Copper mines on Ecton Hill

Scheduled area

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History & significance

Copper mines on Ecton Hill is a series of surface and underground workings located in the Peak District of Staffordshire that represent some of the most significant copper extraction activity in medieval and early modern England. The mines were worked from at least the medieval period through to the eighteenth century, with evidence suggesting the most intensive exploitation occurred during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when improved mining technology and economic demand drove substantial extraction. The site comprises both bell pits and deeper shafts that follow the copper ore deposits within the limestone geology of the hill, with associated spoil heaps and processing features that survive as visible landscape remains. Ecton Hill represents an important example of the development of English mineral extraction before the major industrial expansion of the nineteenth century, and the physical remains constitute valuable archaeological evidence of pre-industrial mining practices and technology.

Copper mines on Ecton Hill is a scheduled monument protected by Historic England under reference 1021175. View the official record →

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