In the Peak leadmining area hawthorn bushes were the favourite tree to plant by a shaft. Nellie Kirkham told me that miners planted them mostly by their coe or climbing shafts. I don't know why, perhaps it was superstition as miners were known to be very superstitious people. She said that if one was looking for a lost shaft, view the landscape for disturbed ground i.e. mine hillocks, and if there was an old hawthorn bush with a pile of rocks near it, especially in a hollow, that was an indication of the site of a possible shaft. Of course in the days we were exploring old lead mines the Derbyshire mine capping programme had not be carried out or even thought about - I still can remember how to cap a shaft with stone, even build a beehive. I still have visions of a member of our group jumping on the chock stone after we'd capped it to prove it was solid. There was also a very strong Derbyshire superstition concerning hawthorn, it was unlucky to pick the flowers and bring them into the house, and similarly bring hawthorn wood into the house to burn.
David, I'm very glad that at long last the Peak Park Planning Authority have seen the sense of preserving the flora and fauna that thrive on the old mine hillocks, which as you say
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