Peak District
The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorla ...
in producing predominantly copper rather than lead and zinc. The most important, Deep Ecton mine, has been mined since the Bronze Age, and in the 18th century was a major producer of copper, and the deepest mine in Britain. Mining below river level ceased in the 1850s, and all production stopped in the 1890s. The mine is now a significant educational resource, managed by the Ecton Mine Educational Trust, and with teaching provided by the Ecton Hill Field Studies Association.
Location and geology
Ecton Hill is a historic mining area at Ecton, formerly a group of important copper-producing mines in central England. It is now a
scheduled monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
. It is located in the
Staffordshire Moorlands
Staffordshire Moorlands is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. Its council, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, is based in Leek and is located between the city of Stoke-on-Trent and the Peak District National Park. The ...
area, where the valley of the
River Manifold
The River Manifold is a river in Staffordshire, England. It is a tributary of the River Dove (which also flows through the Peak District, forming the boundary between Derbyshire and Staffordshire).
The Manifold rises at Flash Head just sout ...
cuts through
Lower Carboniferous
Lower may refer to:
*Lower (surname)
*Lower Township, New Jersey
*Lower Receiver (firearms)
*Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England
See also
*Nizhny
Nizhny (russian: Ни́жний; masculine), Nizhnyaya (; feminine), or Nizhneye (russian: Ни́ ...
limestones which have been subjected to folding and faulting during the
Hercynian
The Variscan or Hercynian orogeny was a geologic mountain-building event caused by Late Paleozoic continental collision between Euramerica (Laurussia) and Gondwana to form the supercontinent of Pangaea.
Nomenclature
The name ''Variscan'', come ...
and
Alpine
Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to:
Places Europe
* Alps, a European mountain range
** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range
Australia
* Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village
* Alpine National Pa ...
orogenies. There is locally intense hydrothermal copper–lead–zinc mineralisation, unusual for the region in its inclusion of substantial quantities of copper.
History
From
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
times, the copper deposits on Ecton Hill were worked for over 3500 years, ceasing in 1891. During this time fortunes were made and lost. In the 18th century the Duke of Devonshire made a profit of over £300,000, said to have financed the building of the magnificent Crescent in
Buxton
Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and the Ecton mine itself is an underground SSSI. The rock exposures at nearby Ape's Tor provide opportunities for the study of geological structures, which can then be seen again underground, for example in Salt's Level.
The most important period of mining at Ecton was in the second half of the 18th Century, with the richest working at Deep Ecton, which was at the time the deepest mine in Britain. To work the near-vertical ore bodies, the miners used then state-of-the-art technology paid for from the profits made for the mine's owner, the Duke of Devonshire. The 1788
Boulton and Watt
Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the Eng ...
engine house on the ridgetop is believed to be the earliest surviving example in the world used for winding out ore.
In the 1660s-70s the mines were among the first in Britain to use gunpowder for extraction. The scale and depth of mining increased markedly in the 18th and 19th Centuries. There were two deep mines, Deep Ecton and Clayton, where different solutions to bringing up ore and pumping out water were employed over 150 years. Engines included those powered by horses, water and steam. At Clayton Mine from 1814 onwards there were underground steam engines that utilised the old pipe-workings above that ran to the ridgetop from the heart of the hill to take the smoke to surface rather than suffocating the miners.
From the 1790s onwards, when the main pipe failed at depth, Deep Ecton Mine was a shadow of its former self, with miners working in previous generations' leavings. Much of the story at Clayton Mine is harder to reconstruct in any detail. It is known that it was worked to a similar great depth, but this happened in the 1805-25 period when the Dukes of Devonshire took on mines across the hill and worked them together in an attempt to revitalise mining at Ecton. While it probably made a significant amount of money for a few years, eventually all again failed and the venture was abandoned. Perhaps all the previous profit was lost as subsequent unproductive workings were developed.
Deep Ecton was allowed to flood to river level in the 1850s, and all mining in Ecton Hill ceased in the 1890s.
In the 1990s archaeologists discovered that copper mining at Ecton actually started in the Bronze Age about 3500 years ago: this is one of only two sites in England where this has been demonstrated.
Ecton Mine Educational Trust
Ecton Hill is now the basis for a significant educational resource. The Ecton Mine Educational Trust (EMET) has been formed with the principal aim of promoting education in applied geology, chemistry, mining and mineral extraction. Thanks to the generosity of Mrs Elizabeth Cox, the Trust is the owner of the relevant mineral rights of, and the Study Centre at, the 18th Century Ecton Copper Mines in the
Peak District National Park Peak or The Peak may refer to:
Basic meanings Geology
* Mountain peak
** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics
* Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion
* Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)-d ...
.
The Trust provides the facilities for school and university teachers to bring students for one-day or two-day field courses that introduce young people to subjects relevant to the minerals industry.
Much of the educational work is carried out by a second organisation, the Ecton Hill Field Studies Association (EHFSA), which organises and coordinates the work of many experienced, qualified volunteers to provide courses at school and university levels.
EMET owns and manages the G A Cox Study Centre which can be used as a meeting place, a lecture room (with a capacity of 25) or a laboratory (with all the equipment required for the EHFSA courses and more). There is also a changing room containing the necessary safety equipment for underground visits. An outdoor meeting place/lecture area provides a pleasant alternative for fine weather activities. There is also access to Salt's Level for underground studies of the geology and the mining history. Other parts of the workings are also accessible but owing to insurance restrictions most visitors will only be able to visit Salt's Level. It is possible for specialist interest groups to explore the mine in greater detail (and depth) but only under strict conditions.
EHFSA has for many years run tutored one-day courses to support A-level science courses in Chemistry and Geology. Recent developments include one-day courses for GCSE students, Primary schools and general interest groups such as geological societies and U3A members. Both Chemistry and Geology courses focus on the application of these sciences to some or all of the following:
*the unusual copper mineralisation at Ecton, and the geological setting
*the mining of these ores
*the collection and identification of the minerals present
*the separation of the economic minerals
*the extraction of copper from these.
Courses can be tailored to the needs of different A level specifications on request, including fieldwork requirements for Geology and practical aspects of engineering geology. All A level courses provide the opportunity for an underground visit into Salt's Level to see the mineralisation, and understand how the miners were able to make the mine such a profitable enterprise.
The Trust's facilities are available to support the Schools Affiliate Scheme of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. This scheme aims to excite young people to the importance of careers in its fields, and in which there are 320 schools.
EMET is a consortium participant in the European Union Horizon 2020 project UNEXMIN to develop an autonomous submersible for exploration of flooded mines, and the Deep Ecton Mine will be the fourth pilot site in which the capabilities of this robot will be demonstrated.
Ecton Mine Educational Trust is a company Limited by Guarantee, registered in England, No. 555044, and a registered charity, no. 1112892.Charity Commission entry for EMET. http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithoutPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1112892&SubsidiaryNumber=0