Potosi mine Derbyshire

M

markpot

Member
Can any one point me in the direction of any info ?ive done the usual searches but cant seem to find any reference, any info much appreciated  :thumbsup:
 
There may be two references here but no direct linkage to a position, suggest you try to contact the original uploader of the info.

https://www.aditnow.co.uk/Database/
 
I doubt markpot is regionally confused, but for the sake of completeness I'll mention that Esgair Hir was known as the Welsh Potosi at one time. It is described as such in George Borrow's "Wild Wales".

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Link does not seem to work. Try image.
 

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It seems the top-ranking results on Google for "Potos? mine" refer to a silver mine in Bolivia. Even further from Derbyshire!
 
paul said:
It seems the top-ranking results on Google for "Potos? mine" refer to a silver mine in Bolivia. Even further from Derbyshire!
Click to expand...

As far as I am aware, British mines called Potosi adopted the name in order to be associated with the fabulous richness of the Bolivian mine, this provided a lot of silver for the Spanish Empire.

Esgair Hir was a lead mine, but with significant silver content in the galena. (I worked the are in 1970-71 for a Canadian mining company.)

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Grid ref on page 11: https://pdmhs.co.uk/MiningHistory/Bulletin%252016-5%2520-%2520Geological%2520Setting%2520of%2520the%2520Mineral%2520Deposits%2520at%2520Brassington%2520and%2520Carsington.pdf

There's also a letter from Trevor ford  in vol 15 no 3
 
I get a 404 page not found for that link.

Interesting  - Brassington is definitely in Derbyshire, I used to live there! I never came across the name Potosi before though.
 
You can find them via the Mining History article database. I'd heard of it, and seen the AditNow entry but never read anything about it - Jim Rieuwerts didn't give me much info on that area sadly but I think many of the mines around there were tiny affairs - the name may have been a local joke owing to its total lack of success. I guess we'd have heard about mines with high silver content, if they existed - Ball Eye at Cromford being one exception ;)

https://pdmhs.co.uk/files/articles.php
 
paul said:
I get a 404 page not found for that link.

Interesting  - Brassington is definitely in Derbyshire, I used to live there! I never came across the name Potosi before though.
Click to expand...
Yeah it doesn't like the %2520 bits. I just searched "potosi" lead mine Derbyshire

This has a map & says it was one of the "poor men's mines":
http://www.wirksworth.org.uk/A73-BRAS.htm

Seems it was also the name of field:
http://www.wirksworthromanproject.co.uk/download/i/mark_dl/u/4012767328/4635968015/TheStreet3ed.pdf

& At end of rieuwerts' book:
https://www.kriso.ee/lead-mining-derbyshire-v-3-db-9781843063452.html?lang=eng

This explains origin of such names as suggested above (also numerous other sites):
http://powerwaterproject.net/?p=556

Plus, for the Welsh version:
https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/CGN/Mines
 
in order to be associated with the fabulous richness of the Bolivian mine, this provided a lot of silver for the Spanish Empire...
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It's such an example hyperbole naming, I almost wonder if it was a salting scheme or some form of investment scam ;)
 
If anyone wants info on Potosi Mine at Ible, I can supply it from the barmaster's books. It is marked faintly in pencil on the Barmaster's Map in the fields SE of the hamlet of Ible. The 25 inch map in question was posted by Dickie Bird on the Internet with the title "Snake" as it extends down to Snake Mine. It was only a small mine.
 
The stone ?stemples ? are they unique to this part of the country I no we have spoken about them before , assuming they was working platforms the same as the wooden ones for access etc . 
 
Many thanks for the replys,sorry, i should have been more specefic,it was infact the potosi at Ible i was refering to that History Trog mentioned.
 
Down and beyond said:
The stone ?stemples ? are they unique to this part of the country I no we have spoken about them before , assuming they was working platforms the same as the wooden ones for access etc .
Click to expand...

Very common in the St Just area of Cornwall, nice granite ones in the Wheal Margery adit at St Ives as well. Put in for roof support.
You may find references to Margery adit as "Crocodile Mine", its an insider joke from those who have been in.
 
Jim Rieuwerts does give a reasonable summary of Potosi Mine history in his book. The main additional point that I would make is that the Mining Inspector's annual reports show it as active in the late 1870s, producing lead and zinc. Only a few dishes of lead ore are recorded at that time. It seems likely that, like many mines in the Bonsall Leys area, its main produce was calamine - the zinc ore. It certainly does not seem to have yielded much lead ore.
 
The level at Potosi is pretty well run in, but given the large number of uncapped shafts in the woods around it there may well be another way into the mine! I can well believe that many of the mines in the area made more from calamine than they did from lead, it's just a shame that the documentation is so scanty for the working of that mineral.
 
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