Lead mining peaked in the 17th and 18th centuries before its steady decline in the 19th century, and many of the Wirksworth`s impressive houses and other buildings were built during these prosperous times. As mines became deeper and deeper, to extract the lower ore, flooding problems became ever more severe and costly to control, and the mines became uneconomic to operate. In the 19th century easily mined lead ore was discovered on a huge scale in Australia, bringing the price of lead down to such a level that many of the mines around Wirksworth were shut down. For more information on Wirksworth see Wirksworth in Derbyshire