I read "Mines of Alston Moor" on holiday a few weeks back. Quite a piece of work, incredibly detailed.

The grid reference given suggests the portal is almost in the middle of Alston.

Is it still open?

Also the stone described indicates 4 1/2 miles length. Was this the final length as the text goes on to say it was later extended to the Brewery Shaft and then to the engine shaft on the Rampgill vein.

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Its not open as a whole but you can certainly access it from Brewery Shaft and Wellgill Shaft. No idea whether any of the downstream shafts are accessible but some were in the 80s.

I read Mines of Alson Moor on holiday a few weeks back. Quite a piece of work, incredibly detailed.

The grid reference given suggests the portal is almost in the middle of Alston.

Is it still open?

Also the stone described indicates 4 1/2 miles length. Was this the final length as the text goes on to say it was later extended to the Brewery Shaft and then to the engine shaft on the Rampgill vein.

You want Peter Wilkinsons excellent book, they may have stock in the Rampgill Centre or try Mike Moore. This book is a must have.

Actually, its 4.94 miles I believe, and many of the shafts currently accessible. Brewery, Wellgill, Nentsberry Haggs and Lovelady Shield.
There is no casual SRT though at Brewery, you have to await on of the many organised winch trips.

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Thanks for the info chaps. Is the Alston end still open / visible? Presumably a lot of water still comes from it so it must be?

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I seem to recall (without reading Wilkinsons book which is in my library*) that the Alston end is used as a water source, and as such is inaccessible, but viewable (the plaque is there).
Boat trips were run once upon a time.

Chris.

* - in joke.

My winch was used in the early 80's to explore many of the shafts on Alston moor, the NFL ones were, Blagill, Foreshield, Lovelady shield, Haggs and Brewery, Wellgill was explored using SRT as the shaft cap precludes use of a winch. Other shafts included Bogg and further unamed ones on the moor top above Rampgill vein. Much of Wilkinsons information came from these explorations. The NFL entrance was buried under tons of debris, however the level was still accessable then by using a side entrance, it was explored some distance upstream, there were still wooden pegs in the walls at regular intervals, which may have been used to haul ? a boat. The romance of "Jennys dancing loft" was never discovered despite numerous explorations, I also proved that the change in level was at Haggs shaft, not at Lovelady shield as was previously thought, happy days !!

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The outflow side entrance was physically accessible last year, but it is on private land and permission was obtained to view it. The stone is now on display in Alston Town Hall.

Have look at the photo posted under 'Nent Force Level' (do an exact word search), that's how things are at present.

🔗Nentforce-Level-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-30036[linkphoto]Nentforce-Level-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-30036[/linkphoto][/link]

Thanks Maxman. I guess I should have checked in the photo database first 😞

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Dropped Haggs Shaft in the 80's by SRT. In those days there was a building over the shaft so we belayed off the rafters.

Got to the bottom but there was a lot of water funnelling off down the level so we didn't get off the rope. Too scared as we were standing in the waterfall coming out of the level further up (it's where the step is).

We did go a short way back up the level towards Wellgill and although it was open, the flow was strong and we were worried about being swept back towards the shaft having disturbed a few mud dams.

After more than 35 years this may have changed of course.

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I was up to the outflow the other day - about half choked at the moment so no danger of opening the gate quickly!
There are some new concrete steps down to it, not quite sure why...

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At the bottom of the steps is a water level recorder in the Nentforce outflow, I suspect the Environment Agency are monitoring water levels, this would tie up with the other Recorders at the entrances to Caplecleugh, Rampgill and Haggs.

EA continue to be interested in the possibility of clearing out the whole level - purely a hypothetical idea at present. £££££
The entrance was badly damaged by quarrying and this has affected the stability of the first 200 metres or so of the level.

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We cleared the bottom of Wellgill Shaft with a view to exposing the down stream continuation, dreaming of it being open... silted badly up with only a small crawl space.

🔗56028[linkphoto]56028[/linkphoto][/link]

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I read Mines of Alson Moor on holiday a few weeks back. Quite a piece of work, incredibly detailed.

The grid reference given suggests the portal is almost in the middle of Alston.

Is it still open?

Also the stone described indicates 4 1/2 miles length. Was this the final length as the text goes on to say it was later extended to the Brewery Shaft and then to the engine shaft on the Rampgill vein.

You want Peter Wilkinsons excellent book, they may have stock in the Rampgill Centre or try Mike Moore. This book is a must have.

Actually, its 4.94 miles I believe, and many of the shafts currently accessible. Brewery, Wellgill, Nentsberry Haggs and Lovelady Shield.
There is no casual SRT though at Brewery, you have to await on of the many organised winch trips.

Book is out of print and out of stock at Nenthead Mines.

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I sent a video camera down Nentsbury Haggs shaft a few years back, that's open all the way to the bottom but it is sealed by a locked gate and is on private land.

It is extremely wet even in dry weather as it takes drainage from Haggs Mine, and also meets the canal level further down which takes water from the Brewery shaft end of the Nentforce level. Once passed this point the descent would be almost impossible without breathing apparatus, and the water hitting you would be very painful.

I only know one person who as been down and that was the owner of the land Steve, he went down in the drought of 1976, he said he as not let anyone else go down since.

Once at the bottom the canal goes off towards Alston but is impassible, surprisingly the water in the bottom of the shaft is only about a foot deep.

Link to the album and videos here, videos might not be available straight away, Flickr is still processing the. Photographs and videos were taken with the permission of the Land Owner who is a good friend. Do not attempt to explore this shaft without his permission.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/steven-dalgliesh-photography/albums/72157693558396015 

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It would be interesting to repeat the video descent once the EA have intercepted the water from Haggs and sent it elsewhere to extract the Zinc.
As I understand it, they are supposed to return it to the point at which it was extracted, though I have heard that they can write their own derogation to the regulations to discharge it elsewhere. Whilst this would save them quite a lot of money, it would also make the shaft somewhat drier.

It would be interesting to repeat the video descent once the EA have intercepted the water from Haggs and sent it elsewhere to extract the Zinc.
As I understand it, they are supposed to return it to the point at which it was extracted, though I have heard that they can write their own derogation to the regulations to discharge it elsewhere. Whilst this would save them quite a lot of money, it would also make the shaft somewhat drier.

The water you see coming from the entrance at Haggs Level next to the Bunkhouse will be captured by the EA/Coal Board scheme, but the water entering the shaft is coming from a very old drainage level inside the mine and will not be captured by the EA's efforts, on top of that the second ingress of water lower down is from the Nentforce Level canal which is around 160 feet from surface, doubt very much the EA is capturing this even at source at Rampgill/Brewery

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Well now you can add some more people who have been down it. As I said above, a group of us descended it in the 80's using the building which was on the top then as a belay (from the rafters). The description is correct except that (from memory) about 80 feet from the bottom there is a short level/platform/indentation in the shaft which one of our number made the mistake of getting off on. When he tried to get going again the stretch in the rope caused him to plummet.
At the bottom there was water and the level could be seen, but partly due to all the water falling from above and partly due to the anxiety of getting out again, it was never pushed.

The first man down had a GPO telephone operators headset on and trailed the wire behind him. This worked well until he hit the 'step' and the drainage from the Nentforce Level emptied on his head.
It was possible to progress (then) a little way into the Nentforce Level at the top but way too dangerous as the water was running fast and quite deep. To be safe you would need to belay yourself along it.
In any case enthusiasm had waned by then.
I do, somewhere, have a photo of the expedition at the top.

... just found it. It's dated 12/82. So I guess we descended it earlier that winter.

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[photo]121857[/photo]

There we are - December 1982.

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