As one of the team working at HIgh Rake, I feel in a position to impart  more
information about what there is to see, and the progress of the dig.

We only work at High Rake on the first Saturday of the month, hence the dig
as been ongoing for 4 years now, the next meeting and dig is this coming
Saturday,  7th August.

The work on the site started with the uncovering of the crushing circle,
which was to the right of the main shaft viewed from the public footpath, the
crushing stone was the only tihing visible here at first but on clearance, the
site of the iron circle was easily discernable along with a portion of the
paving surrounding it and the horse walk.

Attention then transferred to the other side of the main shaft to uncover
the site of the horse gin again a horse walk was found, along with a hole in the
 centre where the pivot for the shaft of the gin had been.

After completing these innitial tasks the first major dig was begun on the
whim and crusher engine house on the other side of the footpath.

This was demolished for stone in the early 20th century and covered under
quite deep overburden, after trial trenches were put in to find the tops of
walls a JCB was hired to take of the thickest of the overburden, digging  then
took place to uncover the walls, the engine house appears to be at right  angles
to the main shaft on its long axis and contained an all enclosed 20 inch
beam engine ( as at Levant in Cornwall) with a boiler house at right angles  to
the engine house ( on the left end looking from footpath). This structure is
quite long and appears to include a small dry through which the flue ran before
 terminating in a round Cornish style chimney. It also drove two pairs of
crushing roles.
The most interesting problem is how this engine drew from the main shaft,
the most obvious way being that the drum was horizontal although no evidence of
this as been found, in fact evidence on the ground points to the standard
narrow  whim cage vertically mounted, with flat ropes.

The excavation on the main pumping engine house is at present ongoing, this
contained a 36"/70" Sims combined engine and as such was the largest structure
 on the site. Two large gritstone slabs were the only evidence of this
structure  when a start was made 2 years ago.

The first part of this structure to be found was in fact the base of the
chimney, this was on a much larger scale than the whim engine chimney and much
more existed as it was sunk into the ground, in fact iside the chimney, it  was
excavated to a depth of about 1.5 metres the last 0.5 being mainly  soot.

This pointed us to the boiler house which when we started was just an  hollow
in the ground, this as proved to be very long and deep only in one place  as
a trial trench been sunk and a curved stone was found here which must have
been under the long Cornish boiler, the walls of the boiler house have been left
 have been consolidated where visible, but this structure as only been
partially  excavated to to the unstable nature of the structure.

One of the biggest surprises of the site was the next thing to be  uncovered,
a trial trench was put in through a level area on th opposite  site of the
boiler house to to the engine, and limestone cobles were  discovered, when fully
excavated this cobled area extended along the full length  of the boiler
house and proved to be the coal yard for the site.

Excavation is now taking place on the Sims engine house, we have already  dug
down into the condenser pit about 4 metres, finding on the way the eduction
pipe archway, which when first opened was full of lime mortar stalactites and
stalagmites, we have also started to empty the interior of the engine house
which is full of unusual features.

When we started the dig on this part of the site we thought we might find
only th base of the walls as at the whim site, fortunately for us this engine
house was partially sunk into the ground to allow for the Sims engine to be
installed without a very tall engine house needing to be built. The Sims
combined engine having its high pressure cylinder perched on top of the low
pressure cylinder and having a stroke of 10 ft made for a very tall engine.  We have
now found that the low pressure cylnder was installed in the portion of  the
house underground level, thus we have approx 1/3 of the structure left.

We will be at least another 2 years completing the dig and conserving  what
we have, anyone who wants to visit will be most welcome, helpers especially
so, we work the first Satuday of each month, so do come and visit us.

Paul Smith,  Volunteer High Rake, and PDMHS  Chairman

PS        In October last year  permission was obtained to descend the main
shaft, a winch was erected and a  number of PDMHS members descended the shaft
to water level 320 ft  below, the shaft is large and eliptical, and is lined
with gritsone ashlar blocks from about 240ft to well below water  level, where
the shaft passes through unstable ground, evidence is seen  of the holes for
timber for dividing the shaft and supporting cistern  for pumps etc.
Two levels are seen leaving the shaft in the direction of the vein but are
blocked after a short distance.
As one of the shaft decent team I can assure you that the hidden  workmanship
is a magnificent testament to the men who built it,  the experince is
completed by the sight of the remains of one of the  ladders protuding from the
water. The shaft itself is 720 ft deep, therfore the  puddle of water in the bottom
is 400 ft deep.

Any further questions please feel free to contact me.

Paul