Old Mine, Harboro Rocks, Derbyshire, September 2014

Only a small site but all the same very intriguing and quite photogenic. Although it’s quite small think it merits a report as it’s never been done before on here and is quite unique The old works lay at the foot of Harboro Rocks, a rugged limestone outcrop to the west of Cromford in Derbyshire. There’s very little information about the works on the internet but it appears that the site is related to mining in some way…maybe the mining of tin. Beyond that I can find very little other information about this place. OK, on with the pictures:

Old red-brick building to the right of the works:


img6326 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Inside the red brick building:


img6344 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Concrete stairway:


img6329 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Four almost Inca-like pillars that may of supported some sort of mine head maybe?


img6330 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Slightly different aspect of the four pillars:


img6331 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Close-up of one of the individual pillars:


img6335 by HughieDW, on Flickr

General views of the site:


img6338 by HughieDW, on Flickr

img6341 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Harboro rocks:


img6327 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Inside the cave at the top of the hill:


img6348 by HughieDW, on Flickr

An old windmill near by to Harboro Rocks:


img6363 by HughieDW, on Flickr

…and an interior shot showing the windmill open to the elements:


img6364 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Thanks for looking!

Interesting that,some very impressive concrete indeed.A quick trawl of the web shows it to be an old lead mine,I don't think they mined tin in Derbyshire.Thanks for sharing.

Ooops! Thank you Oldscrote. You are very right.

What you see there are the remains of the lead ore crushing and smelting process. Bronze age artifacts have been found in the cave and if you search around a bit among the rocks,you'll find some Roman lead mines, some neolithic rock carvings and a rock carved into the shape of a throne which is possibly Bronze age too. We go climbing up there occasionally.
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/a558/a312/gallery/England/derbyshire/sq_IMG_1918.JPG

Great set of photos of early mining structures,I do like the Derbyshire fells,so peaceful!

Gritstone said:

What you see there are the remains of the lead ore crushing and smelting process. Bronze age artifacts have been found in the cave and if you search around a bit among the rocks,you'll find some Roman lead mines, some neolithic rock carvings and a rock carved into the shape of a throne which is possibly Bronze age too. We go climbing up there occasionally.
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/a558/a312/gallery/England/derbyshire/sq_IMG_1918.JPG

Click to expand...

Cheers Gritstone. MOST enlightening. Wished I'd know there was so much up there. A revisit beckons....

I was born and raised very near to this site and Harboro Rocks was my playground when I was a kid. as already mentioned, It is what remains of lead mining. The whole area is littered with old quarries and mines, some quarries are still active. The immediate area has numerous mineral processing plants but the main minerals back in the day were Lead, Fluorspar and Limestone.

That the four pillars are concrete - rather than consructed from blocks of stone or of bricks - caught my eye. They appear to have been made by erecting shuttering and filling the voids with poured concrete. I wonder if there is any reinforcing inside them. I see one needed repairing with bricks at some time. And there are several other massive concrete structures nearby. That the pillars are standing in windswept countryside reminded me of the concrete triangulation points I built high up in the Maluti Mountains in Lesotho - see attached photo.