 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]
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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.
In 1527, two men bought the rights to mine on the site, but deeper workings were unworkable due to the presence of underground rivers, and the inability to prevent flooding. The inability to pay for steam engines to pump out water closed the mines again until 1845, when John Taylor & Sons, mining agents from Flintshire, formed the Minera Mining Company. They were able to build a stationary steam engine on site, and also blast caves from down in the valley into the mines, for extra drainage. The steam engine was a Cornish engine (i.e. a Beam engine), typical for stationary engines at the time.
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. [2] 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. [3] 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, and it was not until 2018 that it came under the ownership of the North Wales Wildlife Trust.[ citation needed ]
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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.
Clwyd is a preserved county of Wales, situated in the north-east corner of the country; it is named after the River Clwyd, which runs through the area. To the north lies the Irish Sea, with the English ceremonial counties of Cheshire to the east and Shropshire to the south-east. Powys and Gwynedd lie to the south and west respectively. Clwyd also shares a maritime boundary with Merseyside along the River Dee. Between 1974 and 1996, a slightly different area had a county council, with local government functions shared with six district councils. In 1996, Clwyd was abolished, and the new principal areas of Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham County Borough were created; under this reorganisation, "Clwyd" became a preserved county, with the name being retained for certain ceremonial functions.
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.
Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, in and around Blaenavon, Torfaen, Wales, was inscribed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. The Blaenavon Ironworks, now a museum, was a major centre of iron production using locally mined or quarried iron ore, coal and limestone. Raw materials and products were transported via horse-drawn tramroads, canals and steam railways. The Landscape includes protected or listed monuments of the industrial processes, transport infrastructure, workers' housing and other aspects of early industrialisation in South Wales.
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.
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.
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.
Coed Talon is a small, formerly industrial village between Leeswood and Treuddyn in Flintshire, Wales. Its name is derived from the Welsh word coed ("wood") and the word talwrn, anglicised to "Talon", meaning a "hillside devoid of trees" or "threshing-floor". Other translations of "Talwrn" suggest the words "lumber", "spot" or "field".
Cefn Coed Colliery Museum is a former coal mine, now operating as a museum. It is located at Crynant near Neath in the South Wales Valleys.
The Treffry Tramways were a group of mineral tramways in Cornwall in the United Kingdom, constructed by Joseph Treffry (1782–1850), a local land owner and entrepreneur. They were constructed to give transport facilities to several mines and pits producing non-ferrous metal, granite and china clay in the area between the Luxulyan Valley and Newquay, and were horse-operated, with the use of water and steam power on inclines, and at first operated in conjunction with the Par Canal and Par Docks, also constructed by Treffry. One of the routes crossed the Luxulyan Valley on a large viaduct, the largest in Cornwall when it was built.
Oakeley quarry is a slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, north Wales. It was the largest underground slate mine in the world, and had 26 floors spanning a vertical height of nearly 1,500 feet (460 m).
Esclusham is a community and electoral ward in Wrexham County Borough, Wales.
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.
The Brampton Railway was a mineral railway built in 1798 to bring coal from workings on Tindale Fell to staiths at Brampton. It was a development of short sections of earlier wooden railways.
New Brighton is a small hamlet near Minera, in north-east Wales.