The clue’s in the name. Our walk this month begins in Coppermine Lane, a reminder of the industrial history of what now seems a very rural, unspoilt part of the world.
Through the 18th, and much of the 19th, centuries, men went to work in a string of mine shafts - the deepest of them reaching down 156 feet - running just north of what we now know as the A534.
Copper was first mined here, it is thought, in the Bronze Age, and then by the Romans. But the earliest documentary evidence of mining here dates back to 1697, in the form of a report prepared for landowner Sir Philip Egerton.
Anyone familiar with Alderley Edge will be right at home on Bickerton Hill, as the two share not just weather-smoothed sandstone outcrops, woodland and views over the Cheshire Plain, but also that long history of copper mining.
In Bickerton’s case, the action petered in the mid-19th century, the shafts were sealed long ago and, apart from the odd chimney, there is little to see today of this mining heritage.
This story is from the January 2020 edition of Cheshire Life.
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This story is from the January 2020 edition of Cheshire Life.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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