Nether Ratchwood and Rantor Lead Mines

Overview

Nether Ratchwood and Rantor, sunk in the 1740s in the Wirksworth Gulf, were held up for decades by a dispute over payments to the sough company that eventually drained them, and today preserve a rare stone ore-storage bay and a beehive-capped shaft.

History

Ratchwood and Rantor mines, adjoining one another in the Wirksworth Gulf -- a down-faulted trough of limestone capped by shale, immediately north-north-west of Wirksworth -- were sunk in the 1740s and remained active until the 1860s, referred to in early documents as Nether Ratchwood and Orchard Shafts before the names Ratchwood and Rantor became standard on Ordnance Survey mapping. Their opening followed decades of dispute: Hannage Sough, agreed in 1693 by more than 140 mine owners under Francis Gell, was driven to open the rich ore-bearing ground of the Gulf, but the area beneath Ratchwood and Orchard had not yet been discovered when the agreement was signed, and their owners used this to claim exemption from the payments due to the sough's backers -- a claim that appears unfounded, since no significant production came from the mines until Hannage Sough became operational in 1697. A further dispute in 1701-02 saw the sough deliberately blocked by its own operating company over lost payments, before agreements were reached with the mines' owners; driving resumed in 1725-26 and finally reached Nether Ratchwood in 1732-33, after which Nether Ratchwood and the adjoining Orchard (Rantor) mine were sunk, probably in the 1740s. By the 1770s Hannage Sough had been rendered ineffective by the arrival of the rival Cromford Sough's Rantor branch, and a sub-branch agreed in 1775 extended drainage through to Nether Ratchwood at the joint expense of four partnerships. A miner's road was laid out from Nether Ratchwood down to Wirksworth in 1804, and a further drainage level was driven north from Meerbrook Sough along Captain's Vein from 1862, reaching Nether Ratchwood shaft by May 1867 -- after which all substantial activity in the Gulf took place there. The mines are shown as 'disused' or 'old' on the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map of 1880, and little further mining took place anywhere in the district after the 1880s as competition from other orefields set in. Surviving features include, at Ratchwood, several ruined buildings (among them a mine office and reckoning house), a rare 10-metre stone-walled ore storage bay, capped shafts, a gin circle and fanned-out tips of mine spoil and ore-dressing waste; and at Rantor, within a smaller triangular walled enclosure, a ruined miner's coe, two shafts (one with a rare surviving stone beehive capping) and further spoil tips. Between the two sites lies a well-preserved, drystone-lined shaft, now capped with concrete sleepers.

Geology

Lead-bearing ground of the Wirksworth Gulf, a down-faulted graben of Cawdor, Matlock and Hoptonwood limestones capped by Eden Shales, worked once Hannage Sough and later the Cromford Sough's Rantor branch had lowered the water table.

Workings

Two adjoining nucleated lead mines with associated ore works, drained in turn by Hannage Sough, the Cromford Sough's Rantor branch, and finally an 1860s extension from Meerbrook Sough.

Closure

Shown as 'disused' or 'old' on the 1880 Ordnance Survey 25-inch map; small-scale reworking of the spoil heaps for gangue minerals may have continued into the 20th century.

What remains

Protected as a Scheduled Monument; the surface remains are well preserved, with rare surviving features including the stone ore storage bay and the beehive-capped shaft.

Ruined buildings including a mine office and reckoning house, a stone ore storage bay, capped shafts, a gin circle, spoil tips, a ruined coe, and a drystone-lined shaft between the two mines all survive.

Related mines

• Gang Mine — Hannage Sough, which opened Ratchwood and Rantor to working, was driven by the Committee of the Wirksworth Lead Miners -- also known as the Dovegang Company, after the neighbouring Dovegang/Gang Mine.
• Twentylands Mine — Both lie in the southern Wirksworth Gulf and were caught up in the same early-18th-century Hannage Sough compositional dispute; both are shown disused on the 1880 OS map.

Nearby mines

• Twentylands Mine — 0.4 km SE
• Meerbrook Sough Mine — 0.6 km SE
• Bage Mine — 0.7 km E
• Gang Mine — 0.9 km N
• Hopton Wood Quarries and Middleton Mine — 1.1 km NW

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.

• Nether Ratchwood and Rantor (referred to as Nether Ratchwood and Orchard Shafts in earlier documents) were sunk in the 1740s and remained active until the 1860s; Hannage Sough, agreed in 1693 by over 140 mine owners under Francis Gell, opened the ground, though a compositional dispute over payments delayed the mines' owners' recognition of the sough's role until production began in earnest in 1697. ¹
• An 1862 drainage level from Meerbrook Sough along Captain's Vein reached Nether Ratchwood shaft by May 1867, after which all substantial mining activity in the Gulf took place there; the mines are shown as 'disused' or 'old' on the 1880 OS 25-inch map. ¹
• Surviving features at Ratchwood include a rare 10-metre stone-walled ore storage bay and a mine office and reckoning house; at Rantor, within a triangular walled enclosure, a ruined miner's coe and a shaft with a rare surviving beehive capping survive, along with a well-preserved drystone-lined shaft between the two sites. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Derbyshire HER: Former Nether Ratchwood and Rantor Lead Mines, Northeast of B5023, Middleton (MDR3462) — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record
2. (primary) Remains of Nether Ratchwood and Rantor lead mines, 200m west of Old Lane, Middleton, Derbyshire — AncientMonuments.uk (mirroring the Historic England scheduling record)

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