Llanfair Lead and Silver Mine

Overview

Llanfair Lead and Silver Mine, at Llanfair Clydogau in Ceredigion, was prospected from around 1760 and once reckoned the richest silver mine in the county before closing in 1862. Little now survives beyond a leat.

History

The lead and silver deposit at Llanfair Clydogau was prospected and exploited from around 1760, and by the time Samuel Rush Meyrick published his 'History and Antiquities of the County of Cardigan' in 1808, the mine was noted as the richest silver mine in the county. A later account from 1857 recorded that the mine had by then been run successfully for fifty years, before it finally closed in 1862. A photograph of the site's surviving remains was taken in November 1992 by Robert Protheroe Jones, curator of industrial archaeology at what is now Amgueddfa Cymru -- National Museum Wales, and is held in the museum's own collections. Today, little survives of the mine beyond a leat: traces of shafts and waste tips lie beside the Nant Clydogau, and mine buildings noted in a 1979 survey had by then been converted to agricultural use. A leat and pond marked on the parish tithe map may be preserved in the field's hedgelines and a marshy hollow nearby, and a separately recorded leat running above the site is thought to relate to Llanfair's own workings.

What remains

Little remains beyond a leat; traces of shafts and waste tips survive beside the Nant Clydogau, and former mine buildings, noted in a 1979 survey, had by then been converted to agricultural use.

A leat, traces of shafts and tips, and former mine buildings (converted to agricultural use).

Recorded claims

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

• Samuel Rush Meyrick's 1808 'History and Antiquities of the County of Cardigan' noted the mine as the richest silver mine in the county; a later account from 1857 recorded the mine as having been run successfully for fifty years before it closed in 1862. ¹
• The mine's surviving remains were photographed in November 1992 by Robert Protheroe Jones, curator of industrial archaeology at what is now Amgueddfa Cymru -- National Museum Wales; the resulting negative is held in the museum's own collections. ²
• Samuel Lewis's 'A Topographical Dictionary of Wales' (1833) recorded the mine, then the property of Lord Carrington, as producing around 25 tons of lead ore a year, each ton containing 75 to 80 ounces of pure silver, worked to a depth of about 250 feet -- and noted a tradition, unsupported by evidence, that the site had been worked in Roman times. ³
• The former Count House and Smithy complex survives within the village as a house now called 'Silver Mines Cottage'; the mine's leat system was fed by a reservoir known as Llyn-y-Gwaith. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Llanfair Lead & Silver Mine (NPRN 33882) — Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
2. (secondary) Llanfair lead-silver mine, negative — Amgueddfa Cymru -- National Museum Wales
3. (primary) Llanfair Clydogau lead/silver mine (PRN 8231) — Heneb Historic Environment Record (Dyfed Archaeological Trust)

Record created: 1 September 2026 · Last researched: 1 September 2026