Welcome to the Flintshire Lead Mining pages
 Above: A natural cavern beneath Halkyn Mountain. Prior to the lowering of water tables by mining, water passed through this cavern on its way to St. Winefride's Well at Holywell over two miles to the north-west. Both the well and the cave system were drained in 1917 when the driving of the Milwr Tunnel broke into a limb of the system near the hamlet of Windmill.
These few random pages have been put together simply to make available some of the information that's been lying around the house for too long, together with one or two pieces of more recent work on the lead mines of the Halkyn Mountain - River Alyn Area of Flintshire and parts of Denbighshire. It's also a first attempt at using the free website offered by Google.sites, so please excuse the entirely non-technical presentation and unwanted variations of text sizes (at least until I've figured it out). Hundreds of veins cross the limestone area of Flintshire. Only a handful are described here.
Please check here again in a few months to check for changes or additions. See bottom of this page for most recent changes.
Feel free to use any of the information within (except the map reproduced with the consent of the BGS on the North Henblas page) if only for non-commercial use, but if doing so, kindly credit the author, photographer or source. Uncredited photos are by the author. All others acknowledge the photographer.
To find this website easily, simply Google the single word: flintshireleadmining or add it to your Favourites now
Archaeologists tend to favour the use of mine company names when making any reference to mining areas. This can however confuse those interested in the underground workings, as many companies worked varying veins throughout their histories. The names of lead veins tend to change far less throughout the history of lead mining and provide a more reliable understanding of the complex system of veins and workings of the area. Vein names are therefore used wherever possible on this site, with the notable exception of Halkyn District United Mines.
Choose a topic from the Navigation bar on left of page
Download files from the page: "Assorted HDUM Information"
A bibliography can be found under "Further reading"
Click on most photos to enlarge and then use the BACK button to continue
CONTACT
Recent publications: (see Further Reading page for fuller bibliography).....
Rediscovering the Lead and Zinc Production of North-East Wales by WILLIAMS, C.J. & WILLIAMS, R. ALAN (2012)
Welsh Mines Society Journal, Welsh Mines and Mining, No 2 (2012).
A nineteen page paper on the history and production of the area. An authoritive assessment analysing the royalty accounts of Grosvenor estate from 1635. The authors conclude that the total production of the lead mines of Flintshire & Denbighshire amount to 1.66 million tons of ore concentrates; a figure only exceeded in the UK by lead mines of the northern Pennines.
The paper forms part of a larger publication which can be ordered at the Welsh Mines Society website at: http://www.welshmines.org/wms/publ/02_flier.pdf
Hidden Bullion: Silver Production in North-East Wales by WILLIAMS, R. ALAN (2012) Welsh Mines Society Journal, Welsh Mines and Mining, No 2 (2012). An eleven page accompanying paper to the one above. This also analyses the royalty accounts of Grosvenor estate from 1635 and concludes that the importance of "silver production in north-east Wales should be given more emphasis when considering the history of the orefield, especially prior to the nineteenth century".
The paper also forms part of a larger publication which can be ordered at the Welsh Mines Society website at: http://www.welshmines.org/wms/publ/02_flier.pdf
Lead Mines of the Alyn Valley (Flintshire Historical Society). WILLIAMS, C.J. (1980). Although published in 1980, this classic work has now been made available online: http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/viewpage/llgc-id:1218518/llgc-id:1218642/llgc-id:1218707/get650 . |