mines

History Located under Brownes Folly (a small tower commissioned by Wade Browne, at the time the quarry owner, in 1848) sits a huge network of tunnels originally dug to extract the unique high quality and easily-carved Bath stone the area provides. Originally, the area was quarried at a small...

A short explore of a small mine near the Aysgarth waterfalls, operating ca. 1824 - 1877. There are two levels shown on the map below, taken from I. M. Spensley, Mines and Miners of Wensleydale (2014). Aysgarth Level started below the middle falls giving access to a vein running under a bend in...

This is a follow-on from a walk up Apedale, this time heading in the opposite direction. Starting at the top left of the map below a mineralised vein (green) runs along Cobscar then meets another vein coming over from Swaledale heading down past Preston-under-Scar to the River Ure near Wensley...

Apedale is a side valley of Wensleydale with a mineralised fault running down it. The western end has been mined at Whitaside over the watershed in Swaledale, and at the eastern end a similar vein carries on through Cobscar and down to near Wensley village. There are also excavations on some...

A mine near Lofthouse at the top end of Nidderdale, operating mostly between 1866 and 1910. The mineralised fractures here run east-west, roughly parallel to the more extensive veins at Grassington and Greenhow further south, see British Mining 60 for the details. As usual there were no...

Another mine in Wharfedale, this one targeting ore veins coming down SE from Grassington Moor, crossing over the valley above Hebden village. Started in the mid 1800s the enterprise was profitable for about 10 years until the excavations dropped below the drainage level (Bottle Level). A...

Got a few grid refs and ground collapses n filled in entrances n filled in drift looking areas all around between godstone n dorking that I want to dig out and gain entry to some mines, need some extra hands tho to get it done.. any like minded explorers that are as enthusiastic as me about...

Some sandstone quarries and mines in Garsdale, dots on the picture below. The red dots are big enough to have some underground, the orange ones are just small open excavations (not pictured below). I haven’t found any photos or history for these, just names on maps with the quarries/mines shown...

A small mine under Elbolton Hill south of the main Grassington mines, which are in the distance above Yarnbury in the illustration below. The only pictures I’m aware of are from a potholing club expedition in 2014 - this hill has a famous pothole/cave near the top where some human remains were...

A small mine just round the hill from the last one, Gill Heads. As usual there were no pictures or indications of explorable underground so I had to do the tour. Like other nearby mines lead has probably been extracted here for centuries although the first official record is 1709. The levels...

A survey of a patch of ground to the south (mostly) of the Grassington to Pateley Bridge road. The area contains several named lead mining areas (in yellow below) with numerous gouges and lines of old shafts which cross the hills, see British Mining No 60 for the details. The main attraction...

More mines on the mineralised vein (green line) which runs through Grassington Moor, the Grimwith area and then down part of the valley formed by Ashfold Side Beck before fizzling out west of Pateley Bridge. The Grimwith end was treated in a previous post, Report - - Mines 55 - Grimwith Lead...

A final short report from the head of Wharfedale, mainly for completeness. The three major mining areas on the eastern side of the valley are shown below as the red circles above Kettlewell, Starbotton and Buckden. Some mineralised fractures (green lines) were also worked on the hill on...

History The history if Upper Dinas Silica mine is extensively covered by the Cambrian Mine Trust here and gives a far deeper explanation than I am vaguely capable of. Brilliant Photos of the mine during operation published by Roy Bowen are available here and photos showing exploration by Mike...

The next area of lead workings further up the Wharfedale Valley from the previous post about the Starbotton mines, Report - - Mines 58 - Starbotton Lead Mines (Yorkshire, 2025) | Underground Sites. The mineralised faults, green lines on the map below, cross under Buckden Pike at the top of the...