David Aaronovitch trespasses on my manor

Photo by Sabine J Hutchinson
http://www.virtual-shropshire.co.uk/

I have written far too much recently about the Stiperstones and its abandoned mines - try the latest Calder's Comfort Farm on the New Statesman site.

It seems I am not the only one who likes them. In Saturday's issue of The Times David Aaronovitch wrote:

I am as captivated by the abandoned cottages and workings of the 18th-century barytes miners beside the Shropshire Stiperstones as I am by the 2,000-year-old white tombs of Turkish Lycia.

I am pleased to hear it, but he is wrong on two counts.

The remains you see today are not from the 18th century but 19th (though you can find the remains of Roman workings a couple of miles away near Shelve).

And they did not mine barytes much here until the 20th century. The remains you see today - notably at Snailbeach - date from the 19th when this part of Shropshire was a great centre of lead mining.

Now read about David Aaronovitch on University Challenge.