Lees and Dove Rakes

Overview

Lees and Dove Rakes, above Millers Dale, worked the Burfoot title from at least 1709 and kept going into the 19th century, preserving a rare drystone-lined semi-circular bouse team and a meerstone marking out a miner's claim.

History

Lees Rake runs east from the scheduled area of the neighbouring Maury Mine, following the 330-metre contour south of Millers Dale before dropping down the hillside's east slope to the River Wye; the shorter Dove Rake runs about 495 metres from south-west to north-east to meet it. Much of the working here almost certainly predates its earliest documentation, in the 18th century: mines under the Burfoot title, including those in Brushfield Liberty, are recorded in work in 1709-13 and probably near-continuously from 1726 to 1763, though production stayed small throughout. From at least 1770 the Burfoot mines were worked more ambitiously and continuously, before output declined again after 1794; in the 19th century only small-scale reworking of well-tried mines and their hillocks continued. Sterndale Sough, draining the ground between the river and Lees Rake's Burfoot Old Vein and Torrtops Vein, was first recorded in 1738, though when it was actually driven is not known. To the east, mining at Booth Lee Pipes is separately documented from 1670 and 1671. The rakes' surviving remains include shafts and shaft mounds, waste hillocks, an open cut, belland yard walls, a meerstone marking out a miner's claimed length of ground, and a rare drystone-lined, semi-circular bouse team reached by a raised barrow-run, alongside dressing pits and a probable coe. A walled dew pond for washing ore, shown on the tithe map of 1848 but not accompanied there by its later belland yard wall, sits within one of the enclosed fields; nearby, ground between two belland yards appears to have been reworked for lead ore, secondary minerals, or both. Near the east end of Lees Rake, by the river, is the run-in tail of Sterndale Sough, beside a coe and flat-topped hillock; on the brow of the hill above survive a rare outcropping 17th-century flatwork, with its own access roadway, gin circle and belland yard wall. Two entrances into the underground workings of Booth Lee Pipes are set into the steep north slope just west of the sough.

Geology

Lead-bearing veins (Burfoot Old Vein, Torrtops Vein and others) along the hillside south of Millers Dale, drained in part by Sterndale Sough.

Workings

Two rakes with shaft mounds, belland yards, a meerstone, a rare stone-lined bouse team, a walled dew pond, a 17th-century flatwork, and the Booth Lee Pipes underground workings.

Closure

19th-century activity was limited to small-scale reworking of already well-tried mines and their hillocks; no precise final closure date was found.

What remains

Scheduled as a nationally important monument; much of the site is described as completely untouched since the lead-mining period.

Shaft mounds, belland yard walls, a meerstone, a stone-lined bouse team with its barrow-run, a walled dew pond, a run-in sough tail, a coe, and the entrances to Booth Lee Pipes survive.

Related mines

• Maury Mine and Sough — Lees Rake's west end falls within Maury Mine's own scheduled area, and the two scheduling records are explicitly described as contiguous.
• Putwell Hill Mine — Neighbouring Scheduled Monuments on the same rake system, explicitly linked for group value in Putwell Hill Mine's own scheduling record.

Nearby mines

• Maury Mine and Sough — 1.1 km W
• Putwell Hill Mine — 1.9 km SE
• Arbourseats Veins and Nay Green Mine — 2.4 km NE
• Cackle Mackle and Stadford Hollow Lead Mines — 3.5 km E
• Seedlow Lead Mine — 3.9 km SE

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.

• Mines in the Burfoot title, including those in Brushfield Liberty, are documented in work in 1709-13 and probably near-continuously in 1726-63; from at least 1770 the Burfoot Mines were worked more continuously and on a more ambitious scale, though output declined after 1794. ¹
• Sterndale Sough, running between the river and Lees Rake/Burfoot Old Vein and Torrtops Vein, was first recorded in 1738; mining at the Boothlee Pipes, to the east of the Burfoot mines, is documented from 1670 and 1671. Surviving features include a rare drystone-lined semi-circular bouse team with a raised barrow-run leading to it. ¹
• The west end of Lees Rake runs between roughly parallel field boundaries essentially forming two belland yards, marked by an irregular line of closely spaced circular hollows and shaft mounds; a walled dew pond used for washing ore is shown on the 1848 tithe map, while its later belland yard wall is not. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Derbyshire HER: Lees Rake and Burfoot Mines, Brushfield and Taddington (MDR2149) — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record
2. (primary) Lees and Dove Rakes, Booth Lee Pipes and Sterndale Sough, Litton, Derbyshire — AncientMonuments.uk (mirroring the Historic England scheduling record)

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