Seathwaite Wad Mine

Overview

The world's first significant source of commercial graphite, mined on a remote Borrowdale fellside from at least the 16th century — a deposit so pure, and so valuable, that Parliament made stealing it a felony.

History

Graphite was being extracted at Seathwaite by the early 16th century at the latest, with the earliest firm documentary references dating from 1540-41 and indirect evidence pushing plausible working back into the 15th century. Known locally as 'wad' — also called plumbago or black lead — it had long been used by Cumberland farmers to mark sheep before its real value was recognised: uniquely pure, solid graphite that could be sawn into sticks, it made vastly better crucible linings and, from the 1560s, the first true pencils. Its earliest major industrial use, though, was military — moulding smoother, more accurate cannonballs — reportedly giving the Royal Navy a real edge in gunnery over less well-supplied rivals. Wad's value rose so high — some thirty shillings a pound by 1779 — that theft and armed raids on the mine became a serious problem, leading Parliament to pass an act in 1752 making the theft of graphite a felony, and mine owners to employ armed guards and strip-search departing workers. The Keswick pencil industry, which grew into the world-famous Derwent Pencils firm, was built directly on Seathwaite's graphite. Production expanded through the 18th and early 19th centuries, including a purpose-built grinding mill from 1887 to process lower-grade material recovered from Robson's Level, but the deposit was worked out and the mine finally abandoned in 1891.

Geology

The graphite occurs as an unusual and highly localised association with volcanic rock, in veins and nodules linked to chlorite within the Borrowdale Volcanic Group — a formation process not clearly duplicated anywhere else in Britain, which is why the deposit's purity was never matched elsewhere in the country.

Workings

Workings followed the graphite pockets and veins as shallow levels driven into the fellside, of which Gilbert's Level — driven 1798-1800 to drain the main body of the mine — is the best known, with the remains of a guard lodge still visible at its entrance. The site also includes a grinding mill, a sawpit, guardhouses, spoil heaps and trackways.

What remains

The site is owned by the National Trust and is openly accessible on foot from Seathwaite farm, with several of the old workings still open (and marked with hazard warnings for deep excavations); a 2021 exploration report described roughly 75 yards of straightforward walk-in passage from the main entrance, with further, more technical sections reachable only with rope and caving experience.

The grinding mill, guardhouses, spoil heaps, trackways and several open adits survive as a scheduled monument, alongside boundary stones marking the site's historic extent.

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.

Recorded claims

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

• A December 2021 exploration report described roughly 75 yards of easy walk-in passage from the main entrance, small crawl-throughs, and further roped sections reaching worked-out graphite veins, with some passages avoided due to steep drops. ¹

Photographs & further reading

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

Images

Sources

1. (observational) Mines 10 - Borrowdale Graphite (Cumbria, Dec, 2021) — 28DaysLater
2. (primary) Borrowdale graphite mines and associated grinding mill, 660m north west of Seathwaite, Borrowdale — Historic England
3. (secondary) Seathwaite Graphite Mine, Cumbria — GeoGuide (Scottish Geology Trust)
4. (secondary) The Seathwaite Plumbago Mine Background Above Derwent — Cumbria County History Trust

Record created: 21 August 2026 · Last researched: 21 August 2026