CPAT Regional Historic Environment Record
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Eisteddfod Mining Landscape

Primary Reference Number (PRN) : 18044
Trust : Clwyd Powys
Community : Minera
Unitary authority : Wrexham
NGR : SJ25005250
Site Type (preferred type first) : POST MEDIEVAL LANDSCAPE

Description :
1. Location

1.1 The mining landscape of Eisteddfod borders the northern perimeter of the disused Minera limestone quarry, east of Gwynfryn village, 8km north-west of Wrexham (see Plate 2). The upland area is known collectively as Eisteddfod, a name which was also adopted by the Eisteddfod Mining Company.

2. Geology

2.1 The landscape consists of Carboniferous Limestone lying to the south of the Bala Fault and crossed by several principal veins in a north-west to south east direction. The mineralisation was mainly galena with some silver; sphalerite was located at the deeper levels and gangue was mainly calcite with some quartz.

3. The Survey

3.1 The survey area was worked successively by several independant mining companies, including Eisteddfod, Twelve Apostles, Ragman and Hush Eisteddfod. To simplify the descriptive text, this complex mining landscape has been divided into five areas, Hush Eisteddfod, Twelve Apostles, Ragman, Eisteddfod, and Top Eisteddfod. The indentification of individual mine setts is based on information from the mining returns and evidence from a map of 1865 by mining engineer Brenton Symons. The mines worked several main veins and strings in the Carboniferous Limestone, south of the Bala Fault, a geological fault in the limestone formation.

4. Mine Workings

4.1 The earliest mining activities in Minera district are generally thought to have been in the Eisteddfod area. Mining is presumed to have first taken place in the Roman period (Smith 1921, 1) although there is no direct evidence to support this.

4.2 The earliest documentary evidence for mining dates to the 14th century. Lead mining was flourishing, and the miner/farmers in Minera were enjoying many privileges (Pratt 1976; Williams 1994). Miners were free from hearth tax etc.; they were granted a plot of land sufficient to build a house and curtilage and sufficient wood for repairs to their houses and their pits. Presumably these miner/farmers would be engaged in fairly shallow workings, when technology was fairly simple and little capital investment required. Lead would probably have outcropped on Eisteddfod, where the Carboniferous Limestone lies close to the surface. The Hush Vein may have been worked down from the outcrop, resulting in the present deep opencut. There is no evidence to suggest that hushing took place. The mining remains at Top Eisteddfod (PRN 104274) are suggestive of early mining, but field evidence for mining in the medieval period has largely been obscured by the later large-scale mining operations common to most mine sites in north-east Wales.

4.3 Mining appears to have declined after the 14th century, probably due to a combination of factors. In north-east Wales in general, documentary evidence is scarce until the large estates were leasing their mineral rights in the 17th and 18th centuries.

4.4 In 1840, the Government instituted the official collecting and publishing of mineral returns by the Mining Record Office. The subsequent amalgamation of this information (Burt et al. 1993) allows some identification of mine sites in the Minera mining field, although the precise location of the sites is difficult to determine. The mining returns records the following companies working on Eisteddfod: Hush Eisteddfod Lead Mining Co. (1876-77), Eisteddfod (1859-61), Bwlchgwyn (1850-61), Cae Pant (1867-71), Craig Boeth (1886) or Graig Poeth (1882-87), which in 1887 included Llewellyn (1860-87), Minera Boundary (1864-80), Minera Consols (1872-82), Ragman (1865-70), Minera Union (1858-88), West Minera (1881-2), and Twelve Apostles (1863-84).

4.5 Four mine maps have been located which include the area of Eisteddfod and record Rock, Maes Maelor and Minera Western Boundary setts for which no returns were made.

4.6 The western mines i.e. Eisteddfod area, seem to have been worked out by the 1880s. The deeper shafts are located on the eastern end of the veins, the sites currently being excavated and consolidated by Wrexham Maelor Borough Council under a reclamation scheme.

5. Quarrying

5.1 Large quarries together with areas of small-scale quarrying activity are located on Eisteddfod. The limestone outcrops facilitated the quarrying of stone both for building and for agricultural use.

5.2 In 1819, a lease was granted to James Kyrke and John Burton for quarrying limestone and building kilns on Eisteddfod (Ellis 1995, 29-38). The quarries were operating in the 1830s to 1850s as the Steddfod Lime Company with Kyrke as the manager, but the exact location is unknown. According to the mining returns, John Burton was managing the Steddfod Co. from 1859 to 1861 and the company had made returns for lead and silver for the period 1857-61.

6. Processing

6.1 Processing appears to have taken place in close proximity to the shafts in the area of Top Eisteddfod and Hush Eisteddfod. Large spreads of jig waste are located on either side of the Hush and leats were identified during the survey, leading in to the northern side of the workings. A possible location for the early dressing floors at Top Eistedfod was also identified.

6.2 Larger dressing floors with buildings were located at the Twelve Apostles (PRN 18210) and probably Eisteddfod Mine (PRN 104270). There is no evidence to suggest that stone-breakers or crusher houses were used; the ore appears to have been dressed fairly simply with jigs on Eisteddfod.

7. Smelting

7.1 It is likely that smelting was carried out in boles on the exposed south-west slopes of Eisteddfod in medieval times. The boles could be worked intermittently in line with the seasonal character of the early mining (Pratt 1976, 152-3).

7.2 During the 18th and 19th centuries ore would have been transported by horse and cart to smelt mills at Minera, Brymbo or the Dee Estuary.

8. Recommendations

8.1 This extensive well-preserved mining area is of unique archaeological and historical importance in Wales.

8.2 The individual mine sites which form components of the landscapes are recommended for scheduling in their own right, but the landscape is of such dense mining activity that it requires protection in its entirety.
(CPAT Metal Mines Survey - ground survey)

Sources :
Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust , 1995 , Site visit record - PRN18044
Kennedy, A E , 2001 , Tir Gofal Management Plan: Heritage Management Information (HE1). Scotland Farm Trewddyn - NE/06/2065

Events :

Related records
CPAT Historic Environment Record (HER) 18044

Compiled date : 08-08-1995


Images :



Archaeological data, from the Historic Environment Record, supplied by The Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust in partnership with Local Authorities, Cadw and the partners of ENDEX © CPAT, 2025 (and in part © Crown, 2025). It is intended to be used for private research only and is not for use as part of commercial projects. If you wish to use this information for publication in printed or multimedia form or to compile resources for commercial use, prior permission must be obtained in writing. Use of this information is subject to the terms and conditions of access to HER data published on CPAT's website. Please contact the HER if you have any further questions regarding this information. Please quote the Primary Reference Numbers (PRNs) in any correspondence.

April 20, 2025, 12:27 pm - File produced for Archwilio from CPAT's Regional HER.
Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust, The Offices, Coed y Dinas, Welshpool, Powys, SY21 8RP
tel (01938) 553670, email her@cpat.org.uk, website www.cpat.org.uk

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