Would Slaley Sough have any linkage with the source of the water supply for Middleton Village

In 1937 my father Harry S Flint was Chairman of Wirksworth Water Board when he oversaw the provision of Middleton By Wirksworth first treated water supply taken from springs on Bonsall / Slaley Moor near Tufa Cottage on land owned by George Henry Key ( Colour Manufacturer/Lead Mine Owner purchased Golconda Mines from my Gr Gr Uncle S J Sheldon in 1915) A wind driven water pump was erected on the headland above Tufa Cottage and the water drawn from springs and then via the drop into the valley pumped up Via Gellia Wood into reservoirs on MIddleton Moor via at first a counter balanced Ram Pump later a diesel driven water pump ..
As a lad in the 1940s I accompanied Sam Pearson Middleton village Lengthsman and water bailiff to treat the water
I believe the present owners of Tufa Cottage still get their water from the same springs some of which falls past their cottage into the Bonsall Brook..As a youth I often drank this water when out walking the pathways around Middleton Bonsall and Via Gellia a favourite haunt of mine (and if I could walk these days would still be) .. It was the best drink I ever had ..... There was nothing I liked better than walking from Middleton down the old lead Miners Lanes of Bonsall Wood and then on Via Gellia bottom and then walking up the Middle Wood passing near by Goodluck Mine and calling in at Mountain Cottage for a cup of tea..or accompanying Mr Bunting the then owner a retired Gamekeeper across The Flatts from Mountain Cottage across the tops of where Goodluck Mine was where he would shoot rabbits... My wifes Uncle Tom Alsop owned the land between Burrows Farm and The Flatts Burrows Mine being in the same vicinity ..
Goodluck MIne belonged to my allied Hall family 1750s - and then by my Doxey family, my kinsman Will Jones mining Fluorspar and Barytes from Goodluck along with his son in law Arthur Kinder of my kin up to the 1940s

Dunno, but I'm told a pump can be heard running through the rock at the end, not whilst we were there though.

[photo]Slaley-Sough-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-46978[/photo]

HI Henry, when I was in and around Middleton I heard stories of a "lake beneath Middleton which was huge, and one could get to it from the flats on top of via gellia, what do you think....myth or mystery

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HI Henry, when I was in and around Middleton I heard stories of a "lake beneath Middleton which was huge, and one could get to it from the flats on top of via gellia, what do you think....myth or mystery

It certainly is not very wet under Middleton moor, the limestone mines there have very little water in, just one small area, close to the hopton wood side, where the water now collects in a corner of the mine now the pumps are off.

The old slayley sough across the road does issue a small amount of water & of course there was an old pump station located outside near to the entrance to the sough, perhaps when this was running you could hear the resonance within the rock walls of the sough level.

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Has anyone been down the tight sloping passage about halfway in?

I don't think Slaley Sough itself ever has been used for water supply, it's driven under the toadstone and although there's some water gets in through the raises most of the groundwater round there finds its way out through the various springs. There's one back towards Parish quarry which is highly calcareous, I've got some petrified hazelnuts I found in the stream below it. However, Flindall & Hayes' article in the PDMHS bulletin (vol 4 no.6) does mention the remains of an iron door on Flixen Rake adit which is higher up than Slaley Sough so I wonder if that was used for collecting water at some point.

Ttexla - I've not been down the lower bit in Slaley sough but I know people who have and I'm told it doesn't go very far, plus it's also full of gooey clay....

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Ttexla - I've not been down the lower bit in Slaley sough but I know people who have and I'm told it doesn't go very far, plus it's also full of gooey clay....

It doesn't lead to vast lower workings full of atrifacts and crystals then........... :confused:

There is no vast amount of water under middleton village but there is under Wirksworth Town .. Wether its is a lake or more to the point flooding caused by the various Soughs which were driven to release the waters from variouas mines in the Wirksworth Bolehill area I leave to your understanding
I known that my father when Chairman of Wirksworth Water Board 1920s / 30s went on a flat bottomed boat under Wirksworth faining access i believe via a apperture on the Killer Branch line from Middleton Quarry (Middelton Mine) somewhere near Dark Lane Quarry..(where the Steeplegrange Light Railway runs today) I have enquired recently if the apperture is still there but was told that in the process of demolishing the Green Saw Sheds used by the Quarry and rebuilding a Workshop on the site that the builders have covered the area where once the line ran but being wheelchair bound today I cannot get to see if this is the situation ..

The many soughs which were dug included Cromford moor Sough Ravenstor Sough Bates Sough Lees Sough Baileycroft Sough Dovegange Sough Hannage Sough all driven in the 1600s some by my kinsmen of Molinus when agent to Sir Cornelius Vermuyden at The Dovegange my 8XGrandfather Henry Coates being Agent to Sir Robert Heath, Vermuydens partner at The Dovegange .. As each sough was driven to lower the water table so as to reach lower levels of ore in the various mines and by the time Frances Hurt had had The Meerbrook Sough driven in the mid 1700s which near met the River Derwent so millions of gallons of water was discharged into the Derwent from the various water sources under Wirksworth ..
I can tell you that in a local Wirksworth church Stoke Hole up to recent years to my certain knowledge an electric pump was used day and night to clear flood water from the basement it being on a level to Yokecliffe area The Stoke Hole was never useable..I believe Seven Trent have drilled a deep pump hole on Breamfields although I canniot be certain what it is used for but up to recent years whenever heavy rain fell Wash Green Wirksworth became awash with water My wifes 3XGrandfather Ambrose Blackham was a Horse Nail Maker at a Forge on Wash Green and under his Forge Floor ran a water supply which he used for his forge the surplus running into the Hannage Brook In the early days of my killer family quarring at Middleton William Killer my 3Xuncle the founder of the quarry at Middleton had a stone saw mill on Wash Green now a garage owned by a friend of mine .. He also used the same source of water to whet his saw blades etc.....

Hi alex & all i believe the water supply was Dunsley spring. less than 500 M. up via gellia. still has pump house and plumbing in situ'.
Slayley sough (thunder mine ) is noteworthy for early graffiti at the far end / past the collapsed clay mound. toward a dead-end,
the shaft ,however is calling out for inspection. dropping a 30mm.pebble produces an unbelievable clap!
i shall up-date you & photo shaft v.soon.
on surface recci' there are three more ginged shafts within a close proximity,no idea of names or viability, will ask around.

I'm assuming the Dunsley spring pump no longer runs though? Jon reported hearing a pump running in 2008.

We'll be up at Magpie this weekend but probably not going underground due to broken bones 😞

I don't think many of the mines round here are particularly wheelchair-friendly! Incidentally, the bulletin article I mentioned has surveys of both Slaley Sough and Dunsley Springs in it, the museum had a few copies of it for sale recently so might be worth asking if you call in this coming weekend.

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I'll do that as we'll undoubtedly call at the museum at some point.

Fortunately young Summer has only broken her wrist so is walking wounded at the moment.

wish her well from owd git and suggest a beer @ the temple might help her father cope with the stress :thumbsup: p.m-ed my No. on other site :thumbup: O. G.

When surveying Slaley Sough it was noted that in a fissure about 3 inches wide in the right wall near the final forefield there could be heard the sound of distant running water – not a torrent but a reasonable flow. Surprised that the old man never investigated this. Probably just caused by a rent in the overlying toadstone strata that allows percolation from Bonsall Lees. This is mentioned in the Roger Flindall’s survey.

The main water supply for Middleton was taken from springs high up on the hillside near Lees Sough and Dunsley Level, just below Bonsall Leys.

I suspect t'owd man tried the Great Rake at depth in the past and found it to be poor below the lava, so they wouldn't have bothered chasing leads. I'm just surprised the expended as much effort as they did in the 1880s following Flixen rake when the vein contains less lead than the average pencil!

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wish her well from owd git and suggest a beer @ the temple might help her father cope with the stress :thumbsup: p.m-ed my No. on other site :thumbup: O. G.

Cheers, I'll pass that on.

pm replied to :thumbup:

When surveying Slaley Sough it was noted that in a fissure about 3 inches wide in the right wall near the final forefield there could be heard the sound of distant running water – not a torrent but a reasonable flow. Surprised that the old man never investigated this. Probably just caused by a rent in the overlying toadstone strata that allows percolation from Bonsall Lees. This is mentioned in the Roger Flindall’s survey.

That could explain what was heard 🙂

If anyone is interested in the water supply of Middleton-by-Wirksworth, I can supply a few facts.
One of the main supplies to Middleton used to be the old sough on the hillside above Hopton Wood (associated with South Thumper Sitch Vein – see Flindall’s article in PDMHS bull Vol 5 Part 3 p143). By 1930, this was failing because of the approach of the quarry face. To replace it, Mr. Key offered the use of Dunsley Spring on the south flank of Bonsall Lees. By an old agreement, Middleton Council was allowed to take 15,000 gallons per day from Dunsley Spring. However, in 1935, proposals to take this water were blocked by the owners of Hollins Mills in Bonsall Hollow who wanted £500 compensation for any loss of water to their mill. Instead, it was suggested to supply Middleton from the Wigwell borehole near Wirksworth. A public enquiry was to be held.

I think I know the one you mean - if you follow the footpath up past the main entrance to Middleton limestone mine at Hopton Wood, it's hiding in the undergrowth up on the right and still has a slight flow. I didn't go in the day I found it was I was only kitted out for surface exploration, but the bulletin article suggests it doesn't go all that far now.

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The water supply for Middleton was in fact taken from Slaley Moor Springs in 1937/8 The Ram Pumping Station building was up to recent years still to be found near the lay bye near Tufa Cottage (where the pathway leads to Goodluck Mine acroos the brook) to the right under the trees ..

If you look on John Palmers Wirksworth web site I have placed a photograph of my father Harry S F. when Chairman of Wirksworth Water Board and Middleton Ward Councillor on Wirksworth Urban District Council celebrating the opening the Pumping Station which was also attended by fellow Councillors Mr Sam Palin his hiers still Wholesale Greengrocers today, Mr Joseph Wheatcroft, Mr J .F. Slater plus others You will see the Pumping Engine in the photo

By the 1950s a Deisel Powered Pump was fitted in the Station when Councillor L.A.Doxey was Chairman of Wirksworth Water Board It was in the 1960s that Middleton went on to the Seven Trent system

The water source i can assure you was from Dunsley Springs on Slaley Moor parts the Moor used to belong to my Grand fore bare family of Henstock who lived at Slaley Hall and owned lead mines in the area but most of the land had been owned by Pole-Gells who sold out to Keys )

The water was pumped up Middle Wood Via Gellia from the pumping Station into storage reservoirs on Middleton Moor near Pheeneys Plantation ..just below where two cottages were inhabited in my childhood by friends of my family they now derelict .. As a youth I used to accompany the Village Lengthsman and Water Bailiff up to the reservoirs and also a spring which crosses the Middle Wood opposite Goodluck Mine its source under an Ash Tree was where my mates and myself would drink from when we played as kids in the area .. I often went with Dad to the Pumping Station in the early 1940s as a child ..

Previous to Middleton gaining the water supply to every home, residents had to fetch their water from Village communal taps the water source being natural Springs on Middleton Moor The Water Bailiff then was Mr Harrison whose Grandaughter today is a friend of my family

Due to the original supply from the springs on Middleton Moor being hap hazzard in delivery Mr harrison would only allow the women to fetch one pail of water per day ..There is a Photograph of Mr Harrison sat on "The Basin" on Middleton Green the Basin being a catchment trough where the Upper Village supply was gained from .. a trough on Water Lane Middleton today is the last remaining evidence of the supply

Some village people including my family previous to the 1930s when the Middleton supply dried up in the summer months used to fetch water from near Ible

My wifes Grandfather H .Evans used to take a Milk Churn on a two wheeled Churn carrier to a Spring on the Winster road from The Holly Bush Pub (it still flows from an overshot pipe in the grounds where an Electricity Sub Station is today)
He would also along with my wifes Uncle collect water cress from a brook running neabye ..and from a brook near The Lillies Inn Pub Ible (I had family living at Ible)

If you require more evidence regarding the water supply to Middleton village both before the treated supply was installed and after read Edith Taylors Middleton History on John Palmers Wirksworth Web pages ie www.wirksworth.org.uk or just log in Wirksworth