48 min listen
Countrystride #85: COPPERMINES VALLEY - Landscape legacy of audacious ambition
FromCountrystride
ratings:
Length:
62 minutes
Released:
Jul 29, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
...in which we journey into the mining past of iconic Coppermines Valley above Coniston with industrial historian Mark Hatton. Rewinding time to the 16th century, we seek out the earliest signs of copper extraction on the lonely slopes below Hole Rake, before climbing to the wheelpits and addits of The Company of Mines Royal - monuments to the German miners who abandoned Keswick when their Newlands seams were exhausted. As we climb ever-higher into Red Dell, we learn about the audacious scale of 18th century infrastructure - the breathtaking leats, the mighty waterwheels and the miles of tunnels; we consider the dangers of the shaft-potted landscape and its unforgiving technology; we picture the hard lives of the men, women and children who once worked these remarkable slopes... and we ask, 'Did the IRA really try to assassinate John Major using a bomb below Levers Water?".
Released:
Jul 29, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Countrystride #39: Thirlmere - and the flooding of a valley: …in which we take an autumnal wander along the wooded west shore of Thirlmere, the reservoir that displaced a close-knit pastoral community to fulfil 19th century Manchester’s ever-growing thirst for water. As we walk, we learn from author and on... by Countrystride