Middleton Mine

Middleton Mine is situated 6 kilometres south-west of Matlock Bath. It extracts Hopton-Wood Limestone found beneath Middleton Moor. This moor lies on the southern edge of the White Peak area in the Peak District, a region made of carboniferous limestone that spans 50 kilometres north to south and 20 kilometres east to west. The exact start of limestone extraction at Middleton Mine is unclear, but by the 1900s, a dimension stone operation was already in place.

This operation was a surface one, tapping into the limestone where it appeared on the eastern side of Middleton Moor in the village of Middleton-by-Wirksworth. Operations continued until the 1950s, when advancements in concrete technology led to a decrease in demand for natural stone. To counter this drop, Derbyshire Stone, the site's operators at that time, set up a small processing plant to crush the limestone for the steel and sugar industries.

As the quarry expanded, it became more costly to remove the overburden to reach the high-quality limestone beds. To maintain their customer base for processed products, the company decided to start underground mining. They transferred two employees from their lead mine in Matlock to Middleton. Work on a drift access began on February 4, 1959, and since then, around 16 million tonnes of high-grade limestone have been mined underground. Currently, Middleton Mine has 35 kilometres of tunnels, covering 1,400 metres from west to east and 800 metres from north to south. The mine is split into five main production areas separated by normal faults.