More information : Silver Gill Mine is part of the Roughton Gill Mine sett. Roughton Gill Mine (NY 33 SW 12) is generally assumed to have been the site of the principal Elizabethan workings at Caldbeck, but the records are not specific; it may be that the Silver Gill Mine was initially more important. The Silver Gill lode was worked from levels in both Silver Gill and Roughton Gill: three levels are visible in Silver Gill at NY 2985 3405 ('Golden Hugh'), NY 2995 3415 and NY 3005 3430; whilst two trials have been made in Roughton Gill at NY 3020 3425 and NY 3020 3420. The vein is comprised of silver-rich lead and copper minerals (1a). (1)
Documentary evidence suggests that Silver Gill Mine was being exploited intermittently from as early as 1319, and is almost certainly the same as the Caldbeck Mine operated by the Company of Mines Royal between 1566 and c 1630. The Company had three main underground workings in Silver Gill, named Fortune (NY 23 SE 9), Emanuel (NY 23 SE 4) and New Adit (NY 23 SE 5) - all group centred to NY 299 341 - and also conducted two trials in Roughton Gill: Blind Wastel (NY 33 SW 13) and a second adit with no name (NY 33 SW 14). A number of hushes and associated reservoirs and supply leats which survive as earthworks on Balliway Rigg and elsewhere (NY 23 SE 6 and NY 33 SW 15-21) are probably the work of the Company, who also constructed a lodging house for their miners (NY 33 SW 22) plus a stamp mill/washing house complex (NY 33 SW 23) to dress the mined ore. The mine was re-worked at intervals between c 1695-1730 by Thomas Hillary on behalf of Lord Wharton, when Golden Hugh is recorded as the principal level, probably identical with the earlier Fortune Adit. The various levels were also re-worked intermittently as part of Roughton Gill Mine between c 1795-1865, by the end of which time they were completely exhausted. Emanuel and New Adit were then known as the Silver Gill 8- and 20-fathom levels. The Silver Gill 8-fathom level had been abandoned and its entrance lost beneath scree by 1863; it was only re-discovered in 1997. Two new levels - the Silver Gill 50-fathom (NY 33 SW 38) and the Silver Gill 90-fathom (NY 33 SW 50) - date to this time, but should really be considered as part of Roughton Gill Mine with which Silver Gill Mine had by then been subsumed.
All the above features were surveyed at 1:1000 scale as part of the EH: Roughton Gill Mine and Silver Gill Mine Survey, with the exception of Fortune Adit which lies outside the survey area. See individual child records and the survey report (2a) for full details. The area of the mine is currently open, grassy, upland fell, with bare rock in places, used for grazing sheep. (2)
Listed. (3)
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