Slinter Woodland History

Lead mining was an established industry in the valley before the mill site was developed. The area lies within the King's ore-field where miners had rights to dig for lead, to access their mines and to cut whatever wood or timber was needed to support them. Trees in Slinter Wood were probably used for this purpose.

The operations in Slinter Wood appear to have been small scale and sporadic and had more or less ceased by the mid nineteenth century but the woodland retains ample evidence of the miners' work in a scatter of shafts and adits with associated spoil heaps. It is likely that the footpaths in the area are also part of the mining legacy. As late as the early twentieth century Middleton miners used the route across Dunsley Meadows day and night, walking to work at Mill Close Mine at Darley.

The open adits and shafts have been closed using grilles and Clywd caps for which the Society is indebted to Derbyshire County Council – 16 shafts and 5 adits were made safe. A risk remains that further shafts will be discovered so please visit the wood from the security of the public footpaths.

As lead mining died out, mineral extraction in the area has continued to the present day with a steady growth of quarrying for fluorspar and limestone. Slinter Wood has been affected by the waste carried by the Bonsall Brook from quarrying higher up the valley and run-off from the road, which has contaminated and filled up the ponds and mill races with silt.