Meanwood Valley Trail

Starting Point - The Hollies, Weetwood Lane, Leeds. Circular Walk, Distance 4.3 Miles 

On this walk I followed the Meanwood Valley Trail on the All Trails website. I started at the Hollies off Weetwood Lane as shown on the details of the walk.

Google Map

1934 Map

The area was once quite industrialised with quarries and mills powered by water from the Meanwood Beck. In 1834 land was bought by Edwards Oates who established an "American Garden" along the beck. Edward Oates was the grandfather of Captain Oates who sacrificed himself on Scott's Antarctic mission in 1912 to save slowing the rest of the team down. He left their camp with the famous line "I'm going out, I may be some time."

The walking route passes Hustler's Row, a row of 1847 built houses once occupied by quarry workers.

The most southern point of the walk is close to many of the facilities of Meanwood Park including the cafe housed in another former block of cottages and known as the "Three Cottages." These are shown on the old map next to the number 209. East of the cafe the old map shows a Tannery Square, named after another of the local industries that used bark of trees growing in the area for the tanning proccess. The walking route heads north from cafe though and once in to the woods passes through the quarries shown on the old map. In the smaller quarry shown on the map with the building in the centre remnants of that building survive.

1893 Map

The path crosses the Ring Road and connects to Scotland Mill Lane. Though the Ring Road is new Scotland Mill Lane can be seen on the old map towards the bottom centre of the page. The old lane to the mill diverges from that to Bywaters Farm which is still in existence.

Below - Bridge built over Adel Beck to access the mill with surviving gate posts.

Scotland Mill was established by John Marshall who with the help of engineer Matthew Murray went on to revolutionise the mechanisation of the Flax spinning industry along similar methods to those employed by Richard Arkwright in the Cotton spinning industry. They went on to establish a large mill complex in the Holbeck Area of Leeds close to the city centre. Matthew Murray established his own engineering works alongside Marshall's mills and saw success building steam engines including the first commercially successful steam locomotives. I previously wrote a walking tour on the Leeds Engine website that takes in these and other sights in the Holbeck area. 

Though most of the Holbeck mill site survives in various retail and office uses the Scotland Mill site is a ruin, some of the features of the site can be identified though.

Below - Information board at the site of Scotland Mill.

Looking close at the old map a mill stream can be seen approaching the mill from the north, this seems to just stop on the map, though looking at the buildings on the southern edge of the complex it looks like there was an outlet under these buildings with the mill stream running beneath the complex, this would make sense as a mill would generally be built alongside or above a mill stream that supplied the water wheels that supplied its machinery with power.

Below - What the map suggests is a tunnel taking the mill stream beneath the complex.

Below - Next to the tunnel is a block that has been the base of a piece of machinery.

Below - Rubble of some of the mill buildings.

Below - A view of the north eastern edge of the site showing the bridge over Adel Beck. A row of buildings would have stood along the path on the left hand side.

On the northern edge of the Scotland Mill site this small hut can be seen. It is not clear if this is connected with the mill complex or the water main that would have run underground nearby.

I returned to the east bank of Adel Beck to follow the trail north in an anti-clockwise circuit of Scotland Wood.

Below - Remains of a the weir shown on the above map.

Also shown on the above map is the Seven Arches Aqueduct, already shown as disused at the time the map was published.

Below - The Seven Arches aqueduct.

The path returns to the Ring Road from the aqueduct. The path can be seen on the old map running alongside the mill stream that served Scotland Mill from the weir shown above. At the time of my visit the route was quite muddy but there was no longer water in the former mill steam.

The path crosses under the Ring Road this time and follows what was the lane to Smithy Mills from the east. The former corn mill is now in residential use.

1892 Map

Below - The path crosses the Meanwood Beck close to remains of a weir where the mill steam for Weetwood Dye and Print Works left the beck.

Below - The old map shows several footbridges across the beck. One had obviously been removed here.

Below - Around the paths up to The Hollies were some remains of a blacksmiths that would have serviced carts and other equipment for the nearby quarries. Most substantial amongst the remains is the trough.

Below - An old mill stone seen on one of the paths.

Magpie Mine

A short walk around the Magpie Mine site, Sheldon near Bakewell

Magpie Mine near Bakewell is said to be one of the best preserved 19th Century mines in the UK. It is not an easy place to get to by public transport. The nearest railway stations are Buxton, Grindleford or Matlock, all around 10 miles or more away. I cycled from Grindleford, though this was hard work on a warm and humid day. After my visit I chose to travel back via Matlock to avoid some hill climbs. Most people will arrive at Magpie Mine by car. There is a layby on Grin Low to the south of the site from where it can be accessed on foot.

Lead mining in the area is likely to have gone back hundreds of years. Satellite images show the area pockmarked with what look like early Bell Pits that were simple holes in the ground, when they were dug out to an extent that they might collapse a new hole was dug nearby, the spoil tipped from the new pit tipped in to the abandoned shaft. A cross section of the pit would have had a bell shape, hence the name. These appear as clusters of dips in the ground as the spoil in the filled in shafts settles.

The later 19th Century mine featured a Cornish style pumping engine to clear water from the workings. Before steam winding engines were used to extract the ore it would have been brought to the surface using Horse Gins and a replica of one has been constructed on the site. The site has two chimneys and two engine houses from the winding engine and the pumping engine. The engine houses date to 1869 when earlier engines were replaced, though they were connected to the chimneys built for the original engine houses in 1840. Between the two engine houses is a pit headgear and tin huts, this is from the final phase of the mine around 1950. A former trawler engine was housed in the tin hut to wind the cage that can be seen at the top of the shaft.

The Magpie Mine site is managed by the Peak District Mines Historical Society and more information about the site can be found on their website.

1898 Map

Google Map

Below - Arriving from the footpath from Grin Low the first building seen is the Agent's House. Adjoining it is the single story Smithy built to maintain the mine's equipment. It is now used as a visitor centre when volunteers are on-site for occasional events such as group visits and heritage open days.

Below - The pit site with the winding engine on the left and pumping engine on the right. A small embankment can be seen between the winding engine house and chimney where an underground flue was built to connect the 1869 engine to the 1840 chimney. The original engine house would have been next to the chimney.

Below - Next to the chimney some information boards about the site have been provided.

Below - The winding engine house and chimney.

Below - The winding engine with the drum still in situ.

Below - The winding engine house and the tin sheds and headstocks of the final phase of the mine.

Below - The two engine houses with the later headstocks between.

Below - The pumping engine house. This was replaced when an underground channel was dug to drain the water by gravity in to a nearby river.

Below - The later headstocks and the pumping engine house.

Below - The headstocks. At either side were auxiliary hand winches that could be used to bring the cage up by hand if the engine in the tin hut failed.

Below - The headstocks and the pumping engine house. The engine would have been in the main building with the boilers in the side building to the right.

Below - Remains of the boiler house for the pumping engine.

Below - The pumping engine house.

Below - At a sensible distance from the engine house is the round building of the 1840 powder store.

Below - Next to the powder store the old shaft shown on the above old map can be seen.

Below - The mine viewed from the Horse Gin replica.

Below - Though the horse gin is a replica it is situated adjacent to an original shaft which can be seen through the grille. The original gin here would have had pulleys on the left hand side. The wooden beam on the floor would be attached to the axle so that when the horse was driven in a circle around the drum it would wind or unwind a rope going down the shaft.

Below - Close to the gin another shaft can be seen.

Below - Another view of the main site from the horse gin.