A RURAL spot in County Durham once a part of a vanished industry is today a popular site for stargazing and dog walking, but what is left of its mining history?
County Durham’s last remaining mining headframe stands tall at the site of a former lead and fluorspar mine on the outskirts of Rookhope in Weardale, becoming a fixed symbol of an industry that once dominated the region.
Grove Rake mine, now an iconic landmark in the North Pennines, was saved from demolition in 2017.
Mining started at the site in the early 1800s and major operations were developed by the Beaumont Company in the 1810s. It started producing fluorspar under the ownership of Weardale Lead Company and after the Second World War was one of the leading producers of the mineral.
When it closed in 1999 it was thought to have been the last fluorspar mine operating in England and the last deep mineral mine in County Durham.
While Grove Rake has changed over the years, with a fire in 2015 badly damaging a building which is no longer there, the surviving infrastructure is some of the last evidence of mining to be preserved in Weardale.
Some explorers have gone into the old mine, looking past surface features such as the headgear and into the Firestone Incline, The Old Beaumont Horse Level and Rake Level which reveal flooded shafts and old wiring, but this is dangerous and entrances are blocked off.
Here's what is left of the site:
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