High Rake Mine, Little Hucklow, Derbyshire Dales District, Derbyshire, England, UKi

Regional Level Types
High Rake Mine	Mine (Tourist Attraction)
Little Hucklow	Civil Parish
Derbyshire Dales District	District
Derbyshire	County
England	Constituent Country
UK	Country

** Not to be confused with the similarly named High Rake Quarry which is about 4 miles (6.5 km) to the SE at Great Longstone and situated on the Longstone Edge limestone ridge **

High Rake Mine is situated on a large vein about a quarter of a mile west of the hamlet of Windmill in the Liberty of Little Hucklow. The vein is known under different titles as it ranges from the Sir William Hill on the east to beyond Tideslow Top on the west. At High Rake shaft it is called the High Rake, but immediately west of the old Tideswell to Castleton road it is known as Tideslow Rake and past Tideslow Top as White Rake. To the east and beyond Windmill it is called the Hucklow Edge Vein. High Rake is one of the major mineral veins of the area, and has been mined since at least the 13th century. By about 1750, miners had removed all the ore-rich deposits above the toadstone (a hard, volcanic rock), which was met at a depth of 276ft (84m). In one of the Peak District’s most ambitious mining schemes ever, the High Rake Mining Company was formed in 1834, planning to use the latest pumping technology to drive a shaft through the layer of toadstone to what were thought to be large deposits of lead ore below. From 1834-6, an existing shaft from 1768 was made good down to the standing water, but then work stopped for several years. In 1842-3, a massive Cornish-type two-cylinder 70/36-inch pumping engine was installed. This was made by Messrs Graham and Co. at the Milton Iron Works, Elsecar, and was the largest of its type ever made outside Cornwall. In 1846-7 a 20-inch cylinder winding engine, which also powered two sets of roller crushers, was also installed. This was housed in a two-storey engine house and was purchased from Magpie Mine near Sheldon.

By 1847, the shareholders in the High Rake Mining Company had become very concerned at sinking money into a ‘bottomless pit’ with no return. In an attempt to recover costs, the Company started to drive two horizontal levels in the toadstone to extract what little ore was there. The final straw came in 1852 when the vein was lost (ran out) eastwards. The shareholders had lost over £12,800 after the sale of the Company’s assets in 1853, which is equal to several million pounds in modern terms. The shaft had by then reached a depth of 720ft (219m), but it had still failed to get through the layer of toadstone. In hindsight, it was probably sunk in a volcanic plug which went right down towards the centre of the earth. The engines and all fixtures went to Mixon Mine in Staffordshire, and the boiler houses were demolished to remove the boilers. However, the mine had given employment to local people for nearly 20 years. At its height, nearly 40 men were employed per day, carrying out mining, ore-processing and labouring tasks on short-term contracts. Most lived in the surrounding villages and thought nothing of walking several miles to and from work. Some also had to climb down 720ft of ladders, do a hard day’s work, and climb back up the ladders at the end of their day. 

When the pumps were turned off in 1852, the lower 400ft of workings flooded. After the High Rake Mining Company was wound up, William Wyatt (the former manager) continued to work the mine privately on a small scale for years, recovering tiny amounts of lead ore left by earlier miners in the upper (un-flooded) workings.

The remaining buildings and chimneys stood in ruins until the 1930s, when they were demolished and some of the stone used to build council houses in nearby Bradwell. Later, the hillocks were reworked for fluorspar and the site then used as a council tip. In the 1970s the main shaft at High Rake was capped in concrete, and the tipped area to the west of the mine site was consolidated and planted with trees. By the late 20th century all that was clearly visible on surface was a large concrete cap over the shaft, a half buried crushing wheel and a few stone blocks. Thus, it was decided that what was left of this once fine mine should be uncovered and conserved. The Peak District Mines Historical Society undertook this project and between 2000 and 2008, the mine landscape, including the remains of the pumping engine house and the later winding engine house installed to the north of the main shaft were excavated, together with associated features including the boiler houses and chimneys of both engine houses, a gin circle (remains of horse-powered winding apparatus), a crushing circle, (an area where ore was crushed by a horse-driven vertical millstone), a coal yard, part of a large reservoir and a dressing floor. High Rake Mine was given Scheduled Monument status in 2013. The site lies next to a well-used footpath, and low-key interpretation of the restored foundations and other features make a contribution to promoting this, one of the most important industrial heritage sites in the Peak District. Today you can still see the bases of the pumping engine house and winding engine house and chimney, along with remnants of the crushing and ore preparation processes. You can also look down the huge shaft (safely capped with concrete).

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