Storm clouds over Force Crag, Coledale - Cumbria

Coledale is a narrow U-shaped valley running approximately north-east towards the Derwent Valley floodplain and the village of Braithwaite at the northeastern end. The valley river Coledale Beck feeds into Newlands Beck and is fed by small streams from the valley sides and head, including Birkthwaite Beck, and Pudding Force.

At the head of the valley a large rock formation is found named Force Crag, which forms a waterfall 'Low Force' as Pudding Beck passes over it.


Force Crag Mine was the last working metal mine in the Lake District, prior to its final abandonment in 1991. The site was mined for lead from 1839 until 1865, and for zinc and barytes from 1867. The job of the mill was to separate these minerals from each other, and from any other minerals and the country rock. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and a geological SSSI (site of special scientific interest). The mine occupies a spectacular location at the head of the remote Coledale Valley, 7 km west of Keswick above Braithwaite.





The mill buildings that you can see today were built in 1908-9 and redesigned in 1939-40. The mill contains the ore-refining machinery that was in use during the 1980s until it closed, along with some earlier equipment. It is the only former mineral mining site in the country that has retained its processing equipment in something approaching complete order.

A mill has been on site at the mine since 1840, moving in 1908 to its present location at a height of 900ft.. Over the years the mill has been rebuilt and the machinery renovated and renewed. What remains today dates from its last occupation by the New Coledale Mining Company, whose main target was zinc.





Over the years 60,000 tons of barytes, 1248 tons of zinc, and 624 tons of lead (containing many ounces of silver) have been extracted from the mine. The job of the mill was to separate these minerals from each other, and from any other minerals and the country rock. Although the mill was built into the hillside so that gravity could help with movement of ore through the various processes, in reality it was moved up, down and around as required in order to achieve the end result desired in the space available.