“Below” 2002.4 1

E L O W !B

Quarterly Journal of the Shropshire Caving & Mining Club Winter Issue No: 2002.4

Library AdditionsNorth Wales Caving Club:Newsletter 281, Sept./Oct. 2002.Subterranea Britannica: Secretary’sNewsletter No.25 2002. Siren - TheNewsletter of RSG, Issue 10 Spring 02Plymouth Caving Group: Newsletter& Journal, No.139 December 2001,No.140 March 2002, No.141 Summer2002 - this issue includes a trip reportto ‘Fox-holes cave’ near Ludlow, asink hole now blocked (read moreabout Fox-holes in Steve Powellsnew book -see page 29).

Club TackleMost of the club tackle has now beenmoved to Stuart Tomlins. The tackleheld at Stuart’s includes most ropes,sacs, slings and krabs.Anyonewanting to remove tackle shouldcontact Stuart or myself for theycombination number to the tacklestore. It would be sensible to call atthe house or warn Stuart or Joanne ofyour intended visit. Please recordany equipment removed and who willhave the equipment. Items such as radios, oxygen meter,battery drill, GPS, first aid, SRT kit(for training) and some rescueequipment is held by other clubmembers - details available frommyself. In the near future, I will look toarrange a short meeting (probablyhalf an hour before a normal clubmeeting) to discuss any changeswith respect to ropes etc. There are now quite a few ropes thathave been scrapped - I have theseand will look to mainly use them forhandlines etc.

Steve Holding

SubscriptionsAt the October AGM members votedto increase the Club subs, so the newrates are: Full £18, Joint: £22, Junior£10 and Temporary £5.

Remember ALL subs were due onOctober 1st. Have you renewed yet?Make someone happy this Christmas- send Bob a cheque, (if you haven’tdone so already). You will cease tobe a member after the end of Januaryif you don’t.

ThanksDespite this issue of ‘Below’ being arecord 30 pages, I have had to hold anumber of items over until the nexttime! So a big thank you to all past,present and future contributors, andthe seasons greetings to everyone.In the next issue look out for reportson the BCRA Hidden EarthConference at Monmouth, the MilwrTunnel, Sugnall Well, and picturesfrom Newport Church tower, theAnnual Dinner, plus .....

Kelvin

Alan’s Out & AboutClub members will be pleased toknow that Alan Taylor is doing well,following the fitting of a pacemaker.

He already has plans for building anew garage, shifting the house 3ft tothe left and completely re-engineering the Universe to make torun more smoothly! We hope, he willtake it easy!

Anne CoveyIt is with great sadness that I have toreport that Anne Covey (60) - DavidAdams’ wife, passed away suddenlyon Saturday, 23rd November. Shewas rushed into hospital complainingof severe stomach pains, whichturned into a coronary thrombosisleading to heart failure. In spite of thebest efforts of the hospital they wereunable to revive her.

Anne and David had known eachother for 23 years, although theyonly married 5 years ago. Annie wasDeputy Mayor of Newport andsecretary of the ‘Loyal NewportVolunteers’, although she was nevera member of Club she has beenparticularly helpful to us in recentyears in getting discounts on theOxygen meters and in arrangingrepairs (when they got soggy) andrecalibrations of the sensors.

The Funeral was held in St. NicholasChurch , Newport on Thursday 5thDecember, followed by a shortservice at the Crematorium.

As a mark of respect, Club activitieswere suspended on Sunday 8th ofDecember. A number of members,firends and relatives joined Davidoutside the Stiperstones Inn to walkto the Stiperstones ridge andMyttons Beach where Annie hadrequested her ashes be scattered.

She was always a bright and cheerfulperson and will be greatly missed.Our thoughts are with David at thissad time.

Mike Moore

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News Round-Up 1by Ivor Brown

Country VideoA video is now available from theStiperstones Inn made from the TVseries called “Heart of the Country”,showing life in Snailbeach. Itcontains much of mining and socialinterest.

1891 CensusChecking the census of 1891 forother information it was noted that inApril 1891 two of the lodgers at theQueens Arms, Pontesbury were:-Adolphe Montas, aged 45, bornFrance (steam engine maker andfitter) and Andie Dubois, aged 33,born St.Helier, Jersey (boiler maker).Was there a new colliery steamengine being set up at this time?Why from France?

1901 CensusChecking the 1901 census forShrewsbury another question arises:who was ‘Jean Martel a mines agentage 30 (from France)’ who wasstaying at 7 Charlotte Street? Wheredid James Smith, a copper miner age26 (‘from Germany’), boarder atnearby 3, Bird Lane work?

New Opencast ?Telford and Wrekin Council isconsidering a new planningapplication for an opencast coal andclay site at “Dawley Road”. Theapplication site contains twodesignated “ancient monuments”described as “coal mining remains”about 350m North-west and 520mNorth of New Works Village.

Coal Dispersal PointsWhat happened to Shropshire CoalDispersal Points? These were set up,mostly by the NCB as a place forreceiving coal from private mines andopencasts - for blending. It was thensent to NCB customers. TheCoalbrookdale Coalfield had twomedium size ones, at Coalmoor andHorsehay, each consisting ofreceiving hopper, screens, elevators,hoppers, weighbridges, crushers etc.They vanished (?) between 1970 and1990 ish. Did anyone survey or take

photos (I only have two longdistance views)? An enquirerrequires information.

Whinberry Boom2002 has been an excellent year forStiperstones whinberries, fat andjuicy, fetching about £2.50 per lb. or“£50 for a bucket full”. IJB recentlytook part in a “tasting” ofwhinberries (purple), crowberries(black) and cowberries (red)organised for land reclamationistsnear the mistakenly named CranberryRocks!

Pennerley ShaftsThe last shaft to be opened up atPennerley, in the South-westShropshire mining field recentlyreappeared. When sunk in the 1950’sit was about 40ft deep, box-timberedabout 5ft x 6ft. Explosives were usedto break the ground, the waste beingraised by wooden “turn-tree” steelrope and bucket. There was a gooddescription and photograph in theExpress and Star at the time.

Mines to reopenConsideration is being given toreopening the Northamptonshire‘slate’ mines closed in the 1960’s.The mines were closed partlybecause there was now insufficientfrost to split the ‘stone’ blocksnaturally. The present tests involveartificial freezing in industrial fridges.

Insurance LiabilityIt is understood that the miners atMoorside Colliery in South Yorkshirehave overcome the IndustrialLiability Insurance problem by allbecoming ‘owners’ of their mine.Presumably you cannot claim forinjury in a mine you own but whathappens if one ‘owner’ accidentallyinjures another ‘owner’? (Mineowners are paying up to 3 times asmuch premium as they were threeyears ago.)

Herne WagonThe German town of Herne haspresented Wakefield City with an

iron mine wagon of about 15cwtcapacity to mark 40 years of ‘twin-town’ relationship. The Germanwagon now takes pride of place inthe foyer of Wakefield City Hall.

Norwegian MineSveg Nord underground mine on theNorwegian island of Spitzbergen isfast becoming one of Europe’s topproducing coal mines. Opened inAugust 1999 and with a Joy longwallface. The mine produced over 1million tonnes of coal in the first 4months of 2001. It is thought to beone of the worlds most northerlycollieries.

World Mining Equipment,March 2002

New Coal MineA planning application is beingconsidered for a new trench andauger coal mine with workings inLancashire and site entrance in WestYorkshire. The mine, near Bacupwould produce about 24,000 tonnesof coal and 308,000 tonnes of coalover a 3 year period.

Granville GasConsultants are looking at a proposalto utilise the accumulated mine gas inGranville Colliery (Shropshire). Threeforms of gas production from old coalmining areas are now being activelydeveloped in the UK. Coalbedmethane (from the solid bed), disusedmine accumulations and in-seamgasification.

Bowers LimestoneThe new underground BowersLimestone Mine in Portland, Englandopened in November 2002 andshould last 5 years. If successful amuch bigger mine is to be developedat nearby Stonehills.

Walking Drill RigA ‘walking’ drillrig is being used onprospecting work at Sennen Cove,Cornwall. Called ‘Sea-walker’ it has 8legs (4 moveable and 4 fixed position)and is capable of walking at sea at 25metres per hour.

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NAMHO Conference and the following weekA personal experience, by Steve Holding

The NAMHO Conference wasgenerally well attended but thenumbers on some underground tripsseemed to be a bit small - I suspectthat this might have been due tomany persons involved in leadingtrips !

I attended a few lectures, all of whichwere interesting and well attended.However, the quality of some slideswas not that good and the viewingwas made worse by a tendency toshow OHP’s at the same time.

SCMC organised three trips to BwlchGlas. Seven SCMC members leadingwith a total of nine visitors, three ofwhich were other SCMC members.

MondayOn the Monday, still as part ofNAMHO organised trips; I went withEileen Bowen and Mike Worsfold toRhanymwyn. Vince and Kim Awkins(Wealdon Cave & Mine Soc.) led thistrip. The trip involves four pitches,each of, which have rebelays anddeviations to negotiate. Likeourselves, Vince had visited beforehand to place new bolts - we helpedde-rig and all hangers were left inplace. There is digging potential atthe bottom and a club trip can now

easily be organised - but expect along day.

TuesdayOn the Tuesday, I went with PaulThorne and John’Mole’ Hine (RoyalForest of Dean Caving Club) to RosaLevel at Cwystwyth - this is anotherlong, multi-pitched trip. After this, Iknew that I had been doing SRT overtwo days.

WednesdayThe Wednesday had Paul; Mole andmyself visit Fron Goch, entering by aladderway placed by Roy Fellowsand Dave Seabourne (Welsh MinesSociety). This was followed by a tripto Temple Mine and in the evening,we met up with Chris Andrews tolook at various levels at Goginan.The most interesting part being LevelNewydd - I have since found that theinteresting artifacts are at the bottomof the loose fill encountered.

Paul, Mole and myself went for adrink at the Druids Inn, Goginan(third time that week) and thelandlord showed us the index of thecollection of documents found at theDruid Inn the 1950’s and now in theNational Library of Wales

(Aberystwyth). This includesreferences to Ritton Castle and othermines in Shropshire.

ThursdayFor the Thursday, Paul, Mole andmyself did the through trip atGwynfynyth - the gate by the oldshow mine is no longer locked. Thatevening, I went with Sue Blattner,Pete Eggleston and Mike Moore, tomeet up with Dave Seabourne andKelvin Davies (WMS) to look at asmall mine (Park Lode ?) north of Tal-y-bont. The most interesting aspectof this trip was an encounter with anotter - Kelvin, Dave and myself hadwandered into the base of a largewheel pit with a stream runningthrough. The appearance of Pete atthe end was obviously too much forthe otter that must have been hidingin the pit and it bolted betweenKelvin, Dave and myself.

FridayI had an easy day on the Friday -after playing the tourist inAberystwyth, I went to Cwystwythand climbed to look down into theopen cut - frightening. I also met withBarry Clarke (WMS) and discussedmines generally.

“Shropshire Unfolded”The journal ‘Shropshire Unfolded’ isat present publishing extracts fromthe “Memoirs of Irene Irons”, itstates that the miner “4th from theleft, back row” in the photographshown on p95 of “West ShropshireMining Fields” (see right) is of herfather Thomas Powell, born 1896.

It also says that her brother has, as afamily heirloom, a mug inscribed“Joshua Hughes Snailbeach Miles1853”, presumably this should be“Snailbeach Mines”.

The Hughes are recorded as beingmine engineers at this time and themug is believed to have belonged toIrene Irons’ great grandfather. Above: Picture of Huglith Mine in the 1930’s. From page 95 of “West

Shropshire Mining Fields”, Tempus Publishing.

Picture from the Emily Griffith Collection

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Besides being responsible for theSouth Wales area, members of WestBrecon Cave Rescue team (WBCR)also cover Mid-Wales up to theboundary with North-Wales CaveRescue.

On Saturday 21st Septembermembers from Shropshire Caving &Mining Club and the Midlands CaveRescue team were invited to joinWBCR for their Mid-Wales rescuepractice, due to be held atCwmystwyth Mine near DevilsBridge: (NGR SN805746). Fivemembers from SCMC made their wayover to join in the day’s activities:Mike Worsfold, Eileen Bowen, SteveHolding, John Priest, and Ian Cooper.In total the rescue team comprised ofabout twenty-five people, themajority belonging to WBCR, buttwo people from AberwystwthUniversity joined in along withSCMC.

Once everyone had arrived we weretold the scenario for the day. Agroup of explorers had been reportedas missing in ‘Level Fawr’, there weredefinitely two in the group, but therecould be up to four people missing.It would be necessary to carry out asearch of the mine to ascertain if theexplorers were still inside, and, if introuble, to assist them out safely.

As the majority of those present hadmore experience of caves than mineswe were given a brief introduction tosome of the hazards encountered inmines by a mining engineer fromCombe Down stone mine inWiltshire. Having given a rundownof the risks and the hazards, heacknowledged that the memberspresent from Shropshire mostprobably had more knowledge andexperience of exploring disusedmines than he does. He works in amine all day and has no specialdesire to spend time in abandonedones during his spare time!

For the purposes of the rescuepractice we were instructed not toclimb on any timber work present,although original ladders could beused.

WBCR Mid-Wales Rescue Practice,Cwmystwyth Mine 21st September

Above, left and below: Surfacebuildings of Cwmystwyth Mine thatstill survive around the site, slowlyblending into the background!

Pictures: Ian Cooper

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Now everyone understood theproblems ahead, a selection ofcasualties were found who werequickly dispatched underground.

Two volunteers stepped forward toact as joint ‘controllers’. The rest ofthe assembled group split up intosearch teams of 3, each teamcomprised of someone who hadpreviously visited the mine, andsomeone with first aid knowledge.

Each team was issued with a searchpack: a small waist mounted tacklebag containing a waterproof boxwhich housed a basic first aid kit,plastic survival bag, energy food,notepad, pencil, and casualtycondition sheet.

The majority of equipment wascarried up to a dump at the entranceto the level and a basic survey of themine was consulted before entering.A suitable location was chosen to actas an underground control centreand a group allocated the task ofchecking the various small sidepassages off the main level, on theway to the designated control centre.

A second group was chosen tocheck the lower levels (of which Iwas a member), so they selected asuitable length of rope and sortedtheir SRT equipment. The otherteams were allocated search areasonce they had assembled in thecontrol area.

Having rigged and descended themain skip-way our team soondiscovered a casualty who hadslipped and fallen, sustaining abroken leg in the process. After abrief check to ensure no one else wasin the area, part of the search teamreturned to the control centre toreport back whilst the other memberremained with the casualty.

Upon our return to undergroundcontrol we learnt that anotherexplorer had already been discoveredlost. A group was despatched to riga stretcher haul up the skip-way,whilst the stretcher and blanket weretaken down to the injured explorer.By the time the casualty had beenloaded into the stretcher and broughtto the base of the pitch the rigginghad been completed.

WBCR operate a colour coded staticrope system. Blue rope is used as thecasualty life-line. Red rope is used asthe main casualty haulage line.White rope is used as the ‘barrow-boy’ rope. Because of variouswooden obstructions on the pitchtwo ‘barrow-boys’ were used togently guide the stretcher up thepitch.

Once the casualty had safely beenraised the rest of the group couldstart the ascent and follow alongbehind the casualty out of the mine.

After changing we met up again tobriefly to discuss the day’s events

before some of the group headedhome. Those that weren’t travellingback that evening headed on a 10mile trip across the hills to thenearest pub for a meal. On arrival wefound that it didn’t open until 7O’clock – the time we discoveredthis? 5:30! We drove back toCwmystwyth and found theproposed campsite, located a mile orso the other side of the mine. Aftererecting tents a selection ofbarbecues were unpacked and foodarranged in anticipation.

As people were warming up to theidea of food the owner of the campfield came across and slightlyapprehensively explained that therehad been a motorcycle accidentabout a mile further up the road, anambulance had been called but werewe able to help in any way? Fourmembers of the WBCR team,including their doctor, set off in theLand Rover to give assistance.Whilst they were missing the rest ofus settled down to an evening offood, drink, and conversation.

When the others eventually re-appeared we learnt that the incidenthad attracted the attention of fourambulances and one police car, allhaving set off from differentlocations. Fortunately themotorcyclist wasn’t seriously injured,he had just sprained a wrist andgained some grazes to the body.

I think the day can be classified as asuccess, we encountered a selectionof minor issues that related to someof the equipment used, and identifiedareas in which things might beimproved. The whole exerciseattracted quite a bit of attention frommembers of the public who weredriving past the mine site. The largegathering of vehicles parked eitherside of the road indicated somethingwas happening, and the WBCR landrover clearly announcing thepresence of ‘Cave Rescue’ helped togive the game away. The publicweren’t to know that it was only apractice!

Ian Cooper

WBCR Mid-Wales Rescue Practice,Cwmystwyth Mine 21st September continued ...

Above: Sorting out the kit on the mine site, with the West Brecon CaveRescue Land Rover.

Picture: Ian Cooper

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Members present; Steve Southwick,Nick Southwick, Adrian Pearce, MikeMoore, Sue Blattner, Edwin Thorpe,David Poyner.

“90mph gales batter England”; BBCNews, Sunday 27th October.In spite of a slightly unpromisingweather forecast for severe gales, anumber of club members gathered onthe Clee Hill in anticipation of a dayspent exploring the local mines. Thetrip had a somewhat inauspiciousstart, when the leader was phoned byone of party to check if they were inthe correct car park; all they couldsee was a red Landrover. The leaderat that moment was parked next to ared Landrover, in conversation withits owner, Edwin Thorpe.

Fortunately, by the expediency ofwalking round the other side of thesaid Landrover, the leader was ableto confirm that the person was in thecorrect meeting place. A furtherminor concern was when another ofthe party proclaimed that the forecastwas for the gales to get worse, hehad twice nearly been killed by thistype of weather and he was goinghome. Undaunted, the pluckyadventurers who remained set out toexplore the mines of the Cornbrook.

Except for the one who stayed in thecar.

The Cornbrook cuts a steep gorgedown the south side of the Clee Hilland a number of major levels weredriven from it into the coal and ironseams. One of these remained openuntil about 1980 and was explored bythe Birmingham Enterprise Club. Thebrook also powered a blast furnacethat worked c1800. The industrialarchaeology of the levels wasdescribed in Below (2000.1, 3-5).

The bracken made obscured some ofthe remains (during a brief period of“re-orientation” two of the partyescaped back to the car but theremaining two were rounded up bythe leader to complete the trip), butall features were eventually locatedand remain as previously described.

The adits, although collapsed, appeardigable.

The leader proposed a break forlunch followed by an assault of thewest face of the Hill. There thenfollowed an unfortunate mutinywhich was eventually resolved bydriving 10 miles east (and descending1000’) to Billingsley to find

something more sheltered to look at.

After lunch in the Cape of Good Hope,the remains of Billingsley Collierywere viewed from the road and thenKinlet Colliery was visited. Thegables of Kinlet engine house areshowing signs of decay, but theowner is sympathetic to conservationand a bid is being made for funds tostart this process. Both sites remainessentially as described in the “WyreForest Coalfield” (Evans & Poyner,Tempus, 2000).

The tour round the screens was cutshort when the leader commented onhow a nearby tree appeared about totopple in the wind. A few minuteslater, after he had finished his learnedmonologue on the composition ofmortar used in the engine house, heobserved the rest of the party haddisappeared.

The assault on the west face of theClee Hill will be rescheduled for nextyear.

Many thanks (and apologies) to allwho turned up, no matter howbriefly...

David Poyner

Clee Hill and Wyre Forest Coalfields(joint with SMT.), Sunday 27th October

OFD II - October 12th

Members Present: Alan & VickyRobinson, Ian Davies., SteveHolding, Cara Alison and Ian Cooper.

Our trip took us into OFDII, we calledto look at ‘The Judge’ and ‘TheTrident’, impressive large formationsthat span from the roof to the floor.

The route took us down MaypoleInlet to the main streamway, we thenheaded upstream to investigate anarea no-one in the group had beenbefore.

On our return journey we called into‘Gnome Passage’ to see the mass ofshort stumpy stalagmites which ledto the area’s name.

Ian Cooper

The inaugural meeting of this grouptook place on Thursday 3rd Oct 2002.over 30 people turned up and therewere numerous apologies from thosewho couldn’t make it.

A steering group of 8 volunteers (yesI did say volunteers!) was set up andanother who couldn’t be at themeeting has asked to join this. Adate was set for the first get together,which was held on Thursday 5thDecember 2002 at the MinersInstitute, Coalpit Heath.

Discussions on the format of thegroup showed a desire to covereverything from active archaeologyand field research through to talksand visits. There were a number ofthose present to represent othergroups (such as local history

organisations, museums etc.) TheGloucester Society of IndustrialArchaeology even donated a sum ofmoney to cover set up and admincosts etc. which was a very pleasantand gratefully received surprise.

The group haven’t yet defined whatis included in “SouthGloucestershire” - quiet deliberately.However where there areorganisations already establishedcovering an area the approachwould be to work with them insharing information and support.

If anyone would like more detailsabout the group, or if there are anyorganisations that want to forgelinks with the new group pleasecontact Roger Gosling or DavidHardwick david@dhardwick.co.uk

South Gloucestershire Mines Research Group

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Members present: Mike Moore, SueBlattner, Atom, Kelvin Lake, PeterEggleston, Alan & Vicky Robinson,Ian Cooper, Ian & Sam Davies,Damien McCurdy, David Adams,John Priest and Steve Holding.

A club trip to Williamsons Tunnels inLiverpool was organized by MikeMoore but before this, nine membersmet up at the Albert Docks in themorning to have a look at theMaritime Museum or the Tate Galleryand to get a bit to eat. After this, thefour other cars succeeded infollowing my complex route to theEdge Hill area and the site of JosephWilliamson house on Mason Street.Here we met up with another fivemembers who had travelled directlythere.

The Friends of Williamsons Tunnelswas established a few years ago toprotect the tunnels from beingdestroyed during variousredevelopment proposals for thearea. The Friends have been verysuccessful in establishing a widesupport base and they feel confidentthat they can now protect thetunnels. Their activity is now moredirected to digging within the tunnelsand exploration elsewhere to extendthe accessible tunnels. To help withmaintaining their wide membershipbase, the Friends organize regulartrips into the tunnels that they havesecured access too and it was at theend of one of these afternoons thatMike managed to arrange our trips.

Separated into two groups of seven,we first visited the “Banqueting Hall”and the “Wine Cellar” sitedunderneath where Williamson’shouse stood until it was recentlydemolished (although the front wallof the house has been retained). Itseems that nobody is completelyclear as to why the tunnels wereconstructed or how extensive theyare but it is generally thought themost of the work was to createemployment for soldiers returningfrom the Napoleonic wars and thatthe tunnels currently accessibleunder his house are just the uppertiers.

The tunnels are mixed construction -partly the removed sandstone (somelavishly dressed) and brick. The brickarching is often unusual inconstruction with many meetingvaulted sections. The “BanquetingHall” is a large chamber, nowaccessed by a slim, tall passagewaythat is clearly ‘cut and cover’. Thenearby “Wine Cellar” is named fromsome of the bays in the tunnel but itis really very complex and is thoughtto be a junction between severaltunnels that are now blocked.

Next we walked down Mason Streetto access tunnels under 126Paddington. This site was only founda couple of years ago, as it was beingredeveloped for student flats. Thetunnels in this area are generally anirregular ‘H’ in plan. There arecurrently three levels of accessibletunnels but it is thought that theremight be six levels in total. In onecorner of the third level they havedug down a considerable distanceand have not yet reached the rockbase. Over the years the tunnelshave been filled with rubbish - in thisarea mainly ash from a bakery - thereis plenty of clearing-out to be done.

After seeing the tunnelscontrolled by the Friendsof Williamsons Tunnels,it had been arranged thatwe then visit the Stablesite, which is controlledby the JosephWilliamsons Society -this site has recentlybeen opened to thepublic, as a commercialenterprise. Most of thetunnels in this area aremuch wider and end inthe fairly well knowndouble tunnel that hasnow been turned into abar. It has recently beenfound that the ‘doubletunnel’ is in fact a tripledecked tunnel but thelower level has yet to beexcavated. The currentinner tunnel serves noapparent function.

Williamsons Tunnels - 17th November 2002by Steve Holding

Our thanks to both the Friends ofWilliamson Tunnels and the JosephWilliamsons Society for making thetunnels accessible. It is clear that thesites controlled by bothorganizations are likely to developquickly over the next few months andyears.

A Further PointIf the tunnels were built as part of a“Job Creation” scheme, then it acertain extent it makes sense for theworkers to have experience ofbuilding different types of tunnel andarching - which might explain the areaaround the “double” arch.

It was mentioned on the tour, thatwhen Stevenson built his famousrailway cutting at Edge hill itintersected several of Williamson’stunnels. Although Williamson wasvery reluctant to show people aroundhis tunnels, he took Stevenson on atour. Stevenson was so impressedwith the construction work, he isreputed to have said that anyworkers recommended by Williamsonwould find employment building hisrailway.

Kelvin

Above: Members relaxing with ‘pint’ on top of themiddle arch in the ‘Stables’.Picture: Sue Blattner

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Members Present: I. Davies, M.Davies, E. Bowen, M. Worsfold, S.Holding, I. Cooper.

The phrase “The NORPEX Door” isrecognised by those explorers whoregularly visit the mines aroundNenthead. For those who don’tknow the area and the significance ofthe door, it represents the end offreely accessible passage in RampgillLevel, and the start of a series of digscarried out by a team of membersbelonging to NORPEX.

In itself, placing a locked door acrossa passageway to protect the interestsof explorers working on an ongoingdig is not uncommon. Although notuniversally accepted, doors on digsare usually respected and if contactis made with members of the diggingteam, visits to inspect and even helpwith the dig are usually forthcoming.

The NORPEX door has gained itsreputation because of the apparentsecrecy surrounding the operationscarried out on the other side sincethe 1980’s, we understand that evenmembers of NORPEX have struggledto get a visit through.

When Steve Holding and MikeDavies visited Nenthead duringAugust they returned with news thatthe door had been ‘removed’ and asign put alongside declaring thatRampgill had been reopened by‘XNORPEX’. We heard how a vastlength of passage has now beenopened up allowing undergroundtrips to pass from Cumbria intoNorthumberland.

Hearing stories like these we couldn’twait to get back up North toinvestigate the recently reopenedworkings. Shropshire Mines Trusthad organised a weekend trip toNenthead aimed at those with little orno underground experience.Members from SCMC had agreed tolead the group and lend anynecessary equipment.

Unfortunately no interest was shownin this trip by members of the trust,however, those who had agreed to

lead the weekend couldn’t miss anopportunity to visit beyond theNORPEX door, so arrangements weremade for a weekend away.

Because our usual bunkhouse, whichalthough cheap is a little basic, wasunavailable, we arranged to stay at“Mill Cottage”. This is owned byThe North Pennines Heritage Trustwho manage the Nenthead Mine site.The cottage itself is located amongstthe mine buildings so is ideallysituated near the major mineentrances.

Mill Cottage has comfortablesleeping accommodation, a kitchen,and suitable washing facilities. Theonly problems are a lack of communalsitting room (the local ‘Miners Arms’public house has to makedo,) and no suitable dryingroom for wet clothes. Duringour stay this wasn’t toomuch of a problem as a cleardry night enabled us to leavethings outside, most of ushad enough dry clothes forthe second day anyway. Avisit of longer duration couldstart to get uncomfortablewithout drying facilities.

Our first trip of the weekendhad to be to the NORPEX door, thephotographs brought back to us bySteve in August had whetted ourappetite, so we planed for a long dayahead. The door is a fifteen-minutewalk from the entrance and when wearrived it was obvious how entry hadbeen gained.

The door was made from ¼” steelchequer plate, it’s one notablefeature had been a lack of anyobvious locking mechanism, therearen’t any keyholes. The door wasplain apart from two rows of socketcap screws, presumably fasteningsomething on the inside, and someornamental steel scrolls in thecorners.

To get inside, the door had beencarefully cut out using oxy-acetylenecutting equipment. Who ever wasresponsible for reopening thepassage was serious about it, eventhe smallest sized gas bottles wouldhave been getting heavy by the timethey’d been carried through water forquarter of an hour.

With the remains of the doordiscarded at the side of thepassageway it became clear how theoriginal locking mechanism hadworked. Fastened to the back of thedoor was a substantial double-actinghydraulic cylinder, one end wasattached to the door whilst the otherwas connected to the lock bolts.

Beyond The NORPEX Door, Nentheadby Ian Cooper

Mill Cottage, Nenthead, owned by the NPH Trust. (Picture: Ian Cooper)

The ‘open’ Norpex door. (Picture Ian Cooper)

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Pipes from each end of the cylinderled to fittings behind two of thescrews fastened through the door.To unlock the mechanism the correcttwo screws would need to beremoved and a grease nipple screwedinto the exposed hole. By pumpingin either grease or oil it would bepossible to release the bolts. To lockthe door the nipple would be movedto the other hole and the procedurerepeated, a very simple mechanism.

Crawling through the remains of thedoor we entered the first of theNORPEX digs, a very substantialaffair constructed of heavy-dutymetal work. Within a short space oftime we came across a second steeldoor, this was slightly larger than thefirst and of lighter construction, ithad a small hole cut in it andremaining evidence might suggestthat a padlock had been used tosecure it. After a similar shortdistance we encountered the remainsof a third door, now no longer on it’shinges.

Near the third door it is clear that thesurrounding ground has run in,indeed, when Steve and Mike visitedin August their team had needed todig it open again. Forewarned of thiswe took the precaution of carrying asmall shovel with us, this was left onthe inside to enable us to dig our wayout if anything moved whilst we wereinside.

At intervals along the passage arethe tools, equipment and evidence ofthe effort NORPEX spent on theproject. Lining the passage nearmost of the digs are very neatlystacked deads, retained by expertlybuilt dry-stone retaining walls. If itweren’t for their location along thepassage it would be hard to tell thatthese weren’t original features of themine.

At occasional equipment dumps wepassed small collections of diggingtools, shovels etc. some of whichappear to be home-made. A fewspecialist narrow barrows can beseen stored to one side and largeamounts of light-weight railway track

have beenutilised, this hasmatching trucksto move thespoil around.

Although theNORPEX toolsare of passinginterest the mainfocus ofattention mustbe the originalartefacts which,for the timebeing, stillremain in place.Rather thanexplore all of thepossiblejunctions andhoppers wepressed on tothe furthestextent of thepassage, beforeexploring back towards theentrance.

As we neared theend of the level wecame across twohoppers whichhave collapsedsince Steve andMike’s visit inAugust. We wereable to clear a smallspace throughwhich we couldcarefully crawl, butfurther work isrequired to stabilisethe falls and makeprogress truly safe.

Rather than delveinto great

Beyond The NORPEX Door, Nentheadcontinued ....

Left: Detail of the Norpex door lock.

Below: Newpaper of Thursday May8th 1922.

Picture: Ian Cooper

Below: One of several barrels found inthe newly opened area.Ian Cooper

10 “Below” 2002.4

descriptions of the many artefactsthat can be seen along the way, I’llleave the photographs to give a tasteof what there is to see. On our wayback out we started to investigatesome of the side passages and manyhoppers which can be climbed, theserevealed a maze of workings abovethe main level, the majority of whichwe’ve yet to fully explore.

Surface ShaftsThe following day, Sunday, we wentto explore an area of dense treeplantation on the hillside aboveNenthead.

During a visit at Easter MikeWorsfold and Eileen Bowen hadexplored this area looking forfeatures, their investigations foundthat most of the shafts are crowneddepressions in the ground, however,they stumbled upon one shaft thatwas open, unguarded, and appearedto be in good condition.

In August Steve Holding went to thesame plantation with the intention offinding Mike and Eileen’s shaft. Hedidn’t find this, but did find an areaof ground that had collapsed leavingexposed a large void. At the timethey descended as far as their ropewould allow, and could see that thehole continued into the darknessbelow.

Returning as one group, our firstfeature visited is marked on the mapas an adit. Arriving at it’s portal wefound a long low mound heading intothe hillside, suggesting cut-and-cover type construction, outside theportal is reasonably deep water. Theentrance itself has been ‘bricked up’using stacked stones, carefullyremoving one corner we were able tosee inside for as far as our torcheswould enable. The level is very lowand at least half it’s height containswater. After replacing the stones wemoved on.

Our next discovery was Mike &Eileen’s shaft, still open andunguarded. Looking down the shaftwith a powerful lamp we could see

Beyond The NORPEX Door & NentheadSurface Shafts

A selection of pictures,taken by Ian on the trip pastthe Norpex door.

Left: Remains of a book ona workbench.

Right: Part of aharness

Below: Axles andwheels from amine truck

Above: Oil can andbottle on a shelf.

Right: Remnants ofnewprint - dated 24thApril 1909.

“Below” 2002.4 11

that it is vertical for some way beforesloping off at an angle towards thebottom. Plumbing the shaft with atape measure showed that thevertical depth is about 50 feet.

After clearing the low branches andtrip hazards from around the shaft webelayed a rope to a nearby tree andsent Mike Worsfold down to find outwhat lay below. Knowing that thisarea contains coal seams Mike took asafety lamp down to check for gas.

Upon reaching the bottom he wasable to confirm that the groundsloped away into what appeared tobe a small chamber, then continueddown as far as he could see. Due toexcessive rope-rub, and a rope thatwould be too short, Mike returned tothe surface. Future work here willrequire a rebelay at the base of theshaft to allow a safe descent.

Before leaving the shaft we tried tomake the area a little safer. Bytrimming low branches we openedout the area making the shaft easierto see, we also uncovered somebarbed wire which had becomeburied under the leave-mould on thewoodland floor, we wrapped thisaround the nearby trees to leave theshaft fenced in. It is now necessaryto cross a barbed wire fence beforereaching the shaft.

Our final visit for the day was to thecollapsed workings slightly higher upthe plantation, again, low branchesand trip hazards were removed beforea rope was attached to a nearby tree.Steve, Mike Worsfold and Ian Daviesdescended to investigate whilstEileen, Mike Davies and myselfstayed on the surface.

Upon their return the undergroundparty was able to explain how theyhad descended into a level, but thatthe hopper they were in continueddown in a lined passage. To descendfurther would require a rebelay; withthe absence of any solid rock it mightbe possible to wedge a scaffold poleacross the hopper to use as ananchor point. Yet again, we wereable to establish that further work is

required to safely explore further.

On the surface we measured thedistance and bearing between all ofthe crowned shafts and notablefeatures. Subsequent to the visitMike Worsfold has been able to plotthe field data and has found thatwhen overlaid on top of theordnance survey map, the shaft hedescended isn’t marked.

Nenthead Surface ShaftsIan Cooper

Above: Mike Worsfolddescending theplantation shaft

Right: Mike Davies“guarding” the belay.

Ian Cooper

The fact that it is missing suggeststhat this shaft might relate to VieilleMontagne Zinc Company workingsafter the area was initially surveyed.This might also explain the shaft’sgood condition and the fact it’s stillopen. Subsequent editions of the OSmap are revised versions of theoriginal survey, these revisions areunlikely to include additional minorshafts in remote countryside.

Inside Silverband Mill,Great Dun Fell, nearNenthead.

See pages 12 and 13 fordetails of this Nentheadtrip.

Pictures: Ian Cooper

12 “Below” 2002.4

Each year during the last week ofOctober a group of SCMC membershead north to join mine explorers andcavers from across the country, thepurpose being to spend a week’sholiday exploring the mining remainsin and around the Nenthead area.

Saturday 26th

The first trip of the week, onSaturday 26th October saw SteveHolding, Ian Cooper, Paul Thorneand two of Paul’s friends from KentUnderground Research Group travelto Barons Sump.

The route involves two tightsqueezes through areas of collapsedpassageway, and two climbs uphoppers using whatever comes tohand.

The sump itself has flooded to about100ft from the top, but does haveconnections to further workingswhich can be accessed fromelsewhere.

The main reason for a visit is to seethe impressive undergroundchamber. The area at the top of thesump is stone lined with featuresmore commonly found on an exteriorbuilding, there’s even a bricked upwindow high up on one wall. In thepassages around the chamber are afew artefacts, including a ventilationfan.

Sunday 27thThe following day, saw everyonetravel into Rampgill to go through theNORPEX door. Mole had arrangedwith Peter Wilkinson, Chairman ofNORPEX, for Melvin, one of the lastdiggers involved in the project, to

lead a trip for the three ofthem and Paul Thorne. Thepurpose of the trip being toexplain the features, and whatthey’d found whilst digging.

Mike, Eileen, Steve, myselfand two others also arrangedto go through the door, weended up being ready aboutan hour before the othergroup so were well out oftheir way inside. Oncethrough the door we split into twogroups of three, Steve led the othersto the far end as they hadn’t been inbefore. Mike, Eileen and myselfclimbed one of the hoppers to satisfyour curiosity and prove a connectionto a rise we’d climbed during ourSeptember trip.

Whilst at the higher level we found asection of original clog prints whichwe taped off to reduce the risk offuture damage, a clay pipe, and acollection of three miners shoes.

Subsequently talking to the othergroup we learnt how the connectionover the top had been NORPEX’soriginal route in, by the time they’dcarried their equipment over theywere worn out, so concentrated onreopening the main horse level belowinstead!

It’s a sad fact that artefacts havebeen damaged during the short timesince our last visit through the door,one of the newspapers photographedin September has been severelydamaged and a number of otherartefacts have been rearranged andmoved.

It seems quite a bit of damage hasoccurred since the door wasremoved, Melvin was able to identifywhere artefacts had been damaged,even in some cases removed entirely.It is news like this and even theevidence seen by ourselves that putsforward a strong case for the doorbeing there in the first place!

It appears that attitudes havechanged within NORPEX over theyears, apparently when the project

was first started there wasn’t anyproblem with visitors. Whenmembers were working inside, theouter door was left open for peopleto go inside.

As the years passed by activedigging members left and othersjoined, gradually the attitudeschanged to the extent that PeterWilkinson, their chairman, wasn’tallowed into the dig, despite havingbeen involved in the originalworkings!

Understandably, everyone who cameup during the week wanted to see thedelights that have been hidden fromview for so long, this meant thatthere were numerous trips back to thedoor throughout the week, somepeople returning more than once.

Monday SurveyingMonday turned into an SCMCsurvey day, Mike and Eileen wentsurveying along the main horse levelin Smallcleugh Mine, whilst Steveand myself were surveying in the‘incline flats’, an area of workingssituated above the majority of themine.

It was known that one of the hoppersconnects the Incline Flats down tothe main level, Steve and I aimed tofind the hopper and then survey backto the main level though the flats toform a loop. This would tie a numberof areas together on MikeWorsfold’s survey.

After a rather tortuous route keepingright at each junction, we managed tofind the top of the hopper. Havinglocated the way down we attemptedto find a direct path through the flats

Nenthead Trip - October 2002Ian Cooper

Above: Barons Sump

Clog prints on the floor in Rampgill

“Below” 2002.4 13

back to the level. After a number offalse starts this was accomplishedand was surveyed to an acceptablestandard using a tape and bothforward and backward compassbearings.

TuesdayTuesday saw Steve return to theNORPEX door for the second time ofthe week to accompany anothervisitor. Mike, Eileen and myselfreturned to Smallcleugh to finishsurveying along the main horse leveland complete a loop through ‘Wheelflats’ and ‘Hetheringtons’, areas ofworkings in the mine which loop backto the horse level.

WednesdayThe weather forecast for Wednesdayclaimed good conditions so we hadarranged for Peter Wilkinson to leada walk around the mine remains onGreat Dun Fell. SCMC memberspresent on the walk included MikeWorsfold, Eileen Bowen, Paul Thorneand myself, this was in addition tofour others. We were able to take ourcars to the top of the fell and parknear to the Civil Aviation Authority’s(CAA) location beacon, this meantthat the majority of the walk wasdownhill.

Our first mine visited was Silverband,this was last worked for barytes as anopen cast in December 2001. Thenature of the ground was such thatthe actual open cast crater wasn’tvisible until we neared the edge,where upon the ground suddenlyseemed to open out to expose thegash in the hillside.

Walking down along the edge of thepit we passed the site of Silverbandhigh level mine entrance, this relatedto the original mine present on thesite before the modern surfaceworkings. Walking further down weencountered an open shaft whichdrops into workings, before reachingSilverband low level, an open levelsituated just behind the modern minebuildings.

By snaking back and forth across the

deeply folded landscape Peter wasable to lead us to numerous oldlevels, a fair number of which are stillopen. The footings and remains ofbuildings can be seen near theentrances and the size of spoil tipsgives an idea as to how productivethe mines were.

The passage back towards the carstook us to the remains of an arielropeway, originally used to transportbarytes from Silverband across thevalley to buildings on the other sidefor further shipment. The evidenceleft now includes a number of towers- some still standing, lengths of wirerope and the half collapsed remainsof buildings.

Whilst the majority of us walkedacross the Cumbrian hillside Steve

Holding and Mike Davies went intoFirestone Level, a relatively smallpassage in the hillside aboveRampgill.

Afterwards they commented thatthey found a number of potentialdigs and a few hoppers, which maylead to upper workings. They hadpassed through one recent digcompleted by someone else, and atthe far end they encountered bad air.

On both Thursday and Saturday agroup of us did further work in thetree plantation above Nenthead, thishas been written up on page xxx. OnFriday a team of seven travelled up toWanlock Head in Scotland to explorebeyond a show mine (see next issueof Below!).

Left: Silverband Minesite settlement ponds

Below: Outside of theprocessing mill (onright), crusher on left.

Left and Below: Remains of theariel ropeway from Silverband.

All pictures: Ian Cooper

Nenthead Trip - October 2002continued...

14 “Below” 2002.4

VISIT TO ROMAN GRAVELS BY

THE SEVERN VALLEY NATURALISTS FIELD CLUB, 1870

19th C. Visitors to the South West Shropshire Mines, No.6Contributed by I.J.Brown

MINING IN SHROPSHIRE - ANCIENT AND MODERNThe members of the Severn Valley Naturalists’ FieldClub had a two days’ meeting last week, which provedunusually successful, both as regards the attendanceand the number of places and objects of interest whichfell along the line of the selected route. When the partyarrived at the Gravels Mine they were met by Messrs.T. Wright and R. J. More. The various operations ofcrushing and washing the ore were explained by theCaptain of the mine and other workmen, and, illustratedas their descriptions were by the actual execution- ofthe work, they were exceedingly interesting. Not one ofthe least interesting of these processes, and certainlynot one of the least profitable to the proprietors of themine, is the removing of what is termed the “slime ore”from the water and refuse. A comparatively short timeago the water in which the lead was washed wasallowed to flow away as useless when all the lead wasobtained from it that could be obtained by the ordinarymode of washing. Now, by an exceedingly ingeniouspiece of machinery, what used to be thrown away asmud is re-washed, and made to deposit itself in theform of a flat cone. As the deposit commences in thecentral or higher part of the cone the lighter material iscarried away by a gently flowing current of water,which is supplied with the mud at the apex, and theheavier material, or the lead, being too ponderous to beborne away by the tiny stream, collects around thecentre, where it is comparatively free from all foreignmatter. The lead thus obtained, which is in a state ofvery fine powder, amounts to many tons per month,and is worth about £16 per ton. Formerly, as alreadystated, this valuable source of profit flowed awayaltogether, poisoned the brooks, and killed the fish formiles. Now it helps, in no small degree, to swell thedividends of the proprietors. Boards of conservatorsand lead mining companies are somewhat antagonisticin their operations now, but when science takesanother step onward, and shows how to remove, at asmall cost, the very small percentage of lead which isnow left to pollute our streams, than all grounds forantagonism will have vanished, and mining companieswill find a still further augmentation of their annualincome. After being properly washed the ore is piled inheaps in a covered building, and on Tuesday manyscores of tons were to be seen, all of which, it wasunderstood, had been ordered by smelters beforehand.The mine is exceedingly rich in ore, and the ore,yielding as it does a high percentage of metal, realisesthe highest prices in the market. After a stay of aboutan hour in the works the party climbed to the summit ofthe Shelve, a hill close at hand, and did what the most“visioned poet” and enthusiastic naturalist must alikedo - “refreshed”.

After luncheon, the party descended to a point wherea number of deep cuttings, the remains of Romanmining operations, extend up the side of the hill. Atthis point, Mr. Thomas Wright, at the request of thesecretary, Mr. Cooper, made a few observations. Hesaid they were at that time in the middle of a districtwhich was one of the greatest mining districts in theisland. The Romans came to that part of the countryto get their lead. Their iron they procured in Wales,and there were remains of their copper mines atLlanymynech. It was well known that the Romans setgreat value upon this province for its metals, and nodoubt they visited that part of the country at an earlyperiod to get possession of its valuable mineraltreasures. Around that part of the country there werenot only remains of Roman mines, but of Romanroads, so that there must have been continualcommunications between one point and another, andthey had, too, at no great distance, the remains of byfar the largest Roman city in Great Britain, Uriconium.Among the relics of that city which had beendiscovered, were numerous articles of metal,particularly of lead, of which the ore had probablybeen dug in that neighbourhood. When the Romanscame first to that part of the island, he had no doubtthe minerals were found untouched. They found theveins of lead cropping up to the surface, and theyfollowed them up the hill, and dug them out along thesurface. Where the metal was more plentiful shaftswere dug and these, with other excavations, wereperfectly apparent. Of course, in all such operationsthe Romans were very imperfect workmen, ascompared with miners of the present day. Their greatdifficulty was that they had no machines to get thewater out of the mines when they went to any depth,consequently they did sink deep, and had left all themineral wealth below for the miners of the presentday, who took every advantage of the imperfectionsof their predecessors.

Miners of the present day had gunpowder forblasting, the Romans had not. They (the Romanminers) adopted another plan. They made a fireagainst a rock, heated it as hot as possible, then threwwater over it, and so cracked the stone and got outthe ore. Roman miners used tallow candles, as do theminers of the present day, and pieces of them wereoften found in Roman mines. Some were to be seen atMr. More’s, at Linley. They were sometimes found bythe workmen, who had taken them home, and, thinkingthem ordinary candles, had made fruitless efforts tolight them. The tallow had now gone quite hard, andaltogether changed in its character. Among therubbish in these ruins were also found curious oak

“Below” 2002.4 15

19th C. Visitors to the South West Shropshire Mines, No.6Continued . . .

shovels, and some of them would also be seen atLinley. There was another fact of some interest whichmight be mentioned, in relation to the subject. Usuallythe ores were smelted at the mines, but he was notaware that any remains of a smelting-house had beenfound there.

A short distance off, however, near Linley, a “pig” oflead had been found, bearing the name of the RomanEmperor Adrian, and it had no doubt, been dropped atthe place where it was found, the smelting having, hebelieved, being done at Churchstoke. This “pig”would also be found at Mr. More’s. Near the entranceto Linley were the remains of an extensive Roman villa,which had been discovered by the late Rev. T. F.More, and he (Mr. Wright) was of opinion that the

person who had resided in it was the head officer overthat mining district. Mr. Wright concluded byexpressing a hope that the remarks he had made wouldenable those present to understand more fully theancient workings that lay around them.Mr. Cooper, the honorary secretary of the club, thenexpressed the thanks of the members and friends to Mr.Wright for his address and that gentleman was verywarmly cheered.The party then divided itself into two sections, oneproceeding to Corndon and the other to Linley. Thelatter under the guidance Mr. R.J.More and Mr.T.Wright.

from Supplement to Mining Journal,July 1870

Marmite Centenary

It seems to be one of those foodsthat you either love or loathe, but 100years on some 2.5 million jars of it aresold per year!

What ever your taste, Marmite isgood for you. It has a high naturalvitamin B and protein content. If youhave been on a Burton-on-Trentbrewery tour you will probably haveseen the tubs of spent yeast waitingto be sent the Marmite factory. Itwas a German scientist called Leibig,who first discovered that yeastproduced during the fermentation ofbeer could be made into aconcentrated protein rich paste witha vaguely “meaty” flavour.

However it was the Brits who made itcommercially viable, and it has beenproduced at Burton-on-Trent since itwas first patented in 1902. It isclaimed that the name comes fromthat of a French stockpot, similar tothe one on the front of the jar. TheFrench pronounce it “mar-meet”, it

was actually sold in smallearthernware pots before the glass jarwas introduced in the 1920’s.

The discovery of vitamins in 1912revealed why Marmite was such agood food supplement. The yeastprotein was easy to digest and thesludge was crawling with B vitamins.BY the start of world War I Marmiteformed part of the rations for troopsfighting overseas. During World warII it was again used to help preventdeficiency diseases. In 1999 it wassent to soldiers involved in theKosovo conflict after the factoryreceived a begging letter for Marmiteto help boost morale among thetroops.

Why do you need it?Five of the six B vitamins occurnaturally in the yeast - riboflavin,niacin, thiamin, folic acid and vitaminB12. They are water soluble whichmeans that they cannot be stored inthe body - so they need to be eatenon a regular basis.

If you are undertaking strenuousactivities then the more B vitaminsyou need. Although each B vitaminhas its own specific function, theywork synergistically together at theheart of energy metabolism. Thiaminespecially is needed to release theenergy from carbohydrate foods andkeep your brain topped up with aconstant supply of glucose.

Riboflavin is involved with energyrelease from fat and protein, sotogether they provide the ignition forenergy production (its your spark foryour tank of fuel).

Riboflavin is also needed to helpmaintain healthy skin and mucousmembranes inside the mouth andnose. If you don’t like Marmite, milk,eggs, cheddar cheese, lamb’s liverand dried Nori seaweed are goodsources. Most breakfast cereals suchas Weetabix, Bran flakes and SpecialK have riboflavin added. In its pureform it is bright yellow and is easilydestroyed by light (so loses most ofits vitamin activity if left on asupermarket shelf too long). As it iswater soluble, excess vitamin will beexcreted in the urine. You will soonknow if you have taken too muchriboflavin, it passes through yourbody unchanged and results in veryyellow pee!

Worried about the salt content ofMarmite? Well don’t be, the “tang”is largely due to the yeast protein.This has been split, to some extent,releasing smaller chains of aminoacids - the building blocks ofproteins. Some of these have aparticular and distinct flavour. If yousuffer from high blood pressure, it isworth giving Marmite a miss,although it is relatively low insodium.

16 “Below” 2002.4

History and survivingremains

Alveley Colliery was sunk by theHighley Mining Company in the late1930s. Its location was determined bythe underground workings of theHighley Colliery, which by that datehad moved east from Highley andwere now below Alveley. However,this posed a major logistical problem;the Severn Valley branch of the GreatWestern Railway, which had to beused to take the coal away, ranthrough Highley. It was over ½ mileaway from the Alveley shaft, thewrong side of the Rivern Severn. Tosolve this problem, an endless rope-worked haulage system was builtfrom the mine to the railway, crossingthe river via a concrete bridge (Fig 1).

The screens were built next to therailway and opened in January 1939.Tubs of coal from the shaft wentalong the haulage to the screens; dirtwas returned in the other direction.There were some modifications to thearrangements at the screens in theearly 1950s when a washery was builtand a creeper/retarder system wasinstalled to take the tubs the last fewyards to the screens. The ropehaulage was replaced by an aerialropeway following theredevelopment of Alveley in 1960.

The route of the tramway can still betraced almost from the former pit topat Alveley, down the main incline,over the bridge and up to the site ofthe screens. On the Highley side ofthe bridge, one of the guide(“return”) wheels has been partiallyexcavated. Display boards along theroute provide an explanation of theremains. Short stretches of rail havebeen used to reinforce theembankment at various places. Theremains of several metal tubs can stillbe found in the undergrowth at thefoot of the screens and the VisitorCentre at the Severn Valley CountryPark has a few artefacts includingsome of the rollers. Bewdley Museumholds several Smallman clips from thehaulage. The bridge is unfortunatelynearing the end of its life and will

need to be replaced within the nextfew years.

David Poyner

Method of working andtub construction.

The surface haulage used a 7/8th inchrope. The length of the track was1100 yards so the endless rope was2200 yards long. The railway was 21”gauge with wooden sleepers 3’ apart;9” rollers fixed in wooden boxessupported the rope. There were eighttubs to each journey; the tubs weremade of wood and later of iron andheld 10 cwt of coal. The rope took thetubs to the Barker Screens.

At the pit top, the two-deck cagesheld four tubs, two per deck. Thetubs were forced off the cage by aWestinghouse pneumatic ram andthe two top tubs were lowered toground level by a drop-cage. Therewere two men on the weighbridge tocheck the weights of the tubs; onefrom the union and the other from thecolliery. The tubs were marked withchalk to say which face they had

come off. The tubs then ran onto thehaulage where the first tub wasclipped onto the rope with theremaining 7 tubs coupled up behindit by Bert Bywaters. This was doneon an incline about 50 yards long toput tension on the couplings. Theback clip was firmly fixed to hold thetubs before they went down a steepincline 400 yards long, over theconcrete bridge.

The haulage engine was at the top ofthe incline; at first it was manned byTed Horton but it was later workedby signals. There was a set of returnwheels at the end of the bridge andanother set 100 yards further along.On the bridge Jack Blount took theback clip off to allow the tubs to goround the wheels; if left on the ropecame off the return wheel and itneeded a Sylvester to get it back onagain. At the other set of wheels BillHomfrey (Bumphus) would take theback clip off the empty journey.

Jack Blount was a real character. If hesaw you coming down the incline hewould walk to meet you and ask what

The Surface Haulage at Alveley CollieryGeorge and David Poyner

Figure 1

Above: The main surface haulage at Alveley, 1939-1960. For clarity, only themain route of the track is shown. There were also sidings, chiefly aroundthe surface at Alveley. Also omitted are details of the standard gaugesidings at the screens.

Figure 2: Smallman haulage clips, for attaching tubs tocontinous rope haulage systems.

“Below” 2002.4 17

you thought about the Colliersfootball team. If the rope hadstopped, you could not get away (Fig3). The office staff had the sametreatment. Ben Humphries had acabin for shelter, where he kept animmense fire going in a stove.

When the journey reached thecreeper the tubs were unclipped.They were sent up the creeper intothe tippler on the screens and thenreturned down the retarder. The chalknumbers were removed and the tubswere clipped back onto the haulagerope to go back to the colliery. Herethe empties were unclipped off therope and sent up creepers to the topand bottom decks of the cage. Thesupplies were also brought by rail sothere were six men loading the tubswith pit props and unloading railwaywagons. The rails needed quite a lotof maintenance; during hot weatherthey would expand and buckle,requiring the joints to be loosened.

Some tubs were diverted from themain haulage to the landsale(Pegson) screens. They went over aweighbridge onto the screens. Therewas no tippler but one rail was higherthan the other so the tubs could bethrown on their side, emptied andthen righted. They were returned tothe pit by a pony, Venture, driven byTed Smith. Dirt tubs were driven ontothe mound by another pony, Charlie.

Wooden tubs were made by contractat 12/- per tub by men workingovertime either in the carpentersshop or the tub repair shop. GeorgeElcock, Almer Honeybourne, FredGuy and Fred James worked in thecarpenters shop with Jim Breakwell,Arthur Mayer, Stan Link and DennisMullard in the tub shop. Typically 50tubs would be produced in thecourse of a week. They would beinspected by Mr Chesworth, whowould chalk “WC” on the sides ifthey were correct. They had oak sillsand elm boards with iron bracketsand fittings (Fig 4). When I firststarted I drilled holes in the elmboards for George Elcock, who paidme an extra 1/- for the work. AlmerHoneybourne had a large lump

hammer for the rivets, but this oftendid not close them up and theywould need attention from JimBreakwell in the tub shop. Thepedestals were attached to the sillsand the bottoms of the tubs with 7¼”bolts; the bolts in the bottom of thetubs were tightened with a large dollyspanner (Fig 5). Buffer straps werealso attached, as was the draw bar.

George PoynerCarpenter at Alveley,

1942-1968.

The Surface Haulage at Alveley Collierycontinued ...

Figure 3: (below) Jack Blount (onthe left) with painter Ken Price anddaughter Liz shortly before thehaulage was replaced by the aerialropeway. Immediately behind themis the bridge, with the colliery in thebackground.A full journey from E face is on theleft hand track. Jack Blount’s cabinis on the right. Note the haulagerope and the rollers between therails; the Smallman clip holding thefull journey can just be made out.For some reason, the haulage isstationary.

Figure 4: (below) A typical wooden tub. The precise details ofthe ironwork on the body varied.

Figure 5: (left, below) Details of theaxle assemblage, showing how thespectacles and pedestal held theaxle onto the sill of the tub. The sillswould normally be 3” x 4”, 15” apart.

18 “Below” 2002.4

As part of the case to replace therope haulage with an aerial ropeway,the list of personnel (see table toright) required for its operation wasdrawn up and discussed by thecolliery reconstruction committee on1st December 1958.

The existing system required 54 menfrom the pit to the washery. It wasestimated that an aerial ropewaywould require 15 men and would cost£160,568. On this basis, it was agreedto proceed with the aerial ropeway.

Figures are not available to showhow much money was actually savedby the aerial ropeway. However, atleast in its early days it was plaguedby breakdowns.

The Surface Haulage at Alveley CollieryAppendix; Personnel on the Haulage 1958

Experimental ‘Mine’ at Buxton“I went to see how work wasprogressing on the ExperimentalMine Station that has been built onthe moors behind Buxton. Untilrecently mine workings wererepresented by large iron tubes. Inwhich coal dust explosions weredeliberately produced and the terrificspeed with which these travelled wasmeasured electrically. Unfortunatelyon several occasions the tubes haveburst and for this reason they havebeen replaced by a tunnel boredthrough a small hill. This is far morelike a mine gallery than was the oldiron tube. The tunnel is semi-circularin cross section and is 700 feet inlength. It has been blasted throughalmost solid limestone and

Job MenDays Afternoons

At ShaftClipping loads 2 2Coupling loads 1 1Unclipping empties 1 1Uncoupling empties 1 1Dirt from pit and screensTippler operation (1) (1)Points behind tippler (2) (2)Running to tippler (1) (1)Bulldozer (1)Curve WheelsLoads 1 1Empties 1 1Trackmen 1At ScreensTippler operator 1 1Unclipping loads 1 1Uncoupling loads 1 1Clipping empties 1 1Coupling empties 1 1Dirt from screensDirt load (1) (1)Clipping loads & empties (2) (1)Clip maintenance 1TotalsDirt handling (8) (6)Others 14 12

22 18

From minutes of Alveley Colliery Reconstruction Committee,Public Record Office, COAL 77/5353.

strengthened by massive semi-circular bands of iron. For greatersecurity concrete has been graftedinto the fissures in the rock outsidethe Iron bands. Heavycounterbalanced steel doors closethe gallery when the coal dust isfired. A light railway runningthroughout the length of the tunnelis used for supplying the coal dust”.

From a letter written by H.N. Beadlewhich was published in The MeccanoMagazine, Volume XIV, No.8,August 1929 -E.D. Chambers.Reproduced in Industrial RailwayRecord, 167 December 2001.

Anyone got an idea where thisexperimental mine was?

Bat Worker DiesOn Sunday 24th November, DavidMcRae, 56 from Guthrie in Angusbecame the first person to die inBritain from rabies for over 100 years.Tests at Ninewell Hospital in Dundeeconfirmed that he was suffering froma type of rabies known as EBL.

EBL - European Bat Lyssavirus, is arabies like virus which infectsinsectivorous bats in Europe.Between 1977 and 2000, there were630 cases of infected bats reported,mostly in Denmark, the Netherlandsand Germany. The VetinaryLaboratories Agency in the UK testsabout 200 bats every year for thisvirus, and to-date there have beenjust 2 confirmed cases - one inNewhaven, East Sussex (1996) andone in Lancashire in 2002.

EBL is a different strain of virus fromthat which causes “classical” rabiesin dogs and other creatures. It is veryrare for EBL’s to cross the speciesbarrier from bats to other types ofanimals. Only 3 human cases (allfatal) have been reported in Europesince 1977, one in Finland and 2 inthe former USSR. All 3 had been inclose contact with bats. EBL istransmitted by a bite or scratch or ifsaliva or nervous tissue from aninfected bat gets into a patients eyeor comes into contact with mucousmembranes or broken skin.

“Below” 2002.4 19

On September 7th 1893, the Miners ofFeatherstone, West Yorkshire were indispute, there were two pitsconcerned, but the incident involvedmainly the miners from thedeveloping Acton Hall Colliery.Many of the miners had migratedhere from the declining Staffordshireand Shropshire mining areas; it was anew town with no established socialhierarchy. In the absence of localmagistrates the magistrate fromPontefract was brought in to readthe ‘riot act’, and to involve thesoldiers from a barracks in Bradford(rather than the local regiments, manyof whom were involved in keepingorder at Doncaster Races and in anycase it was thought unwise to letYorkshire soldiers shoot Yorkshireminers).

Against the advice of local police,the order was given to shoot, about17 miners were hurt and 2 killed, shotfrom behind as they were runningaway. It was not until afterwards thatit was realised that the SouthStaffordshire Regiment were beingused to shoot at miners from theirown areas!

Both pits have now been levelled,Acton Hall closed during the 1984/5Miners Strike (it remained a verymilitant pit to the end; even when thewriter carried out his first inspectionthere in 1977 he was warned not to beseen carrying pencil, pen, notebookor watch), but Green Lane and theColliery entrances are still much thesame and the sites can berecognised. Most visitors nowadays,however, go to North FeatherstoneCemetery to see the two graves withtheir graphic inscriptions.

Worth a Visit (if passing)Site of the Featherstone Massacre, near Wakefield, 1893.

Sacred to the memory ofJAMES

the beloved son ofROWLAND and MARY Gibbs

of Loscoe Grove, NormantonWho was shot through by the

soldierswho charged the locked out miners

at Lord Masham’s CollieriesFeatherstone on the evening of the

7th Sept. 1893age 22 years

‘Gone not from memory or fromlove but from a world of strife

Swept by a rifle ball from earthto live an endless life’

Note: There is some weatheringand ‘fired’ and ‘soldiers’ can only beinferred from the stones.

In loving memoryJAMES ARTHUR

beloved husband ofEMMA DUGGAN

Born March 10th 1868Died September 8th 1893

Through a gun shot wound fired byThe South Staffordshire Regiment at

Lord Mashams CollieriesFeatherstone

‘Gone but not forgotten’

The 1891 Census shows that therewere over 50 Shropshire born minerswith families in Featherstone in 1891including Henry Gettings age 48(colliery undermanager, bornWellington), John Briscoe age 26(mine surveyor, born Madeley) andSam Rushton, age 47 (collierydeputy, born Wellington).

Ivor BrownMemorialIn 1995 a ‘Sculpture’ was placed inFeatherstone shopping precinct tomark the centenary of the‘Featherstone Massacre’ and there isa large mural in brick depicting thetowns heritage at the maincrossroads on the principal street.The Sculpture consists of twohydraulic roof props supporting onehalf of a pit headframe wheel.

Min

ers

grav

esto

nes,

Nor

th F

eath

erst

one

Cem

etry

.P

ictu

re: I

.J.B

row

n‘Sculpture’ commemorating themassacre. Picture: I.J.Brown

Footnote:As this item was being completed; 2miners have been shot dead and 14injured by security personnel at EastRand Gold Mine near Jo’burg, SouthAfrica. The miners were on strike,claiming that they had beenunderpaid. Nothing ever changes!

20 “Below” 2002.4

Members Present: Steve Holding,Ian Davies, Samantha Davies, ChrisAndrews, Ian Cooper.

We entered the mine through thelower entrance, where the workingshave broken out to surface. This hadthe advantage that we were lessobvious to the occupants of thehouse further up the hill who weunderstand don’t always appreciatepeople on the land.

After exploring the older workings,which date from the early 1900’s, weconcluded that we’d probablyalready investigated it all during ourfirst trip. Whilst at this level we didfind a few artefacts and tools thatrelate to the last modern working ofthe mine, in places we were able tolook down into parts of the showmine below.

Having exhausted the upper levelswe descended the long steel ladderinto the modern workings and theshow mine. A detailed account ofwhat’s to be found has beenpublished in the spring issue ofBelow: 2002.1.

On this occasion we decided that itwould be best not to emerge from theupper entrance, positioned as it is,not far below the land owners house,instead we retraced our stepsthrough the old workings. Once backat the surface we sat on the hillsideto eat our lunch.

From our elevated perch we noticedsomeone working at the mine downbelow. Speaking to the gentleman wefound that he’d worked at the minefor the past 20 years and had beenthe mine manager when it finallyclosed. Apparently it has beenclassified as a toxic mine and as suchis never likely to be reopened.

Having spent many years working inthe mine he doesn’t share ourinterest in entering the workings, butwas most friendly and spent an houror so discussing the mine with us,both features inside and on thesurface. After popping back into theoffices he reappeared and gave us

booklets describing thehistory of the mine,produced when the showmine was open to thepublic.

Although the presence ofgold in the area wasknown about before, itwasn’t until 1844 that theoccurrence was widelypublicised, in a paper tothe British Association.Intense speculationfollowed, including smallfinds at Gwynfynydd in1863.

The initial gold rush hadcollapsed by 1865, itwasn’t until 1888 whenrich finds were made atGwynfynydd that asecond resurgence ofinterest in the areaoccurred, this timemachinery was used forthe mining andsubsequent processing.

A developer of mines,Prichard Morgan, tookover Gwynfynydd in 1887,a year later they struck arich pocket of gold, it wasthis find that created thesecond gold rush andbrought many newprospectors to the area.By the beginning of theFirst World War most ofthe interest had goneagain and the mines hadclosed.

In 1981 Gywnfynydd wasreopened, still workingthe same lode as PrichardMorgan. Morgan’s richdiscovery had been nearthe top of the hill, the veinof quartz in which thegold occurs slopes downthrough the hillside. Themodern mineconcentrated its effortsfurther down the hill, withaccess through an adit.

Gwynfynydd – The final chapter?Sunday 10th November 2002

Above: The main entrance for the modernworkings, now disused.Below: The mine office built on mine spoil highabove the river.

Above: An underground safe - unfortunately itwas empty !

Below: The rescue stretcher being inspectedby ‘Storm Trooper Holding’

“Below” 2002.4 21

Production in the mine was adequateuntil, in the late 1980’s, theydiscovered a rich pocket of gold.Apparently it was possible to bendthe larger rocks because of the highgold content in them, the occurrenceof gold they broke into was abouteight inches wide of more or lesssolid gold. In today’s market itwould be worth about £40million.Finds like that only happen every 100years or so.

The mine stopped production for twoyears at the end of the 1980’s beforebeing reopened again in 1992, thistime the aim was to intersect the lodedeeper in the hill. Two undergroundshafts were sunk, reaching a depth of160 feet, before tunnelling across toreach the ore.

Although gold was found, it was notin the same quantities as they’dbroken into in the 1980’s. Productionwas at a rate of 0.2oz per ton ofmaterial processed. The search forgold revolves around a lot ofguesswork and luck, the exactlocation of gold pockets within thequartz can’t be predicted and it’spossible to bypass large reserveswithout realising.

The last day of production at themine was the end of December 1998,it finally closed on the 31st March1999. After closure large dams werebuilt across the entrances capable ofwithstanding the full hydrostaticpressure of the water in the mine. Atthe moment the control valves on thedams are left open, water is able tofreely drain out. If future monitoringindicates unacceptable levels ofcontamination emerging from theworkings then it will be possible toclose off the dam and let theworkings flood, largely trapping thecontaminated water under a layer ofsurface run-off.

Although Steve had his eye on oneglinting patch in the quartz, wedecided it was more likely to be someother chemical deposit, coppersulphide was suggested. Talking tothe person outside, he was confidentthat the only place you’d be able to

see free gold onthe walls of themine now is inthe later floodedworkings, 160ftbelowcontaminatedwater.

The gentlemanworking the sitetook the time toexplain how thespoil heaps havebeen reworked toextract as muchgold as possible.Some of the spoilcame from thenew drives put induring the laterworkings, as theyweren’t in aparticularlyprofitable area,the spoil wasn’toriginallyprocessed much,so still containedamounts of gold. Other spoil tipsdating from the turn of the centuryhave been reworked as well, he saidhow digging through the tips hasexposed different coloured layersreflecting the gradual increase inspoil tip size.

We were told how the material is firstcrushed before being fed into a ball-mill, this reduces the ore to a finepowder. The ore is transferred to asquare hopper containing agitatedwater, the dense gold falls to thebottom whilst the lighter sandy spoilremains in suspension within theturbulent water.

After further filtering the ore ispassed over a vibrating table, this isa platform that slopes downdiagonally, across its surface are anumber of ridges over which thewater is trickled. The dense goldshould lodge against the top ridgewith the other products, such asgalena, lodging progressively furtherdown the board.

During the reprocessing it is possible

to extract gold small enough to floaton water, when this occurs a smallamount of washing up liquid is addedto break the water’s surface tension,allowing the gold to sink to thebottom again.

Alongside the vein of quartz, whichholds the gold, are quantities of ironand zinc ore. When these areexposed to air and moisture theybecome very acidic and dissolve intothe water within the mine. It is thisacidic water containing quantities ofheavy metals that is of environmentalconcern when it leaves the mine.

When in operation the water leavingthe workings passed through a seriesof settlement tanks, these allowed theparticulates to separate out from thewater before it was passed to theriver. Now the mine has closed thewater discharge has been redirectedpast the settlement tanks straightinto the river.

Whilst operating, the mine came upwith an interesting method of limitingthe pollution emanating from it’s

Gwynfynydd – The final chapter?Sunday 10th November 2002, continued ...

Above: The Mill shed containing the processingmachinery.Below: A view of the settlement tanks which were usedto filter the mine’s water.

22 “Below” 2002.4

workings. Once the gold has beenextracted the remaining tailings are avery fine silt, rather than justdumping this on the surface it wasused to reduce pollution. Oldpassages and workings had damsbuilt across them, behind which aslurry of tailings would be pumped.The fine clays and sands of thewaste spoil would dry out, in theprocess sealing the exposed heavymetal ores and preventing theirescape into the mine water.

Because at this time all processingand milling was carried outunderground, it meant that largeamounts of waste spoil never left themine. By capping unused areas ofthe mine with waste they were able toreduce the toxic discharge.

We were told some of the problemsthey faced whilst trying to operate asuccessful show mine. The originalplan had been to build a car park andallow visitors to make their own wayup to the mine.

The forestry owners had beencontacted and it was planned for anew bridge to be built across theriver, enabling cars to use the roadon the opposite side of the valley.This would prevent cars meetinghead-to-head on the single trackroad. Everything was fine until theParks Authority said that there couldonly be six cars on the site at once, atthe time there were eight peopleworking at the mine. After that the

Gwynfynydd – The final chapter?Sunday 10th November 2002, continued ...

miners had to park at the bottom anddrive up together in a Land Rover!

To get around the problem theybought a fleet of mini-buses andopened a shop in Dolgellau. Visitorsto the mine would meet at the shopand be bussed up to the mine. Thisarrangement was less thansatisfactory, in the summer therewere far more visitors than the busescould cope with and people werebeing turned away. The seasonalnature of the tourist industry in thatpart of Wales didn’t help either, inthe winter they still had to maintainthe fleet of buses and operate theshop even though there were hardlyany visitors around.

After four years of reprocessing even

this is drawing to an end, we weretold how work is due to finish at thebeginning of next year. AroundEaster 2003 the site is to be cleared,the buildings demolished and thewhole area landscaped.

The path from the car park heads upthe valley above the river, passingthe remains of buildings, pipe-work,and equipment from the mining thatoccurred in the area during the early1900’s. By the remains of theprocessing mill there areinterpretation boards explaining thearea and what the remains represent,the track then continues up thevalley until it reaches the modernmine and it’s associated buildings,

these complete the story of goldmining at Gwynfynydd.

It is sad to think that it is this finalchapter in the gold mine’s historythat is soon to be eradicated. Itwould be nice if the abandonedbuildings of the mine could be left toslowly become reclaimed by nature,in the same way as all the others. Todo this would leave a lastingreminder for future generations of anindustry that took place in a nowpicturesque valley for over 100 years.

Although Gwynfynydd is shortly tofinish production, gold prospectingin the Dolgellau Gold Belt continues.A concerned named ‘CambrianGoldfields’ own the license to explorefor gold in the majority of the goldbelt, including the Gwyfynydd area.

To the best of both my knowledgeand that of the person we spoke to atthe mine, Cambrian Goldfields are notactively mining for gold undergroundat the moment, although they areinvestigating the possibility ofreopening the Clogau gold mine.They currently source their gold bypanning for alluvial deposits in therivers of the gold belt.

Given the popularity of Welsh Gold itis likely that it’s extraction willcontinue for years to come, but largereserves such as those found atGwynfynydd are only to be foundunderground, and even then onlyafter investing large amounts of timeand money in the search.

Ian CooperAll pictures for this article are by Ian

Above: Remains of the old processing mill dating from theearly 1900’s located further down the valley

Below: When you look at the river, is itany wonder why the originalprocessing mill was water powered?

“Below” 2002.4 23

revolution to Britain (Essex was thesecond area surveyed).

At the start of the survey, it tookaround 20 years to map about a thirdof England and Wales at 1 inch to themile. Mountain heights were (and stillare) measured from sea-level -calculated from an average of thetides at Newlyn, Cornwall.

It didn’t take the government long torealise that the maps produced by theBoard could be useful for taxation,administration, water and sewerage,etc. By the 1840’s, engineeringsurveyors needed maps for buildingthe railway network and by 1920,when the mapping of Britain wascomplete, they were published forleisure use at a scale of 1 inch to themile.

It is only when you go abroad thatyou appreciate how well off we arewith our Ordnance Survey maps -even in ‘advanced’ countries likeNorway, no two maps of a givenarea are the same, or even matchreality! Although military maps hadbeen made in 1746, when KingGeorge II commissioned the firstformal land survey of the Highlands,to help quell the rebellious Scots, themapping of Kent in 1801 heralded thestart of Britain’s best known series ofmaps.

The Kent survey was the firstproduced by the Board of Ordnance(the old name for the ministry ofdefence, hence the OrdnanceSurvey), and was part of thegovernment plans for defending theChannel coast against the possibilityof the French bringing their

Aerial photography was firstintroduced during World War One.As the early maps became out ofdate, retriangulation was introducedin 1935 - surveyors had to trek upBritain’s highest, most isolated peaksto build the familiar concrete trigpillars (which are now themselvesvirtually redundant). In the 1960’scomputerised maps began to beproduced and by 1995 it all wentdigital .

Britain is the first country to have fullelectronic mapping. Modern maps arecontinuously updated, with contoursbeing produced by photogrammetry(aerial pictures are translated bysupercomputer into 3D projections)and some revisions can be in printwithin six months, using GPS andaerial photography.

Survey HelpCould you ask your readers if anyonehas plotted the remaining (or thesometime remaining) pylon bases ofthe various SW Shropshire aerialropeways to avoid theunnecessary repeating of theprocess. If no one appears to havedone this and anyone is interested inthe project perhaps they couldcontact me on 01743-356697 or

m-j-shaw@lineone.net.Mike Shaw

Letters to the EditorShropshire Man Engine

referring to man-riding cages as man-engines.

I am certain that no man-engine wasever used in the mid-19th century atEast Roman Gravels, Roman Gravels,Grit, Bog, Pennerley, Potters Pit, orTankerville, and certainly not at anyof the lesser mines. As a matter ofaccuracy I don’t know that one wasnever installed at Snailbeach. Butcould it have been at a Shropshirecolliery? I know nothing about htem.

If Michael Shaw could let me know inwhat year Le Neve Foster referred toman engines outside Cornwall, I’lllook it up, as I have a nearly completerun of the Inspectors of Mines’Reports here.

G.W.Hall

As I see from the latest ‘Below’ thatthe Shropshire Man Enginecontroversy is still alive, I had betteracknowledge a mistake I made in myletter that appeared in Issue 2002.2

Having my mind on engines I did notnotice myself saying that prior to theinstallation of a steam-driven windingengine and cages at Roman Gravels(Mining Journal 1880, p. 775) miners,and visitors, descended the mine inkibbles, and that took twentyminutes. How stupid!

That was not so. In 1882 (M.J. p. 553)Arthur Waters remarked that he wentdown Watson’s shaft at Tankerville,in the kibble, in 3 minutes. As thiswas a good deal deeper (then 257fathoms from surface), than RomanGravels, and part vertical, partinclined, it must have takennoticeably less time at the latter,vertical all the way - hence the 1½minutes. Whether visitors wereallowed to use the kibble seemsdoubtful to me, but twenty minutesreferred to climbing the ladders.

I can’t recollect Arthur Waters

Post OfficeUnderground Railway

Club members may be interested toknow that the Mail Rail service mayhave to close and that the Post Officeis actively seeking suggestions from“heritage” groups as to uses for theunderground system. Anyone gotany ideas?

For more details have a look at:www.karslake.co.uk/mailrail/html/

introduction.html

Its very good. I've looked at everypage of this lot. Fascinating.

Roger Gosling

Over 200 Years of theOrdnance Survey

Laxey Mines WebsiteThe Laxey Mines Research Groupsold web site has ceased to exist.

The new URL is:www.iomonline.co.im/ftpinc/mines/

index.htmRegards

Pete Geddes

24 “Below” 2002.4

No record has been found of anycoal preparation plant prior to theearly 1920’s and nothing is shown onthe site of the mid 20th century planton the earlier OS maps whichresembles one. Some plans do show,however, a weighing machine and asimilar small building, which mayhave been a hut for men working onthe sidings about midway betweenthe two pits.

By the late 1920’s the OS maps showa more substantial building in placeof the ‘hut’ which seems to sit astridesome of the standard gauge lines andappears to be entered by the spurfrom the Kemberton Mine tramway.This building is likely to havecontained a screen for sizing and ahopper. No cleaning of the coalwould have been necessary becausethe colliers would have loaded it bymeans of a ‘frank’, a 5 or 7 prongedfork, so that all fine coal would haveremained in the mine.

Similarly franks were used whentransferring coal from rail waggonsto road vehicles or to ‘bags’ (In 1858,before the railway connectionHalesfield coal was sold at 20cwt to aton if collected, or 21 cwt to a tonordered to allow for losses if it hadto be transferred from tubs to canalboats, then to landsale (CollieryGuardian, Jan. 23rd 1858, p57).

Until the 1930’s the undergroundroadways were invariably driven in-seam, the coal would be loaded outand the roof dirt would be packed inthe ‘waste’ or old workings. With theopening of the Buildwas PowerStation in the mid 1930’s a marketwas found for small coal and theproduction was generally increased.Conveyors were installed on thecoalface and loading by frank wasreplaced by shovel, in consequencethere was less selectivity. Greateroutputs and more mechanisation alsomeant that the dirt content in run-of-mine production increased.

By 1939 it had been found necessaryto install a Greaves-type wooden boxwasher, acquired from Brereton

Colliery, Staffordshire. This removedsome of the dirt and the variousgrades of larger coal lumps werehand picked (about 1945, the‘pickers’ included five women).

As the mine further developed in the1940’s some dirt from minor roadwayrepairs and developments wasbrought out separately usually onthe night shift when no coal wasbeing produced. In the 1946valuation (for nationalisation) GeorgePrice, a mining engineer, stated thatthe colliery only had a ‘nut washery’and that only about 8% of the outputwas washed. He added “all small coalis sold dry .... there being a readyoutlet at Buildwas Power Station”. Hefurther added that there was aproposal to instal a new ‘Greaves nutwashery’, presumably a larger one,and “a Maclane dirt disposal plant” --“within the next few months”.

According to Price all this wasnecessary because the Companyplanned:

(a) reconstruction of both pitbottoms at Kemberton Mine and toenlarge all main roads to take largertubs (13 cwt capacity as against 10cwt capacity) and

(b) that all coalface operations wereto be completely mechanised.

The above work was completed by1952, then things began to changefurther when the managementallowed some dirt from roadwayripping to be sent out on conveyorsat night and this spread further to thecoaling shifts on day shift as well.

Furthermore, it was decided to adopt‘horizon mining’ for the locomotiveroad and this also required cross-measure drifts in dirt, and laterattempts at mechanised coal loadingwere made (such as flight-loading oncutters). Some idea of the problemcaused by escalating dirt content canbe seen from the fact that in October1953 coal preparation cost 1s 1d perton, while in November 1955 the costwas 12s 4d per ton. The number ofmen now working on the screens and

washery had increased to 33 (screen-hands 31s 0d per man per shift, withthe two washery men at 30s 11d perman per shift).

The coal preparation plant nowconsisted of rotating-tub tipplers,chutes, screens, hand picking belts,dirt conveyors, the washery, boomloaders and settling ponds for thefines. The colliery manager gave thewriter, then a mining student, severalprojects at the preparation plant,three of the most notable were asfollows:

1. Why were customers complainingof dirt in the lump coal aspurchased? Teams of men wereemployed manually picking andbreaking clods of dirt off the coal-lumps on ‘picking belts’ between thesizing screen and the truck loadingboom. The lumps of dirt were thenthrown towards an open chuteleading to a heap beneath. But thejob of picker was considered work for“compensation cases” i.e.: menwhom had been partially blinded,‘lost their breathe’ through dustdisease or lost limbs throughaccident. Some could barely lift alump let alone “throw” it. To helpovercome this a short conveyor wasplaced immediately behind thepickers to carry away the lumps ofdirt.

2. Why was the power stationanalysis giving different amounts ofdirt sufficient to always bring abouta price penalty? The permitted dirtcontent was 7%, if the supply hadmore (or less) than this a penalty wasapplied to the price.

This problem necessitated takingsamples of the coal produced atspecified intervals (usually half-hour)using a bucket attached to a longpole, then mixing, quartering etc. Thesample was then analysed by theNCB and compared with CEGBfigures. The NCB figures showedthat much of the coal sold to thePower Station was in fact too cleanand that by adding dirt to the powerstation coal a greater tonnage could

Halesfield and Kemberton Mines Part 6,The Coal Preparation Plant, by Ivor J.Brown

“Below” 2002.4 25

be sold and the price held. A“homogenising tower” was added tothe flow route for power station coalwhich acted as both a blender and abunker so that earlier analysis ofproduct could be made before sale.

3. What amount of coal was beinglost in the ‘dirty’ coal sent throughthe screens at night? Takingsamples at half-hour intervalsthrough winter nights in the openscreen shed, with the smoke andfumes of the burning waste heaps,and the chirping of the crickets forcompany, was most unpleasant. Addto this working in an elevated, dirty,dusty and very noisy screen housemade this as bad if not worse thanany job underground.

With the existing set-up it wasdifficult to see how any coal lost

could be retrieved economicallyexcept by not putting it in at sourceunderground.

In the late 1950’s the amount of dirtin the run-of-mine coal againincreased due to the use of moremachine loading, working generallythinner and dirtier seams and thepayment system for coal gettingbecoming more based on quantityrather than quality. The waste tipsgrew a lot larger and faster and theprocessing plant could not cope. Aslogan “Dirt in coal means loss ofcustomers” was impressed oneveryone. (The remains of anilluminated cabinet which held thismessage can still be seen over theentrance door leading to the formerpit head baths building at theKemberton Mine site).

1 x 0 in raw coalrun-of-mine

Continuous levelindicator withoutput signals

Door

Bunker

A

Arch

Bretby feeder

Automaticby-pass door

Raw coal+17% ash

Sizing screen / in mesh3

8

1 x / raw coal1

8

Cleancoal Centrifuge

3

/ x 0 in raw coal8

Raw coal-17% ash

3ft Hirstfine coalwasher

Reject

Continuous levelindicator withoutput signals

Bunker

B

Raw smalls

Blendedsmalls

Fingerplanimeter

1 x 0 in raw coalex stock

Flow diagram of Madeley Wood colliery installation

Figure 1

It was also realised that profitabilitycould be improved if the proportionof large lump coal to small could beimproved and the writer was set on aproject to do this. From the price list(see Figure 2 on next page) it can beseen that, for example, a ton of +4½insized cobbles could bring in nearly£2 more than a ton of +1in washeddoubles. Even raising the tonnage of+1in to +2in by only 20 tons per week(i.e. 20 x 16s 0d) was sufficient to paythe project leaders wages and, on aweekly tonnage of 5,000 tons it waseasy to do this ten times over withinthe first few weeks.

Among the measures used wereproviding chutes rather than allowingfree-fall at conveyor ends andputting in booms that could be raisedas the rail wagons were being filled.Also, as the railway was being used

Halesfield and Kemberton Mines Part 6,The Coal Preparation Plant, continued ..

Note: This is the Ex-stockflow sheet, the main coalpreparation plant flowsheet will be shown in thenext issue.

26 “Below” 2002.4

for carrying the larger size materialonly 200 yards to the landsale point,by replacing this with direct loadinginto road vehicles, the breakageinvolved in transhipment could beavoided.

From the early 1960’s the demand forlarge coal fell (due to far fewer steamengines and domestic fires etc.) andthe demand for small coal for powerstations increased. Unfortunatelysmall coal always included more dirtso that it was decided to useMadeley Wood Colliery (of whichthis plant was part) as one of the testsites for a recently developed devicespecifically designed for dealing withsmall coal (slack) with a high ashcontent up to 60%. This was called a‘Hirst Fine Coal Washer’ (see figure 1for its location in the screeningprocess).

The device was, by 1966, treatingover 1000 tons per week. It was fullyautomated and incorporatedblending, proportioning, mixing andsampling equipment with bunker-level interlocks (for description seeThe Hirst Fine Coal Washer atMadeley Wood Colliery, BretbyBroadsheet No.39 May/June 1967).

DIRTELEVATO

R COALELEVATOR

FeedChute

A

BD

C

E

F

Greaves Nuts Washer(Horace Greaves & company Ltd.)

Key - Jig WasherA - plate elevator (dirt)B - crankshaftC - washing basket

(hinged at F)D - plate elevator (coal)E - tank or washboxF - hinge for basket

(from manufacturers literature)

MADELEY WOOD COLLIERY

PARTICULARS OF SALEABLE OUTPUT FOR W/E 1960

Quality Screen Sizes. Tonnages. Price Decimal Equiv.(price/ton)

Hand Picked. Over 4½” screened 162/3 £ 8 - 11p unwashed

Sized Cobbles. Over 4½” 149/6 £ 7 - 48p

Best Nuts. 4½” x 2” 149/6 £ 7 - 48pWashed

Washed Doubles. 2” x 1” 126/3 £ 6 - 31p

Slack 1” 1” x 0” Dry- slack 110/4 £ 5 - 52p

}

}

Figure 2

Figure 3

from Record Sheets, Madeley Wood Colliery, 1960

Shortly after this success the collierywas closed as being “uneconomic”and the coal preparation plant wasdismantled. Nothing now remains ofthis plant on site.

ThanksThe writer would like to thank Mr.R.Rushton, former colliery surveyor,for reading and commenting on theabove.

Halesfield and Kemberton Mines Part 6,The Coal Preparation Plant, continued ..

“Below” 2002.4 27

Christmas Puzzles2002

Spot the DifferencesTake a good look at the two picturesof the Editor enjoying a quietChristmas morning last year.

If you are lucky you should be ableto find at least 10 differences.

W H I N B E R R Y Q N A M H OE I P Y O I U T A U E H A G FS N L E M K L D F Z N J R O DT Y E L E D A M D X T C B W NB L T E I U C L E E H I L L AR L S V R A R L P O E M V G BE I V L Z F M D T F A U E W RC G F A X I U S B R D Y J Y EO P S V R W H C O O J T P N VN M A R M I T E Y N E M V F LH A G C B W L C H G L A S Y IJ R O O D X E P R O N R E N SN O T R E B M E K C Q J T D SC W M Y S T W Y T H I K L D E

Word PuzzleThe Christmas issue wouldn’t be complete without a wordsearch, so yer tiz ....

In the word square you will find 18 words related toarticles in this issue of Below, happy hunting!

As its Christmas (and several of them are Welsh) you arelooking for the following:

Whinberry, NAMHO, OFD, Nenthead, West Brecon,Williamson, Clee Hill, Rampgill, Bwlch Glas, Norpex Door,Cwmystwyth, Fron Goch, Silverband, Marmite, Alveley,Gwynfynydd, Kemberton, Madeley

Note: There are no spaces in the square, so doublewords appear without a gap.

Happy Christmasand a

Merry New Year

28 “Below” 2002.4

This International Cave RescueCongress is to be held in SouthWales, from July 21 to July 27 2003,under the joint auspices of theBCRA and The South Wales CaveRescue Organisation and organisedby the West Brecon Cave RescueTeam.

The event will be held at the SouthWales Caving Club, Penwyllt,Abercave, Swansea, South Wales.

The Director is Brian Jopling (‘Jopo’)jopo@freenetname.co.uk

Secretary Gary EvansGaryEvs@compuserve.com

The Objectives of ResCon03 are:* To bring together cave rescue

teams and individuals interestedin all aspects of cave rescue for aone week practical symposium.

Aims:To promote the exchange oftechniques and equipment betweencave rescuers from many differentcaving areas and to build upon thevaluable experiences of RESCON92and The First European Cave RescueCongress, Germany 1999.Delegates will be expected to partakein underground workshops and beencouraged to demonstrate their owntechniques and equipment. Sometechniques and equipment will bemore easily demonstrated on thesurface and full facilities will beprovided.

Costs will be kept to a minimum andgrant aid will be sought from nationalbodies.

Pre and Post congress sport cavingcamps will be organised in all majorUK caving areas so delegates cancombine a caving holiday withRESCON03.

If you are interested in this event andwould like to be added to the circularlist please email Jopo your address.

ResCon 03 -International CaveRescue Congress

Help, Events & For SaleNotices

6th IMHCThe 6th International Mining HistoryConference is to be held in a formercoal mining town in Japan - AkabiraCity, Hokkaido Prefecture, from 26thto 29th September 2003, inclusive.

There will be an optional four daytour starting on the 30th.

More details on the conference areavailable on thier web site:

www.imhc2003.com

‘Ozzie’ Mining HistoryConference, July 2003

The next annual conference of theAustralian Mining HistoryAssociation will be held in the City ofBroken Hill, New South Wales, on 2-6July 2003. Broken Hill is Australia’slongest-lived and best-known miningcity and has had a significantinfluence on the Australian economy.For further information or assistancewith arrangements please contact

Greg Drew, GPO 1671, Adelaide,SOUTH AUSTRALIA 5001Email drew.greg@saugov.sa.gov.au

Box Freestone MinesBy the Cotham Caving Group ThirdEdition, revised and updated 2002. 4pp maps, 7 colour plates, 17 B&Wphotos in text. A5 SBPrice £7.95 + £1.00 p&p

The first edition was published in1967 and if I remember correctly itwas a quarto sized publication, runoff on an old Gestetner duplicator.Interest in these mines is still as keenas ever, hence this new glossypublication.

Since 1967 the mines have seen manychanges, as mining becameuneconomic many quarrying firmsceased production and only threecompanies are still working today.The end of the cold war sounded theend of the great undergroundweapons store at Box and this closedin the 1990's. Likewise, many of theentrances have been filled in andtoday only the entrance to Jack’sWorkings is left. The Backdoor isofficially closed.

Bath stone or Oolite is quite softwhen first cut, but after beingallowed to dry out, it turns into hardbuilding stone. It has been used inthe construction of such edifices asthe Georgian Crescent in Bath andthe Houses of Parliament in London.The removal of the stone has left amaze of passages over 35 miles long.

In 1959, teenage cavers, from CothamGrammar School, Bristol,rediscovered the old Box workings.Excited by what they found, theybegan to spend their weekendsexploring and map making.

Travelling to and fro by bus, theyoften camped underground to gainextra time for the work. The majorroutes were surveyed, measured andrecorded in scrupulous detail. Theonly omission I could find was thatthey did not identify the originalexplorer of the A. O. Route.

Review by Tony Oldham (A.O.)

Pennine GeologyThe British Geological Survey hasreleased a new publication in itsBritish Regional Geology series. Nowin its fourth edition, The Penninesand Adjacent Areas is based on newmapping and is accompanied by asolid geology map of the region. Thisis a high quality production runningto over 200pp (twice as many as the1954 third edition) packed with colourphotos, maps and diagrams. Bold isused to highlight stratigraphicalunits, key terms and, joy-of-joys, atlast the series has included an index.Best of all for cavers, there’s plentyof blue - Carboniferous Limestone -on the map to pore over and thinkabout the caves contained there.Encompassing the Yorkshire Dales inthe north through to the Peak Districtin the south, the guide is highlyrecommended. Price: £18.

Chris HowesDescent (169)

“Below” 2002.4 29

e-mail: info@iarecordings.org or visit their web site at:www.iarecordings.org

Mining Videos

A Tour of Clive CopperMine, £14.95A comprehensive guided tour ofClive, with Edwin Thorpe acting the‘experienced’ expert and Kelvin Lakethe ‘novice’. The tour covers boththe upper and lower levels, plus theNorthern stope (the access to whichhas completely changed).Clive Rescue Practice, £9.95An action packed ‘head banging’record of a Club rescue practice,featuring the ‘infamous’ maypolewinze traverse!Snailbeach, £14.95The rise and fall of Snailbeach, oncerenowned as the “richest per acre ofground in Europe”, is traced in thisproduction through the use ofhistoric photographs, animated plansand sections, and uniqueunderground video footage.Glengowla, £6.95A tour around this amazing mineralrich lead mine in Ireland, completewith commentary and diagrams.

[12 mins.]

Collections from the ArchivesThe following tapes contain almostall the footage recorded at the givenmine, and are intended as a resourcebase, not a finished production:

C.15:Dudley Tunnel ’88 to ’89,£14.10C.18:Donisthorpe Colliery, £11.75C.20a:Snailbeach - Final Frontier, £9.87C.23: Bagworth Colliery, £11.75C.28: Morse’s Level, £9.87C.29: SCMC in Cornwall, £16.45C.32: SCMC in Ireland, £14.10C.37: Dudley Tunnel - Wrens Nest

East Mine, a rare trip into theworkings during stabilisationworks.£9.87

C.41: Hem Heath Winders, £9.87C.42 The SCMC at Onslow Park - a

record of the 1998 Club and Trustdisplay. £ 9.87

C.44 Nenthead Lead Mines - surface,plus Smallcleugh, Rampgill Horse,Capleclough Levels & CarrsLevel, £9.87

C.45 Twelve Mines of Ireland - madefor the first AGM of the MHSI itcontains excerts of C.32 withadded commentary. £11.75

C.46 Astley Green Colliery - shotduring the 1999 engine rally at theMuseum site (including views ofthe huge winding engine) £9.87

C.48 Draglines - features the movingof “Oddball” at St.AidansOpencast site, plus biggerdraglines at work in the NorthEast of England. £14.10

C.49 Annesley-Bentinck Colliery -tour of surface, washery & railloading bunker. £9.87

For more details about videos contact:I.A.Recordings, PO Box 476, Telford, TF8 7RH

Books, Videos and Events

all available from the Club at a discount

Subterranean Shropshire

Metal Mines of Llanengan, MiningVentures in a North Wales ParishJohn Bennett and Robert Vernon,published by Gwydyr MinesPublications, Hardback, 149pp, 30maps & diagrams, 20 b/w photos.£15.00 (post Free)

The book is well styled andintroduces the mining history in alogical sequence. Mining started inthe early 17th Century, the majorityof it taking place in the 18th and 19thCentury with Lead, Zinc and Copperbeing produced in varying quantities.There are plenty of mine sectionswhich will help anyone interested infinding out if there are any accessibleworkings. Although there are veryfew remains left on surface and theunderground is flooded.

Typically of this part of Wales thereare no old photographs. As a result Ifelt that there were too may photos ofthe Port Nigel Chimney including thenice colour one on the front dustjacket. There is however a veryuseful guided walk which providesthe reader with an opportunity tovisit the area and see the surfaceremains and features which the booksuccessfully interprets for you.

The authors have listed all the sourcereferences to make future studyeasier. This is an excellent book andsets a good standard, I also like thehard back quality at an affordableprice. This area has not been coveredbefore and will sit well within anycollection of Welsh mining.

Mike Moore

Steve Powell, PB 128ppIn this book Steve describes some ofthe mysterious tunnels, rock houses,icehouses, underground follies,Llanymynech Ogof (a Roman orpossibly a Bronze Age mine) and asmall number of lesser known cavesystems. Steve has over a period ofnine years visited these sites andrecorded what is there with plans andphotographs supported by his ownartistic impressions.

There are however no grid referencessince many of the sites are on privateland and require owners permissionto access them.

32 underground sites in Shropshireare featured including the BridgnorthRock Houses, Stableford Tunnel andCaynton Temple - an undergroundfolly which is a rare labyrinth oftunnels complete with altars andspecially carved columns which is

truly a strange place to visit. Thesites he covers are too numerous tolist but needless to say it is a bookwell worth having.

Cost £11.99, available from myself.

Mike Moorewww.moorebooks.co.uk

mike@moorebooks.co.uk

30 “Below” 2002.4

Diary Dates 2003Club Officers

1st January: Columns Open Day,Ogof Ffynnon Ddu

22nd February: DCA AGM, 10amMonyash Village Hall

1st-2nd March: DCA/NCA Caversworkshop, Pindale Farm, Castleton.Your chance to get low-cost, highquality training including SRT, mineshistory, video, cave rescue, ladder &line. For further information e-mail:

nigel@pennine-organisation.com

8th March: 14th BCRA Cave ScienceSymposium, 10.30am to 5.30pm in theSchool of Geographical Sciences,University of Bristol. Admissioncharge £5, including refreshments.

22nd March: NCA AGM, 10.30amBaptist Church Hall, Alverchurch.

20th April: Columns Open Day,Ogof Ffynnon Ddu

2nd-6th July: Australian MiningHistory Association conference,Broken Hill, New South Wales.

21st-27th July: International CaveRescue Congress is to be held atPenwyllt, Abercave, South Wales.

26th-29th September: 6thInternational Mining HistoryConference, Japan.

The bar ‘scene’ at Caving Conferences ....

Did you catch the Thailandexpedition talk?

He’s just back from the Gouffre.

Belize was coool !

Iran hasn’t been

pushed since 1977

Tuva in Siberia is upnext

Mexico

India Malaysia

Peru

China Iceland

Catch us on the World Wide Web. Club activities & the labyrinth: http://www.shropshirecmc.org.uk/

First Aid Officer:Alan Moseley

Librarian: Alan Robinson

NAMHO Rep: Steve Holding

Conservation Office: Vacant

Bat Officer: Mike Worsfold

Rescue Officer:Neal Rushton

‘Below’ Editor: Kelvin Lake

e-mail: scmc@factree.org.uk

President: Alan Taylor

Chair: Steve Holding

Vice Chair: Eileen Bowen

Secretary: Mike Daviesscmc.secretary@factree.org.uk

Treasurer: Bob Taylor

Assistant Sec: Sue Blattner

Training Officer: Ian Davies