 The former Meadow Shaft in 2022 | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Location | Minera (Near Wrexham) |
| Country | Wales |
| Coordinates | 53°03′03″N3°04′56″W / 53.0507582°N 3.0823232°W |
| Production | |
| Products | Lead, Zinc |
| History | |
| Opened | 1845 |
| Active | 1845–1914 |
| Closed | 1914 |
| Owner | |
| Company | Minera Mining Company |
The Minera Lead Mines were a mining operation and are now a country park and tourist centre in the village of Minera near Wrexham, in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. [1]
The first written record of lead mining at Minera dates back to 1296, when Edward I of England hired miners from the site to work in his new mines in Devon. Not all of them vacated the area, however, as mining went on until the Black Death in 1349, when it ended.
Its not clear when lead mining resumed in Minera. There are many old shafts in the area shown on the 1870s maps. The management of water levels was achieved either by the use of adits, or later by the use of steam pumping engines. At the location of the Lead Mines Country Park we know mining had resumed by the 18th century as there are references to the "City Land Mine work in Minera" in 1773 (City Lands was the early name for what is now called New Brighton). [2] Mining was given a further boost when John Taylor & Sons (a large international mining company originating in Cornwall) formed the Minera Mining Company. This injected capital into the operations allowing more stationary steam engines, and also blast caves from down in the valley into the mines, for extra drainage. One of the shafts is called Taylors Shaft.
John Taylor & Sons had used a £30,000 investment at the time, yet the profits for 1864 alone were £60,000 (equivalent to over £4 Million in 2008). By 1900, the price of lead and zinc had fallen dramatically, while the price of coal used for the steam engine rose. The stationary steam engine stopped work in 1909. The owners sold off the mines and all assets by 1914.
For transport, the Mines had their own railway branch line, which connected with the end of the Wrexham and Minera Branch at Minera Limeworks. The mines also had their own steam locomotive, a Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST (Works No. 21) Henrietta. [3] The lead ore would be taken to Wrexham for transport nationally, and coal brought back. The line was lifted in 1914 when the mines closed, but was relaid again in the 1920s to serve two silica clay pits (Graig Fawr quarry and Tir Celyn quarry) which were run by the newly formed Minera Silica Quarries Limited from 1926. The 'Minera Mineral Branch' appears in a 1947 list of GWR lines, so would have become a British Rail line in 1948. [4] The track was lifted for the last time in the early 1960s.
Plans to build a tourist narrow gauge railway on the trackbed from the lead mines towards the Minera Limeworks were in the 1990 development plan, but were not progressed. Minera Quarry was still in use at the time (it closed in 1994). The Minera Quarry Trust was formed in 2005 to promote the use of the quarry for the local community, and in 2017 the quarry came under the ownership of the North Wales Wildlife Trust who purchased it from Tarmac. The quarry was formally opened to the public in June 2018. [5]
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The workings and local area underwent massive restoration and regeneration funded by Wrexham County Borough Council and the Welsh Development Agency beginning in 1988 to make sure the lead, Zinc and lime spoil tips didn't contaminate local water supplies, the Engine house was rebuilt and fitted with replica machinery, as the original steam engine was removed in 1914. A visitor Centre was opened for public use, and the engine house is part of a tour. It is a site of tourism for Wrexham County Borough Council.
In 2004, the site was attacked by vandals, but this was repaired by the council in 2005. By 2024 much of the heavy replica woodwork supporting the winding gear had become rotten and dangerous, and so it was removed.
Richard Trevithick was a British inventor and mining engineer. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He was an early pioneer of steam-powered road and rail transport, and his most significant contributions were the development of the first high-pressure steam engine and the first working railway steam locomotive. The world's first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place on 21 February 1804, when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.
Locomotion No. 1 is an early steam locomotive that was built in 1825 by the pioneering railway engineers George and Robert Stephenson at their manufacturing firm, Robert Stephenson and Company. It became the first steam locomotive to haul a passenger-carrying train on a public railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR).
Coedpoeth is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The built-up area with Minera had a population of 5,723 in the 2011 census.
The Minera Limeworks were extensive lime quarries and kilns at Minera in Wrexham, Wales. It was located at grid reference SJ253520, near the villages of Gwynfryn, Minera, and Coedpoeth and was locally referred to as The Calch.
The Wrexham and Minera Railway or Wrexham and Minera Branch was a railway line in North Wales between the city of Wrexham, the village of Brymbo where it served the Brymbo Steelworks, and the lead mines and limeworks at Minera. A further branch ran from Brymbo to Coed Talon, where it connected with lines to Mold. The system was constructed in several stages between 1844 and 1872, while the various lines making up the system closed in 1952, 1972 and 1982.
The Hetton colliery railway was an 8-mile (13 km) long private railway opened in 1822 by the Hetton Coal Company at Hetton-le-Hole, County Durham, England. The Hetton was the first railway to be designed from the start to be operated without animal power, as well as being the first entirely new line to be developed by the pioneering railway engineer George Stephenson.
Croes Newydd was a large steam locomotive shed, marshalling yard and junction in Wrexham, in Wales.
The River Clywedog is a river in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. Its uses have been watering crops, powering industrial machinery but is now used as walking trails or geography trips. The river originates to the west of Wrexham, and joins the River Dee some four miles south east of the city.
The Great Laxey Mine Railway was originally constructed to serve the Isle of Man's Great Laxey Mine, a lead mine located in Laxey. The 19 in gauge railway runs from the old mine entrance to the washing floors along a right of way that passes through the Isle of Man's only remaining railway tunnel under the 3 ft gauge Victorian Manx Electric Railway and the main A2 Douglas to Ramsey coast road.
Minera is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It adjoins the village of Coedpoeth.
Bwlchgwyn is a village in Wrexham County Borough, Wales, on the A525 road, 5 miles (8 km) west of the city of Wrexham and 10 miles (16 km) south-east of the town of Ruthin. Bwlchgwyn is part of the community of Brymbo. In the 2011 Census the population of the village was 855.
Bersham Ironworks were large ironworks at Bersham, near Wrexham, Wales. They are most famous for being the original working site of John Wilkinson. They were also the first site in the world to use a new way of boring holes in cannon and steam engine cylinders.
Wheatsheaf Junction was the location where a branch of the North Wales Mineral Railway to Brymbo connected with Shrewsbury and Chester line between Wrexham and Gresford.
Brymbo is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It lies in the hilly country to the west of Wrexham city, largely surrounded by farmland.
The Ruabon Moors are an area of upland moorland in Wales to the west of Ruabon and Wrexham. They lie partly within Wrexham County Borough and partly within Denbighshire.
The Donnington Wood Canal was a 5.5-mile (8.9 km) private canal in East Shropshire, England, which ran from coal pits owned by Earl Gower at Donnington Wood to Pave Lane on the Wolverhampton to Newport Turnpike Road. It was completed in about 1767 and abandoned in 1904. The canal was part of a larger network of tub-boat canals, which were used for the transport of raw materials, particularly coal, limestone and ironstone, from the locations where they were mined to furnaces where the iron ore was processed. The canal was connected to the Wombridge Canal and the Shropshire Canal.
Esclusham Mountain is an area in Wrexham County Borough, Wales, United Kingdom, and is part of the Ruabon Moors. It rises to a height of 460 m, with the nearby spur of Cyrn-y-Brain, to the west, reaching 473 m. It lies mostly within the community of Esclusham. A smaller spur to the north, known as Minera Mountain, is within the neighbouring community of Minera.
A mine railway, sometimes pit railway, is a railway constructed to carry materials and workers in and out of a mine. Materials transported typically include ore, coal and overburden. It is little remembered, but the mix of heavy and bulky materials which had to be hauled into and out of mines gave rise to the first several generations of railways, at first made of wooden rails, but eventually adding protective iron, steam locomotion by fixed engines and the earliest commercial steam locomotives, all in and around the works around mines.
New Brighton is a small hamlet near Minera, in north-east Wales.
Henry Dennis (1825–1906) was an English civil engineer. He was born and died in Bodmin, Cornwall but spent much of his working life in North Wales where he was involved in railways and coal mines, usually as managing director. He was an alderman, and a justice of the peace, and sat on several professional bodies, including being president of the Mining Association of Great Britain.