Oxlow Rake Lead Mines

Overview

Oxlow Rake, near Peak Forest, was in production by 1709 when 'John Bradley's Grove on Oxlow' is first recorded, and preserves the remains of a horizontal winding engine alongside two named constituent workings, Old Moor Mine and Clear The Way Mine.

History

Oxlow Rake runs north-east to south-west across ground sloping to the south-west, following lead-bearing veins that cut across the Bee Low Limestones and outcrop west of the rake and its associated Old Moor Mine. Workings here are documented from at least 1709, when it was recorded that 'John Bradley's Grove on Oxlow was in production'; a branch known as Daisy or Deasy Rake was separately recorded on the Castleton enclosure map of 1691, suggesting lead working in the area began even earlier. Both Oxlow and the neighbouring Clear the Way Mine were active between 1700 and 1900, and the workings appear on plans from 1853 and the Ordnance Survey map of 1880. The mines were worked, as across the Derbyshire orefield, under the jurisdiction of the Barmote Courts, with individual groups of miners or small companies each working relatively short lengths of the vein. Surviving remains include belland yard walls, ruined coes, open cuts, a bouse team, water channels, washing floors, leats, a buddling dam, a crushing floor, a gin circle and the remains of a horizontal winding engine. Towards the eastern end, Old Moor Mine preserves a belland yard wall surrounding a crushing floor, a gin circle and several shafts including the main engine shaft -- shaft mounds whose form, despite a long working history, points to a persistently low level of mining technology. Clear the Way Mine, centred nearby, forms a further named concentration of activity along the same rake.

Geology

Lead-bearing veins crossing the Bee Low Limestones, worked as a linear rake with associated Old Moor and Clear the Way mines.

Workings

A linear rake with belland yard walls, coes, a bouse team, a buddling dam, a crushing floor, a gin circle and a horizontal winding engine, including the named workings Old Moor Mine and Clear the Way Mine.

Closure

No reliable closure date has yet been located; the workings appear on an 1853 plan and the 1880 Ordnance Survey map.

What remains

Scheduled as a nationally important monument; surface remains survive as earthworks along the line of the rake.

Belland yard walls, ruined coes, a bouse team, a buddling dam, a crushing floor, a gin circle and the remains of a horizontal winding engine survive, along with named concentrations at Old Moor and Clear the Way mines.

Related mines

• Slitherstone and Linacre Lead Mines — Both named by the Derbyshire HER as part of the same wider group of parallel rakes in the Castleton/Peak Forest area, alongside New Rake, Faucet Rake and Watts Grove Vein.

Nearby mines

• Hill's Venture Lead Mine — 1.1 km SW
• Hazard Mine — 1.2 km NE
• Slitherstone and Linacre Lead Mines — 1.3 km N
• Eldon Hill Crushing Circle — 1.4 km NW
• New Rake Lead Mines — 1.9 km NE

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.

• Workings on Oxlow Rake are documented from at least 1709, when 'John Bradley's Grove on Oxlow was in production'; a branch known as Daisy or Deasy Rake was recorded on the Castleton enclosure map of 1691, suggesting lead working began even earlier. ¹
• Both Oxlow and the neighbouring Clear the Way Mine were active between 1700 and 1900, and the workings appear on plans from 1853 and the Ordnance Survey map of 1880. ¹
• The rake preserves belland yard walls, ruined coes, open cuts, a bouse team, washing floors, a buddling dam, a crushing floor, a gin circle and the remains of a horizontal winding engine, with Old Moor Mine at its eastern end surrounded by its own belland yard wall. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Derbyshire HER: Oxlow Rake, Castleton and Peak Forest (MDR2283) — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record
2. (primary) Oxlow Rake lead mines, Peak Forest, Derbyshire — AncientMonuments.uk (mirroring the Historic England scheduling record)

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