Snailbeach | |
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![]() Lords Hill Baptist Chapel and cottage, Snailbeach | |
Location within Shropshire | |
OS grid reference | SJ375025 |
Civil parish | |
Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | SHREWSBURY |
Postcode district | SY5 |
Dialling code | 01743 |
Police | West Mercia |
Fire | Shropshire |
Ambulance | West Midlands |
UK Parliament | |
Snailbeach is a village in Shropshire, England, located near Shrewsbury at grid reference SJ375025 . The population details taken at the 2011 census can be found under Worthen. The village was formerly home to a large lead mine.
A village was built for workers at the local lead mine – Snailbeach Mine, which reputedly dates back to Roman times. The mine has some of the best-preserved surface buildings of a lead mine left standing in Britain including a Cornish Engine House. It is managed by the Shropshire Mines Trust. [1] Snailbeach Mine was the biggest lead mine in Shropshire and it is reputed to have yielded the greatest volume of lead per acre of any mine in Europe. Although the miners mainly extracted lead ore (galena) from the mine, smaller quantities of barytes, calcite, fluorspar, silver and zinc were also obtained.
Underground mining ceased in Snailbeach in 1955. Since 1955 only some reworking of the spoil heaps for spar, to use as pebble dash on buildings, has occurred. Barytes from here was sent to the Windscale nuclear reactor to smother fuel cells after an accident. Locals carried on working the tips until the 1970s. Although some ore is said to have been left standing in the mine, it does not seem likely that the mine will reopen. The old miners were very thorough in their working and rarely left much ore for later generations. Once a mine has been allowed to flood and the machinery removed the cost of reopening the mine increases dramatically and the prospect usually becomes too expensive. Any large amounts of lead remaining in the area are likely to be below the Ritton Castle area. Unfortunately miners would probably have to dig at least 1,000 feet down before they reach the top of the lead deposits, if they could find them. This is too deep and too expensive so lead mining in Shropshire is unlikely to become a major industry ever again.
The Shropshire County Council, using government grants, did extensive work in the early 1990s to make some of the shallow workings safe for the villagers. At the same time, they acquired many of the surface buildings and preserved these [2] or restored them [3] from a semi-derelict condition. [4] The white spoil tip on the northern edge of the village, which had been a local landmark, was landscaped and planted with trees as part of the mining reclamation works.
The Shropshire Mines Trust manages the mine site on behalf of Shropshire Council, which owns many of the mine buildings and much of the land and gives free access to visit the publicly-owned sites; guided tours can include such features otherwise not accessible.
Snailbeach contains a Church of England church, St Luke's, a Methodist Chapel and cemetery, and, a village hall. The latter contains a circular war memorial tablet to the local men who died serving in the Second World War. [5]
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Silvermines, historically known as Bellagowan, is a village in County Tipperary in Ireland. It lies immediately north of the Silvermine mountain range and takes its name from the extensive mines of lead, zinc, copper, baryte and silver nearby. Towards the very south of the Silvermine Mountains is the highest peak in the mountains, Keeper Hill or in Irish Sliabh Cimeálta, which rises to 695m, dominating the area. Silvermines is located near the town of Nenagh on the R499 regional road. It is a parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe and is also in the historical barony of Ormond Upper.
Snailbeach District Railways was a British narrow gauge railway in Shropshire. It was built to carry lead ore from mines in the Stiperstones to Pontesbury where the ore was transshipped to the Great Western Railway's Minsterley branch line. Coal from the Pontesford coal mines travelled in the opposite direction. The line ended at Snailbeach, the location of Shropshire's largest and richest lead mine, though there had been a plan to extend it further, which would have brought it closer to more lead mines.
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Snailbeach Countryside Site is an industrial archeology site in Shropshire. It is located three 3 miles (4.8 km) south of the village of Pontesbury and around 12 miles (19 km) from the county town of Shrewsbury. At peak of production during the 19th century, it was reputed to be extracting the largest volume of lead per acre in Europe.
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Worthen with Shelve is a civil parish in Shropshire, England. It contains 88 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, one is listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, four are at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The parish contains two contrasting regions. The region to the northwest is mainly rural, and contains villages and smaller settlements, including Worthen, Aston Pigott, and Brockton. In this region, most of the listed buildings are houses, cottages, farmhouses and farm buildings, many of which are timber framed. The region also includes churches, public houses, a country house and associated structures, a bridge, milestones, pumps, and a war memorial. The southeast region is more hilly and during the 19th century was an important area for lead mining, particularly the area around Snailbeach. Some of the areas containing the former lead mines are designated as scheduled monuments. The listed buildings relating to the lead mining industry include chimneys, engine houses, and winding engine houses, some of which are in ruins, and a locomotive shed.
Arn Gill is a ravine or gully containing a beck of the same name, near the village of Muker in Swaledale, North Yorkshire, England. The ravine and beck run steeply downhill from the stream's source in Arn Gill Head, and the beck disgorges into the River Swale below.