Site of Hanging Flat, Eyam. Demolished 19th century farmstead. The farmstead was of a dispersed plan arranged as a cluster of buildings. The site was in an isolated location. All traditional buildings have been lost.

Monument record MDR18907, Derbyshire Historic Environment Record

At first glance, this photo shows a rather unassuming hole in the ground on the path leading to the popular rock-climbing spot, Furness Quarry (or as it’s known by climbers, Horseshoe Quarry), but it’s actually an entryway to the historical Hanging Flatt Mine. The original entrance has long since collapsed, and the farm that perched on the cliff above it is long gone.

In 1942, the Peak District branch of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, led by environmental activist Ethel Haythornthwaite, acquired a plot of land just outside of Eyam. This plot comprised 28 acres surrounding Hanging Flat Farm, including the mine which was being worked for fluorspar. Mrs. Haythornthwaite tells a tale of how she heard the sound of a pick against rock coming from the mine at night, even though she knew it to be closed. When she asked the miners whether anyone could have been there, she was told that it must have been the ghost of the man who lived at Needham’s farm and worked down the mine.

Samuel Needham and his older brother Herbert worked the mine for lead in the 1880s and lived in the farmhouse perched on the cliff above the mine with their parents and sisters. Both brothers had multiple run-ins with the police, ranging from minor infractions like walking a lame mare and having no license for a hunting dog, to more serious incidents. One such case involved a tenant of a house they owned, James Andrew Booth, who was pressured for money by the brothers and even threatened with violence in front of his family. Herbert, in particular, seemed to have a short temper. On one occasion, he pointed a gun at a Mr. Ball of Middleton Dale, who was a relative of a policeman from Eyam, and told him, “You are a cousin of the Eyam policeman; I will blow your brains out.”

In 1911, Samuel Needham Senior retired from farming and auctioned off his animals and machinery. He passed away at the age of 75 the following year. His son, Samuel, put the farmstead and mine up for sale in 1915. He also passed away around this period. The fate of Herbert, however, is lost to time.

Nellie Kirkham, a local historian who wrote avidly about the mines of the Peak District, mentions a story about the ghost of Hanging Flat in her notes;

“He had often been heard walking about and muttering. Quite a number of people had seen him, but he doesn’t answer when spoken to. He is an old man with his spade over his shoulder. He has been seen on the surface and in the mine and is supposed to be the old man who lived at Hanging Flat House. Once when two of the miners had arrived and were in Hanging Flat Mine going to their work, they thought a man behind them was their mate and said ‘you’re late this morning’ – and he vanished away.”

Could it be that one of the Needham’s still clings to the land he once called home, so long after death?

Sources and Further Reading

• Bell, David. Derbyshire Ghosts & Legends. Countryside Books, Newbury, Berkshire, 1999.
• Various articles from the Derbyshire Times, Derbyshire Advertiser & Journal, Sheffield Daily Telegraph and Sheffield Independent.
• Nellie Kirkham’s Field Notes archived at the Peak District Mines Historical Society
• Eyam, West of the Church Census 1881, 1891 and 1901 found on places.wishful-thinking.org.uk/DBY/Eyam/index.html