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Ecton is a hamlet in the Staffordshire Peak District (). It is on the Manifold Way, an walk and cycle path that follows the line of the former Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway. ==Copper and lead mining at Ecton Hill== The village is overlooked by Ecton Hill, which has probably been mined for copper and lead since the sixteenth century. It was leased by the owner the Duke of Devonshire until, in 1760, the fourth duke decided to work it on his own account. Within fifty years, it became the richest individual copper mine in England producing over sixty thousands tons of ore. Until 1769, when the fifth Duke, William Cavendish, opened his own works at nearby Whiston in the Churnet Valley, the ore was carried to Denby by packhorse for smelting. Much of the copper was used for making brass, but over three hundred tons was supplied to the Navy to protect the hulls of its ships against boring worms, after being rolled at the works of Thomas Evans in Derby. By 1790 the mine was employing 400 workers, men, women and children, producing 4000 tons a year. By 1800 the ore had almost been worked out and the Duke relinquished his interest, the mine finally closing in 1891. The Duke's profits had been almost a third of a million pounds and enabled him, so it is said, to build The Crescent at Buxton. Lead was smelted on the spot and sent initially to Derby by packhorse, but later by the Cromford Canal ''en route'' for the lead market at Hull.〔Cooper, B., (1983) ''Transformation of a Valley: The Derbyshire Derwent,'' Heinemann, republished 1991 Cromford: Scarthin Books〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ecton, Staffordshire」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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