1. The History
Located on the northern slopes of Via Gellia, to the west of Cromford in Derbyshire, there’s not too much out there about this relatively small lead mine trial. Likely to be an early 19th century attempt to try to gain access to The Great Rake by mining under the toadstone, initially it was shown on Barmaster’s maps as Yule Cheese vein, worked via a series of shafts on the hilltop. It is accessed via an adit 5ft by 3ft, to the north of a small miner’s coe, up the hill from Turfa cottage on Via Gellia.
The Turfa Cottage, pictured in 1905. Dunsley Springs adit is to the top left of the picture:
The straight drive heads in a north-westerly direction and forty feet in you reach a water sump hole in the floor. Beyond that can be found a large amount of mineralisation including a variety of galena and barite “scrins”. Picked “distance numbers” on the wall appear to relate to the distance to the vein. Towards the end of the adit, which runs to over 1,000 ft in total, there have been a series of passable collapses before the forefield is reached. Here they hit toadstone before they hit the vein. So here a winze was cut to go down under it. However here the vein is barely a 3ft wide streak of calcite when they eventually got to it. There is a lower level which does carry on a little bit further, possibly chasing scrins, but this soon comes to an end.
Plan of Dunsley Springs level from the 1971 survey by R. B. Flindall:
2. The Explore
This one was a bit of a pig to find. It’s off the so-called footpath and the adit is small and overgrown. The previous week @Jl.urbex had explored this one on his own. So with the intel from him, find it we did (cheers mate!) so me and my non-forum member squeezed our way in. To be honest, our expectations weren’t that high. But, despite being a relatively straight forward level with little if nothing branching off from it, the mineralisation and old graffiti meant we spend as long in here as we did in the much bigger and nearby Slaley Slough. We didn’t get quite to the end. The final collapse had a big slab of stone in the way which you either had to squeeze under or over and we didn’t fancy that much, so turned around at that point. Overall, though, this place exceeded all expectations and was a pretty safe little level to explore
3. The Pictures
Here’s the adit:
The initial level is relatively high compared to the nearby Slaley Sough:
We soon reached some pretty lovely mineralisation:
Worth the trip in here alone:
Stalactites in their infancy:
Further on and you come to this side room to the left of the main drive:
Which has the remains of miner’s old leather shoes:
Miner’s pick marks:
Onward we go:
This looks a bit like a miner’s passing place:
The 220-yard mark:
One of the many bore holes:
A shallow dead-end off to the right:
Next is the main area of old graffiti:
This one is interesting:
Managed to trace him. Fred Sheldon was born in 1883 and lived locally at 8, The Bank, Bonsall. He would have been 21 when he wrote his name here. His dad, James, was a stone quarryman.
More graff:
Including this simple recent addition:
And more mineralisation:
Located on the northern slopes of Via Gellia, to the west of Cromford in Derbyshire, there’s not too much out there about this relatively small lead mine trial. Likely to be an early 19th century attempt to try to gain access to The Great Rake by mining under the toadstone, initially it was shown on Barmaster’s maps as Yule Cheese vein, worked via a series of shafts on the hilltop. It is accessed via an adit 5ft by 3ft, to the north of a small miner’s coe, up the hill from Turfa cottage on Via Gellia.
The Turfa Cottage, pictured in 1905. Dunsley Springs adit is to the top left of the picture:
The straight drive heads in a north-westerly direction and forty feet in you reach a water sump hole in the floor. Beyond that can be found a large amount of mineralisation including a variety of galena and barite “scrins”. Picked “distance numbers” on the wall appear to relate to the distance to the vein. Towards the end of the adit, which runs to over 1,000 ft in total, there have been a series of passable collapses before the forefield is reached. Here they hit toadstone before they hit the vein. So here a winze was cut to go down under it. However here the vein is barely a 3ft wide streak of calcite when they eventually got to it. There is a lower level which does carry on a little bit further, possibly chasing scrins, but this soon comes to an end.
Plan of Dunsley Springs level from the 1971 survey by R. B. Flindall:
2. The Explore
This one was a bit of a pig to find. It’s off the so-called footpath and the adit is small and overgrown. The previous week @Jl.urbex had explored this one on his own. So with the intel from him, find it we did (cheers mate!) so me and my non-forum member squeezed our way in. To be honest, our expectations weren’t that high. But, despite being a relatively straight forward level with little if nothing branching off from it, the mineralisation and old graffiti meant we spend as long in here as we did in the much bigger and nearby Slaley Slough. We didn’t get quite to the end. The final collapse had a big slab of stone in the way which you either had to squeeze under or over and we didn’t fancy that much, so turned around at that point. Overall, though, this place exceeded all expectations and was a pretty safe little level to explore
3. The Pictures
Here’s the adit:
The initial level is relatively high compared to the nearby Slaley Sough:
We soon reached some pretty lovely mineralisation:
Worth the trip in here alone:
Stalactites in their infancy:
Further on and you come to this side room to the left of the main drive:
Which has the remains of miner’s old leather shoes:
Miner’s pick marks:
Onward we go:
This looks a bit like a miner’s passing place:
The 220-yard mark:
One of the many bore holes:
A shallow dead-end off to the right:
Next is the main area of old graffiti:
This one is interesting:
Managed to trace him. Fred Sheldon was born in 1883 and lived locally at 8, The Bank, Bonsall. He would have been 21 when he wrote his name here. His dad, James, was a stone quarryman.
More graff:
Including this simple recent addition:
And more mineralisation:
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