Hanging Flat Mine
The Hanging Flat mine is a small lead and fluorspar mine, located slightly south-west of Eyam, in Derbyshire’s White Peak region. The history of lead mining in the Hanging Flat area dates back at least to 1881 when the Hanging Flat House was inhabited by one Samuel Needham, aged 45, his wife, two daughters and two sons. In the 1881 census the occupation of Samuel Needham’s two sons (aged 15 and 22) is listed as “lead miner” while that of Samuel is recored as “farmer of 28 acres and lead miner”. Between 1881 and 1901 the family seems to have been engaged in some form of lead mining or the other. Whether they were mining the same mine as the one that nowadays is called “Hanging Flat Mine” is not certain but not impossible given the locations of the lead and spar mines on the 1899 Ordnance Survey Map.
The current incarnation of the mine dates back to the 1960’s when it was (re-) opened by J. Garlick. Subsequently, it was mined for fluorspar throughout the 1970s but with very little economic success. In the 1980s the mine was was taken over by a ex-Laporte employee called Roger Ridgeway who worked the mine slightly more succesfully. However, ultimately the mine was deemed economically not viable and closed in 1987. Note that Laporte were the owners of Glebe Mines who operated the nearby Sallet Hole Mine and constructed Cavendish Mill in 1965.
Another lead mine I visited while in the Peak District was the Watersaw Mine.
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