Thornthwaite Mine

Overview

A lead, zinc and later barytes mine in the Thornthwaite sett between Braithwaite and Thornthwaite village in the northern Lake District, worked across seven veins from at least the 18th century until the early 1920s.

History

The Thornthwaite sett, on the hillside between Braithwaite and Thornthwaite village near Keswick, exploited seven lead- and zinc-bearing veins running mostly north-south, principally through the Ladstock, Rachel Wood, Thornthwaite and Beckstones workings. Ladstock, the oldest, was worked before the introduction of gunpowder, and by the 1780s a few men were already recorded mining lead close to the road; the wider Derwentwater district, including Thornthwaite, had been worked by the Elizabethan Company of Mines Royal in the 16th century. The Keswick Mining Company reopened and re-equipped the mine between 1848 and 1853, installing a 40-foot waterwheel to pump the workings and sinking the shaft ten fathoms. Expansion continued from 1873 under the Keswick United Silver Lead Mine Company and then the Cumberland Lead Mine Company, formally registered in 1882 to acquire the Thornthwaite setts, deepening the shaft to fifty fathoms under manager J. B. Lobb and introducing rock drills and stone breakers. Unusually for the district, the mine survived the low metal prices of the 1870s and 1880s and was worked continuously from 1900 to 1920, reaching its deepest recorded point of 85 fathoms by 1912 under Thornthwaite Mines Ltd, with around 90 men employed underground and on the surface. Ore included galena, cerussite, blende (zinc sulphide) and iron pyrites, worked chiefly for silver-bearing lead but also, alongside Force Crag and Threlkeld, for zinc. The Cumberland Lead Mine Company was dissolved around 1916, and the Mining Remediation Authority's own mine-plan record for the Rachel Wood section gives an abandonment date of 20 December 1920, matching the end of the mine's sustained early-20th-century working.

Workings

Seven principal veins worked through the Ladstock, Rachel Wood, Thornthwaite and Beckstones sections, linked underground and pumped in the 1850s by a 40-foot waterwheel; later working used rock drills, stone breakers and a turbine, whose head pipe survived into the 1970s.

Closure

The Mining Remediation Authority's mine-plan record for the Rachel Wood section is dated 20 December 1920, the best-documented closure point; some barytes recovery from the district continued into the later 20th century at neighbouring Force Crag, which remained working until 1991.

What remains

The Ladstock adit entrance and areas of early open working south of Comb Beck survive and have been photographed in recent years; the waterwheel and turbine machinery are gone, but a 1971 photograph records the turbine's head pipe still in place.

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.

• By 1912, under Thornthwaite Mines Ltd, the mine employed about 90 men underground and on the surface, with the shaft at 85 fathoms and a further deepening to 105 fathoms planned. ¹
• The Mining Remediation Authority's own mine-plan record for the Rachel Wood section carries an abandonment date of 20 December 1920. ²
• Alongside Force Crag and Threlkeld, Thornthwaite was one of the Lake District's main sources of zinc ore (blende), worked as well as its silver-bearing lead. ³

Photographs & further reading

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

Sources

1. (secondary) Old Cumbria Gazetteer: Thornthwaite Mine, Thornthwaite — Old Cumbria Gazetteer (Cumbria County History Trust)
2. (primary) BGS Mine Plans: Thornthwaite Rachel Wood — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
3. (secondary) Braithwaite, Thornthwaite and Wythop — Industrial History of Cumbria

Record created: 31 August 2026 · Last researched: 31 August 2026