|
|
Tankerville Lead Mine Shropshire |
|
||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
History The mineral rights
of the Tankerville area were in joint ownership and all leases were jointly
granted by the Earl of Tankerville and the Lloyd family. There is no record
of any early mining in the area and the surface of the mine site is shown on old
maps as a farm up to the 19th century. The area was being drained by the Boat
Level in 1797 but it is not known if any lead deposits had been discovered
and were being worked at that time. The earliest known mining at Tankerville
was by Walker, Cross & Company from the 1830s, when the mine operated
under the name of Oven Pipe. The company's main activities were at Bog and
Pennerley, however, and there was very little investment at this site, other
than a crosscut called Oven Pipe Level which had been driven from the Boat
Level to work a small pipe vein on Old Lode. Ore was removed from a small
shaft by a horse gin and this was probably the one that was later enlarged as
Ovenpipe Shaft. Lewis' Shaft may date from this time as an access shaft when
the level was being driven. Between 1860-63,
Fred Jones & Company worked the mine and they had engaged Captain Arthur
Waters as manager. In 1862, he referred to the workings in a letter to John
Horton : "... I found
Oven Pipe Mine in the same position three years ago as the above named mines
are today, but by a system of cross-cutting found a deposit of lead ore that,
since its discovery, has yielded about £16,000 worth and that without sinking
the Engine Pit an inch ... We are now sinking the shaft as a matter of
course, having a rich lode to go down upon". The deposit
referred to must be Old Lode and Waters had presumably found both pipes on it
from trial crosscuts. On the basis of lead being worth about £20 per ton at
that time, about 800 tons must have been produced from 1860. During this
time, Heighway Jones of the Bog & Pennerley Company was working several
adjacent mines and he realised the potential of Oven Pipe Mine. In 1864, he
sold his interest in Pennerley and Myttonsbeach Mines and bought Oven Pipe, where
he then concentrated his activities. Waters was retained as manager and the
new Oven Pipe Company acquired several other mines, ie Potters Pit and Burgam
from 1866 and Batholes and Roundhill from 1868. Probably due to the
acquisition of these extra mines, the name of the company was changed to West
Tankerville Mining Company from 1869. As Ovenpipe Shaft
was sunk below adit level, the new workings had to be pumped dry and the
depth was probably beyond the capability of the old horse gin. As a result, Waters
erected a small ex-colliery engine 30 yards from the shaft which raised the
ore, operated the pump rods and powered the roller crushers. It was a
16" beam engine of 16 horsepower and 3ft 6" stroke. Ovenpipe Shaft
was deepened to the 74 fathom level, being vertical to 70ft below adit (214ft
from surface) and then running at an angle of 15(. The reason for the change
in angle was to allow the shaft to follow the direction of Old Lode. This
meant that ore extracted during the sinking paid for the costs but it caused
problems later with winding and pumping. Levels were driven into Old Lode
down to the 74 fathom level and the ore stoped out. Waters continued to
drive exploratory levels from the shaft and one of these, driven south from
the 42 fathom level, discovered the top of Main Lode. Other exploratory
levels were driven and these proved that the lode extended downwards at 40(
and continued to be very rich. Crosscuts from Ovenpipe Shaft allowed the Main
Lode to be removed above the 74 fathom level but it was decided not to deepen
the shaft since it would move further and further away from Main Lode. At
this stage, there was still no indication as to how far the Main Lode would
continue but hopes were obviously high. A description in
the Mining Journal early in 1870 describes how the mine was working at that
time. Ovenpipe Shaft was used for both raising the material and for the
pumps, and access to the levels was by way of ladders in the pumping portion
of the shaft. There were about 50 miners employed at the mine, split into
three eight hour shifts working round the clock. The steam engine raised ore
from 6am to 2pm, drove the ore crushers from 2pm to 5pm and pumped the mine
from 5pm to 6am. Pumping was done by four lifting sets of pumps from the 74
fathom level, the lowest having a 7" diameter and the others slightly
larger. There was also a 'forcing set' from the Boat Level to the surface,
used to supply water for the dressing floors when surface water was scarce.
The lead ore was
raised in a kibble attached to a single linked chain and slid up deal planks in
the inclined portion of the shaft. The ore was worked downwards in stopes of
6ft from one level to the next, with the higher level being boarded up for a
tramway. The ores from the lower level were raised to the upper level by
windlasses and taken by tramway to be loaded into the kibble at the shaft. On the surface, the
ore was crushed in roller crushers powered by the steam engine. It was then
placed on a rotary screen and the larger pieces were gathered together by
brushes on a rotating horizontal wheel, to be sent back through the crushers
until small enough for the next phase of the operation. This took place in
four jigging machines, sieves worked up and down in water by hand labour,
that separated the heavier lead from the spar and stone waste. It was then
washed in flat buddles, put through jiggers with finer sieves and finally
into rotary buddles. The lead was then ready to be sent to the smelter at
Pontesford by horse and cart. On the return journey, the carts brought back
coal for the boilers from the Pontesbury Coalfield. From the bottom of
Ovenpipe Shaft, a crosscut ran along the 74 fathom level to Main Lode and an
internal shaft was begun down the angle of the lode. By the beginning of
1870, this had reached the 92 fathom level. Since these workings would need
to be pumped, there must have been a system of flat rods along the 74 fathom
crosscut to operate pumps in the new underground shaft. Water was presumably
pumped up to the crosscut and directed to the sump of the Ovenpipe Shaft.
Although it was easy to work ore in the lode, it had to be wound up the
internal shaft in kibbles, taken by wheelbarrow along the crosscut and then
wound up Ovenpipe Shaft using the small winding engine. This was a very
inefficient system and it was found that the maximum amount that could be
removed was about 50 tons per month. This did not satisfy Waters who believed
that it was possible to extract 300 tons per month if a new shaft was sunk
from surface directly onto the workings. Heighway Jones
could not afford this scheme himself so, in 1870, a joint stock company
called the Tankerville Mining Company was formed with £72,000 capital. The
company bought out Heighway Jones' interest in the mine in February 1870 and
the names on the official lease were Messrs Murchison, Geach, Watson, Grundy
and Mitchell. The share issue was so popular that it was oversubscribed, with
12,000 £6 shares being offered at £20 within a few days. The price soon
increased to £30 as early profits rose sharply, a dividend of £3,000 being paid
within four months. In May 1870, the mine was renamed Tankerville in honour
of the Earl of Tankerville. At that time, Waters claimed that "the mine
is unquestionably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, lead producing
lodes in Shropshire". During 1870, the
underground shaft was extended from the 52 to the 102 fathom level and a high
pressure Fowler engine was installed underground at the 74 fathom level for
winding purposes as sinking continued. It had 190 fathoms of wrought iron
chimney installed via Ovenpipe Shaft to remove the fumes from the boiler. In
1871 a start was made on sinking the new shaft from surface and a further
three engines of 6, 25 and 60 horsepower were installed at surface. At least
one of these was probably for ore crushing, etc but the larger one probably
replaced the old engine for winding and pumping in Ovenpipe Shaft. This
engine may have been housed in the small engine house adjacent to the top of
Watsons Engine Shaft. This has the marks of a large winding drum on its
internal surface and slots in the north wall. A photograph of around that
period shows the winding cable running from this engine house to Ovenpipe
Shaft. The old engine house was probably relegated to operating the dressing
machinery only. At the end of 1871,
Waters reported that the "mine throughout continues to maintain its high
character for productiveness and had never in its history shown such
indications of permanency". A local press report said "the rich and
profitable mine of Tankerville is second in importance only to Snailbeach,
two miles to the north-east". According to the
Mining Journal, " the extraordinary richness of the Tankerville Lead
Mine is so well known that it is needless to dilate on it here". The new shaft was
called Watsons Engine Shaft after Peter Watson, one of the new partners who
was also a director of Devon Great Consols Mine. By 1872, some ore was being
crushed and stored underground in anticipation of the opening up of the new
shaft. A letter to the Mining Journal in 1872 gives some indication of the
costs of sinking the shaft. A gang of 12 men was employed with each man
earning £1 per week. In a month, the cost of drill steels, powder, fuse,
candles, etc was £12, making a total charge of £60 per month for the gang. If
the gang was paid on contract at £20 per fathom sunk, they would need to sink
3 fathoms per month to cover costs. In a 12ft x 9ft shaft, this would remove
9 cubic fathoms of ore at 20 tons per fathom, giving a yield of 180 tons per
month. Lead ore was selling at £13 per ton at that time.
In February 1873,
Waters commented that "the weather is very severe, but by sending the
hot water from the condenser through our various dressing appliances, we get
on very well preparing the ore for market". Despite the weather, the new
shaft was progressing well, so it can be presumed that the connection had
already been made by then. The new shaft was vertical to the 52 fathom level
(226ft below surface) and it then followed the angle of Main Lode downwards
at 38(. A 32" engine of 25 horsepower was installed for winding in
Watsons Engine Shaft and the big chimney probably dates from this time,
serving this engine first and later being used for the Cornish pumping
engine. An interesting statistic from that year's Annual General Meeting
stated that 27,000 cubic feet of masonry, weighing 1,600 tons, had been used
to construct the engine houses. It was also mentioned that Lewis' Shaft and
Ovenpipe Shaft had been re-timbered, with new ladders and pitwork installed
in the latter. The underground Fowler engine had become redundant and was
removed. The new 32"
engine was also intended for pumping and work was underway to fit new pitwork
in the shaft. A crosscut to the Boat Level was made half way down the
vertical section of the shaft for the pumped water to flow away. In April
1873, the carpenters were preparing a new balance bob, main rods, etc for
pumping in the shaft and it was intended to send down the new pitwork in the
near future. By May 1873, all the bobs were ready, the plunger lifts were
waiting on the ground and the main pumping rods were to hand. It can
therefore be presumed that the new pumps were working by the end of 1873. The
vertical motion of the pump rods had to be converted into angular motion at
500ft below surface, where the shaft changed direction to follow the vein.
This was achieved with great difficulty and there was considerable wear and
tear on the pitwork. Various designs of rods with links, guides, wheels, etc
were tried. A great deal of money had been invested in equipment and Waters
claimed that Tankerville was only in its infancy and the best days were yet
to come. The angle of the
shaft not only caused problems with the pump rods but even more so with the
kibbles. The monthly bill for replacing timber kibble guides in the shaft was
said to be about £200. The kibbles used, according to the Mining Journal,
took 17cwt and even the bulk of Peter Watson himself. Waters replaced the chains
on the winding engines with wire ropes, which weighed a lot less and thus
saved fuel. In May 1873, after introducing wire rope on Watsons Engine Shaft,
Waters said "we do not consume more than half the quantity of coal
required to wind with a chain". By 1874, the shaft
had reached 190 fathoms below adit and John Smitham was appointed as mine
agent to assist Waters. The latter said that the mine was "at last in
full swing, despite a drop in lead output due mainly to the amount of work
connected with sinking the new shaft. The mine is well-managed and
well-equipped and has splendid machinery and general plant for winding,
pumping, crushing and dressing". Lack of surface water for ore dressing
was still a problem, Waters arranged for water to be pumped up from the Boat
Level and yet the following year he was complaining about the heavy rains
which stopped surface working! He continued to issue encouraging reports to
the shareholders, saying "there is a great future in the mine and he had
never seen finer rocks of solid ore". It was found,
however, that the Main Lode was thinning out with depth and there was
increased water in the lower workings. This increased costs and, possibly as
a result, in 1875 the company acquired limited liability as Tankerville
Mining Co Ltd. The existing pumping engine could not cope with the water and
work was started on a new engine house on the other side of the shaft in
September 1875. Despite delays due to bad weather, Waters reported in
November 1875 that "the new engine house is up to the spring beams, the
latter, together with the girder, being in their place. The engine is on the
mine and the boiler, with fittings attached, in the house". By the following
January the beam of the new pumping engine was lifted into its place.
Alterations were
required to the underground pitwork for the new pumping engine and, in summer
1876, Waters reported that "we are getting on well with the engine, the
changing of the pit-work, etc, and shall be ready to commence pumping for
good with them by the time appointed". The 40" Cornish pumping
engine from Harveys Foundry at Hayle was ready for work and connected to the
pumps in the first week of August, allowing Waters to announce that it was
working splendidly and all the difficulties with respect to drainage were
over. By December 1876, he stated that "the new pumping engine drains
the entire mine, old and new workings throughout". Waters indicated that
only one new boiler was required for the engine, presumably the Galloway
boiler which was eventually sold by auction. The other one, a Cornish boiler,
may have been for the 32" engine, which was restricted to winding only
after the new engine was started up. In September 1876,
the usual shortage of surface water caused Waters to comment that "we
have been much put to for want of water for several weeks past but a
favourable change has taken place and the dressing can now go without
delay". The pump on Ovenpipe Shaft was presumably still working to bring
water up to surface from the Boat Level at times of shortage. At Watsons Engine
Shaft, a machine kibble was installed down to the 180 fathom level. This may
have been a skip, a method which was used in Cornish inclined shafts to
increase the speed of loading. At the top of the shaft, ore was transferred
to one of the six adjacent ore bins, all of which had a grating to prevent
large lumps passing through. Of the lumps left on top, pure ore was removed
for sale, waste rock thrown away and mixtures of the two would be broken up
by sledge hammer to a size that would pass through the grating. From here the
ore would go roller crushers and pass through the same dressing processes as
previously described. It was originally intended to extend the Snailbeach
District Railway in the 1870s to Bog Mine and this would have bypassed
Tankerville. In the event, it only reached Crowsnest to the north and all ore
still had to be transported by horse and cart to the smelter at Pontesbury. Waters was still
encouraging the shareholders with comments like in 1876 "no finer
specimen of a Shropshire lead vein can be found anywhere in the
district" and in 1877 "they were mining a champion lode well
charged with ore - the 192 fathom level". In that year the mine doctor,
William Eddowes, retired and the agents and miners raised £3.18.0d towards
his testimonial. There were two dressing floors at the mine and, in November
1877, Waters reported that he hoped to have new machinery installed on the lower
dressing floors by the end of the month. This included new machine jiggers,
classifiers and round buddles which indicates that he had mechanised the
dressing process for greater efficiency. Even so, the surface operations were
reliant on the weather and in December 1878, "the frost was so great
that for some days the ore weighed into the wagons could not be discharged
for some time".
By the end of 1877,
the first hint of caution crept in to Waters' reports when he said "the
present state of our mine in no way alters my opinion as to the chances of
its opening out again to a profitable state in the future". In 1878
Waters rallied by saying that the mine was "sending off ore as fast as
the carriers can take it". The problem was that the Main Lode was
thinning out at depth and it was costing more to obtain ore of a gradually
decreasing quality. These increased costs corresponded with a fall in the
price of lead and in 1878 the company made a loss for the first time. The
company's shares were already fully paid up and it was not possible to raise
any more capital. Waters recommended to the shareholders that the mine only
sell as much ore as necessary to meet costs and concentrate on opening up
ore-bearing ground for when the price rose again. The shareholders would not
agree, however, and as a result, the old company was liquidated. New Engine Shaft
was commenced in 1879 but it only went down to adit level, from where it
connected with Watsons Engine Shaft. The purpose of this shaft is not known
but it may have been an attempt to search for new ore deposits or a means of
pumping water up to the adjacent reservoir. There is a concrete engine bed
next to the shaft but nothing is known about this. The mine was
acquired in 1880 by a new company called Tankerville Great Consols, the
Cornish sounding name being the idea of Peter Watson, the leading light of
the new company. He had bought Bog and Pennerley Mines in 1879 and attempted
to raise £100,000 capital to work all three mines plus Potters Pit. The
venture was described in the Mining Journal as "probably the largest
lead property in the kingdom" but it only raised a little money and this
was used to get ore out of Pennerley Mine and to try to drain Bog Mine.
Tankerville Mine was all but ignored and, within two years, the company was
in financial trouble. In 1882, a crisis meeting of shareholders was held and
at the meeting Waters promised : "We shall not
rest until we have Tankerville into such a position as will recoup you all
your outlay. As long as we are connected with the mine, no stone shall be
left unturned, no brain power that we possess shall be left unexpended to
produce a result that shall be satisfactory not only to our shareholders but
to ourselves". Luckily, some more
capital was raised and Watsons Engine Shaft was sunk to the 244 fathom level.
This was the final depth of the shaft and it has been estimated that it cost
a total of £30,000 to sink, although the ore won more than compensated for
this. By this time, compressed air boring machines were being used and this
is believed to be their first use in Shropshire mines. Despite this, however,
the price of lead continued to fall. It appeared that
North Lode was rapidly approaching the Main Lode in the bottom of the mine
and Peter Watson and Arthur Waters were most anxious to reach the junction.
They believed that this would be where the Main Lode would recover its value,
as it had been so rich at about the 92 fathom level where lodes had branched
away in the vertical plane. They were unable to raise the necessary finance
to continue, however, and the lodes were still 9ft apart at the deepest point
seen, the 244 fathom level. The lode was only producing a maximum of 2 tons
per cubic fathom and, with dressed galena selling at only £6.50 per ton, the
mine could not cover costs. It is worth noting, however, that Arthur Waters
said that there was as much lead in total between each level at the bottom of
the mine as there had been higher but, spread as it was over a much greater
length, it would not pay to stope under ruling conditions. Since the mine was
unable to make a profit, pumping was stopped on 2nd May 1884 and the company
was liquidated 13 days later. The mine workings
flooded up to adit and, although there were subsequent attempts to work the
mine, these were only small. In 1889-90 the mine was worked by the Earl of
Tankerville himself with 4 men on the tips. In April 1891 the mine was leased
by Shropshire United Mining Co Ltd, who paid the Earl of Tankerville £193.
7s. 6d for unidentified machinery. They worked the upper levels of Old Lode
and the mine tips for lead and barytes but had abandoned the site by 30th
September 1893. In 1895 a license was granted to S M Ridge to search for
minerals but little work was actually done. In 1898 the Mining Journal
reported that the 32" winding engine had been removed from the mine. The remaining mine
equipment was finally auctioned off in 1902, together with that of Pennerley
Mine. The lots for Tankerville Mine were :- - Valuable Cornish
beam pumping engine, 40" cylinder, 9ft stroke in and 7ft out, in good
condition, By Harvey, Hayle Foundry, Cornwall. - Single purchase
rope winch. - Coil of 1.5"
rope. - About 162ft of
9" cast iron pump trees in shaft above water, with plunger pole, and
about 1,450ft of 8", 7" and 6" cast iron pump trees under water; also about 162ft of pitchpine
pump rods above water, the remaining pitchpine and iron pump rods under
water. - About 120ft of
cast iron 9" steam flange piping from engine to boilers. - Galloway boiler,
with two tubes 30ft 6" x 6ft 6" by Easton & Tattersall, Leeds - Cornish boiler,
with one tube, 3ft x 6ft 6", with steam and safety valves. - Quantity of
3" steam and feed piping and several 3" bends. - Two wrought iron
kibbles and sheet iron pit tub. - Quantity of
2" wrought iron piping. - Wrought iron
scale hook and sundries. - Free stone engine
bed, with strong wrought iron holding-down bolts and nuts. A number of items
are missing from the list, eg the engines from Ovenpipe Shaft and the
crushers, rails, dressing machinery, etc. It is likely therefore that they
had been previously been sold or removed for use elsewhere on the combined
sett, perhaps at Pennerley. In 1921-23 the mine was leased
to Shropshire Lead Mines Ltd who worked the dumps for barytes and calcite,
the latter being used for pebble dashing. In 1922 the official records showed
five persons working underground but these may have been working at one of
the other mines on the sett. It was probably during this period that there
was a branch aerial ropeway from the one that took barytes from Bog Mine to
Minsterley. This took spar, etc from Tankerville up past Burgam Mine to a
transfer station. In 1929 the Boat Level was blocked just past the junction
with the mine, probably by infill of a shaft. The crosscut to Ovenpipe Shaft
has also now collapsed but water can still flow through. |
|
||||||||||||
