Liberty

A defined lead-mining district on the Mendip Hills of Somerset, held under the customary mining law and licensing authority of a particular lord — the Mendip equivalent of Cornwall's Stannary or Derbyshire's Barmote Court system, though organised around fixed geographic 'liberties' rather than a single county-wide jurisdiction.

Historical usage

By the end of the medieval period the Mendips were organised into four liberties, or mineries — Wells, Chewton, Harptree and West (Charterhouse) — each under the authority of a Lord Royal who issued licences to mine within their liberty and to whom working miners paid tithes. St Cuthbert's, at Priddy, fell within the West liberty, historically controlled by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, distinct from the neighbouring Chewton liberty held by the Waldegrave family. Edward I granted the Prior at Charterhouse the right to work the mines there in 1283, and the Bishop of Bath's own mining rights were confirmed by royal grant in the 12th century; Witham Priory also held mining rights on the Mendips from the 13th century.

How it worked

Anyone wishing to work lead within a given liberty needed a licence from that liberty's lord, and paid a tithe on the ore raised in return — a system of customary mining law and revenue collection functionally similar to Cornwall's stannary courts or Derbyshire's barmote courts, but built around a small number of named, geographically fixed districts rather than one unified regional jurisdiction.

Why it was used

The liberty system let a small number of landowning authorities control and profit from mining across the Mendips without themselves working every mine directly, licensing independent miners to do the actual digging in exchange for a share of what they raised — much the same basic bargain struck by mineral lords everywhere in medieval and early modern English mining, adapted here to the specific geography of four defined Mendip districts.

Risks & limitations

Because each liberty had its own lord and its own boundary, a vein that happened to run across a liberty boundary could create real disputes over whose licence, and whose tithe, actually applied to it — a structural weakness shared with every fixed-boundary mineral-rights system, including the county-wide but still boundary-dependent stannary and barmote systems elsewhere in Britain.

Mines associated with this term

Included only where MineArchive's own research gives a reasonable evidential basis — not every mine where this might plausibly apply.

• Chewton Mineries — Somerset (well documented example)
  The mine's own recorded summary explicitly describes Chewton as a lead 'liberty' controlled by the Waldegrave family, distinct from the neighbouring St Cuthbert's liberty.
• Priddy (St Cuthbert's) Lead Works — Somerset (well documented example)
  The mine's own recorded history explicitly describes the site as a 'liberty' under the authority of the Bishop of Bath and Wells.

Sources

1. (primary) Priddy — BGS - Foundations of the Mendips
2. (secondary) Lead Mines — Chewton Mendip History

Record created: 22 August 2026 · Last researched: 22 August 2026