Summary

Post-medieval mining shaft and gin circle, known as Knowles Shaft, located in the eastern part of the lead mining complex of Odin Mine. The shaft is now grilled and backfilled almost to the surface but its stone lining or "ginging" has been left visible, intact around the mouth. The shaft is thought to have been first sunk in the early-18th century, and then significantly deepened in the mid-18th century. Adjacent to the shaft (to the south-east) is a paved area, and to the north is a flat circular area. This circular area has a small mound at the centre and is the site of a winding gin / gin circle. To the south-west side a hollow has formed, presumably due to collapse of an earlier shaft or lead working below.

Identification Images (0)

Most Recent Monitoring

None Recorded

Monument Types

Description

(1) Post-medieval mining shaft and winding gin, known as Knowles Shaft and associated with the lead mining complex of Odin Mine. The shaft is now grilled and backfilled almost to the surface but its stone lining or "ginging" has been left visible, intact around the mouth. The shaft is 73m deep and enters Odin Sough at this depth (Odin Sough was dug in 1816-21) (Rieuwerts and Ford, 1976). The Shaft itself likely predates Odin Sough and was probably first sunk in 1712 to a depth of 35m so it connected to Knowlesgate Sough. It was then significantly deepened in the mid-18th century. Adjacent to the shaft (to the south-east) is a paved area, and to the north is a flat circular area. The circular area has a small mound at the centre and is the site of a winding gin. To the south-west side a hollow has formed, presumably due to collapse of an earlier shaft or lead working below (Barnatt, 1993: feature 2) .

(2-6) Knowles Shaft lies some c.55m east of the Crushing Circle, beyond the Sitch. It would have provided vertical access to, and haulage of materials from, an easterly arm of Odin Mine. It also provided ventilation in conjunction with the contemporary Trickett Sough, a level or tunnel that passes 240' (73m) beneath the surface at this point and extents westwards beneath the mine, draining away ground-water to an outfall, or "tail", issuing into Hollowford Brook, near Tricket Bridge in Castleton (almost a mile to the south-east). Such drainage-levels are a testimony to the skill and effort invested in the lead-mining industry of Derbyshire in its heyday in the 17th - 19th centuries. Further air-shafts a short distance downslope to the south-east of Knowles Shaft are known to be associated with the shallower "Old Odin" or "Knowlesgates Sough" which was driven earlier in the 18th century from an outfall someway downstream on Odin Sitch, near Knowlegates Farm. Odin Grooves Sough, or Old Man's Level (constructed in the mid-17th century and therefore one of the earliest in the Peak District) lies a little to the north. At least two other shafts "Engine Sough" and "Black Sough", are recorded at Odin Mine.

Knowles shaft is situated on higher ground (probably an artificial build up of spoil) and is now covered by a metal grille which is set into the top of the "ginging". To the north west of the shaft is a deep hollow which may be due to subsidence or possibly another shaft. Adjacent to Knowles Shaft (on its north side) is a gin-circle, recognisable on the ground as a roughly-circular groove, c.10.3m in diameter and running concentric with, and close to the perimeter of, a circular, turf-covered platform. Here a horse plodded around to power the winding-engine, or "gin", that raised the buckets, or "kibbles", up the shaft probably in a single lift. The groove, which is up to 1m wide by 0.2m deep where best defined around the north, was presumably either crated directly by the hooves of the horse or formerly held some kind of track or paving which has been robbed out. A short straight spur of a similar groove extending northwards from the circular groove towards the drystone revetment-wall of the platform lies diametrically across the circle from the shaft and may have housed some functional/structural element of the gin construction. At the centre of the platform, a hollow averaging 2.5m across and 0.2m deep presumably reflects the position of a deeper hole which once held the upright that supported the horizontal gin. The south-west part of the gin-circle has subsided into the 1.8m deep hollow on the north side of Knowles Shaft.

The 1989 Trent and Peak survey noted a number of additional points. A) One curious feature of the curving wall which revets the north side of the gin-circle is a 0.5m- high X 0.35m- wide lintelled opening near the west end of its outer face. The function of this is mysterious since it would seem likely that the wall was constructed merely to retain the built-up higher ground to its south, and that the opening cannot therefore have ever passed clear through the wall. B) A stone with grooved top at SK 135445 834913, used as a bench-mark, lies close to the south-east side of Knowles Shaft and may have had some function relating to it. The survey team also noted that it appears likely on the ground that the largely - robbed wall which approaches the gin-circle from the west abuts the north revetment of the circle and therefore probably post-dates it even though less well preserved.

District Mines Historical Society surveyed the site in the 1970s, however this survey were not seen by the NT survey team in 1986. Trent and Peak Archaeological Trust surveyed the shaft and its immediate area in 1989 at 1:100 scale.

References

Designations

Other Statuses and References

Associated Events

Associated Finds

None Recorded

Related Records