Foxdale (; ; – 'waterfall dale or valley'), also called Balley'n Eas (meaning "waterfall-town in Manx"), is a village consisting of the on the A3 Castletown to Ramsey Road with the junction of the A24 Foxdale to Braaid road and the A40 ''The Hope'' road in the parish of Kirk Patrick in the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

. The village of Foxdale falls within the

sheading Local government in the Isle of Man was formerly based on six sheadings, which were divided into seventeen parishes (today referred to as "ancient parishes"). The island is today divided for local government purposes into town districts, villa ...

Glenfaba Glenfaba ( ; ) is one of the six sheadings of the Isle of Man. It is located on the west of the island (part of the traditional ''North Side'' division) and consists of the two historic parishes of German and Patrick. It includes the town of ...

. Politically it is part of the constituency of

Glenfaba & Peel Glenfaba & Peel is a House of Keys constituency in the west of the Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Ch ...

and is currently represented in

Tynwald Tynwald (), or more formally, the High Court of Tynwald () or Tynwald Court, is the legislature of the Isle of Man. It consists of two chambers, known as the branches of Tynwald: the directly elected House of Keys and the indirectly chosen Leg ...

and the

House of Keys The House of Keys () is the directly elected lower house of Tynwald, the parliament of the Isle of Man, the other branch being the Legislative Council. History The oldest known reference to the name is in a document of 1417, written in Lat ...

by Ray Harmer MHK and Geoffrey Boot MHK. The village is served by Patrick Parish Commissioners. The village has a heritage centre which is run voluntarily. It was formerly the terminus of the

Foxdale Railway The Foxdale Railway was a narrow gauge branch line which ran from St. John's to Foxdale in the Isle of Man. The line ran from an end-on junction with the Manx Northern Railway west of St. John's, then passed to the north of the Isle of Man ...

Foxdale mines

In the 19th century there were 13 mines and workings in the area of Foxdale, which included five mines working the Foxdale shear. The mines yielded a rich output of

zinc blende Sphalerite is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula . It is the most important ore of zinc. Sphalerite is found in a variety of deposit types, but it is primarily in sedimentary exhalative, Mississippi-Valley type, and volcanogenic mas ...

lead ore Lead () is a chemical element; it has symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, lead ...

and silver. In time, the mines came under the ownership of the Isle of Man Mining Company who operated the mines until their closure in 1911. The mines ceased operation after many incidents, including a member of the Lalor-Smith family dying inside due to sulphur dioxide poisoning from the air.

Victoria Clock Tower

Today, the most prominent feature in the village is the Victoria Clock Tower, built and paid for by the Isle of Man Mining Company.''Peel City Guardian.'' Saturday, 18 May 1901; Page: 2 Designed by Foxdale mine engineer John Nicholls the structure is in height and is visible across the valley. The Dedication Ceremony took place on Thursday 16 May 1901 and was an occasion of immense civic pride for the village of Foxdale.

Sport

*The village has a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club, Foxdale A.F.C. which was re-established in 1991. The club has three teams including the first team, the combination team and the veterans' team. In 2011, they also fielded an Under 21s team for the Cowell Cup. *Foxdale's only pub (The Baltic) has a pool team and darts team.

Filmography

The 2006 film,

Miss Potter ''Miss Potter'' is a 2006 biographical drama film directed by Chris Noonan. It is based on the life of children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter, and combines stories from her own life with animated sequences featuring characters from her ...

, was partly filmed in Foxdale.

References

External links