 |
 |
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