A brief history:
Middleton Mine is located 4 miles south-west of the small town of Matlock. The mine works the Hopton-Wood Limestone which occurs underneath Middleton Moor. Middleton Moor is on the southern margin of an area of the Peak District known as the The White Peak, a block of carboniferous limestone stretching 50 kilometres north to south and 20 kilometres west to east.
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when Hopton-wood limestone was first extracted on the site now occupied by Middleton Mine. Certainly by the 1900's there was a well established dimension stone operation at the site. It was a surface operation and was cut where the Hopton-wood outcrops on the eastern flank of Middleton Moor in the middle of the village of Middleton-by-Wirksworth.
Dimension stone operations continued until the 1950's when due to the rapid development of concrete technology the demand for natural stone products fell. Derbyshire Stone, the then operators and owners of the site, had pre-empted this fall in demand by developing a small processing plant to crush the limestone to supply the steel and sugar industry.
Towards the end of the decade the situation with the surface operations reached a point where it became increasingly uneconomic to keep stripping the overburden (which was increasing in depth as a quarry cut into the moor) to gain access to the high purity Hopton-wood beds. The Company was reluctant to lose the customer base it had built up with the processed products, so the decision to commence underground operations was taken.
The company at that time were operating a lead mine in Matlock and moved two of the personnel to Middleton. Work on a drift access was started on February the 4th 1959 and to date approximately 16 million tonnes of high grade limestone have been extracted for the underground workings.
At present Middleton Mine consists of 35 kilometres of workings covering an area of 1400 metres west to east and 800 m north to south. Middleton Mine is divided into five main production areas by normal faults.
The Explore;
So, i missed the opportunity to do this place a few times in the past year or so. After many trips to look at a tightly blocked up adit and many pigeon shite welded bars in defeat & numerous conversations surrounding the subject we finally caught wind of the news... It was back on the cards, for now, but for how long we didn't quite know.
Understanding acess to this place is constantly been changed it meant for one thing and one thing only. Me & my non-member friend were going to go all in on this explore. With enough quality lights to last over 12 hours each we teamed up with a pair of locals who put on a cracking tour of the place. (Cheers Jordan & Connor if you finally get around to joining the forum).
Not only was it worth the 6 hours exploring, we decided the following weekend we would take the opportunity to do another 6 hours. This time around it was Me. My non-member mate and his partner. Armed with a pot noodle, map, compass a brief layout of the mine from last weekend we smashed another 6 hours out. Only getting lost breifly for 10 minutes. Not bad for a pair of tools! Altho we did miss a couple of pictures from the first weekend 🙄.
Pictures to follow
(all phone pictures but hopefully they come out okay)
The infamous car
Conveyors (before)
And after
Middleton Mine is located 4 miles south-west of the small town of Matlock. The mine works the Hopton-Wood Limestone which occurs underneath Middleton Moor. Middleton Moor is on the southern margin of an area of the Peak District known as the The White Peak, a block of carboniferous limestone stretching 50 kilometres north to south and 20 kilometres west to east.
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when Hopton-wood limestone was first extracted on the site now occupied by Middleton Mine. Certainly by the 1900's there was a well established dimension stone operation at the site. It was a surface operation and was cut where the Hopton-wood outcrops on the eastern flank of Middleton Moor in the middle of the village of Middleton-by-Wirksworth.
Dimension stone operations continued until the 1950's when due to the rapid development of concrete technology the demand for natural stone products fell. Derbyshire Stone, the then operators and owners of the site, had pre-empted this fall in demand by developing a small processing plant to crush the limestone to supply the steel and sugar industry.
Towards the end of the decade the situation with the surface operations reached a point where it became increasingly uneconomic to keep stripping the overburden (which was increasing in depth as a quarry cut into the moor) to gain access to the high purity Hopton-wood beds. The Company was reluctant to lose the customer base it had built up with the processed products, so the decision to commence underground operations was taken.
The company at that time were operating a lead mine in Matlock and moved two of the personnel to Middleton. Work on a drift access was started on February the 4th 1959 and to date approximately 16 million tonnes of high grade limestone have been extracted for the underground workings.
At present Middleton Mine consists of 35 kilometres of workings covering an area of 1400 metres west to east and 800 m north to south. Middleton Mine is divided into five main production areas by normal faults.
The Explore;
So, i missed the opportunity to do this place a few times in the past year or so. After many trips to look at a tightly blocked up adit and many pigeon shite welded bars in defeat & numerous conversations surrounding the subject we finally caught wind of the news... It was back on the cards, for now, but for how long we didn't quite know.
Understanding acess to this place is constantly been changed it meant for one thing and one thing only. Me & my non-member friend were going to go all in on this explore. With enough quality lights to last over 12 hours each we teamed up with a pair of locals who put on a cracking tour of the place. (Cheers Jordan & Connor if you finally get around to joining the forum).
Not only was it worth the 6 hours exploring, we decided the following weekend we would take the opportunity to do another 6 hours. This time around it was Me. My non-member mate and his partner. Armed with a pot noodle, map, compass a brief layout of the mine from last weekend we smashed another 6 hours out. Only getting lost breifly for 10 minutes. Not bad for a pair of tools! Altho we did miss a couple of pictures from the first weekend 🙄.
Pictures to follow
(all phone pictures but hopefully they come out okay)
The infamous car
Conveyors (before)
And after
A set of idiots
Hut
Inside out
Curtains
Samples from carsington dam
Impressive
Part of the major callopsed section?
Fuel/oil pump
A personal fav pic
Alien
Spraycrete sections and some nice arches
Before & After
A big ol' shaft
I know this place has been very well covered and its probably a little boring to whats prevously been posted but i hope you enjoyed my perspective. Until the next explore 🫡.
