CPAT Regional Historic Environment Record
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Machynlleth Park Lodge/Witches Cave Mine

Primary Reference Number (PRN) : 8458
Trust : Clwyd Powys
Community : Machynlleth
Unitary authority : Powys
NGR : SH76050011
Site Type (preferred type first) : POST MEDIEVAL COPPER MINE / POST MEDIEVAL LEAD MINE

Description :
Geology
Silurian Wenlock-Ludlow series. One vein strikes E-W with a N-S cross vein containing lead and copper ores.

Workings
The main copper working began as an opencast 25m long by 6m wide and is known as Ogof Wyddon or the Witches Cave SH76050011. The opencast has a later shaft through its floor and a connecting adit at its base. The adit has another shaft through its floor. There is a trial level lower down the hill to the east at SH76120008. Curiously there are no obvious spoil tips associated with the mine.

Transport
No evidence

Power
No evidence

Processing
No evidence

Other features
No evidence

Artifacts
An iron pick and 'fish spear' together with a stone hammer, which was apparently still hafted, were retrieved from the base of the shaft which cut through the bottom of the opencast during drainage operations in 1856. At the bottom of the shaft there was also a quantity of burnt wood with evidence of burning on the shaft walls. The latter may indicate that firesetting was being used to break up the rock.

[PRN 1710 cancelled duplication of this record.]

Opencast site for copper extraction with documentary evidence for primitive tools having been found at the site (Pickin, J., 1988, 18-19). (info from PRN 17467) The site comprises a fenced off opencast slot, around
25m long, in the crest of a small rocky hillock, and interconnecting with a similarly fenced off adit to its west-north-west. No waste rock or significant finds are now apparent but it seems that hammer stones have been retrieved from the site in the past. There is some relatively recent rubbish tipping in the east-north-east end of the opencut. (RH 24/02/2010)

Sources :
Bick, D E , 1977 , The Old Metal Mines of Mid Wales 4
Bick, D E , 1990 , The Old Metal Mines Of Mid-Wales
Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust , 1983 , Site visit record - PRN8458
Foster-Smith, J R , 1978 , The Mines of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire
Hankinson, R , 2010 , Mines and Quarries. The Scheduling Enhancement Programme ( © Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust)
Morris , 1972 , title unknown - Machynlleth Park Lodge/Witches Cave Mine
Morris, T , 1972 , title unknown - Machynlleth Park Lodge/Witches Cave Mine
Morris, T , 1974 , The Machynlleth Parc Copper Mine , The Montgomeryshire Collections : 62 : 212-6
Ordnance Survey , 1889 , OS map
Ordnance Survey , 1974 , OS record card SH70SE (M) 1
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and Monmouthshire , 1911 , Inventory of the Ancient and Historical Monuments of the County of Montgomery ( © Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and Monmouthshire)
Timberlake, S & Mason, J , 1997 , Ogof Wyddon (Machynlleth Park Copper Mine), Machynlleth , Archaeology in Wales : 37 : 62-5

Events :
115395 : Mines and Quarries: Scheduling Enhancement Project, assessment project 2010 (year : 2010)

Related records

Compiled date : 22-05-1996


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.

May 21, 2025, 9:46 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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