Operations at the Roseberry Ironstone Mine would have been dependent on steam power. In the 1931 public auction when the mining equipment was sold off, the lots included 2 hauling engines, 1 compressor, 1 fan engine, 4 boilers, and 2 pumping engines. To supply all these steam engines with sufficient water a reservoir was built 25 feet on the slope above the mine buildings. Today the reservoir is a damp reedy patch on the hillside surrounded by an embankment.
But where how was the water sourced. The old maps do not indicate a spring at this point but 200 – 300 metres to the north-east and 25 feet higher the map is annotated with the word “Rises” at the top of a re-entrant and a watercourse which eventually becomes Slacks Beck. I guess this was the source of the water, although today the re-entrant is dry.
For the record, the reservoir is on private farmland but I am standing on Open Access Land, the boundary of which I reckon is the hawthorn trees, probably part of an old hedge line.
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