I'm a fellow member of the Tamar Mining Group, and have been down several mines in the valley, of varying size and wealth. The smaller ones tend to use roundwood, apparently just tree branches, perhaps waste from lopping of heavier timber. Oak, ash and elm are all present, sometimes of ridiculously small scantling. In one mine, very small diameter branches were used in the 1850s to support ventilation trunking.
Robert Waterhouse
> From: James Findlay <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Sun 02/Mar/2003 14:50 GMT
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Pit timbers
>
> Blenkinsopp used wood props in most of the workings only using steel in bad ground. Main roadways or headings, which were going to be stood for a while before being worked, used treated wood.
> All the prop wood used, the time I was at the mine was pine although full baulks (ex railway sleepers) were used for most of the Wrytree side of the mine. Several of the miners who worked Wrytree said at the end of the shift you used to be covered in the preservative being squeezed out of the wood !!
> In one roadway, which had been driven in the 1800s, you could still see some of the props. One such prop, which had a 6? base, with the top about 2? still had most of the branches on! The most surprising bit just up a very small roadway from this prop was massive square cut timber about 12? to 14? in size and about 4? 6?in length. What this wood was or why it was placed here is hard to say. It went as far as I dare go and must of taken considerable effort to get it into place. It was difficult to say if the wood was hardwood or softwood because of age but was still well preserved with only a few crushed around the top. One face directly behind these props was well timbered (pine) and still had the bark on so they must have had problems in this area.
>
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