Magpie Mine

This is a preserved surface site only. There is no access to the underground workings, and the shafts are capped.

• The Cornish engine house and chimney, the most complete structures on the site
• Steel headgear from the mine's final working phase in the 1950s
• Capped shafts, a horse gin circle, powder store, ruined coes and other stone footings
• Flues, drains, tramway lines, ore-processing remains, the Agent's House and Smithy
• Part of Magpie Sough, the drainage level that still discharges water

Workings here were recorded from 1740, and by 1824 a Newcomen-type pumping engine stood on the Main Shaft, with output reaching 800 tons of lead in 1827. In 1839 John Taylor reopened the mine and brought in Cornish methods, deepening the Main Shaft to about 208 metres and installing a 40-inch Cornish pumping engine. Water and long-running disputes with neighbouring mines dogged the venture, and a local story about a curse on the mine still gets repeated, though it is legend rather than record. Magpie Consolidated Mines worked the ground again from 1950 before final closure in 1958. The wider complex, taking in Magpie and its neighbouring mines, is a Scheduled Monument and one of the most complete Derbyshire lead mines left.

• No dependable toilet, food or seating facilities are reported at the site, so bring your own essentials and rely on the information boards
• Uneven, rough terrain throughout, and access to individual structures is not unrestricted
• Very little shelter from wind or rain
• Roadside parking only, and it is tight