Coniston Old Man

Copper Mines at Coniston

July 20, 2011

For many centuries the presence of copper in the Lake District mountain rocks above Coniston Water provided a livelihood for people in the area. Now Coniston coppermines are mostly visited by walkers and mine explorers (scroll down for video). Looking at the area today it is not easy to imagine a time (much of it [...]

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Coniston Old Man

February 15, 2011

Here’s a nice photograph of Coniston Old Man, behind the village of Coniston, that I came across on Wikimedia. It all looks very pretty in the snow, but it’s worth remembering that not too long ago men would climb up, at all seasons of the year, to work in the Coniston coppermines. These mines were [...]

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Coniston Coppermines

November 23, 2009

The copper mines around Coniston were worked from at least the middle of the 16th century and, with a number of breaks in production in between, up to end of the 19th when competition from high-grade ore imported from overseas killed this local Lake District industry. Coniston Old Man, the mountain behind Coniston village, was [...]

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