Silence Mine

Overview

A lead mine on the Hucklow Edge Old Vein at Great Hucklow, worked from 1713 to 1885, remembered for a protracted and at one point violent 18th-century dispute over its mining rights and for a deep sough driven to keep the workings clear of water.

History

Silence Mine was opened up in 1713, when Benjamin Ashton and his partners -- including Aymer Rich of Bullhouse, Yorkshire -- made an indenture with the Countess of Bellamont, who owned the manor and mineral rights, and discovered veins of lead ore at great depth on the Hucklow Edge Old Vein. The Countess died the following year, passing the manor to Charles Cokayne, Viscount Cullen, and disputes over the mining rights ran on for years; in 1738 the conflict turned violent, with 30-40 men defending the mine day and night against the sheriff's own officers over the question of possession. The dispute was not resolved until Articles of Agreement were signed in 1749, under which Cullen retained a 1/12th share of the ore while Ashton's partners kept operational control; Ashton himself had died in 1725, and the partnership continued under his remaining partners. The mine reached 328 feet through shale before meeting a 198-foot thickness of limestone, drained by a sough running some 1,700 feet south to Piece End. By the early 20th century the workings were locally known as 'Chatty's Mine'. Silence Mine closed in 1885, at a time when lead prices had fallen to a point where mining across much of the Derbyshire orefield had become unviable. Archaeological excavation of the site took place between 2008 and 2010, led by the Conservation Team under John Barnatt.

Geology

The Hucklow Edge Old Vein at Great Hucklow, worked from 1713.

Workings

Worked the Hucklow Edge Old Vein to a depth of 328 feet through shale before reaching 198 feet of limestone, drained by a sough running approximately 1,700 feet south to Piece End.

Closure

Closed in 1885 as falling lead prices made much of the Derbyshire orefield unviable. Hunter's 2015 paper gives 1884 for the closure, a year earlier.

What remains

Part of the Silence Mine Heritage Site, four hectares of scrub, woodland and grassland on Hucklow Edge managed jointly by Great Hucklow and Foolow.

The ruined foundations of the 1870s stone engine and winding house, the hollow of the shaft that collapsed in 1886, and the reworked waste mound beside it.

Recorded claims

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

• Benjamin Ashton and his partners obtained mining rights to Silence Mine from the Countess of Bellamont in 1713; after her death the following year the manor passed to Charles Cokayne, Viscount Cullen, and a dispute over the mining rights turned violent in 1738, with 30-40 men defending the mine day and night against the sheriff's own officers. ¹
• The dispute was resolved by Articles of Agreement signed in 1749, under which Viscount Cullen retained a 1/12th share of the ore while Ashton's partners kept operational control of the mine. ¹
• Silence Mine closed in 1885 as falling lead prices made much of the Derbyshire orefield unviable; archaeological excavation of the site took place between 2008 and 2010, led by the Conservation Team under John Barnatt. ^1,2
• John Hunter's 2015 paper has the Silence Mine section of the Hucklow Edge vein named in ore accounts in 1713 with significant production from 1714; the Mill Dam Mining Co. leased it in 1873, as Grindlow Mine, and put up a steam engine, finding the old eighteenth-century workings already 148 metres deep; persistent low lead prices closed the mine in 1884. ³
• On 11 February 1886 the ground round the shaft top collapsed and swallowed the winding headframe and sheds, the oval shaft, 3.5 by 2.7 metres and over 100 fathoms deep, having decayed timbers loosened by frost and thaw; the ruined foundations of the stone engine and winding house survive, and the waste mound beside the shaft hollow was reworked for spar until about the 1950s. ³
• Great Hucklow and Foolow jointly manage the Silence Mine Heritage Site, four hectares of scrub, woodland and grassland on Hucklow Edge that held the Silence and Old Grove workings, both extensively reworked for fluorspar at the surface. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Silence Mine, Great Hucklow — Peak District Mines Historical Society
2. (secondary) Notes on Silence Mine by Nellie Kirkham — Peak District Mines Historical Society (Nellie Kirkham)
3. (secondary) Old mines and new sinkholes along the Hucklow Edge vein, Derbyshire, by John Hunter (Mercian Geologist 18(4), 2015) — East Midlands Geological Society
4. (secondary) Great Hucklow (Wikipedia) — Wikipedia

Record created: 30 August 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026