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.

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

No reliable specific closure date for Maypit itself has been located, distinct from Magpie's own much better-documented closure history.

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 within the shared walled enclosure; no detail distinguishing Maypit's own specific structures from its neighbours has yet been located.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

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

Photographs & further reading

This page doesn't try to reproduce everything — these are the best original sources found for this mine.

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

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