http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-10944532 

Anyone familar with this adit / shaft?

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Unfortunate.

It’s a funny kind of working like a slash in the cliff. There is a flat grassy area where people sometimes camp. There is a shaft in this area covered by a steel mesh beehive. You climb down a path to get to it, these cliff paths can be a bit treacherous.
I assume she slipped on the path or went too close to the edge.

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Fairly sure it's the one just to the left of the main beach, about ten foot up the cliff. You climb up to it, walk in and woop, there is a big hole in front of you. Impossible to spot without a torch. My brother almost tumbled down it when he came to see me last, you just don't expect a big hole inside a tunnel (unless you do exploration regularly). Hate to say it, but there are a few tunnels along that beach that should be grated (and at least one of them already is).

Nasty.

I think the biggest threat in the area is that rock with a hole down the middle that you get to by the most frightening of earth bridges about 30ft up.

All which is required is a sign which says "Mine Workings -Do Not Enter with a picture of someone falling down a hole" rather than a typical knee jerk of "WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN" before getting CC to embark on even more debt by grilling everything.....

As an anecdote, I was checking the surf at Bedruthan Steps the other day and there was a massive cliff slip with a load of people below. We're talking about a lorry sized load of slate.

Consider cliff slips, dodgy cliff paths, nasty mine workings, dangerous currents and the area is pretty dangerous. The key snag being that people expect it not to be. This is the failing of the council and H&S to remove every hazard.

I can almost hear the hand wringing at county hall over this.

You climb up to it, walk in and woop, there is a big hole in front of you. Impossible to spot without a torch. My brother almost tumbled down it when he came to see me last, you just don't expect a big hole inside a tunnel (unless you do exploration regularly).

Not relevant to this thread, but that's similar to Moelwyn slate mine, there's a level (now gated) that ended in a big drop that has killed at least one walker over the years - wandering in without a torch and not expecting to find a hole in the floor of a tunnel (or in this case a tunnel that ends in a chamber).

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Many years ago (1970s) there used to be tacky adverts about safety at the beach / cliff as well as old Quarries / old mines / the sea / canals /railways etc. Don't see them so much now.

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I wonder how the authorities (who like to be seen to act) react in a rational manner about this.

There are lots of open adits and most of them are pretty safe really.

When I was about 13, I was with the folks, poking around on Cape Cornwall beach, I walked into East St Just adit and all of a sudden it got "echoey". I was stood on the edge of the flooded 15ft down shaft. Very very nasty mantrap. This has now been very well fenced off. I did note (all those years ago) a level the far side of the shaft. It would have been possible to hang a rope down the shaft from the grille and cross it. I'd love to know what was in there.

Roy, the workings you talk about (I forget their name now) have the almightiest of caves below. There is an adit/s there somewhere.

Yeah, that sea cave is impressive. Never found a path down to it though. It can't be too far away from Perran St George (which I've never been to).

Got to wonder how the authorities will respond. In balance I would be very surprised if there isn't an effort to do some grating in the locality, Perranporth being a very popular beach with lots of young 'uns around. This is one of those few occasions where a potential health and safety issue has proven to be fatal, and I think grating is actually proportional to the hazard. Parents have a reasonable right to expect a popular tourist beach to be nominally safe, at least from obvious man-made hazards. Coming from near Andover myself, I probably wouldn't have expected kids to accidently climb/fall into mine workings; the most we have back home are a few chalk pits.

Adits like this on beaches are a huge hazard, kids don't see them as mine workings they believe them to be caves, and lets face it we all loved going into caves as kids,. As such they don't expect to find a shaft in them, and as much as I hate to say it for selfish reasons there is a very strong argument for gating such adits off. Carbis Bay beach is another such issue.

The next issue is ownership, does that section of the beach belong to the MOD, Cornwall Council, Haven Holidays, Perranzabuloe council or AN Other.

Adits like this on beaches are a huge hazard, kids don't see them as mine workings they believe them to be caves, and lets face it we all loved going into caves as kids,. As such they don't expect to find a shaft in them, and as much as I hate to say it for selfish reasons there is a very strong argument for gating such adits off. Carbis Bay beach is another such issue.

The next issue is ownership, does that section of the beach belong to the MOD, Cornwall Council, Haven Holidays, Perranzabuloe council or AN Other.

I hope they don't plug the top "1/2 tunnel" as I haven't had a look in there yet. It's a rope over the edge job.

When I heard about someone falling down a shaft at Perranporth, my initial thought was the Wheal Golden one at Penhale point.

From what I've heard the father actually lifted the daughter up to the "cave" and told her to wait while he climbed up. That is a horrific position to have found yourself in and I think that's the biggest issue. Nobody thinks twice about exploring a sea cave with there kids, nobody in their right mind would knowingly put their child into an abandoned mine.

Yes we may look at it and say its obviously man made, I'm not sure anyone unfamiliar with either the coast or the areas mining history would reach the same conclusion.

Another issue about this same adit is exactly the same thing happened 10 years ago, with an older woman (In her 50's) fortunately she survived.

Nobody thinks twice about exploring a sea cave with there kids, nobody in their right mind would knowingly put their child into an abandoned mine.

Quoted for truth. The reason these adits are dangerous is that there is nothing to indicate that they are mine workings to the uninitiated/general public.

This really is a tragedy & I really sympathise with the family.

It is strange the council have put loads of Dog Ban signs around many beaches, yet very few warnings (if any at all) of old mine workings actually on beaches or at the Beach entrances. I am sure that is set to change now.

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Has anyone been in these workings and if so, if they grille them massively, are we losing much?

I'm about on the weekend if anyone wants to inspect/record them.

I've seen photos from Sharron Schwartz and some of her gang in there, looks quite interesting actually.

It would be a shame to have the access blocked off, a gate would be better. hey gated Gravel Hill but I think that is on the MOD end of the beach.

Perranporth beach is actually quite full of little traps like this though.

It seems that tourists treat the place like a big swimming pool rather than the dangerous place it really is. Whenever I'm down there I usually park up in the Droskyn car park and overlook the beach, when I'm sat there looking over it I am seeing people being dragged out left right and centre by the lifeguards, some people just don't treat the sea with the respect and caution that it deserves.

Parents need to keep an eye on their kids to a certain extent but the dangers of mine adits are very un-publicised on Cornish beaches, as a kid I had no idea what they were, they just looked like caves and the same could have happened to any child, they need to at least put up a warning plaque on the cliff next to the portals. But the again... that might encourage the more adventurous people to go in...

That shaft on Droskyn head is an accident waiting to happen though, there is no fence around it and a nasty little earth bridge going accross to it. You can look up into that shaft from below on the beach, so I wouldn't really care if the council were to just get rid of that earth bridge leading to it and stop people from risking looking at it.

I've been surfing for years and am pretty "hard core" and I've noted the lack of red flags these days. The other day I was out at Perran and it was pretty full on. There was a lot of water moving around and I was the only one out.... However, on the inside the red/yellow flags were up and the water was full of emmets. There is a big rip which goes around Droskyn Point and there was no way that lot were getting their rubber dinghy out in that surf....

Reason for more rescues.... Slacker policy in the water.

Mawgan Porth and Trebarwith Strand as well as Constantine are VERY dangerous beaches (Dad used to be a cop in St Columb and had to do the "your family are all dead and the your husband is dead" speeches to remainders at Mawgan Porth. Again, I've been out when it's been scarily big and the swimmers are still in the water.

I very much question their ability to judge conditions. Not rescue, but actually judge conditions. I think they are incompetent in a lot of cases, but they look important, so everyone feels safe.....

Also, were the SS pictures of Wheal Sterran, which is below Porthtowan?

Also, were the SS pictures of Wheal Sterran, which is below Porthtowan?

I got mixed up, it was another user called Pat who's photos I was thinking of:

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/album/DROSKYN-Mine-User-Album/ 

The Daily Mail web site article on this includes some photos.

It's been mentioned in this thread that we'd recognise this entrance as man made, but not everybody would. And there appears to be nothing to indicate it is. It'd just be a sea cave to most and as somebody said, we all explored those as kids, didn't think twice about it.

A horrible and tragic accident and I can't express enough sympathy for this family.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1302388/Holiday-girl-11-dies-falling-Cornwall-mineshaft-rock-pooling-family.html 

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