Mining

A more comprehensive publicaiton 'Lead Mining at Eryrys & Llanarmon-yn-Ial' is available from the author.

Take a walk around the Llanarmon area today and you’ll need to look hard to find evidence of the once-major local industry that was lead mining. At one time the area was dotted with Cornish engine houses, blacksmiths and carpenters workshops, ore washing areas and many other mine buildings. Today’s remains are limited to the one or two remnants of engine houses and countless old shafts, most of which have been sealed off or have collapsed.
In contrast to the surface however, most of the old underground workings have remained untouched since the day that the last miners put down their tools on their final shift. Enthusiasts have exploring these workings for the past 30 years, to record this fascinating world while it is still accessible.		Shaft Igloo on the Creigiog Vein
Lead mining began in Llanarmon around 700 years ago when local farmers found times hard. Most workings were then fairly shallow. Work was frequently stopped during wet periods due to flooding.
By the late 1600s, the Grosvenor family had gained control of most local lead mines and they began leasing the richest veins to mine companies who began to invest heavily in the industry.		Nant Engine House, Westminster Vein
The counties of Flintshire and Denbighshire became of national importance in terms of lead mining and produced in 1868, 45% of Britain's ore.
Llanarmon's mines closed soon after 1875 unable to compete with cheaper imported ore prices, although between 1897 and 1903 some unsucessful prospecting work was carried out.		Nant Adda Adit
Llanarmon’s six lead veins are, in order of importance: Westminster, Pant-y-Gwlanod, Criegiog, Maes-y-Pwll, Vein Ganol and Tan-y-Graig. Westminster and Pant-y-Gwlanod veins (worked together as Westminster Mine) were by far the richest and provided work for generations of local people. In 1847 the mine employed as many as 300 miners. Ore was brought to the surface where it was separated from the unwanted white calcite (found with ore in the veins). The area known today as ‘white sands’ was created entirely by this waste calcite.
During the 1700s and 1800s, boys began work as miners from ages as young as 10. The work generally involved hard physical labour. The biggest problems for Llanarmon's lead miners were the risks to health caused by lead poisoning or "bellan" and silicosis, known as miner's rot or miner's asthma. Lead miners died 15 - 20 years earlier than non-miners as a result.		Pant-y-gwlanod vein
Derbyshire miner, William Hooson, came to work the local mine and wrote a fascinating "Miners Dictionary" in 1747. His describes lead poisoning as......
Bellan: The name of a diftemper that Miners are often fubject to, the Miner is not seized with it, but in Working upon hard Ore, the Duft whereof that arifes from his Pick-point, being a very Sulphureous Smell, gets into his Bowells, and causes a strange Coftivenefs, with Intolerable Pain for many Days together, (oftentimes) and the worft is, the Doctor’s Skill does not eafily remove it.		Bog Mine
Poor ventilation was also common, resulting in carbon dioxide poisoning. This could be fatal in high concentrations. Hooson refers to the complaint as "unsavory damps" ….
"The Air is thick and muddy, making him Pant and Blow, and Sweat, with a Pain and Beating in his Head and Stomach; and when he comes to the Day into the fresh Air, he is troubled with a Giddinefs in his Head, and fometimes with Vomiting" .		Westminster Mine
In the years up to 1700, mining at Llanarmon was carried out using picks, crowbars, hammers, wedges and shovels. The vein material was fairly soft and therefore easy to remove. Where a passage had to be driven through hard limestone, 'firesetting' was used. The technique involved lighting fires against the rock face to crack the surrounding rock, allowing it to be picked away by hand. Progress was only an inch or two a day! Gunpowder only came into general mining use around 1700. Virtually all of Llanarmon's mine workings were created either by firesetting or by the hand-drilling of shot-holes and the use of gunpowder. Although compressed-air drilling and dynamite would have radically improved tunnelling rates, they were invented just three years after the closure of Llanarmon mines.		Westminster vein