1779 Chamber (photo)· Page 2 · AditNow Community

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Thrutch
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8 years ago

#21

Are we looking at what is effectively a flooded, rumble filled passage - a sort of submerged U bend - with a passage bypassing it? As I recall, the bed of the "lake" is covered with loose rocks, as is the final part of the exit on the other side. Is the boundary marked on the survey significant in respect of what could be filled in workings?

The water is deep - I was told "around knee deep" - "well, around thigh deep" --- when I was invited on a trip to explore the connection. It is definitely a lot deeper than that!

ttxela
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8 years ago

#22

The bit I could see was not so much a U bend, more like just a small flooded stope.

Red line sort of indicates where it was;

🔗109159[linkphoto]109159[/linkphoto][/link]

staffordshirechina
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8 years ago

#23

That's the passage that I saw yesterday. Being as we were all bone dry, nobody wanted to actually explore it......

historytrog
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8 years ago

#24

It's a manky copy of our survey that you are using. I will have to amend the course of the connecting passage. Unfortunately, many things are wrong with that plan. The 1779 chamber was discovered in c.1710. The boundary line between the titles is a long way out. There is an area of unexplored workings off to the east, particularly east of the Great Open in Masson, etc.

ttxela
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8 years ago

#25

er, yes. It had already been on a couple of trips before I thought to scan it.

Adds a bit of character perhaps?

derrick man
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8 years ago

#26

"ttxela" wrote:
That all makes sense.

I think the grille on the connection is clearly visible from the showcave if I remember correctly.

The gate is mostly hidden from showcave visitors although you can spot it if you are tall and know its there I think. I've been through it a couple of times when trips have been organised through the showcave access by PDMHS.

Didn't we go in that way, up to the grille, four or five years ago? The same trip that we went into that foul entrance with all the mossies?

ttxela
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8 years ago

#27

"derrick man" wrote:

Didn't we go in that way, up to the grille, four or five years ago? The same trip that we went into that foul entrance with all the mossies?

I think the entrance you remember so fondly was the entrance to Spinney Level that we visited on the same day as Masson.

The gate we saw on that occasion is marked in pencil near the bottom left corner of the survey extract above. 🙂

AR
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Newbie

8 years ago

#28

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/documents/great-masson-Lead-Mine/Masson-main.pdf

A question for the mods - we currently have two database entries, one as a mixed quarry and one as an underground lead mine. The above-ground workings were just for fluorspar as far as I'm aware, and I wonder whether we should merge the two under a single Masson entry, possibly with separate albums for the above and below ground photos?

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

Thrutch
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8 years ago

#29

A thought keeps running around my head that this is not unlike several other locations in the Matlock area, where workings have been backfilled and/or had walls of deads built across them but when you search you find a way past, left for future access, ventilation or what? If the end of the show cave and the "1779" chamber were once part of a continuous working, now filled with rubble and water then this sort of fits, even if the passage is not often accessible now.

ttxela
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8 years ago

#30

"Thrutch" wrote:
A thought keeps running around my head that this is not unlike several other locations in the Matlock area, where workings have been backfilled and/or had walls of deads built across them but when you search you find a way past, left for future access, ventilation or what? If the end of the show cave and the "1779" chamber were once part of a continuous working, now filled with rubble and water then this sort of fits, even if the passage is not often accessible now.

I didn't have long to examine the connection, I guess it is mined rather than natural? It looked to be so to me but perhaps it could just be enlarged natural passage off the 1779 chamber?

ttxela
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8 years ago

#31

🔗109182[linkphoto]109182[/linkphoto][/link]

Thanks Staffordshirechina for posting these old pictures, fascinating to see sections now lost to quarrying.

This is marked as Dale Shaft on my copy of Roger's survey and I recognised it straight away from the compressed air pipe.

staffordshirechina
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8 years ago

#32

But note that the nice barrel shaped kibble has long since disappeared!

historytrog
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8 years ago

#33

"Roger's survey" was wrong (as usual) in marking it as Dale Shaft. It was only last year that I managed to straighten out the history of this area.

Speaking of blocked passages, there is a whole unexplored mine system just off to the east of the Great Cavern in Masson Cavern. I did not know about this when we did the survey altho' I did wonder about that low water-filled crawl that heads off parallel with and on the east side of the Great Cavern. There are 2 or 3 runs of pipe veins over to the east. They may have been entered briefly in the 1920s via roof passages at the base of the steps up to Masson Cavern rear entrance. The shafts into them are blocked tho' still visible. Of course, any exploration there requires the advance permission of the owners of the Heights of Abraham.

ttxela
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8 years ago

#34

From memory of doing the showcave tour some years ago there looked to be no shortage of enticing corners!