High Rake seems a propitious place. A thousand feet above sea level, it has wide views to the north and the unmistakable trapezoid of Win Hill; south is limestone country, dressed prettily in a lattice of drystone walls.
It must have felt lucky to those early Victorian speculators who believed there was lead under this elevated spot. To find it, their mine company dug a shaft 700ft deep, installing the biggest pumping engine ever seen outside Cornwall. Alas, it drained the investors dry too. Scraps of lead materialised but there was no motherlode; the only ones to profit from this quixotic venture were local miners.
