Bodmin / Wheal Jenkin - Bellinghams Shaft opens up

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Scoggan
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

14 years ago

Bellinghams Shaft has opened up fortunetley during the night Wheal Jenkin is a very popular spot lots of walkers and ramblers visit the Mine.

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stuey
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

I've had a go at getting up the adit and there isn't anything interesting up it apart from lots of cold water and a nasty cold crawl.

There is another big shaft open (Pink Shaft? ) but it's flooded at a shallowish depth. I gather Bellingham's Chimney disappeared into workings.... old shaft perhaps?

I imagine the cap job was classic sollar and fill and I imagine it will open up fully in due course, like the one at Salisbury Shaft.

I'll still drop the shaft if it opens up fully though. It might go into something.

NewStuff
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

"stuey" wrote:
I'll still drop the shaft if it opens up fully though. It might go into something.

Looks fairly open from this perspective...

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/photo/JENKIN-Mine-User-Album-Image-66441/

Searching for the ever elusive Underground Titty Bar.

DDDWH CC

stuey
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

Interesting rubbish in the fill.

I'm up this end so I'll pop by tomorrow and have a peer.

royfellows
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

I have just uploaded a photo taken in the adit in the 1990s. This is at the point where the adit increases in size and there is a bit of timber. Nothing else in there to see but the pic may answer the question of "What is it like in there"

🔗JENKIN-Mine-User-Album-Image-66447[linkphoto]JENKIN-Mine-User-Album-Image-66447[/linkphoto][/link]

My avatar is a poor likeness.

kroca
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

stuey how deep is that shaft.is it full of water up to adit . 😮

stuey
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

Looks about 20ft at the moment, it's well into rock. I suspect there were sollars and a bit of cover, then a load of rubbish, then earth was chucked into the dip, this is clearly visible in the remaining stuff hanging up. It is dangerous to approach the edge of the shaft from all angles apart from the downhill side, which looks the most stable. Opposite this, there is what looks like the top of a level/removed rock. Clearly, people are going to get excited about this and I imagine it will get a concrete plug in due course, but it will need some proper work first.

Hopefully, they let it finish dropping first.

Alec
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

According to my copy of Dines, the shaft in question is 100 fathoms deep, and vertical.

Regards, Alec

kroca
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

thanks stuey and alec for that.

NewStuff
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#10

"Alec" wrote:
According to my copy of Dines, the shaft in question is 100 fathoms deep, and vertical.

Assuming I'm not going mad, that's 600ft :blink: . Not so much a body at the bottom if someone went arse over tit into that, more of a red redecoration at the bottom.

Searching for the ever elusive Underground Titty Bar.

DDDWH CC

kroca
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#11

omg i dont think ive got that mutch ladder in the old shed. :lol:

AR
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#12

More likely between 200 and 250 to water, then a long dive through all manner of old rubbish to the bottom....

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

Alec
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#13

With the cessation of pumping at the very adjacent Phoenix United on or very shortly after 7 September 1914, I agree that Wheal Jenkin is likely to be a very wet place indeed - it certainly will have been for the last 96 years! Ambitious plans in 1922 to reopen all these adjoining setts (based on a 1913 Duchy-funded assessment and a May 1914 report by Thomas and McClaren) included an extensive deep drainage scheme that would also have unwatered Wheal Jenkin.

Funding was sought under a Government unemployment/industrial development scheme but the application was unsuccessful. There had been too many, too optimistic reports on the potential of the orefield here.

Regards, Alec

stuey
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#14

From what I can remember, the adit isn't actually that deep.

I suspect in the order of 90ft odd from surface.

There are shallow workings but it's probably not mega extensive with wagons on rails, etc.

royfellows
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#15

I would check out the adit again, I am wondering if the blockage was at that shaft and maybe cleared.
I am not familiar the plans etc and may be talking rubbish.

Just a thought.

My avatar is a poor likeness.

Alec
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#16

According to Dines:

Adit driven 150 fathoms SW to Bellingham's Shaft, which is vertical to the 100-Fathom Level below adit (17 fathoms). Adit, 15-Fathom, and 25-Fathom Levels block out the southern lode for 40 fathoms W and 35 fathoms E of the shaft but all other levels are short.

The northern lode has been developed for 30 fathoms W and 10 fathoms E of the shaft at Adit and the 15-Fathom Levels but it is not known to have been productive.

Much of the work and stoping above the 25-Fathom Level was done prior to 1881 when the mine was re-opened and the shaft deepened to the 100-Fathom. The southern lode in depth was found to be poor, disordered to the east and split to the west. Between 1881 and 1890, the production was 292 tons of black tin.

There are distinct similarities here to the development story of Phoenix United. A search of the Lyde Caunter Collection at CRO may be of benefit to those wishing to have greater detail.

Regards, Alec

Alasdair Neill
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#17

The blockage in the adit was well before the shaft, & it seems likely (we need to do a proper survey to confirm this) that the water level beyond is backed up considerably.
However is spite of this there are people around who have seemed determined to dig this blockage - potentially very messy.
A few months ago traced the MRO plans, but havn't yet had time to redraw them.
For further details see account in old PCG Journal.

stuey
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#18

I'm sure I read somewhere that the water level in the big coned open shaft was just below the base of the cone, which had to be in the order of 60ft. I couldn't get a good "noise" from slinging rocks in.

royfellows
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#19

"stuey" wrote:
I'm sure I read somewhere that the water level in the big coned open shaft was just below the base of the cone, which had to be in the order of 60ft. I couldn't get a good "noise" from slinging rocks in.

I can remember when I first visited the site and this had non of the vegetation in there that we see today. I was easily able to climb down to the water level, rather hoping for a way on into a level, but no chance.
After exploring the adit I too came to the conclusion that water was backed up behind the fall.

My avatar is a poor likeness.

Vanoord
54.4% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

#20

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-15024570

Quote:

Part of a copper mine on Cornwall's Bodmin Moor has collapsed, leaving a 700ft deep mine shaft.

Bellingham shaft at Caradon Hill, which is part of Wheal Jenkin mine which closed in 1892, has been temporarily fenced off.

The shaft opened at the surface after heavy rain and is more 20ft wide.

Julie Dowton, from the St Cleer and District Commoners' Association, said it could cost "several thousand pounds" to cap the hole.

Ms Dowton said: "The hole has actually got a little bit bigger than it was a couple of weeks ago.

"We are working with the landowner and the Commoners' Association and looking at the options available."

She added: "It is a difficult situation but we will do whatever we can to make it safe.

"We are going to need expert advice from mining engineers on how we move forward."

I'm a little curious about the comment - 'The hole has actually got a little bit bigger than it was a couple of weeks ago' - was she expecting it to close up all of its own accord?! :lol:

Hello again darkness, my old friend...