Speedwell Mine (Oakden Level), Castleton, High Peak, Derbyshire, England, UKi

Regional Level Types
Speedwell Mine (Oakden Level)	Mine
Castleton	Civil Parish
High Peak	Borough
Derbyshire	County
England	Constituent Country
UK	Country

While it was earlier believed that this level was driven to open up the veins on Long Cliff hill at depth (Carruthers & Strahan, 1923), there is now evidence that it was actually designed to intersect previously known stream caverns so as to develop a boat-haulage mining operation (Rieuwerts & Ford, 1985).

In 1771, a shaft was sunk to a depth of 72 feet at the foot of Long Cliff and in 1772, the level was started southwards from the shaft bottom at an average rate of 4 feet 6 inches per week. Around 1778-1779, it intersected Faucet Rake at 750 yards from its entrance, which was found completely hollowed out, leaving a deep but narrow cavern which extends more than 150 feet above the level and 50 feet below it and is now known as the Bottomless Pit. When the level was continued, the excavated rubbish was dumped in the chasm without any visible effect. At 270 feet south of the cavern, the level turns southwest and continues another 700 feet where it holed into the stream caverns along New Rake in 1781. A length of 350 feet of the natural passageways was then modified by the miners until 1782.

While the veins of New Rake are exposed in the caverns, they do not carry much ore and do not appear to have been worked. Most of the production of the mine obviously came from pipes that branch from the caverns at various places and some of them have been mined out. Operations ceased in 1794, presumably because the returns were disappointing, but the mine was reworked several times until the middle of the 19th century.

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References