Despite being some of England's wildest and most dramatic countryside, the Lake District was and is very much a working landscape.  Cattle and sheep are grazed on the hills and down in the valleys.  Metals like lead and copper were mined and stone quarried.

This is a redundant slate mine.  A tunnel was dug into the hillside and a cave excavated.  The roof of the cave would be brought down with blasting powder and the slate brought out through the tunnel avoiding the need to carry the lift the rock up and then carry it downhill.  When the chamber got too big and the roof too thin, a final blast would bring down the rest of the roof leaving an open hole full of broken rocks.

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