Crewe Climbing and Potholing Club Journal September 2006 Volume 5 57 pp.
Available from J R Johnson 92 Long Valley Road, Gillow Heath, Stoke-on-Trent
ST8 6QZ. Make cheques out to J R Johnson.
I was surprised to find such a wealth of mining articles in caving a club
journal. The journal begins with a trip report to the Box Stone Mines,
Wiltshire. The authors advise taking extra lights, a copy of the survey and
notes, and visitors should be prepared to get lost!
A shaft capping project was undertaken at Thorswood Mine, Stanton, Staffs.
This opened the way to facilitate the descent of a 320 ft deep shaft in the
near future.
Exploring the Welsh Slate Labyrinths describes trips to Cwmorthin, Rhosydd,
Wrysgan, Gaewern, and Minllyn Slate Mines in north Wales. Again, the
authors found the problems of route finding to be interesting.
Rhiwbach Slate Quarry appears to quite extensive with rails and a tipper
truck still in place. I am not sure that I would have admitted in writing
to illegal entry.
Cwt-y-Bugail Slate Quarry was explored with some difficulty. This time it
was the fog on the surface which caused problems.
Fish Mine and Dwarf Mine, near Prestatyn, North Wales. The two mines are
connected and a through trip was undertaken. The former has easy walking
sized passages whilst the latter involved some crawling and SRT
Talargoch Mine, Prestatyn. Here it is possible to enter via a lower
entrance and come out at the top of the cliff.
Pandora and New Pandora Mines, Betws-y-Coed. The 10 m pitch was SRTd in
very wet conditions and Goddard’s Lode was reached. A flat out crawl in icy
water led to two pitches, the first being very wet. This led to the 33
fathom level and the lower adit entrance, which luckily was still open.
Bryn-yr-Orsedd Mine, Mold, Clwyd. The Upper Entrance leads to an extensive
series of workings, which eventually return to daylight at the Lower
Entrance.
Penarth Mine and Moel Ferna Slate Mine, Corwen are briefly described.
Exploring Mines in the Derwent South (Matlock) Catchment Area. Bonsall Leys
Level, Slaley Sough and Dunsley Spring Level are described in some detail.
These working are quite extensive.
Godstone Main Series. This was a four hour trip carried out at a
reasonable pace, so the explorers must have covered a few kilometres of
passage.
Croesor-Rhosydd Through Trip. This is claimed to be the hardest mine trip
in the country (unless anyone knows better?). It involves a couple of 80 ft
abseils, a Tyrolean traverse and a flooded stope with a dodgy bridge,
followed by some more Tyroleans over flooded stopes. Next is a boat trip
where you abseil into dinghies and pull them across a lake with a hand line.
After 8 hours the huge Rhosydd No 9 adit can be entered and the return to
daylight completed.
The rest of the journal is taken up with a caving trip to China.
TO
Cheers - Tony Oldham
Duncavin
1 Riverside Mews
CARDIGAN
SA43 1DH
United Kingdom
http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/~arb/speleo/guides.html
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http://www.mike.munro.cwc.net/mining/tony_o/tonyo_hp.htm
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