It is impossible to say when copper deposits were first worked on the
hill but, if copper ore was exposed at surface in a rock outcrop, its obvious
green colour might have attracted early miners. Elsewhere in the country, it
has been proved that copper was mined in the Bronze Age as one of the
constituents of bronze. A Mr Samuel Wood, surgeon from
Initial working of the copper probably took the form of "Open
Cut" works along the length of the vein, where the mineral could be found
at the surface. It is impossible to prove when this first started but it is
known for certain that adjacent mines were extracting copper in the 17th
Century. It would have been necessary to dig the holes deeper as the copper was
removed and eventually the open workings would have became unsafe. The only way
then was to sink shafts and mine the copper at depth. It should be mentioned
that this early mining was often carried out as a part-time activity by small
groups of farmworkers. At that time, it was common for farmworkers to be laid off
over winter and, since there was no other source of income, mining copper kept
their families fed until Spring. The surface would thus have been divided up
into numerous areas, all worked by different groups.
The earliest underground workings were called "bellpits"
because the shape was like an inverted bell. The shaft would be about 3ft in
diameter at the top and it would be enlarged into a chamber at the bottom when
the copper deposits were reached. Small passages would be driven from the chamber
but they wouldn't go more than a few feet due to lack of ventilation. Since the
only means of lighting was tallow candles or grease lamps, the air in the
workings would rapidly become too foul to work in. In some cases, the extent of
bellpit workings was limited to that where daylight could penetrate from the
shaft, thus removing the need for artificial lighting and its attendant
ventilation problems. When a bellpit became impossible to ventilate, it was
abandoned and a new one sunk a few yards away, the waste rock being thrown down
the old shaft.
It is often thought that bellpit shafts were linked underground but
evidence suggests that this was not the case. It was common for adjacent
bellpits to be worked by different groups and they would jealously guard their workings.
Any connection would allow the neighbouring miners to creep in and steal their
copper! The visitor to Clive Mine will see a number of these old shafts in the
roof of the currently accessible workings but they were undercut by the later
workings rather than being connected earlier.
It was fortunate for the miners that sandstone was relatively easy to
break down with picks, hammers and chisels. They had no explosives in those
days and they had to dig the shafts and levels by hand. If they were lucky,
there would be cracks or weaknesses in the rock in which they could place a
wedge and break off large pieces. If not, they had to wear it away with chisels
and picks. The remains of the old shafts still show pick marks and the
beautifully squared shape testifies to the pride and skill of the old miners.
Old tools dating from the 17th Century were found in the mine during the last
period of working but these have now all gone.
By the start of the 18th century, a change in working methods seems to
have taken place. The old piecemeal working had been abandoned and attempts
made to develop the workings in more efficient manner. The earliest known
record is that a mine at Clive belonged to Thomas Spendiloves who bequeathed it
to his son John on his death in 1703. The latter then leased it to Roger
Atcherley in 1711. There is also, however, a reference to a Drepewood or
Threapwood Mine in the area which was worked in 1710 by Thomas Oswin. This
suggests that there may actually have been two separate mines working the same
deposit, reflecting land in different ownerships.
A letter dated 19th January 1739 from John Spendiloves to a Mr Bresner
at Droitwich supports this suggestion. In it, Spendiloves says "... There
is on
This seems to indicate that there were mine workings on both
The significance of a lease "one mile round" the church is as
follows. In 1568, Queen Elizabeth I chartered two organisations to encourage home
production of copper. These were the Company of Mines Royal (who had a monopoly
on copper mining in Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire,
Westmorland, Cumberland, Lancaster and York) and the Company of Mineral &
Battery Works (who had the monopoly in all other counties). They either engaged
in mining operations themselves or granted licences in return for a royalty.
During the 16th century, their mining activities decreased and they failed to
encourage the copper industry as they were set up to do. As a result, there was
great discontent amongst landowners and miners and a number of illegal copper
mining operations were set up in opposition. Even when official licences were
granted to mine copper there were encroachments, with some trying to extend
workings up to five miles around the given spot. The Company of Mineral &
Battery Works (which controlled
The mine was probably worked on a small scale for many years until 1862,
when a new venture was attempted. In September of that year, Articles were
executed between William Henderson (manager of British Metal Extracting Ltd and
company chemist for Alderley Edge Mining Co Ltd)) and James Thomas Harris. In
these, Henderson agreed to sell to Harris all his rights and interests in or
near Clive, viz 3 undivided 1/5th shares presently leased from Robert Gardner
of Sansaw Hall for 21 years from 25th March 1862. It is not known who held the
other two 1/5th shares of the mine but this might even have been Harris
himself.
On 7th October 1862, Robert Gardner granted a 21 year lease of the mine
to James Thomas Harris, Kendal Coghill and John Coghill. The lessees undertook
to pay £4 per acre every half year for the first 10 years of the lease,
together with 1/15th of all copper ore raised. For the remainder of the lease,
they would pay 1/12th of all copper ore raised. The lease specifically excluded
field number 245, which is interesting since on an estate map dated 1882 this
field is described as "The New Mine Spoil Bank and
A clue comes from a comment in the later lease which states that
"Harris, Coghill and Coghill still stand to be possessed of the mines for
the residue of the 21 years". It is possible that
The later lease allowed the lessees to search for and extract copper
mines, veins, beds, nests and bunches of copper ore, mineral ores and metallic
minerals on parcels of land indicated. Clauses were inserted to facilitate
buildings, de-watering, etc and as little damage as possible was to be done.
The mines were to be measured and dialled (surveyed) and sections kept.
There was also a clause specifying that, within 3 months of finishing
mining operations, the lessee must "sollar" all pits and shafts as
ought to be kept open to the depth of, or at least 12ft below, the level of the
deepest adits communicating thereto. The meaning of this term is not clear but
it seems to refer to ensuring that the important shafts were kept open to below
adit level so that access to the workings could be maintained for future
lessees. The lessee also had to fill up and safely cover all excavations, pits,
shafts, etc not required by Mr Gardner. This is a fairly standard part of a
mining lease which tried to ensure that an abandoned mine did not become a
danger to the landowner's stock but was still able to be re-opened at a future
date. Present day evidence suggests that the abandoned shafts were not filled
in as required but such clauses were always difficult to enforce after mining
operations had ceased. The adit mentioned in the lease may be the same one
indicated on the 1901 Ordnance Survey map, incorrectly labelled as for
ironstone.
The format of the lease seems to suggest that it was used to construct
additional leases of the mine, although there is no evidence that they were
ever operational. It would appear that there had been sufficient previous
mining to necessitate such an elaborate lease and that the lessees had great
expectations.
As soon as Harris and the two Coghills had obtained the lease, they set
about forming the Clive Copper Mining Co Ltd under the Companies Act 1862. The
Memorandum of Articles & Association state that "The company shall
have the right to purchase, to take on lease or tenancy, working mines of
copper or other mines situate near Clive and for ... reducing, refining,
melting by acids or otherwise the ores from mines and to sell the same".
The initial capital was £10,000 in £1 shares, made up as :-
Samuel Morris 4,499
Kendal Coghill 2,249
Sir John Coghill 2,050
F Phillips 1,000
H Somerville 200
James Thomas Harris 1
Basliff 1
The fact that Harris was one of the original partners but only held 1
share indicates that he perhaps contributed practical mining knowledge to the
enterprise rather than capital. The original partners would do well out of the
deal since they would have received payment from the new company for selling
their lease and also became shareholders into the bargain.
Three years later in 1865, the company was offering the lease for sale
at £4,000 and it was bought by the New Clive Mining Co Ltd. Most of the
shareholders of the new company were from
During 1868, the main drawing shaft was deepened to below the lower
tramming level, a depth of 183ft, and a borehole continued from its base. This
then became a well that supplied water to the estate and it is still in use
today. Mining operations had certainly ceased for good by 1869 when the acid
leaching tanks were sold to a mine in
Up to the end of the 18th century, the "old men" had only
removed the solid deposits of copper ore since they didn't have the ability to
separate the copper where it was intermingled with sandstone. The 19th Century
miners possessed better technology and thus not only re-worked the areas mined
previously but also took a greater proportion of the ore out. This has left
large voids called "stopes" in the upper level which have destroyed
most of the earlier workings. They have also truncated the old bellpit shafts,
which can be seen entering at roof level.
This secondary working included the use of modern techniques such as
drilling and blasting, as well as wagons and tramways to transport the ore.
Remains of sleepers and powder barrels were found when the mine was
re-discovered. Underhand stoping methods were also used, where ore was mined
from below the haulage level. This was labour intensive and meant that the
miners had to overcome gravity, as opposed to overhand stoping where ore was
mined above and gravity used to bring it down to the haulage level.
The lower levels contain no mineralisation but there is evidence of the
use of rails, tubs and blasting. It is thus likely that they were developed at
the same time as the underhand stopes mentioned above and that ore was thrown
down to the lower levels to be transported to the shaft. The upper and lower
levels were connected by internal shafts called winzes but there are no remains
of the ore chutes which must have been installed in these to control the
loading of tubs some 25m below.
Once at surface, the copper ore had to be treated to make it suitable
for sale to the smelter. Since the smelter only wanted copper ore, the miners
had to remove this from the sandstone where it was intermingled. Large pieces
of pure copper ore could be picked out by hand but the rest had to be crushed
and separated. In early years, the technology did not exist to do this but
William Henderson's patent for acid-leaching almost certainly extended the life
of the mine and enabled extraction of a large percentage of the 3.5% copper
present in the intermingled ore.
The intermingled ore was crushed to produce pieces less than 25mm in
size and placed in the tanks. Dilute hydrochloric acid was poured onto the ore
and this dissolved out the hydrated copper minerals. The tanks had false
bottoms covered with brushwood and straw, which allowed the hydrochloric acid
to pass through and be collected. Every two hours the acid was poured back in
and the process repeated until the acid was saturated and no more copper could
be dissolved. The acid was then fed into precipitating tanks where pieces of
scrap iron and cuttings of tinplate were added, causing copper to be released
from the solution and replaced by the iron. The copper collected on the base of
the tank as a dark brown solid, this was removed, dried and sold as a
precipitate averaging 75% copper. At other mines, the remaining solution was
evaporated to produce a cobalt concentrate but it is not known if this was done
at Clive. There were 24 acid-leaching tanks in use at Clive but it is not known
where they were sited. They were sold to Van Consols Lead & Barytes Mining
Co Ltd in 1869 when Clive Mine closed and were used to process barytes at their
Bryntail Mine. The latter site is now the Clywedog Dam and visitors are able to
walk around a mine trail and view the tanks in situ.
History 2 ("Mining in
Further east is the
The mine was probably worked on a small scale for many years until 1862
when the Clive Copper Mining Co Ltd was formed to acquire the mine. Three years
later the company was offering the lease for sale at £4,000 and it was bought
by the New Clive Mining Co Ltd in 1865. Most of the shareholders of the new
company were from
By 1869 the ore had run out and the company was selling off the mine's
equipment, including a set of stone troughs for precipitating copper. Some of
the latter went to the Bryntail Mine in
There are a number of shafts into the workings and many of these are old
shallow ones which date from the early working of the mine. The Rubbish Shaft
is in the wood opposite Mine House and has been capped with a locked lid. Well
Shaft is in the building in front of Mine House and was converted to a well by
deepening the shaft after working ceased. All other shafts have either been
filled or capped.