Summary

This is a group record for Odin Mine, a muti-period (now disused) mine located at the foot of Mam Tor. The mine was mainly worked throughout the 17th to 19th century but is first documented in 1260. The mine workings spread either side of the (now disused) Old Mam Tor road and consist of underground workings, buried and filled-in adits and tunnels, as well as surface remains such as rock-cut water channels, ponds, spoil heaps, shaft mounds and a crushing circle. The main core site is designated as a Scheduled Monument and these mine workings are associated with some other workings further west which are scheduled under the name of Engine Sough.

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Description

Odin Mine is a muti-period (now disused) mine located at the foot of Mam Tor. Its workings spread either side of the (now disused) Old Mam Tor road and consist of underground workings, buried and filled-in adits and tunnels, as well as surface remains such as rock-cut water channels, ponds, spoil heaps, shaft mounds and a crushing circle. The main core site is designated as a Scheduled Monument and these mine workings are associated with some other workings further west which are scheduled under the name of Engine Sough.

Odin Mine has considerable longevity, with possible origins dating back to Roman and/or Saxon times (although there is no actual evidence for this at present). The first recorded evidence of a mine named Odin is from 1260 however, making it the oldest record of a named mine in Derbyshire. Limestone was certainly being worked by 1600 and by 1663 the workings had apparently extended far enough for there to be a dispute about ownership. It was worked almost continuously throughout the 18th century, with annual production of 100 to 800 tons of lead ore. Peak periods were in the 1720's,1770's and about 1800, (Ford,T.D & Rieuwerts,J.H. 1983 17-61). Noble (1833) states the mine employed nearly 140 persons, men, women and children. Noble describes the mine as "consisting of two levels, running horizontally into the mountain, the upper, a cart-gate by which ore is brought from the mine, the lower one a water level, to drain the works, which have been carried more than a mile from the entrance. The vein of lead ore runs from east to west. Odin Mine is the most northerly exploitation of the Derbyshire lead-veins (most others are located in the White Peak) as it is situated where the limestone dives beneath the later Edale slates. The mine continued to be worked until at least 1869, and there were some fairly unsuccessful attempts at re-opening in the 20th century for the extraction of minerals (fluorspar, barytes and calcite) that were previously regarded as waste.

The Scheduled area of Odin Mine is divided by the “Old Mam Tor Road”, which was constructed in 1812.

WEST OF ROAD: to the west of the road are the actual mine workings, which include an impressive open cut (an open working along a lead vein) which partly utilised a natural feature known as Odin Gorge. The entrance to the mine's main haulage-adit known as Cartgate (NTSMR 60466*1) also is thought to have lain close by to Odin Cave (NTSMR 60466*2) but is now buried beneath the debris of a spar-washing plant which occupied the area adjacent to the mine-entrance in the 1940-50s. Once emerged from the adit, the carts full of ore would then pass through a tunnel under the Old Mam Tor road to reach the Crushing Circle. This tunnel was eventually filled in by the tailings from later fluorspar mining operations and the east entrance of this tunnel is also now concealed by the construction of the bus turning circle located at the present terminal of the road.

A particular surface feature of the western part of Odin Mine is its water management works which includes a leat or water channel running parallel to the opencut on its north side. This was dug in order to divert the stream flowing west of Odin Gorge round the head of the opencut which would otherwise have formed a natural watercourse. The leat has a U-shaped profile and measures c.1m deep by 3m wide. It ends to the east on a dam and is believed to have been used to direct water for the washing of lead ore. This is suggested by the occurrence, above the dam, of a 0.75 wide rockcut channel feeding off it towards the ore works. The channel is revetted by a wall on its south side.

Other rock cut channels traverse the mine in the vicinity of the open cut and all appear to have directed water towards the ore works. In addition, north of the mine workings and network of channels, there are two large ponds divided by a substantial dam measuring c.20m wide by c. 3m high. The first pond lies west of the dam where it was created by backing up water from several converging natural and rockcut watercourses. It filled the second pond via a sluice at the southern end of the dam. A channel leading south from the first Pond above the sluice was probably an overflow.
The second pond is still party waterfilled and was enclosed to the west by a second dam currently overlain by the modern road. East of the road (north of the ore works), there are at least two further ponds divided from the ore works by another dam. The scale of this water collection operation indicates that full-scale washing and dressing of the lead ore was being carried out on site at Odin Mine.

EAST OF ROAD: To the east of Old Mam Tor Road are the remains of the ore works and dressing and processing floors. This area was used to crush and clean the lead ore from Odin Mine (and other nearby local mines) in readiness for it to be smelted elsewhere. The ore would have been washed in the water of Odin Sitch and crushed using the 19th-century crushing circle which still survives on site today (NTSMR 60466*4). This eastern area of the Odin complex was surveyed and planned in detail in 1989 by the Trent and Peak Archaeological Trust.

A range of tips and hollow ways also survive to the south and east of the ore works and crushing circle, as well as two shafts with associated platforms for winding gear (NTSMR 60466*3). The winding platform for the southernmost shaft retains parts of its circular stone track while the shaft itself has a well-preserved stone lining.

The eastern side of the Odin complex is covered within extensive and substantial undulating hillocks, but unfortunately because this area is sat upon the shale beds it is prone to land slippage and so it is not always easy to distinguish mine-waste from the results of natural earth movement now that the hillocks are largely vegetated. It is also known that a lot of material was removed from here for road building in the 19th century, and that some of the hillocks were reworked in the mid-20th century for minerals such as gangue. Consequently, some of the present contours in the eastern area of the complex owe little to the earlier mining activities. Had this not been so, much more extensive remains of the processing floors and the range of attendant buildings (such as coes, offices, stores, stables and smithies) might still survive today. As it is only small fragments of paving, revealed by erosion to the south-east of Knowles Shaft offer any hint of the locations of any such structures.

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