Not far from the Charterhouse Activity Centre lies Velvet Bottom, containing some beautiful scenery and historical sights.
British Geological Survey describe the area:
In 1844 the Mendip Hills Mining Company began work in the Charterhouse area. They company employed Cornish miners with experience and expertise of working deep tin mines. Initially, the aim was to exploit the ore at depth, which previous miners could not reach. Four deep shafts were sunk, up to 108 m deep. One of these, Stainsby’s Shaft, is the fenced off shaft near where the Cheddar to Charterhouse road crosses the valley. However, the venture proved unsuccessful, merely demonstrating that most of the rich ore lay near the surface.
To recoup their losses, they reworked the lead-rich slag and slimes from previous mining, which still contained up to 25% lead. Dressing floors to process the slag and a smelter, complete with a boiler and flues was built in Velvet Bottom, 900 m down valley from the road. Water was conducted from Long Wood via a 1800 m-long series of ‘launders’ (wooden troughs), and directed into ‘buddles’ for washing the ore. A tramroad 600 m long was built to connect the slag tips with the dressing floors. A second dressing floor was built 200 m down valley from the road embankment.
This proved successful. In 1849, a larger area of slag-rich ground was leased in the upper part of the valley around Blackmoor and Ubley Warren, close to the car park. Some of the slimes here yielded up to 57% lead! Three dressing floors and a smelter were built here.
It was at this time that the large reservoir at the upper end of Blackmoor was constructed. By 1853 over 300 people were working at the site and tens of tons of lead were being produced each month. However, the business was in trouble. Heavy expenditure, embezzlement and the costs of buying up a local farm whose land had been poisoned by the lead-rich fumes from the smelter led to the shareholders having to bail the company out. A few prosperous years followed, but by 1878, a fall in the price of lead led to a cessation of smelting, and the site was finally abandoned in 1885.
Extract from https://www.bgs.ac.uk/mendips/minerals/Mins_Mines_2.htm (09/03/2020)
The geocache is located near the old furnaces. Park up at the Velvet Bottom carpark and wander towards this geocache. Check out the various information signs and pause at the furnaces en route.