CONFLICT OVER PRECIOUS EARTH

Copper, zinc and especially lead have been mined in the Peak District from Roman times, and perhaps earlier. Sealed-off shafts litter the landscape: areas of lumpy ground, called rakes, a sure sign of old activity and delicate white leadwort, one of the few flowers that can tolerate the soil, often blooming in the pits and hollows. The lead industry was at its height in the 17th and 18th centuries, second only to farming in importance, although for many, not enough to lift them out of poverty. Daniel Defoe, on his trip to the Peak in the 1720s, met a lead miner who was “lean as a skeleton, pale as a dead corps, his flesh lank… he look'd like an inhabitant of the dark regions below, and who was just ascended into the world of light”. Prospectors could stake a claim to a seam of ore they had found and would keep the title to it as long as they worked it, although ultimately the monarch owned all mineral rights. The mines have many wonderful names. Some, such as Dream, Adventure and Goodluck, are easy to understand; others, such as Beans and Bacon, and Cackle Mackle, less so. Among the best preserved is Magpie Mine, which closed in 1954 after more than 200 years in operation. Its evocative ruins, mostly dating from its Victorian heyday, can be seen near Sheldon, 2 miles from Ashford. Magpie Mine is said to carry a curse; the result of a long-lasting feud with neighbouring Maypitt Mine over a vein of ore being worked by both. Arguments raged, and miners from each started to light fires in the tunnels to try to smoke out the others. In 1833, three Maypitt miners died of suffocation from Magpie fires, but at the subsequent murder trial, all the Magpie miners were acquitted. The distraught Maypitt widows laid a curse

on Magpie Mine, the accidents and financial problems that plagued it thereafter laid firmly at its door.