Derbyshire Record Office rarely buys documents but we recently made an exception when an eighteenth century map of Winster came up for auction. Winster is a beautiful and historic village, but our earliest map was the first edition of the Ordnance Survey, surveyed 1875-1882. This is well over a hundred years after Winster’s heyday as a centre of the county’s lead mining industry, so we were very excited when we were able to buy this 1769 map with the help of a grant from the Friends of the National Libraries and a private donation.
The Plan of the lead mines and veins of the Partners and Proprietors of Portoway Placket Yate Stoop Limekiln and Drake, Winster is a beautifully drawn map:
And what’s really exciting is that it shows the village in some detail:
Although the village is much bigger nowadays, some of the older buildings are still recognisable on this map. I’ve marked a few below: the red circle marks the church, the blue circle is Winster Hall and the green one is probably Winster Market House (now owned by the National Trust). If you know Winster well, you can no doubt recognise more.
Of course for lead mining historians this map is also a fascinating resource as the mines themselves are marked. Plus, if you’d like to see what an 18th century lead miner looked like, there are some lovely images of them:
We want to thank the Friends of the National Libraries for their grant which enabled us to buy this wonderful map, as well as lead mining historian, Steve Thompson, who also generously contributed to its purchase.
If you’d like to look at the map, just come and visit the Record Office and ask for D8163/1.
