Goyt's Moss Collieries

The Buxton coalfield was extensively worked in the eighteenth century for the benefit of the Duke of Devonshire as landowner. The Goyt's Moss workings comprised a large number of shafts connected by raised roadways with the associated whim gins being moved from shaft to shaft as the workings progressed. Analysis of the accounts for 1790 suggests that usually three shafts were in operation at any one time, although two and four were also worked at times.

The image shows the remains of a collapsed eighteenth century shaft out on the moor. The lighter coloured patch on the right is part of the gin circle of which the remainder had been lost into the collapsed shaft which would have been 75 or 80 feet deep.