Open questions: Shropshire

Where sources disagree, MineArchive keeps both accounts rather than picking one; where a fact could not be settled, the record says so. 22 such claims on 11 records. All regions.

Bog Mine

• The first reference to the Bog Mine is in 1729, when it was operated by Matthew Dore and partners. (disputed)
• The first reference to the Bog Mine is in 1739. (disputed)
• The aerial ropeway to Minsterley is suggested to have operated from 1916, according to a 2014 investigation of its terminus. (disputed)
• A survey of the south Shropshire metal mines gives abandonment dates of 1913 and 1925. (disputed)

Catherton Colliery

• The official 1880 return names J. Patchett and Co. as the owner of Catherton Colliery, while the scheduling text records Summers and Garbett as operating it until 1889. Nothing located reconciles the two. (disputed)

Cothercott Mine

• The mill used six pairs of burr stones to grind the barytes. (disputed)
• The ore was ground at the mill using ten pairs of French burr stones, some of which were later excavated and used to mount interpretation panels. (disputed)
• The mine and mill were briefly reopened in 1934 and 1935. (uncertain)

Dark Lane Colliery

• The cage fell 290 feet to the bottom of the shaft. (disputed)
• The cage fell some 900 feet to the pit bottom. (disputed)

East Roman Gravels Mine

• A Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan (OM4262) titled 'Roman Gravels East, Black, Gin, California, Cornish, Lawrence's Wood', in lead and zinc ores, gives an abandonment date of 26 April 1901, whereas I.A.Recordings has the mines finally closing with the company's liquidation in February 1883. (disputed)
• The Shropshire HER records the mine as worked from the mid 18th century, and cites a 1994 Shropshire Caving and Mining Club survey giving its working life as 1790 to 1930, against the 1883 closure in I.A.Recordings. (disputed)
• Brook (1977), cited by the Shropshire HER, has the mine's best feature as an engine house built about 1850 by the Batholes Company for a 30-inch Cornish engine and modified by Arthur Waters in 1871; I.A.Recordings has a new 30-inch engine installed in 1870. (disputed)

Gatten Mine

• The mine was abandoned in 1945, apparently because of its remote location rather than failing grades or widths of ore. (disputed)
• The mine was abandoned in 1948; the Mining Remediation Authority's abandonment plan is dated 30 November 1948. (disputed)

Ifton Colliery

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Ifton' (catalogue NW567, Powell, dated 1965); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain)

Jackfield Colliery

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Jackfield' (catalogue 1025, Rowhurst, New Mine, Bungilow, Winghay, Burnwood, Little Mine Ironstone, dated 1879); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain)

Roman Gravels Mine

• The Roman evidence is disputed: the Victoria County History (1908) judged the tools could as well be medieval and the pottery and coins proof of nothing definite, a 1973 Ordnance Survey investigator found no evidence to substantiate a Roman date, and Newman (2016) considered the lead pig unlikely to be genuine. (disputed)
• Other closure dates are recorded: the Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan OM3351 gives 1 August 1892, the 1999 Wardell Armstrong investigation 1893, Heathcote (1979) abandonments in 1912 and 1925, and the Shropshire Caving and Mining Club (1994) working up to 1929. (disputed)

Snailbeach Mine

• Snailbeach is reputed to have yielded the greatest volume of lead per acre of any mine in Europe. (uncertain)

Springwell Pit, Dawley

• The men fell to the mine 150 yards below the surface. (disputed)
• Miners were hoisted 150 feet to the surface. (disputed)