1. The History
Located in Staffordshire and bounded to the west by the River Manifold and a wide shallow valley containing two streams to the east, Ecton Hill boasts 70 mine workings in totality, including 40-50 vertical shafts, some of which are over 90m deep. These series of mines were used to extract copper from Bronze age times up until 1891. The mines are well documented and now form part of the Ecton Copper Mines Educational Trust. I’ll save the full history for if and when I get round to looking at the main parts of the mine.
Cross-section of Ecton Hill here:
Not too much history on this specific adit other than it’s one of a few that is open. It is a straight drive, 213m in length and was originally known as Birches level. The workings appear to have been a trial rather than a place where copper has been extracted. It was given its more recent name as the adit was latterly used by the nearby creamery at Ecton to store ‘whey’.
2. The Explore
Been meaning to check this neck of the woods out for some time now, ever since seeing @alex17595 and his excellent report HERE. So one weekday me and my non-forum mate, J, popped over here. The adit is easy to find and enter. It’s nothing amazing but enough to hold your interest for half an hour or so. We also checked out a small adit near by, but didn’t fancy the crawl. It was then time to check out the excellent Manifold Inn (highly recommended!).
3. The Pictures
Gated but open entrance to the Apes Tor. The shaft is now capped over with concrete:
Round the corner is the adit for Clayton mine:
On to Birches adit:
It’s a bit rough to start with:
Remnants of when it was used to store whey for the nearby creamery:
Remains of some drainage pipe:
Onwards we push:
Quick view of the strata:
More evidence of previous drainage infrastructure:
And on to the watery section:
And beyond:
Coming to the end game of this mine:
Time to turn around and head back out again:
We also had a look in Limepits Mine too. Having scrambled down to the entrance and popping in, after a few metres it comes to a tight crawl through a pipe, which we didn’t fancy at that point in the day:
THAT'S ALL FOLKS!!!!
Located in Staffordshire and bounded to the west by the River Manifold and a wide shallow valley containing two streams to the east, Ecton Hill boasts 70 mine workings in totality, including 40-50 vertical shafts, some of which are over 90m deep. These series of mines were used to extract copper from Bronze age times up until 1891. The mines are well documented and now form part of the Ecton Copper Mines Educational Trust. I’ll save the full history for if and when I get round to looking at the main parts of the mine.
Cross-section of Ecton Hill here:
Not too much history on this specific adit other than it’s one of a few that is open. It is a straight drive, 213m in length and was originally known as Birches level. The workings appear to have been a trial rather than a place where copper has been extracted. It was given its more recent name as the adit was latterly used by the nearby creamery at Ecton to store ‘whey’.
2. The Explore
Been meaning to check this neck of the woods out for some time now, ever since seeing @alex17595 and his excellent report HERE. So one weekday me and my non-forum mate, J, popped over here. The adit is easy to find and enter. It’s nothing amazing but enough to hold your interest for half an hour or so. We also checked out a small adit near by, but didn’t fancy the crawl. It was then time to check out the excellent Manifold Inn (highly recommended!).
3. The Pictures
Gated but open entrance to the Apes Tor. The shaft is now capped over with concrete:
Round the corner is the adit for Clayton mine:
On to Birches adit:
It’s a bit rough to start with:
Remnants of when it was used to store whey for the nearby creamery:
Remains of some drainage pipe:
Onwards we push:
Quick view of the strata:
More evidence of previous drainage infrastructure:
And on to the watery section:
And beyond:
Coming to the end game of this mine:
Time to turn around and head back out again:
We also had a look in Limepits Mine too. Having scrambled down to the entrance and popping in, after a few metres it comes to a tight crawl through a pipe, which we didn’t fancy at that point in the day:
THAT'S ALL FOLKS!!!!
