Although mainly a lead mine, copper was also produced. It’s unlikely any silver was produced, Alltycrib ore was used mainly as a flux to smelt the silver rich ores of Darren and Cwmsymlog.
First mining activity probably coincides with early to middle Bronze Age, the attraction being the copper deposits over to the west. There are also very strong indications of Roman mining, but large scale mining only started stared in 1617 when Sir Hugh Myddleton took over the leases for the Society of Mines Royal. Later the mines were worked by Thomas Bushell whose name was given to the a level driven 1637 to 1641 for a distance of 200 fathoms, and was to be the main working level of the mine for 200 years.
After Bushell left, little was done until the frenzy of the early 19th century when the Flintshire Smelting Company drove a deep adit from the Wern intended to undercut the old miners bottoms. However it not only failed to do this, but it was found that almost everything had already been taken. Regardless of this a succession of companies took over the leases; unfortunately these included some pretty sharp characters. Notable is the swindler Joseph Fell who in consort with his lifetime business associate Richard Barrabee Fastnedge and the bent mine captain Thomas Glanville managed to con investors with what must be some of the most outrageous assertions ever made about the prospects of a mine.
The last company to work the mine was the Talybont Lead Mines Ltd formed in 1910 from a partnership of the kindly David Williams of Clettwr Hall, a branch of the Williams family of Scorrier as in Williams Perran Foundry, and a mining engineer, ex shale miner named Archibald Simpson. This company was responsible for the driving of a wide, straight crosscut level known as Pryces Level named after the mineral lords, the Pryces of Goggerdan. The level is somewhat unique as it was driven using Kelldrills designed by Moses Kellow to operate by water pressure. The only other metal mines to use these drills were May Mining Company at Cwmystwyth and Rio Tinto. Basically, they never caught on due to their size and difficulty to control.
The site can be geographically divided into the lower site of the deep adit and dressing floors at the Wern, and the upper workings on the Alltycrib Hill. However, very little remains. The main assessable workings on the hill are Myddletons Level, a fine ‘coffin’ type level driven by Sir Hughes people, Wilkinsons Level, an early level enlarged and re-named in the 19th Century, and the air shaft. The latter was blocked by a major collapse until a winze was sunk by my friends from the Welsh Mines Society and me in May 2004. The deep adit was reached at a depth of 75 feet from the point that we started, the total descent being about 150 feet.
The lower site at the Wern was totally obliterated when the land was sold off and levelled in the 1930s, and now forms a private garden. The deep adit portal was buried during site clearance.
Current projects are the clearing of the drainage culvert at the Wern in an attempt to drain the mine, as the deep adit has between 2 and 5 feet of water at our entry point. This is by kind permission of the landowner, Mrs Valma Jones. The other project is the driving of a roadway in the deep adit through collapsed ground. This is an attempt to reach the western workings, at the time of writing, December 2007, we have gone 130 feet at almost full walking height.

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