Sunday February 26th 2017. Meet at 1.15pm.

Walk leader: Chris Furness.

A short (2 miles) circular Sunday afternoon walk, mostly on footpaths. The route is packed with places of interest. No prior booking required – all welcome.

We will meet at 1.15 pm in the car park of Brough Mill Shop (closed on Sundays, but we have special permission to park there) – postcode S33 9NG for sat-navs. See on Google Maps

From there, we will catch the bus at 1.30pm to go to the top end of Bradwell (fare approx. £1.00 for those without bus passes).

We will start by visiting the Dale End smelter site, precipitation tunnels and water turbine draught pipe remains. Then on to Hazlebadge Liberty to view sites of veins, shafts and soughs. Also the burial mounds containing cists of the Celtic bronze/iron age beaker people, who may have been the first lead miners in the area.

If we can get permission, we will then go to Wortley to see the mine hillocks and the Cement Works pumping station, which extracted water from Pictor Sough.

Next we will go to see where the outflow from Pictor Sough ran into Bradwell Brook, before it was recently blocked and forced to surface elsewhere!

From there, we will walk along the fields towards Brough, via the 5th century ancient monument ‘Grey Ditch‘ and past (and inside) the precipitation tunnels of the Brough Lead Smelter (1920s).

The walk will conclude with a visit to Navio Roman Fort at Brough, from where the Romans controlled the lead trade in the area from AD 80 to AD 350, with a break of 35 years from AD 120 to AD 155. It was by far the longest-occupied Roman fort in Derbyshire.

The Roman Fort is situated close to our parking place, and the walk should finish by 4.30pm.

PDMHS members are recommended to bring their copies of the last Mining History (Autumn 2016) with Chris Heathcote’s article on Hazlebadge Liberty.