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Coniston Coppermines

Coniston Coppermines, which are in the Coppermines Valley in Coniston, the Lakes, are beautiful and interesting even if you are not interested in the mining heritage. Apparently, even though the history of the coppermines go back approximately 400 years, the extraction of copper could possibly go back to the Roman era, or even earlier than this.

The miners had to descend wooden ladders and stagings to get to the copper veins, some of which were over 1100 ft below the surface and approximately 500 ft below sea level. The mines' most prosperous period was from around the 1850s until the decline around the 1870's.

As the country's rock is volcanic, their extraction progress would have been extremely hard and slow. They used a combination of gunpowder and hand drilling together with tallow candles for light for most of the mines history. The Ruskin Museum in Coniston has an interesting section on the history of the Coniston Coppermines.

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