teaching - Earth Science Teachers' Association

TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 31 ● Number 4, 2006
Ecton Rises Again!
ALASTAIR FLEMING
The Ecton Copper Mines are set for a new life! Many ESTA members know of the Ecton Copper
Mines in the Staffordshire Peak District and their use as a base for educational activities, started
under the aegis of the former Mineral Industry Manpower and Careers Unit (MIMCU). Indeed many
will have been there, or to the nearby spectacular structural geology of Apes Tor.
Figure 1
View of the
Boulton and Watt
Engine House, and
the buttress
around the
balance shaft for
Deep Ecton Mine,
from the ruined
buildings around
Dutchman Mine.
Ecton provided intensive one-day courses for both
A level Chemistry and A level Geology students.
Other users ranged from primary school groups
to GNVQ students to undergraduate geologists and
PGCE Science groups, from local church groups to
professional experts and researchers. Supporters of
Ecton included the Royal Society of Chemistry, which
ran several teachers’ courses there, the local group of
the Geologists’ Association, and the Royal School of
Mines. Five years ago these educational activities were
suspended during the foot-and-mouth disease out-
Figure 2
Eyes down! Picking mineral specimens from the old tips at Waterbank Mine.
This mine was more lead-rich, less copper-rich, than Deep Ecton Mine.
break, and other factors then prevented the resumption
of those activities.
In those five years the small band of volunteers who
ran these courses under the banner of the Ecton Hill
Field Studies Association (EHFSA) kept up their hopes
of an eventual re-opening. In that time the mines’
owner, Geoff Cox, sadly died, which put the future of
the mines themselves into doubt as his estate was settled.
However there is now new light at the end of this
tunnel, as the ownership of the mines, with their mineral
rights, and the Ecton Educational Centre itself, has
been transferred to a newly-formed charitable trust
company called the Ecton Mine Educational Trust. The
aims of the Trust are primarily for education and conservation
of heritage, so the Trust will make the centre
available for educational activities, including the revival
of EHFSA courses.
So what did those courses entail? The A level activities
evolved from earlier two-day MIMCU courses, eventually
refined into an intensive one-day (10am-4pm)
course, normally with two tutors and a maximum of 30
students with their teachers. A typical day would start
with a briefing on the background to mining at Ecton.
The party then set off up Ecton Hill, past the old powder
hut, to the top of the Deep Ecton shaft and the original
Boulton and Watt engine house, and the hole where the
main Ecton ore-body originally outcropped at surface. A
walk over the hill led to Waterbank Mine, where the old
mine dumps offer a rewarding opportunity to collect
mineral specimens. These were analysed, in a session in
the outdoor laboratory, by wet chemical qualitative
analysis techniques to identify the compounds in them.
A further practical session introduced some mineral separation
techniques and the science behind these, and, as
a climax to the day, an unforgettable underground tour
into Salt’s Level in Ecton Mine.
EHFSA will again operate the courses for schools.
The revival of these courses will take some time. It is
hoped improvements can be made to the centre itself,
and perhaps a wider range of courses offered. The first
development in preparing for re-opening has been the
updating of the one-day A level Geology course programme
covering minerals, mineralization and mining,
and associated structural geology, with accompanying
teaching and learning materials. Peter Kennett is
presently editing these materials, and we are grateful for
a Curry Fund grant which has enabled this updating
process. Essentially a package of mainly practical activi-
www.esta-uk.org
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