If you were living in the Peak District countryside around a hundred years ago, the chances are that you would be following a dual working schedule. Part of your working day would be tending the needs of a dairy herd and maybe carrying out a little ploughing and growing feed crops for those valuable cattle. The other and entirely unrelated occupation could be spent underground, frequently working alone with nothing to help see what was in nearby rocks, other than by candle power. Tools would be a simple pick and shovel. The last independent Peak District lead miner was the late C.H. Millington who lived in Monyash. The name Monyash frequently leads to much argument with pros and cons on two sides. There are those who say the name means ‘Many ash trees’, but the more widely read side disagree, saying the name should be based on Maneas, a title that seems to have been popular as far back as early records indicate. Apparently Maneas means ‘wet lands’ in Saxon, a fitting title for a village built on an ancient clay bed 5million years old. This clay deposit has allowed five ponds to provide drinking water for cattle, (plus one now in-filled as a car park). All those currently in use, are to the south of the village green, with Jack Mere to the north used for parking cars. Monyash is built around a small clusters of cottages and a network of popular footpaths leading into Lathkill Dale form a linked network of field paths where lead miners would plod their weary way home after working underground after a day, still having to tend their cattle, or mow hay for their winter feed. Monyash was an important centre covering a section of the underground riches. The village even had its...
