Old Millclose Mine

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Old Millclose Mine was a lead mine near Wensley, Derbyshire. The engine house survives as a ruin and is a scheduled monument. It was built in 1859–60 by Edward Wass, owner of Lea Lead Works, to house a Cornish engine that pumped water from the mine via the nearby Watts shaft. The engine was used until the early 1870s. About 450 metres to the northeast, a new mine, Millclose Mine, opened and became Britain’s largest lead mine, closing in 1940. The thick “bob wall” that supported the beam still rises about 9 metres high, with the arched beam opening above it. The building is gritstone ashlar, about 1.5 metres thick. Nearby are the foundations of the boiler house, winding engine house and a chimney. East of the engine house is the stone-lined shaft, now capped and covered with a grille.