Shropshire Copper Mines

The Triassic sandstone outcrops forming the southern rim of the Cheshire-Shropshire basin
are home to a number of small copper mines.
It has been suggested that some may have been worked by the Romans (or even earlier),
but the only real evidence for the mines puts their working period as 1600's to 1900's

The six Shropshire copper mines worked copper ores associated with cobalt along with some barite and wad (manganese). All the mines worked along a fault wall (apart from the trials at Hawkstone/Weston) and they all appear to have started as surface trenching which developed into adit and shaft mines - initially hand working, but with machinery being introduced in later years.

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Little remains on the surface at the mine sites and apart from the interesting stopes and tunnels at Clive hardly any of the underground workings are now accessible (due to infilling or flooding).

Eardiston or Rednal Mine, the most westerly of this group of copper mines it was reputed to be a very wet site, the remains of an engine house, run-in shaft, quarry and adit survive.

Yorton Bank a relatively unknown site with little documentary or physical evidence surviving.

Pymhill (or Pim Hill) Mine known to have been worked in the 1600's its main period of activity was in the 1860's. Some surface and underground features survive. Vanadium ore was reputed to have been found here.

Clive (or Grinshill) Mine situated on the Clive Fault, this site has the most extensive remains today. Reputed to have been worked by the Romans, it certain had extensive workings by the 1600's and 1700's with its most propserous period of working around 1860-1870's.

Wixhill Mine another small site, with little remaining today - although two small adits and a couple of shaft sites are identifiable.

Hawkstone & Weston Mines considered to have been sites of 'trials'. Part of the Hawkstone Mine is now incorporated into a folly. It is thought the sites may have been Roman or pre-Roman mines or fortification excavations.

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