Knowles Shaft at Odin Mine, Castleton, Edale

Summary

Some 55m east of the crushing circle, beyond the Sitch, lies Knowles shaft (13543/83493), with its stone lining, or"ginging", intact around the mouth. The shaft was sunk in the 1820's for vertical access to, and haulage of materials from an easterly arm of the mine.

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Description

Some 55m east of the crushing circle, beyond the Sitch, lies Knowles shaft (13543/83493), with its stone lining, or"ginging", intact around the mouth. The shaft was sunk in the 1820's for vertical access to, and haulage of materials from an easterly arm of the 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 west wards 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 (150/831). 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 Knowlegates Sough, driven earlier in the 18th century from an outfall someway downstream on Odin Sitch, near Knowlegates Farm (1376/8337). 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 record at Odin. Cont...

Knowles shaft is situated on higher ground - probably an artificial build up of spoil. The shaft is now covered by a metal grille set into the top of the ginging (the stonework around the top part of the shaft holding up the loose ground). To the north west of Knowles Shaft is a deep hollow which may be due to subsidence or possibly another shaft. Adjacent to Knowles Shaft, on its north side, a gin-circle is recognisable on the ground as a roughly-circular groove, averaging 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 similar groove extending northwards from the circular groove towards the drystone revetment-wall of the platform lies diametrically across the circle from the shaft (ie at 13540/83507) 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 Trent and Peak survey noted a number of additional points, 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. A stone with grooved top at 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 in the 1970's, however the 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.

[7] This large cave runs from the side of Windy Knoll Quarry near its entrance. Beyond the large entrance chamber are only short crawls and two small chambers, the whole being 37m long (Gill and Beck 1991 ). The entrance chamber has no floor deposits, the whole being rock, but the back of the chamber, where it becomes a bedding plane, is largely choked with earth; the possibility that these contain archaeological deposits cannot be discounted. A fissure cave, shown on the 1880 Ordnance Survey map as at the west side of the quarry, has now been obliterated or lost. This was excavated in 1874 and 1876 and contained a large number of late Pleistocene animal bones, including those of bison, reindeer, bear and wolves (Boyd-Dawkins 1875, 1877). There is a capped shaft visible in the roof of the cave. A fenced area on the knoll behind the cave marks the site of a backfilled shaft, which may have
provided access to lower reaches of the cave not now accessible. These workings are documented as being for both lead and fluorspar (Jim Rieuwerts pers. Comm.).

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