Circular feature - any suggestions?

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LeeW
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

13 years ago

This stone floored circular feature is just to the east of Smiler Mine and outside of the belland yard. There are also two sleeper capped shafts further east. The feature is on the line of the vein. It's seems very circular for a filled shaft

🔗Smiler-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-68250[linkphoto]Smiler-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-68250[/linkphoto][/link]

Any suggestions welcome

I went in a mine once.... it was dark and scary..... full of weirdos

When do I get my soapbox, I need to rant on about some b***cks

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staffordshirechina
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

It looks a bit like a dew pond that has been partly filled with rough stone?

AR
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

I'd be inclined to say dew pond as well, though of course the miners could have been using the water collected in it! I've seen quite a few dew ponds round here roughly filled in with rocks like that when they were no longer required.

Follow the horses, Johnny my laddie, follow the horses canny lad-oh!

LeeW
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

13 years ago

I'm happy with it being a pond, although a little small.
Also it's not shown as a pond on any of the OS maps (although there is one two fields to the southeast) and no feature is shown there at all.

Could indicate an old dew pond (i.e. pre modern OS maps) farming or mining would match. Or a later attempt at a dew pond

However, seems a strange place to put a dew pond - on the rake/vein which a few metres away has been opencut.

There is a feature on google aerial maps but it's not quite round; and on bing maps the feature looks like an open part of the rake.

I went in a mine once.... it was dark and scary..... full of weirdos

When do I get my soapbox, I need to rant on about some b***cks

royfellows
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

"LeeW" wrote:

However, seems a strange place to put a dew pond - on the rake/vein which a few metres away has been opencut.

This suggests whim circle to me. Look for a foundation for a pedestal bearing in the centre.

My avatar is a poor likeness.

AR
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

13 years ago

If the rake has hit a clay wayboard anywhere then it might not be as daft as it first appears having a dew pond right next to the rake. As dew ponds require clay to line them, if you're finding clay in the mine and you need a source of water for dressing, then you'll make a pond right next to the mine. If the wall post-dates the abandonment of the mine then a farmer may have originally tried to use the pond for stock, but if there's lead waste in it then I can imagine it got filled in after animals started developing lead poisoining....

Roy - I'm as certain as I can be without actually seeing it that it's not a gin circle, you wouldn't get a big sunken depression in the middle like that except on a cog-and-rung gin where the shaft had collapsed, but then the collapse would be off-centre.

Follow the horses, Johnny my laddie, follow the horses canny lad-oh!