About this site

MineArchive is a reference catalogue of interesting historic and abandoned mines across the UK. It brings together information scattered across government records, geological databases, mining-history societies, archives and exploration reports, and links back to the best original material rather than trying to reproduce everything itself.

How mines are added

The site grows deliberately, not automatically. Mines are first noted as lightweight candidates — enough to judge whether they're worth a closer look. A candidate is only researched in detail once it's specifically selected, and only goes live once that research has been reviewed. There is no fixed target for how many mines the site should contain; a shorter list of well-sourced pages is the goal, not a complete gazetteer.

Sources

Detailed pages draw on primary sources (British Geological Survey, the Coal Authority, Inspector of Mines reports, historic mine plans, archive and local-authority records) where they're accessible, alongside specialist secondary sources (mining history societies, academic work, established databases). Modern condition is often described using observational sources — exploration reports, photographs, videos — which are treated as evidence of what someone saw on a particular visit, not as settled fact. Where sources disagree on a date or detail, both are usually kept and the disagreement explained rather than one being silently dropped.

Images

Images are only reproduced on this site when their licence clearly permits it, including commercial use — Creative Commons NonCommercial images are not used. Every reproduced image carries its creator, source, licence and retrieval date. Where a suitable licence can't be confirmed, the page links to the original source instead of hosting a copy.

Safety

Abandoned mines can be genuinely dangerous: unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This site describes history and general location; it does not provide access routes, ways past fencing, or directions to workings.