Pumping shaft at Lead Mines Clough

Lead was discovered here on Anglezarke Moor in the late 17th century, and mined into the early 20th. I arrived here near the end of a five hour walk around the moor, clearing my head (but not my knees) after a difficult week and a slightly crazy party the previous night. These fragments of an industrial past, now left to the curlew and the rabbit, are picturesque and so pretty misleading. The toil must have been arduous and the rewards meagre. Mining is still destroying the environment, displacing communities, making huge profits for a few on the labour of many, and much of it goes to make weapons. Thought for the day.