St Thomas' Work Copper Mine

Overview

An Elizabethan opencut copper mine at the foot of the crags on the east side of the Newlands Valley, one of the workings of the Company of Mines Royal around Keswick. Two slit-like cuts were driven into the rock outcrop in the late 16th or early 17th century and have lain untouched since they were abandoned, with the ledges where the ore was dressed still beside them.

History

Copper ore was found in the Newlands Valley in the 1560s, and since there was then no one in England able to get the metal out of it the Company of Mines Royal brought over the Bavarian Daniel Hochstetter to mine and smelt it; the incomers were known locally as Germans or Dutchmen, and Hochstetter and his wife lived for a time on Derwent Isle. The company was formed in 1568 and spent heavily around Keswick, building smelt mills and a network of packhorse trails to bring in ore and charcoal, and stripping Borrowdale and other valleys of trees to make that charcoal. The richest of the mines was Goldscope, a corruption of the German Gottes Gab, God's Gift; the other Newlands workings of the period included Dalehead, Castlenook and the neighbouring Long Work and St Thomas' Work, which was started by the German miners in Elizabeth's reign. St Thomas' Work was abandoned in the late 16th or early 17th century and has not been worked since, which is why the opencuts survive as they were left. Historic England counts it among the many mines around Keswick worked by the Mines Royal Company, who in the 16th and 17th centuries were the leaders of European mining technology.

Geology

The mine followed a copper vein in the crags on the eastern side of the Newlands Valley, one of the copper veins of the fells around Keswick that the Mines Royal worked from the 1560s.

Workings

The mine was worked as an opencut: rather than sinking a shaft, the miners took the ore directly from the surface along the line of the vein, leaving a gully or ravine cut into the ground. Two exceptionally fine slit-like opencuts were driven into a rock outcrop here, and they survive as they were on the day the work stopped. Immediately north is the dressing area, a set of small ledges where the ore was broken and sorted by hand into grades fit for further processing; some of the ledges still carry dressing waste, and one has a stone revetment wall along its downslope side.

Closure

The workings were abandoned in the late 16th or early 17th century and have never been reworked. Why the work stopped here is not known, though the Mines Royal's Lakeland operations generally ran down in the first half of the 17th century.

What remains

The opencuts and the dressing area are a scheduled monument, with a two-metre boundary around the archaeological features included for their support and preservation. Because the site has lain unworked since it was abandoned, it is a rare example of a late 16th or early 17th century copper mine surviving in the state it was left in, and is valued for what it can show about German influence on British mining technique.

Two slit-like opencuts driven into a rock outcrop; north of them a dressing area of small ledges, some with dressing waste, one revetted with a stone wall on its downslope side.

Redevelopment

None. The site is open fellside at the foot of the crags.

Related mines

• Goldscope Mine — Both were worked by the Company of Mines Royal in the Newlands Valley from the 1560s, Goldscope being the richest of the company's mines there.
• Long Work Copper Mine — Named together in the Cumbria Industrial History Society's account as neighbouring Newlands Valley copper mines worked by the Mines Royal in the same period.

Nearby mines

• Castlenook Mine — 0.3 km NW
• Long Work Copper Mine — 0.5 km SW
• Dale Head Copper Mine — 1.2 km SW
• Rigg Head Quarry — 1.6 km SE
• Quay Foot Quarry — 2.2 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.

• The monument is a late 16th or early 17th century Elizabethan opencut copper mine with an adjacent ore dressing area, at the foot of crags on the eastern side of the Newlands Valley. ¹
• Two exceptionally fine slit-like opencuts were driven into a rock outcrop and survive as they were when abandoned, with a dressing area of small ledges to the north, some carrying dressing waste and one revetted with a stone wall. ¹
• St Thomas' Work is considered to be one of the many mines in the Keswick area worked by the Mines Royal Company. ¹
• St Thomas' Work was among the Newlands Valley copper mines worked in this period, with Dalehead, Castlenook and the nearby Long Work, and was started by the German miners in Elizabethan times. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) St Thomas' Work Elizabethan copper mine 320m north west of Grey Buttress, Above Derwent (List entry 1019940) — Historic England
2. (secondary) Copper | Industrial History of Cumbria — Cumbria Industrial History Society
3. (secondary) The Company of Mines Royal - Background Above Derwent — Cumbria County History Trust

Record created: 22 September 2026 · Last researched: 22 September 2026