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Tankerville
Lead Mine Shropshire |
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History The mineral rights of the Tankerville area were in
joint ownership and all leases were jointly granted by the Earl of
Tankerville and the Lloyd family. There is no record of any early mining in
the area and the surface of the mine site is shown on old maps as a farm up
to the 19th century. The area was being drained by the Boat Level in 1797 but
it is not known if any lead deposits had been discovered and were being worked
at that time. The earliest known mining at Tankerville was by Walker, Cross
& Company from the 1830s, when the mine operated under the name of Oven
Pipe. The company's main activities were at Bog and Pennerley,
however, and there was very little investment at this site, other than a
crosscut called Oven Pipe Level which had been driven from the Boat Level to
work a small pipe vein on Old Lode. Ore was removed from a small shaft by a
horse gin and this was probably the one that was later enlarged as Ovenpipe Shaft. Lewis' Shaft may date from this time as
an access shaft when the level was being driven. Between 1860-63, Fred Jones & Company worked the
mine and they had engaged Captain Arthur Waters as manager. In 1862, he
referred to the workings in a letter to John Horton : "... I found Oven Pipe Mine in the same
position three years ago as the above named mines are today, but by a system
of cross-cutting found a deposit of lead ore that, since its discovery, has
yielded about £16,000 worth and that without sinking the Engine Pit an inch
... We are now sinking the shaft as a matter of course, having a rich lode to
go down upon". The deposit referred to must be Old Lode and Waters
had presumably found both pipes on it from trial crosscuts. On the basis of
lead being worth about £20 per ton at that time, about 800 tons must have
been produced from 1860. During this time, Heighway
Jones of the Bog & Pennerley Company was
working several adjacent mines and he realised the
potential of Oven Pipe Mine. In 1864, he sold his interest in Pennerley and Myttonsbeach
Mines and bought Oven Pipe, where he then concentrated his activities. Waters
was retained as manager and the new Oven Pipe Company acquired several other
mines, ie Potters Pit and Burgam
from 1866 and Batholes and Roundhill
from 1868. Probably due to the acquisition of these extra mines, the name of
the company was changed to West Tankerville Mining Company from 1869. As Ovenpipe Shaft was sunk
below adit level, the new workings had to be pumped dry and the depth was
probably beyond the capability of the old horse gin. As a result, Waters
erected a small ex-colliery engine 30 yards from the shaft which raised the
ore, operated the pump rods and powered the roller crushers. It was a
16" beam engine of 16 horsepower and 3ft 6" stroke. Ovenpipe Shaft was deepened to the 74 fathom level, being
vertical to 70ft below adit (214ft from surface) and then running at an angle
of 15(. The reason for the change in angle was to allow the shaft to follow
the direction of Old Lode. This meant that ore extracted during the sinking
paid for the costs but it caused problems later with winding and pumping.
Levels were driven into Old Lode down to the 74 fathom level and the ore stoped out. Waters continued to drive exploratory levels from
the shaft and one of these, driven south from the 42 fathom level, discovered
the top of Main Lode. Other exploratory levels were driven and these proved
that the lode extended downwards at 40( and continued to be very rich.
Crosscuts from Ovenpipe Shaft allowed the Main Lode
to be removed above the 74 fathom level but it was decided not to deepen the
shaft since it would move further and further away from Main Lode. At this
stage, there was still no indication as to how far the Main Lode would continue
but hopes were obviously high. A description in the Mining Journal early in 1870
describes how the mine was working at that time. Ovenpipe
Shaft was used for both raising the material and for the pumps, and access to
the levels was by way of ladders in the pumping portion of the shaft. There
were about 50 miners employed at the mine, split into three eight hour shifts
working round the clock. The steam engine raised ore from 6am to 2pm, drove
the ore crushers from 2pm to 5pm and pumped the mine from 5pm to 6am. Pumping
was done by four lifting sets of pumps from the 74 fathom level, the lowest
having a 7" diameter and the others slightly larger. There was also a
'forcing set' from the Boat Level to the surface, used to supply water for
the dressing floors when surface water was scarce.
The lead ore was raised in a kibble attached to a
single linked chain and slid up deal planks in the inclined portion of the
shaft. The ore was worked downwards in stopes of
6ft from one level to the next, with the higher level being boarded up for a
tramway. The ores from the lower level were raised to the upper level by
windlasses and taken by tramway to be loaded into the kibble at the shaft. On the surface, the ore was crushed in roller
crushers powered by the steam engine. It was then placed on a rotary screen
and the larger pieces were gathered together by brushes on a rotating
horizontal wheel, to be sent back through the crushers until small enough for
the next phase of the operation. This took place in four jigging machines,
sieves worked up and down in water by hand labour,
that separated the heavier lead from the spar and stone waste. It was then
washed in flat buddles, put through jiggers with
finer sieves and finally into rotary buddles. The
lead was then ready to be sent to the smelter at Pontesford by horse and
cart. On the return journey, the carts brought back coal for the boilers from
the Pontesbury Coalfield. From the bottom of Ovenpipe
Shaft, a crosscut ran along the 74 fathom level to Main Lode and an internal
shaft was begun down the angle of the lode. By the beginning of 1870, this
had reached the 92 fathom level. Since these workings would need to be
pumped, there must have been a system of flat rods along the 74 fathom
crosscut to operate pumps in the new underground shaft. Water was presumably
pumped up to the crosscut and directed to the sump of the Ovenpipe
Shaft. Although it was easy to work ore in the lode, it had to be wound up
the internal shaft in kibbles, taken by wheelbarrow along the crosscut and
then wound up Ovenpipe Shaft using the small winding
engine. This was a very inefficient system and it was found that the maximum
amount that could be removed was about 50 tons per month. This did not
satisfy Waters who believed that it was possible to extract 300 tons per
month if a new shaft was sunk from surface directly onto the workings. Heighway Jones could not
afford this scheme himself so, in 1870, a joint stock company called the
Tankerville Mining Company was formed with £72,000 capital. The company
bought out Heighway Jones' interest in the mine in
February 1870 and the names on the official lease were Messrs Murchison, Geach, Watson, Grundy and Mitchell. The share issue was
so popular that it was oversubscribed, with 12,000 £6 shares being offered at
£20 within a few days. The price soon increased to £30 as early profits rose
sharply, a dividend of £3,000 being paid within four months. In May 1870, the
mine was renamed Tankerville in honour of the Earl
of Tankerville. At that time, Waters claimed that "the mine is
unquestionably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, lead producing lodes
in Shropshire". During 1870, the underground shaft was extended from
the 52 to the 102 fathom level and a high pressure Fowler engine was
installed underground at the 74 fathom level for winding purposes as sinking
continued. It had 190 fathoms of wrought iron chimney installed via Ovenpipe Shaft to remove the fumes from the boiler. In
1871 a start was made on sinking the new shaft from surface and a further
three engines of 6, 25 and 60 horsepower were installed at surface. At least
one of these was probably for ore crushing, etc but the larger one probably
replaced the old engine for winding and pumping in Ovenpipe
Shaft. This engine may have been housed in the small engine house adjacent to
the top of Watsons Engine Shaft. This has the marks of a large winding drum
on its internal surface and slots in the north wall. A photograph of around
that period shows the winding cable running from this engine house to Ovenpipe Shaft. The old engine house was probably
relegated to operating the dressing machinery only. At the end of 1871, Waters reported that the
"mine throughout continues to maintain its high character for
productiveness and had never in its history shown such indications of permanency".
A local press report said "the rich and profitable mine of Tankerville
is second in importance only to Snailbeach, two miles to the
north-east". According to the Mining Journal, " the
extraordinary richness of the Tankerville Lead Mine is so well known that it
is needless to dilate on it here". The new shaft was called Watsons Engine Shaft after
Peter Watson, one of the new partners who was also a director of Devon Great Consols Mine. By 1872, some ore was being crushed and
stored underground in anticipation of the opening up of the new shaft. A
letter to the Mining Journal in 1872 gives some indication of the costs of
sinking the shaft. A gang of 12 men was employed with each man earning £1 per
week. In a month, the cost of drill steels, powder, fuse, candles, etc was
£12, making a total charge of £60 per month for the gang. If the gang was
paid on contract at £20 per fathom sunk, they would need to sink 3 fathoms
per month to cover costs. In a 12ft x 9ft shaft, this would remove 9 cubic
fathoms of ore at 20 tons per fathom, giving a yield of 180 tons per month.
Lead ore was selling at £13 per ton at that time.
In February 1873, Waters commented that "the
weather is very severe, but by sending the hot water from the condenser
through our various dressing appliances, we get on very well preparing the
ore for market". Despite the weather, the new shaft was progressing
well, so it can be presumed that the connection had already been made by
then. The new shaft was vertical to the 52 fathom level (226ft below surface)
and it then followed the angle of Main Lode downwards at 38(. A 32"
engine of 25 horsepower was installed for winding in Watsons Engine Shaft and
the big chimney probably dates from this time, serving this engine first and
later being used for the Cornish pumping engine. An interesting statistic
from that year's Annual General Meeting stated that 27,000 cubic feet of
masonry, weighing 1,600 tons, had been used to construct the engine houses.
It was also mentioned that Lewis' Shaft and Ovenpipe
Shaft had been re-timbered, with new ladders and pitwork
installed in the latter. The underground Fowler engine had become redundant
and was removed. The new 32" engine was also intended for
pumping and work was underway to fit new pitwork in
the shaft. A crosscut to the Boat Level was made half way down the vertical
section of the shaft for the pumped water to flow away. In April 1873, the
carpenters were preparing a new balance bob, main rods, etc for pumping in
the shaft and it was intended to send down the new pitwork
in the near future. By May 1873, all the bobs were ready, the plunger lifts
were waiting on the ground and the main pumping rods were to hand. It can
therefore be presumed that the new pumps were working by the end of 1873. The
vertical motion of the pump rods had to be converted into angular motion at
500ft below surface, where the shaft changed direction to follow the vein.
This was achieved with great difficulty and there was considerable wear and
tear on the pitwork. Various designs of rods with
links, guides, wheels, etc were tried. A great deal of money had been
invested in equipment and Waters claimed that Tankerville was only in its
infancy and the best days were yet to come. The angle of the shaft not only caused problems with
the pump rods but even more so with the kibbles. The monthly bill for
replacing timber kibble guides in the shaft was said to be about £200. The
kibbles used, according to the Mining Journal, took 17cwt and even the bulk
of Peter Watson himself. Waters replaced the chains on the winding engines
with wire ropes, which weighed a lot less and thus saved fuel. In May 1873,
after introducing wire rope on Watsons Engine Shaft, Waters said "we do
not consume more than half the quantity of coal required to wind with a
chain". By 1874, the shaft had reached 190 fathoms below
adit and John Smitham was appointed as mine agent
to assist Waters. The latter said that the mine was "at last in full
swing, despite a drop in lead output due mainly to the amount of work
connected with sinking the new shaft. The mine is well-managed and
well-equipped and has splendid machinery and general plant for winding,
pumping, crushing and dressing". Lack of surface water for ore dressing
was still a problem, Waters arranged for water to be pumped up from the Boat
Level and yet the following year he was complaining about the heavy rains which
stopped surface working! He continued to issue encouraging reports to the
shareholders, saying "there is a great future in the mine and he had
never seen finer rocks of solid ore". It was found, however, that the Main Lode was
thinning out with depth and there was increased water in the lower workings.
This increased costs and, possibly as a result, in 1875 the company acquired
limited liability as Tankerville Mining Co Ltd. The existing pumping engine
could not cope with the water and work was started on a new engine house on
the other side of the shaft in September 1875. Despite delays due to bad
weather, Waters reported in November 1875 that "the new engine house is
up to the spring beams, the latter, together with the girder, being in their
place. The engine is on the mine and the boiler, with fittings attached, in
the house". By the following January the beam of the new pumping engine
was lifted into its place.
Alterations were required to the underground pitwork for the new pumping engine and, in summer 1876,
Waters reported that "we are getting on well with the engine, the changing
of the pit-work, etc, and shall be ready to commence pumping for good with
them by the time appointed". The 40" Cornish pumping engine from Harveys Foundry at Hayle was
ready for work and connected to the pumps in the first week of August,
allowing Waters to announce that it was working splendidly and all the
difficulties with respect to drainage were over. By December 1876, he stated
that "the new pumping engine drains the entire mine, old and new
workings throughout". Waters indicated that only one new boiler was
required for the engine, presumably the Galloway boiler which was eventually
sold by auction. The other one, a Cornish boiler, may have been for the
32" engine, which was restricted to winding only after the new engine
was started up. In September 1876, the usual shortage of surface
water caused Waters to comment that "we have been much put to for want
of water for several weeks past but a favourable
change has taken place and the dressing can now go without delay". The
pump on Ovenpipe Shaft was presumably still working
to bring water up to surface from the Boat Level at times of shortage. At Watsons Engine Shaft, a machine kibble was
installed down to the 180 fathom level. This may have been a skip, a method
which was used in Cornish inclined shafts to increase the speed of loading.
At the top of the shaft, ore was transferred to one of the six adjacent ore
bins, all of which had a grating to prevent large lumps passing through. Of
the lumps left on top, pure ore was removed for sale, waste rock thrown away
and mixtures of the two would be broken up by sledge hammer to a size that
would pass through the grating. From here the ore would go roller crushers
and pass through the same dressing processes as previously described. It was
originally intended to extend the Snailbeach District Railway in the 1870s to
Bog Mine and this would have bypassed Tankerville. In the event, it only
reached Crowsnest to the north and all ore still
had to be transported by horse and cart to the smelter at Pontesbury. Waters was still encouraging the shareholders with
comments like in 1876 "no finer specimen of a Shropshire lead vein can
be found anywhere in the district" and in 1877 "they were mining a
champion lode well charged with ore - the 192 fathom level". In that
year the mine doctor, William Eddowes, retired and
the agents and miners raised £3.18.0d towards his testimonial. There were two
dressing floors at the mine and, in November 1877, Waters reported that he
hoped to have new machinery installed on the lower dressing floors by the end
of the month. This included new machine jiggers, classifiers and round buddles which indicates that he had mechanised
the dressing process for greater efficiency. Even so, the surface operations
were reliant on the weather and in December 1878, "the frost was so
great that for some days the ore weighed into the wagons could not be
discharged for some time".
By the end of 1877, the first hint of caution crept
in to Waters' reports when he said "the present state of our mine in no
way alters my opinion as to the chances of its opening out again to a
profitable state in the future". In 1878 Waters rallied by saying that
the mine was "sending off ore as fast as the carriers can take it".
The problem was that the Main Lode was thinning out at depth and it was
costing more to obtain ore of a gradually decreasing quality. These increased
costs corresponded with a fall in the price of lead and in 1878 the company
made a loss for the first time. The company's shares were already fully paid
up and it was not possible to raise any more capital. Waters recommended to
the shareholders that the mine only sell as much ore
as necessary to meet costs and concentrate on opening up ore-bearing ground
for when the price rose again. The shareholders would not agree, however, and
as a result, the old company was liquidated. New Engine Shaft was commenced in 1879 but it only
went down to adit level, from where it connected with Watsons Engine Shaft.
The purpose of this shaft is not known but it may have been an attempt to
search for new ore deposits or a means of pumping water up to the adjacent reservoir.
There is a concrete engine bed next to the shaft but nothing is known about
this. The mine was acquired in 1880 by a new company
called Tankerville Great Consols, the Cornish
sounding name being the idea of Peter Watson, the leading light of the new
company. He had bought Bog and Pennerley Mines in
1879 and attempted to raise £100,000 capital to work all three mines plus
Potters Pit. The venture was described in the Mining Journal as
"probably the largest lead property in the kingdom" but it only raised
a little money and this was used to get ore out of Pennerley Mine and to try to drain Bog Mine. Tankerville
Mine was all but ignored and, within two years, the company was in financial
trouble. In 1882, a crisis meeting of shareholders was held and at the
meeting Waters promised : "We shall not rest until we have Tankerville
into such a position as will recoup you all your outlay. As long as we are
connected with the mine, no stone shall be left unturned, no brain power that
we possess shall be left unexpended to produce a result that shall be
satisfactory not only to our shareholders but to ourselves". Luckily, some more capital was raised and Watsons
Engine Shaft was sunk to the 244 fathom level. This was the final depth of
the shaft and it has been estimated that it cost a total of £30,000 to sink,
although the ore won more than compensated for this. By this time, compressed
air boring machines were being used and this is believed to be their first
use in Shropshire mines. Despite this, however, the price of lead continued
to fall. It appeared that North Lode was rapidly approaching
the Main Lode in the bottom of the mine and Peter Watson and Arthur Waters
were most anxious to reach the junction. They believed that this would be
where the Main Lode would recover its value, as it had been so rich at about
the 92 fathom level where lodes had branched away in the vertical plane. They
were unable to raise the necessary finance to continue, however, and the
lodes were still 9ft apart at the deepest point seen, the 244 fathom level.
The lode was only producing a maximum of 2 tons per cubic fathom and, with
dressed galena selling at only £6.50 per ton, the mine could not cover costs.
It is worth noting, however, that Arthur Waters said that there was as much
lead in total between each level at the bottom of the mine as there had been
higher but, spread as it was over a much greater length, it would not pay to stope under ruling conditions. Since the mine was unable
to make a profit, pumping was stopped on 2nd May 1884 and the company was
liquidated 13 days later. The mine workings flooded up to adit and, although
there were subsequent attempts to work the mine, these were only small. In
1889-90 the mine was worked by the Earl of Tankerville himself with 4 men on
the tips. In April 1891 the mine was leased by Shropshire United Mining Co
Ltd, who paid the Earl of Tankerville £193. 7s. 6d for unidentified
machinery. They worked the upper levels of Old Lode and the mine tips for
lead and barytes but had abandoned the site by 30th
September 1893. In 1895 a license was granted to S M Ridge to search for
minerals but little work was actually done. In 1898 the Mining Journal
reported that the 32" winding engine had been removed from the mine. The remaining mine equipment was finally auctioned
off in 1902, together with that of Pennerley Mine.
The lots for Tankerville Mine were :- - Valuable Cornish beam pumping engine, 40"
cylinder, 9ft stroke in and 7ft out, in good condition, By Harvey, Hayle Foundry, Cornwall. - Single purchase rope winch. - Coil of 1.5" rope. - About 162ft of 9" cast iron pump trees in
shaft above water, with plunger pole, and about 1,450ft of 8", 7"
and 6" cast iron pump trees
under water; also about 162ft of pitchpine
pump rods above water, the remaining pitchpine and
iron pump rods under water. - About 120ft of cast iron 9" steam flange
piping from engine to boilers. - Galloway boiler, with two tubes 30ft 6" x 6ft
6" by Easton & Tattersall, Leeds - Cornish boiler, with one tube, 3ft x 6ft 6",
with steam and safety valves. - Quantity of 3" steam and feed piping and
several 3" bends. - Two wrought iron kibbles and sheet iron pit tub. - Quantity of 2" wrought iron piping. - Wrought iron scale hook and sundries. - Free stone engine bed, with strong wrought iron
holding-down bolts and nuts. A number of items are missing from the list, eg the engines from Ovenpipe
Shaft and the crushers, rails, dressing machinery, etc. It is likely
therefore that they had been previously been sold or removed for use
elsewhere on the combined sett, perhaps at Pennerley.
In 1921-23 the mine was leased to Shropshire Lead Mines Ltd who worked
the dumps for barytes and calcite, the latter being
used for pebble dashing. In 1922 the official records showed five persons
working underground but these may have been working at one of the other mines
on the sett. It was probably during this period
that there was a branch aerial ropeway from the one that took barytes from Bog Mine to Minsterley. This took spar, etc
from Tankerville up past Burgam Mine to a transfer
station. In 1929 the Boat Level was blocked just past the junction with the
mine, probably by infill of a shaft. The crosscut to Ovenpipe
Shaft has also now collapsed but water can still flow through. |
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