Snailbeach

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Snailbeach is an English village near Shrewsbury, Shropshire. grid reference SJ375025

The village - or rather, a straggling hamlet - was built for workers at the local lead mine - Snailbeach Mine. The mine has some of the best surface buildings of a lead mine left standing in Britain including a Cornish Engine House. It is managed by the Shropshire Mines Trust (http://shropshiremines.org.uk/) and there is a website (http://snailbeachmine.org.uk) which tells you everything you need to know, including a virtual tour of the surface and underground. Visitors can walk around on their own or join in an arranged tour, including a trip underground.

Snailbeach Mine was the biggest lead mine in Shropshire and it is reputed to have yielded the greatest volume of lead per acre of any mine in Europe. Underground mining ceased here in 1955 but it is reputed to date from Roman times. Although the miners mainly extracted lead ore (galena), smaller quantities of Barytes, Calcite, Fluorspar, Silver and Zinc were also obtained.

Since 1955 only some reworking of the spoil heaps for spar, to use as pebble dash on buildings, has occurred. Barytes from here was sent to the Windscale nuclear reactor accident to smother fuel cells. Locals carried on working the tips until the 1970s. Although some ore is said to have been left standing in the mine, the statement "Snailbeach will never be worked again" may well be correct! The old miners were very thorough in their working and rarely left much ore for later generations. Once a mine has been allowed to flood and the machinery removed the cost of reopening the mine increases dramatically and the prospect usually becomes too expensive. Any large amounts of lead remaining in the area are likely to be below the Ritton Castle area. Unfortunately miners would probably have to dig at least 1000 feet down before they reach the top of the lead deposits, if they could find them. This is too deep and too expensive so lead mining in Shropshire is unlikely to become a major industry ever again.

The Shropshire County Council, using government grants, did extensive work in the early 1990s to make some of the shallow workings safe for the villagers. At the same time, they acquired many of the surface buildings and preserved these. Many of the mine buildings and land are owned by Shropshire County Council and you can have free access to visit them. It should be fairly obvious, however, where remains lie on private land and you should respect the privacy of the villagers who live there. If you follow the route of the virtual tour on the website then you will not trespass. You will note as you go around that the mine levels are grilled and some of the buildings are locked, eg Locomotive Shed, Blacksmith's Shop and Miners’ Dry (which has been converted into an unmanned interpretation centre).

Please ensure as well that you park in the car park by the toilets and walk up to the site. If you are disabled then it is permissible to park in the space opposite Day Level.

The Shropshire Mines Trust manages the site on behalf of Shropshire County Council. If you have a group, you may wish to take advantage of a led tour with a guide. This gives you the opportunity to gain access to all of the buildings and to have the history explained in more detail. In addition, it may be possible for the Trust to take your party into one of the mine levels for an underground experience.