Esgairhir

aka Cambrian, Welsh Potosi, or Cardigan Consolidated


Lead Mine

Worked from 1689

Jan 1st, 2024 from Cambrian by Buddle-Bot

Dec 23rd, 2024 by BertyBasset


Mid Wales
Tal y Bont
52.5043602, -3.867435
SN 7334 9125
Private Land
440m
7,000t
#379

Upon discovery in 1689, in a landmark legal action, landowner Sir Carberry Pryse challenged and destroyed the Crown’s monopoly on gold and silver deposits in Britain.

Together with Esgair Fraith, termed the Welsh Potosi by William Waller of the Mine Adventurers, alluding to the same named silver mines of Peru.

The interlinked histories of the two mines are best studied by reading Bick.

Estimated 7,000 lead ore raised, most from Waller’s day c 1700

Publications (16)

  • (1848); BGS - Memoirs Vol II, Part II; 425 pages
  • (1922); BGS - Mineral Resources of GB (c1920s) Vol XX - Lead and Zinc: Cardiganshire & West Montogmeryshire; 242 pages
  • Bick, D.E. (1991); Old Metal Mines of Mid-Wales, The; North of Goginan - Part 3; pp. 53-61
  • Bick, David (1994); PDMHS (Peak District Mines Historical Society) 12-3 Sum - Early Mining Leats and Ponds in Wales; 4 pages (37-40)
  • Hughes, Simon J.S. (1971); BSA Proceedings Vol VI, No 46 - Mineral Field of Mid Wales, The; 8 pages
  • Hughes, Simon J.S. (1976); Cardiganshire - Its Mines and Miners; 52 pages
  • Hughes, Simon J.S. (1976); Papur Pawb - Newspaper Snippets ; 16 pages
  • Hughes, Simon J.S. (1981); Bwlchglas Mine; 22 pages
  • Hughes, Simon J.S. (1988); UK Journal of Mines & Minerals No 5 - Decline of Mining in Mid Wales and Prospects of Revival, The; 10 pages
  • Hughes, Simon J.S. (1991); British Mining Volume 43 - Castell & Nant y Creiau Mines, The; 23 pages
  • Hughes, Simon J.S. (2006); 30 Years of Prospecting in Cardiganshire; 5 pages
  • Lewis, W.J. (1951); Early Mining in Wales; 17 pages
  • Liscombe & Co (1880); Mines of Cardiganshire, Montgomereyshire & Shropshire; 52 pages
  • Naylor, Peter (1981); PDMHS (Peak District Mines Historical Society) 08-1 Jun - Sir Hugh Myddelton The First Mines Adventurer; 6 pages (54-59)
  • Palmer, Marilyn and Neaverson, Peter (1989); PDMHS (Peak District Mines Historical Society) 10-6 Win - Comparative Archaeology of Tin and Lead Dressing in Britain during the Nineteenth Century, The; 32 pages (316-347)
  • Palmer, Marilyn; NMRS (1983); British Mining 22; "The Richest in All Wales" - The Welsh Potosi or Esgair Hir & Esgair Fraith

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