Bouse Team

A small stone-built storage bay, or a row of them, used to hold raw ore ('bouse') as it was drawn from a Derbyshire lead mine, ready for processing on the adjoining dressing floor; also written bouse teem.

Historical usage

At Gorseydale, near Bonsall, a rank of bouse teams along Bonsall Lane -- low structures, visible to around 0.4 metres, facing west -- survives as what the Derbyshire Historic Environment Record calls 'an extremely unusual survival in Derbyshire'; they held ore drawn from the mine's shafts before it was processed on the dressing floor next to them. A rare bank of three bouse teems also survives at Brightside Lead Mine, Hassop, alongside its haulage level and engine footings, and a further line of ruined, rectangular bouse teems is recorded at the Nether Ratchwood and Rantor mines near Wirksworth.

How it worked

Ore hauled to the surface, whether by windlass, whim or steam engine, was tipped directly into a bouse team's stone-walled bay rather than left in an open heap; a mine of any size built several bays side by side, sometimes as a bank of separate compartments, so that ore from different veins, shifts or grades could be kept apart before it reached the dressing floor for crushing and washing.

Why it was used

Keeping freshly drawn ore penned in a proper bay, rather than dumped loose on the ground, protected it from being trampled into the mud, mixed with waste rock, or simply carried off, and let a mine keep a clear running tally of how much ore different workings were actually producing.

Risks & limitations

A bouse team was only ever a holding point, not a processing structure in its own right, so it added nothing to a mine's output on its own; its stone walls were also a target for later stone-robbing once a mine closed, which is why intact examples -- as at Gorseydale -- are now rare survivals rather than a common sight across the orefield.

Regional variation

'Bouse team' and 'bouse teem' are both used for the same Derbyshire structure; the underlying word 'bouse' for raw, undressed ore is itself specific to the Derbyshire lead field.

Related terminology

Dressing Floor

Mines associated with this term

5 examples chosen from 20 linked records — the term page is not an index.

• Carshield Mine — Northumberland (well documented example)
  Named 3 times in this record, first in the workings: “…above the Great Limestone. Around the portal are the ore works: bouse teams, a washing floor, settling reservoirs and the dressing floors whose…”
• Hurst Mines — North Yorkshire (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s current condition: “…'shop' building, two bridges over the beck, a well-preserved set of bouse teams and a waterwheel pit — while Queens Level's dressing floors have…”
• Slitt Mine — County Durham (well documented example)
  Named twice in this record, first in the summary: “…Three Yard Limestone. Its surface remains — shafts, wheel pits, a bouse team and the reservoir that fed its waterwheel — are unusually well…”
• Beldon Lead Mine — County Durham (well documented example)
  Named twice in this record, first in the workings: “…rubble, and further ruined structures east of it are thought to be bouse teams. Attached to the south side of the circular shaft are the remains of…”
• Bentyfield Mine — Cumbria (well documented example)
  Named 4 times in this record, first in the history: “…mine entrances, pits for a water wheel that drove the crushing mill, bouse teams used to store unprocessed ore, dressing floors where ore was…”

Sources

1. (primary) Derbyshire HER: Brightside Lead Mine, Hassop (MDR4058) — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record
2. (primary) Derbyshire HER: Former Nether Ratchwood and Rantor Lead Mines, Northeast of B5023, Middleton (MDR3462) — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record
3. (primary) Derbyshire HER: Gorseydale Lead Mines, 300m north and 650m north-west of Moor Farm, Bonsall (MDR3029) — Derbyshire Historic Environment Record

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