Northern Dale Lead Mines

Overview

Northern Dale's underground workings, at Old Ash Mine and the adjoining Lords and Ladies Mine, are rare surviving examples of demonstrably early lead mining -- with fire-setting scars from burning coal underground and 'woodpecker' pickwork -- drained by Tearsall Sough, the second-oldest sough in Derbyshire, dug in 1635.

History

Northern Dale, an area of multi-period lead mining south-east of Wensley, holds some of the earliest and most distinctive mining features anywhere in the Derbyshire orefield alongside well-preserved examples of once-typical ones. In its southern protected area, a shaft with an associated gin circle feeds a narrow, partly stone-lined water channel running downhill between further shafts to two well-preserved rectangular stone-lined buddles, one still retaining its incoming water channel in situ -- the whole layout evidently designed to make the most economical possible use of a limited water supply. A large, artificial, truncated-conical hillock nearby, standing to 2.5 metres, is thought to be an infilled tailings dam built to keep fine ore-washing waste from polluting local water sources. The much larger northern protected area holds intensive lead workings of varied form and date, earlier features frequently cut through by later ones -- opencuts overlain by shaft mounds, small early workings cut by larger shafts -- illustrating the progression of mining technique over centuries. It includes the Dale Field Engine Shaft, where documentary records place a Newcomen engine, an early form of steam engine, in 1744. Old Ash Mine's entrance leads into extensive pipe workings documented from at least 1653 that may be Roman or medieval in origin; underground at Old Ash Mine and the adjoining Lords and Ladies Mine survive rare examples of demonstrably early working, with evidence of fire-setting using coal and distinctive 'woodpecker' pickwork, alongside fine packs of waste rock, sledways, water channels and ventilation walls. Lords and Ladies Mine itself works a narrow, flat vein running through reef limestone -- a unique occurrence in the Derbyshire orefield -- while Tearsall Sough, dating to 1635, is the second-oldest sough in Derbyshire after Vermuyden's, feeding a buddling complex from the nearby Tearsall pipe caverns. Mines at Northern Dale and Tearsall are separately documented as active in the 1530s and 1540s respectively, and the site as a whole preserves extensive surface evidence for the relative age of mining alongside medieval strip lynchets and ridge-and-furrow earthworks. Northern Dale was scheduled as a nationally important monument in February 1998, its importance further enhanced by the proximity of the separately scheduled Mount Pleasant lead mines immediately to the west, the two together considered complementary elements of an extensive mining landscape.

Geology

A multi-period lead-mining area with Old Ash Mine's pipe workings, Lords and Ladies Mine's unique flat vein in reef limestone, and Tearsall Sough (1635), the second-oldest sough in Derbyshire.

Workings

A gin-circle shaft feeding stone-lined buddles via a water channel, a tailings-dam hillock, the Dale Field Engine Shaft (Newcomen engine, 1744), and underground pipe/flat workings with fire-setting and pickwork evidence at Old Ash and Lords and Ladies Mines.

Closure

No reliable closure date has yet been located for the site as a whole.

What remains

Scheduled as a nationally important monument since February 1998; considered complementary to the neighbouring, separately scheduled Mount Pleasant lead mines.

Gin circles, stone-lined buddles, a tailings-dam hillock, shaft mounds, opencuts, the Dale Field Engine Shaft, and underground fire-setting and pickwork evidence at Old Ash and Lords and Ladies Mines survive.

Related mines

• Mount Pleasant Lead Mines — Named directly in this record's own scheduling text as an immediately adjacent, separately scheduled and complementary lead-mining site.

Nearby mines

• Mount Pleasant Lead Mines — 0.6 km NW
• Slack, Mount Pleasant and Barmasters Grove Lead Mines — 1.4 km SW
• Millclose Mine — 1.7 km NW
• Beans and Bacon Mine — 1.8 km SW
• Gorseydale Lead Mines — 1.9 km SW

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.

• Old Ash Mine entrance in Northern Dale leads into extensive pipe workings which date to at least 1653 and could be Roman or Medieval in origin; Tearsall sough is the second oldest in Derbyshire (behind Vermuyden's sough), dating to 1635, and the area includes Dale Field Engine shaft which had a Newcomen engine in 1744. ¹
• The underground workings at Old Ash Mine and the adjacent Lords and Ladies Mine are particularly important as rare examples of demonstrably early workings with evidence for firesetting with coal and 'woodpecker' pickwork, along with fine packs of deads, sledways, water channels and ventilation walls. ¹
• The Lords and Ladies mine includes narrow workings along a flat vein in reef limestone, demonstrating technological responses to problems of local geology; the monument's importance is further enhanced by the proximity of the Mount Pleasant lead mines to the west, the two considered complementary elements of an extensive mining landscape. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Derbyshire HER: Northern Dale Lead Mines, Northern Dale, South Darley (MDR3888) — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record
2. (primary) Northern Dale lead mines, South Darley, Derbyshire — AncientMonuments.uk (mirroring the Historic England scheduling record)

Record created: 17 September 2026 · Last researched: 17 September 2026