Dear List,
On a recent trip to North Wales, Rick Stewart and myself visited a copper mine about 1km west of Nant Paris village, and found some remarkable features.
It seems to have been worked on two NE to SW lodes, running up the steep craggy hillside just above the A4086 road. The southern of these was worked by at least four adits, centred on NGR 5980 5850, only one of which is now open. This is a cross-cut running about 40m into the hill, striking one of the lodes. This is most impressively stoped, with a stope from 6 to 10 feet wide and up to 90 feet high, with several timber working platforms visible near the top. It breaks surface in a couple of places, and goes down at least 30 feet below this adit as well. Copper and iron staining is evident. All looks C18-C19, but could be earlier I suppose.
The second lode has a number of workings, mostly adits whose portals have collapsed. Its eastern end is centred on NGR 5950 5880, where there is a short openwork with several buildings and working platforms in its vicinity. Near the top of the dump of this openwork, I found an apparent mortar stone of the local metamorphic rock, about 50cm across, with two circular depressions and a third possible one, beaten into one face. This looks very like the ones seen on the Coniston NAMHO Conference, which date to the later 16th century.
Does anyone know anything about this mine? In particular, the evidence for early working should make it an important archaeological site.
Robert Waterhouse
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