1901 to 1960. No account of the final closure itself was found.

What remains

The main adit is sealed. The site lies within the buffer zone of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.

The foundations of the drystone site cabin are discernible in the undergrowth and the retaining wall to the left of the lane is extant; the cabin itself has gone.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Nearby mines

• Snake Mine — 0.3 km W
• Cumberland Mine — 0.4 km S
• Masson Hill Mine — 0.6 km N
• Wapping Mine — 0.6 km SE
• Longtor Mines — 0.9 km NE

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• Mine explorers recall fluorspar being worked here through the 1940s and 1950s, trammed out of the mine and loaded by hand into small lorries for processing elsewhere in Derbyshire. (uncertain) ²

Recorded claims

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

• The Derbyshire Historic Environment Record records the mine as Hopping Pipe Mine, also called Upperwood Mine, Crowther's or the Fluorspar Mine, a lead and fluorspar mine with an adit worked between 1901 and 1960. ¹
• The site appears as 'Hopping Pipe Mine (Lead & Fluor Spar)' on the Ordnance Survey 25-inch county series of 1912-21 and is not present on earlier editions. ¹
• The mine was latterly worked by Banks and Barton, and a 1973 report card contrasted its methods of working with those of Derbyshire Stone at the neighbouring Speedwell Mine. ¹
• A drystone cabin with a corrugated iron roof served as site office and store at SK 2911 5807, and the tramway issuing from the adit appears to have had a gauge of about 24 inches. ¹
• Mine explorers recall fluorspar being worked here through the 1940s and 1950s, trammed out of the mine and loaded by hand into small lorries for processing elsewhere in Derbyshire. (uncertain) ²
• The mine is part of a group of workings around Upperwood that also includes Tear Breeches, the Royal Mine, the Fluorspar Cavern and Speedwell Mine. ^1,2

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) MDR9626 - Hopping Pipe Mine, Upperwood, Matlock Bath — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record
2. (observational) Hopping Pipe Fluorite Mine — AditNow (Internet Archive)

Record created: 16 September 2026 · Last researched: 20 September 2026