I was lucky enough to be invited to a wedding in Cumbria so I grabbed the chance to get a few extra days up there to fit in a bit of a explore of Coniston and the old copper, lead and slate mines.
The landscape was amazing and with mountains in excess of 800 meters above sea level the hike was challenging but well worth the effort.
The history bit:
The mining of copper in the Coniston complex started towards the end of the 16th century, and German miners Carried out the earliest ‘large scale’ mining activities.
In the early 17th century coffin levels were driven to provide access and drainage to the bottom of the
Workings. These early levels would have been driven by hand, using metal tools and wedges. Fire would also be employed to heat the rock, which would then fracture after rapid cooling with water.
The next major period of development started in the late 1750’s with the formation of the Macclesfield Copper Company by the industrialist Charles Roe. Work continued on the veins that the German’s had left behind and the workings were deepened to over 110m.
The Coniston fells were mined for Copper in the middle of the 19th century. The veins of copper hidden
thousands of feet below the fells surfaces contained a copper ore by the name of Chalcopyrite, a mix of
Copper, Iron and Sulphate. As the veins were so deep down the miners worked extremely hard in horrendous conditions, often using huge unstable wooden ladders to reach there workplaces. Getting the ore from those huge heights up to the tramways was one hell of a task.
By the mid 19th century the Coniston mines were reaching their peak period, and some of the deepest workings were approaching 270m.The mines went into decline in the late 19th century and were then abandoned. The tough machinery and buildings lie in derelict today but are an amazing feature of this landscape and hold a thousand stories and gave birth to a beautiful village and gave hundreds of men and there families a living, Coniston owes its existence to the copper mines.
We done about a 7 mile hike in toll, it does not sound much but when climbing its a different story, here are a few of the things that we found along the way.
Entrance to one of the many mines dotted around
Not the safest of places to be!
A slope shaft that went down 45 degrees as far as the torch would go.
Looking further down the mine, I was going to venture on but faulse floors and rotted wood so maybe not!
Looking up, note the not so safe ladder from long ago.
Looking back out of the mine
After the mine we pressed on to find more relics of the old workings
The main engine room building
The explore got cut short due to bad weather moving in very fast, I dont mind getting a little lost or quite lost but not hideously lost half way up a mountain!
Maybe again next year.
Thanks for looking
Daz
The landscape was amazing and with mountains in excess of 800 meters above sea level the hike was challenging but well worth the effort.
The history bit:
The mining of copper in the Coniston complex started towards the end of the 16th century, and German miners Carried out the earliest ‘large scale’ mining activities.
In the early 17th century coffin levels were driven to provide access and drainage to the bottom of the
Workings. These early levels would have been driven by hand, using metal tools and wedges. Fire would also be employed to heat the rock, which would then fracture after rapid cooling with water.
The next major period of development started in the late 1750’s with the formation of the Macclesfield Copper Company by the industrialist Charles Roe. Work continued on the veins that the German’s had left behind and the workings were deepened to over 110m.
The Coniston fells were mined for Copper in the middle of the 19th century. The veins of copper hidden
thousands of feet below the fells surfaces contained a copper ore by the name of Chalcopyrite, a mix of
Copper, Iron and Sulphate. As the veins were so deep down the miners worked extremely hard in horrendous conditions, often using huge unstable wooden ladders to reach there workplaces. Getting the ore from those huge heights up to the tramways was one hell of a task.
By the mid 19th century the Coniston mines were reaching their peak period, and some of the deepest workings were approaching 270m.The mines went into decline in the late 19th century and were then abandoned. The tough machinery and buildings lie in derelict today but are an amazing feature of this landscape and hold a thousand stories and gave birth to a beautiful village and gave hundreds of men and there families a living, Coniston owes its existence to the copper mines.
We done about a 7 mile hike in toll, it does not sound much but when climbing its a different story, here are a few of the things that we found along the way.
Entrance to one of the many mines dotted around
Not the safest of places to be!
A slope shaft that went down 45 degrees as far as the torch would go.
Looking further down the mine, I was going to venture on but faulse floors and rotted wood so maybe not!
Looking up, note the not so safe ladder from long ago.
Looking back out of the mine
After the mine we pressed on to find more relics of the old workings
The main engine room building
The explore got cut short due to bad weather moving in very fast, I dont mind getting a little lost or quite lost but not hideously lost half way up a mountain!
Maybe again next year.
Thanks for looking
Daz
