A long-shot perhaps but has anyone been in this sough in the Alport Mining Field?

Hi was in there over 40 years ago,
As I remember it entrance was adjacent to the river not far from a large shaft.
It was a coffin level which ended in a blockage -loose rocks I recall,why we did not try to dig them out I do not know but at that time there was so much to explore elsewhere.
Hope this helps

I have a very small photograph, by A. E. Marsh in a book called Lead Mining in the Peak District and it shows it is a coffin level. The shaft is often full of water after rain and the I expect the sough to be full now too.

on the subject of shining the shaft is wheels rake the sough
collapsed years ago many thanks john kyle

I am surprised what streth has told us about the sough collapsing many years ago. The entrance was very low down and you had to wriggle through fallen blocks which all looked natural. Once through this you were in solid limestone and the hand picked coffin level.
Tony Marsh had a passion for exploration of the Alport Mining field and he accompanied us in our explorations in the area and when the book was published it was natural that he should be given the task of writing an account of this mining field.

About 1972 time, Andy Hayes and myself surveyed Shining Sough so far as the collapse after the coffin level but we did not get down any of the floor shafts. We never published the survey because it was not really our area but my sister had a cottage in Youlgreave and we often stayed there and pottered round the local mines.

I've had sight of a survey which I seem to remember was done by the Eccles Caving Club, I don't think it's every been published though.

---

Steve Thompson played about there briefly around 1972 time.
I recall the gamekeeper was not very helpful for many years during the 70's.

I noticed in 1970 when we did our survey that just inside the entrance to Shining Sough, "Eccles Caving Club Dig" was written on the wall, . I wondered if they had tried digging the final collapse as that looked a very interesting area or whether they only dug out the entrance level.

When about 200 feet in from the entrance, a cross passage is cut on what appeared to be Old Cross Vein, there poorly mineralized. An intermittent coffin level heads SW rather bendy for about 900 feet at which point ore bearing ground is intersected. A stope off to the S there had a floor shaft about 30 feet deep or more. That vein was about 3 inches baryte with a good rib of galena.

Continuing SW is a 5ft high passage on a 2 ft wide vein of calcite and red earth. Its roof was of gritstone slabs, laid sloping (left side lowest) with about 8 feet of deads stacked on top. Initially, this passage had been backfilled to only 2 feet high, then it was open for a short way, then backfilled to only about 15 inches high for 30 feet to a collapse of loose boulders through which there was a decent draught. The lack of space meant that a dig would have been very hard work so we left it (there was only me and Andy Hayes). I don't know whether anyone ever did tackle it. Gritstone slabbing deep underground indicates an important working.

Two roof shafts in the early part of the coffin gate had draughts down. It was an interesting level but we never returned to it.

I have to use the local library for internet access so will be off line over the weekend.

Whats the current access situation?

what historytrog has written would confirm to me that Eccles Caving Club had removed the blocks and debris in the floor reffered to in a previous posting, since no workings were seen when we first entered the sough around 1966.
This then would be their dig and I guess they carried it out in the late 60's.

Whats the current access situation?

Pretty academic, since I understand it's been flooded since the big run-in on Hillcarr.....

---

It's a shallow sough and the water table is well down, just look at the lakes in Shining Bank Quarry.

I know the 'gamekeeper' of the seventies. He was a bit like that. Got alot of poaching in those days and you trusted no one. :offtopic:

Again I would be surprised if the sough was flooded because the entrance was above river level even in Winter, and assuming the usual rise level in drainage levels i.e.1ft in a 100ft then even after a modest distance you should be well above the river.
Hillcar sough was blocked even in the 1960's so I cannot see
that changing things.

In the winter the Wheel Rake Shaft overtops and runs into the river. The Shinning Sough would be underwater at this point too. The river is sealed and is disconnected from the local water table.

http://www.mine-explorer.co.uk/mines/Blyth_2300/Blyth_15177.pdf 
This marks the rough course of the sough in pencil.
We had not got a detailed map of the area then. Anyway, it seems to have been approaching the shaft in Field 106 still some 700 feet short of the important Broadmeadow Shaft.
The side passage southwards about 40 yards before the final collapse had a roof shaft with a good draught down it so that could link with the shaft marked in Field 106.
The earlier part of the coffin gate passed under two roof shafts with draughts down as well.
If one was desperate to regain access to Shining Sough, one could always try the shafts.