Derbyshire Lead Mining History - The End of Lead-mining in Derbyshire

The End of Lead-mining in Derbyshire

The Derbyshire lead industry declined after the late-18th century because of worked-out veins, increased production costs and the discovery of much cheaper foreign sources. The industry was protected from this foreign ore by import duty in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A reduction in the duty in 1820 and its abolition in 1845. brought a steep rise in the volume of lead imported into England and accelerated the local industry's decline.

There were still bursts of high production, and indeed the output of certain mines during the 18th and 19th centuries exceeded anything achieved in the 17th century; over 2658 loads (about 641 tons or 651 metric tonnes) were mined at Brassington, traditionally an area of low output, in 1862 At a meeting of the Barmote Court in Wirksworth in 1862 one mine owner announced "that by perseverance for upwards of twenty years, they had at last found the long sought for treasure, which he hoped would be prosperous, and they should be able to continue employing, as they are at the present time, upwards of 100 men at one mine in Brassington". However, by 1901 the number of men employed in all the Derbyshire lead mines had fallen to 285 most of whom worked at the Millclose Mine at Darley Bridge. Millclose, the biggest lead mine in the country, took the Derbyshire lead industry into the 20th century, and just before its enforced closure in 1939, caused by flooding, it employed about six hundred men