Back Sponds

This small valley in Lyme Handley between Pott Shrigley and Kettleshulme formed part of the Lyme Estate owned by the Legh family of Lyme Hall. The thin coal seams found under here were worked in the second half of the nineteenth century by William Hewitt a local man. There is evidence of both shafts and adits in this view and in the 1870s there was a small brickworks just below the centre. After the death of William in 1890 his son struggled to capitalise the business and the mine was closed by 1896. That was not the end of coal working in the valley and in 1950 William Hewitt's great-grandson opened an adit close to the tight bend where the road crosses and which operated for a few years.