Watergrove Mine

Overview

A lead mine south of Foolow in the Peak District, worked continuously from the 1740s to 1872 and notable for two successive steam engines: a Newcomen atmospheric engine of 1794-95, since archaeologically excavated, and a larger replacement installed in 1836-46 by the engineer William Wyatt, who later built the ill-fated pumping engine at High Rake Mine.

History

A venture to drive a drainage sough at Watergrove was underway by 1746, when eight investors -- five 'gentlemen' from Eyam, Sheffield, Edensor and Leam, and three tradesmen from Grindleford Bridge -- funded the work. In April 1748 the mine's proprietors were named in an agreement extending their mining rights into enclosed freehold land at Foolow: William Soresby of Chesterfield (the major shareholder), the attorney John Redfearne of Sheffield, the Sheffield merchant Richard Dalton, the carpenter William Shipstone and the local miner Reginald Turner. Shares in the mine changed hands repeatedly over the following decades -- Soresby sold portions to William Doughty, Salmon Ashton and Edward Maye between 1746 and 1748 alone, while his grandson remained a joint owner into the 1760s. By 1763 the related Eyam Dale Sough was held by an even wider syndicate of investors grouped into four named 'collections'. The mine's defining feature was steam power: a Newcomen atmospheric engine was erected in an engine house built in 1794-95, later the subject of a dedicated archaeological excavation and history by the Peak District Mines Historical Society. By the 1830s this had been superseded: in 1836 the company purchased a new engine from Fairbairn's, with William and Robert Wyatt paid for team-work carrying timber, stone, lime and boilers, J.H. Barrow of the Staveley Iron Works supplying castings, and the Duke of Devonshire's own estate renting out a mason's crane for the works. Cottages for the resident engineer and an office for the agent were ordered built in June 1837, alongside a new blacksmith's shop, and by the second quarter of that year the boilers were being fitted and the chimney lined with fire brick quarried on Eyam Moor. The engineer overseeing this installation, William Wyatt, went on to design the far larger and ultimately unsuccessful pumping engine built at High Rake Mine in the early 1840s; Wyatt died in 1858. Watergrove continued in operation for over a decade more, its final Annual General Meeting held in February 1872, with shareholders including the Eyam Mining Company, Thomas Eyre of Castleton, Mrs Louisa Jane Greaves of Matlock, Robert Hall of Manchester, Archibald Macfarlane of Ireland, S.J.A. Shuttleworth of Hathersage Hall and John Sampson.

Workings

Drained by the Eyam Dale Sough and worked via an engine shaft recorded at 25 and later 35 fathoms deep during pumping trials, pumped in turn by a 1794-95 Newcomen atmospheric engine and, from 1836-37, a larger replacement engine supplied by Fairbairn's with castings from the Staveley Iron Works.

Closure

Wound up following its final Annual General Meeting in February 1872.

What remains

The site of the 1794-95 Newcomen engine house has been archaeologically excavated by the Peak District Mines Historical Society, recovering the boiler plinth, flue and ash pit structures in detail.

Excavated remains of the 1794-95 engine house, including its boiler plinth, flue and ash pit.

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.

• In April 1748 the Watergrove proprietors were named in an agreement extending their mining rights into enclosed freehold land at Foolow: William Soresby of Chesterfield (the major shareholder), John Redfearne, Richard Dalton, William Shipstone and Reginald Turner. ¹
• A Newcomen atmospheric engine was erected in an engine house built in 1794-95, later the subject of a dedicated archaeological excavation and history by the Peak District Mines Historical Society. ¹
• In 1836 the company purchased a new engine from Fairbairn's, with castings supplied by J.H. Barrow of the Staveley Iron Works; the engineer overseeing its installation, William Wyatt, later designed the pumping engine built at High Rake Mine in the early 1840s, and died in 1858. ¹
• Watergrove Mine's final Annual General Meeting was held in February 1872, with named shareholders including the Eyam Mining Company, Thomas Eyre of Castleton, Mrs Louisa Jane Greaves of Matlock and S.J.A. Shuttleworth of Hathersage Hall. ¹
• Watergrove Mine lay to the south of the village of Foolow in the Derbyshire Peak District. ²

Photographs & further reading

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

Sources

1. (primary) Watergrove Mine, Foolow, Derbyshire: Excavating a 1794-95 Newcomen Engine House and a History of the Mine (Appendices) — Peak District Mines Historical Society (John Barnatt, with Dave Williams)
2. (secondary) Foolow — Wikipedia

Record created: 30 August 2026 · Last researched: 31 August 2026