The mine is situated in an area where lead has been mined since Roman
times (proved by the discovery of pigs of lead with Roman inscriptions and
dates) but lead mining died out before the First World War. Lead mining was
gradually taken over by the mining of barytes (BaSO4), a spar mineral which
often accompanied the lead in large quantities. At that time, it was used for
paint and paper making and in chemical manufacture but it is now used in large
quantities as drilling mud in the oil industry. Rhadley was a barytes producer,
only a little galena (PbS) being found.
The mine lies on Black Rhadley Hill, part of the Stiperstones, a rocky
ridge formed by the Stiperstones Quartzite (basal Ordovician in age). The
barytes ore-shoot seems to have been in the overlying Mytton Flags formation
(flaggy fine sandstones), in a vein which may have been a fault between the
quartzite and the flags, the details of the geology being unclear. The Mytton
Flags were the host rock for all the major lead-zinc orebodies in the area.
Trials for lead were apparently carried out at several periods in the
19th century, eg in 1874 a 'caunter' lode close to the north-east boundary was
being investigated. Several shallow pits and collapsed shafts can be traced on
the line of this, on a steep slope close to the edge of a forestry plantation.
At the foot of these workings can be seen a collapsed adit, with a tip
containing some barytes but largely quartzite. All these workings are probably
in quartzite, a rock unfavourable for any economic mineralisation. The adit is
shown on an old plan to extend into the adjoining Rock Mine, another small
barytes and lead mine.
The first success at Rhadley came in the 1880s when the barytes vein on
the hillside was discovered. This trends east-west and dips 700N. It carried an
orebody about 60 yards long at surface containing up to 8ft width of solid
barytes, with some calcite and scattered galena crystals. The deposit was
discovered by Edward Wardman in 1883, who worked it on his own for 12 months
before taking on local miners. The barytes and lead was carted to Minsterley
station. Between 1887-1890 Wardman sold 2,670 tons of barytes worth 13/- per
ton. In 1891 it was worked by the South Shropshire Barytes Co Ltd, who sold
only 278 tons before the mine closed the same year.
Work was resumed in 1895 and, up to 1910, a further 4,022 tons of
barytes had been raised. The barytes was produced from an opencut working on
the outcrop, below which shallow shafts were apparently sunk. Between 3-6
miners were employed. The opencast has now largely been filled in.
Barytes veins cut in the adit are as follows :-
a) 1-3" width of white barytes, partly stained by mineral pitch.
Drive on vein is blocked after a short distance
b) 3-6" width of barytes
c) 3" barytes
d) 1" barytes
e) 1-3" barytes
f) unmineralised, heaves 3" right
g) unmineralised, dies out towards end of drive.
At about the turn of the century, a cross-cut adit was driven from the
north-west to cut the main vein 150ft below surface after driving 280 yards. It
was probably hoped that this would cut further orebodies but only thin strings
of barytes were discovered. The main vein was 2ft wide where cut and a rise was
put up from the adit, proving the vein to widen to 12ft. An old section shows
that the rise was vertical and it was connected by a short cross-cut to a shaft
sunk from surface. After being left standing a few days, the rise workings
caved in and had to be abandoned.
During the First World War, the mine was held by Shropshire Lead Mines
Ltd (later Shropshire Mines Ltd), who held most of the mines in the
Stiperstones area at that time. From about 1920 Rhadley, and also Rock (which
was returned to Shropshire Mines Ltd in 1922), were worked by a
Between 1932-1935, Mr E Murgatroyd of Keighley, who had been involved in
barytes mining in
The main adit can be identified by a fair-sized tip by a track on the
north side of the hill. There is approximately 1ft of water on the floor and it
goes some distance past a clay blockage to a brick wall, beyond which the
stopes have collapsed. In front of this is a 36ft winze leading to a short
drivage. The rock was removed by a tramway which divided at the level mouth,
the left branch going to the main tip and the right possibly to a simple
dressing plant and loading bay. A building by the level portal was presumably a
changing room, office, smithy and probably housed a small compressor. Another
open adit 250 yards to the north-east can be identified from its tip.
The opencast on top of the hill has been bulldozed almost flat. There
are two adjacent adits open to the south, which connect inside, and further up
the hill is a collapsed adit. A very long tip to the north-west is connected
with Murgatroyd's Adit, driven in the 1920s, which has collapsed. There are,
however, the remains of a compressor house.