Twentylands Mine

Overview

Twentylands Mine, west of Old Lane, Wirksworth, was already working by 1701 and lay at the heart of a decades-long dispute between its owners and the company behind Hannage Sough, the drainage level that made deep mining in the Wirksworth Gulf possible.

History

Twentylands Mine, whose less conspicuous remains lie west of Old Lane in Wirksworth, was one of several mines in the southern section of the Wirksworth Gulf -- along with Captains, Seven Lands, Orchard and Ratchwood mines -- caught up in a long-running compositional dispute with the Committee of the Wirksworth Lead Miners (the Dovegang Company), which had driven Hannage Sough from 1693 to drain the Gulf's rich but previously unreached ore ground. In January 1701 and again in November 1702 the Dovegang Company blocked Hannage Sough over lost payments, claiming several mines -- Twentylands among them -- were not being worked despite benefiting from the sough's drainage. Twentylands and Captains mines are not recorded in the Wirksworth Barmaster's book as it stood in March 1698, but documentary evidence shows both were already in existence by 30 June 1701, making this the earliest firm date for the mine's working. Twentylands lay to the south-south-west of the neighbouring Nether Ratchwood and Rantor mines, which were not sunk until the 1740s, after Hannage Sough finally reached that ground in 1732-33. Like its neighbours, Twentylands is shown as disused on the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map of 1880, by which time competition from other British and overseas orefields had brought most small-scale mining in the district to a halt.

Geology

Lead-bearing ground in the southern Wirksworth Gulf, reached by Hannage Sough's drainage.

Workings

A mine whose deep working depended on Hannage Sough's drainage, at the centre of an early-18th-century dispute over payments to the sough's operating company.

Closure

Shown as disused on the 1880 Ordnance Survey 25-inch map; no later working was found in the sources read.

What remains

Described by the Derbyshire HER as 'less conspicuous' compared with its better-preserved neighbours.

No detailed surface survey was found in the sources read for this pass; the HER describes the remains only as 'less conspicuous' relative to the wider Wirksworth lead-mining landscape.

Related mines

• Nether Ratchwood and Rantor Lead Mines — Both lie in the southern Wirksworth Gulf and were caught up in the same early-18th-century Hannage Sough compositional dispute; both are shown disused on the 1880 OS map.

Nearby mines

• Meerbrook Sough Mine — 0.3 km E
• Nether Ratchwood and Rantor Lead Mines — 0.4 km NW
• Bage Mine — 0.7 km NE
• Gang Mine — 1.2 km N
• Hopton Wood Quarries and Middleton Mine — 1.5 km NW

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.

• Twentylands Mine's less conspicuous remains lie west of Old Lane in Wirksworth, among the wider lead-mining landscape that once surrounded the town's northern and western sides. ¹
• Twentylands and Captains mines are not recorded in the Wirksworth Barmaster's book as it stood in March 1698, but are documented as already in existence by 30 June 1701; in January 1701 and November 1702 the Dovegang Company blocked Hannage Sough over lost compositional payments, claiming mines including Twentylands were not being worked despite the sough's drainage. ²
• Twentylands Mine is shown as disused, alongside the neighbouring Nether Ratchwood and Orchard (Rantor) mines, on the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map of 1880. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Derbyshire HER: Twentylands Mine, Wirksworth (MDR14758) — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record
2. (primary) Derbyshire HER: Former Nether Ratchwood and Rantor Lead Mines, Northeast of B5023, Middleton (MDR3462) — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record

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