Maypit Mine

Overview

A Peak District lead mine adjoining Magpie Mine within a single scheduled walled enclosure near Sheldon, remembered chiefly for the fatal 1833 dispute with its neighbour over the shared Great Redsoil vein, in which three Maypit miners were suffocated by smoke.

History

Maypit Mine, also recorded as Maypitt, lay immediately alongside Magpie Mine on the limestone plateau south of Sheldon, and is one of five lead mines -- Magpie, Dirty Red Soil, Great Red Soil, Maypit and Horsesteps -- together with a limekiln, protected as a single Scheduled Monument within a walled enclosure some 700 metres south of the village, at around 310 metres above sea level. Maypit and Magpie miners both worked the Great Redsoil vein, and the two sides fell into a long-running dispute over rights to it, each lighting fires underground -- burning straw and coal tar -- to smoke the other out of contested ground. In 1833 this practice killed three Maypit miners, suffocated by fumes lit from the Magpie side (see Disasters, below); twenty-four Magpie miners were tried for murder and acquitted, since it could not be established which of them lit the fatal fire, and Maypit's own men had also taken provocative action during the dispute. A contemporary survey of the disputed ground, the 1825 Wheatcroft plan, shows Maypit and Magpie's workings together.

Geology

Lead on the limestone plateau south of Sheldon, one of five workings in a single walled enclosure and a party to the 1833 fight over the Great Redsoil vein.

Workings

Worked the Great Redsoil vein in direct contention with the adjoining Magpie Mine, within the same walled enclosure now protected as a single Scheduled Monument alongside Dirty Red Soil, Great Red Soil and Horsesteps mines and a limekiln.

Closure

The closure date of Maypit itself is not known; Magpie's own closure history is much better documented.

What remains

Surface remains lie within the same protected walled enclosure as Magpie Mine, Dirty Red Soil, Great Red Soil and Horsesteps, managed together as a Scheduled Monument.

Surface remains lie within the walled enclosure shared with its neighbours.

Related mines

• Dirty Red Soil Mine — The 1833 disaster between Magpie and Maypit arose over the same Great Redsoil vein worked here.
• Great Red Soil Mine — The 1833 dispute over the Great Redsoil vein here killed three Maypit men.
• Horsesteps Mine — Shares the scheduled walled enclosure south of Sheldon.
• Magpie Mine — The two adjoining mines fought over the same Great Redsoil vein, culminating in the fatal 1833 dispute between them.

Disasters & major incidents

• Magpie Mine suffocation of three Maypitt miners
  1833 · Gas / Asphyxiation · 3 fatalities
  Three miners from the neighbouring Maypitt mine suffocated after Magpie miners lit fires underground to smoke them out during a dispute over a shared lead vein — the origin of the mine's 'Widow's Curse' story.

Recorded claims

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

• Maypit and Magpie mines both worked the Great Redsoil vein and fell into a dispute over it, each side lighting underground fires to smoke the other out of contested ground. ^1,2
• Three Maypit miners were suffocated in 1833 by smoke from a fire lit on the Magpie side of the dispute; twenty-four Magpie miners were tried for murder and acquitted. ¹
• In 1833 three miners from Maypitt Mine were suffocated by smoke from fires lit deliberately by Magpie miners; at the murder trial all 24 suspects were freed because they had been provoked and it was unclear which of them was responsible. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Magpie Mine History — Peak District Mines Historical Society
2. (primary) Magpie, Dirty Red Soil, Maypit, Horsesteps and Great Red Soil lead mines and a limekiln (List Entry 1019490) — Historic England
3. (secondary) Magpie Mine — Wikipedia

Record created: 31 August 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026