Many mine explorers think that there is no new ground to explore in this area but there are several potential digs which should yield.The most obvious being the right hand branch of Rampgill Vein-when you go through the boundary gate. The position of which was directed by Smeaton the builder of the Eddistone lighthouse that lasted!

This vein will become the Barneycraig vein in Northumberland and theoretically should come out in West Allendale. When I was last up there the only work that had been done was in the flats above the horse level (Hardshins), has it changed?

Since I had a lots of responses to my posting, I thought over the snowy period I would have a look myself!
The snow was around 10 cm.deep and the sky looked if it drop some more but we persevered.First the bad news-a large stone block has become detached from the left hand wall going in bye-just beyond the Norpex steelwork some 50m from the entrance. Athough safe enough the wall at this point has developed a bulge-not dissimilar to the one that occurred in Brownley Hill mine
some years ago which after our initial remedial work was much better finished off by CATMHS.
When we arrived at the Hardshins Vein junction, the important feature was the railed sump in the floor.When I has last looked at it all my concentration was on getting across it safely now on closer examination both sides are Ginged and clearly this is a hopper way to a horse level.
Since Barney Craig is 100 ft. Below Rampgill it looks as if this blocked sump may be a way into that mine.The final dig is a collapsed hopper on Barney Craig Vein itself(abandonment plan).
When we returned to the entrance guess what it was a minor blizzard and we glad when the Landy was off the moor!

Hi John
Missed your earlier posting, welcome to aditnow. Your incredible knowledge Nenthead will be greatly appreciated on here.

Scaleburn diggers reunited?
:lol:

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I've got 2 sections of RG Shaft, and the BCHL comes in at 15m below RGHL on both of them, unless of course the BCHL is labeled wrong on the VM abandonment plan.

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Hi Mike my section of the Rampgill Shaft V.M.Z. 11/1908, Jackson plan No.9 does not show the BHL on it. I took the difference from the Datum of their respective entrances .
This sump near Hardshins flat is about 30 ft. Deep so was likely to go down to the BHL.
It is probable that this difference is in fact smaller since LLC drove their Horse Levels at 1 in a 100 and Thomas Dodds redrove the Rampgill HL to give it this fall. You can see this at Whiskey Bottle corner the right hand branch the old entrance being some 4 ft higher.
The Beaumont company as far as I am aware did not redrive the BHL.

Hi Roy
thanks for the welcome I am not sure we will run a Scaleburn united again ,although as you know that project was not completed -the oxygen level was certainly too low to be healthy!

16.9%, thats a good day in an ironstone mine :lol:

Although I imagine its plenty bad enough if you're lying on the floor digging.

When I was last up there the only work that had been done was in the flats above the horse level (Hardshins), has it changed?

Strange that, because the only "work" I could see in that and other areas opened by NORPEX after 16 years of work, was the systematic robbing of minerals for personel gain as is witnessed by entering Rampgill mineral, in the search engine Google :curse:

Exploration or explotation ?

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16 years of work by Norpex behind locked doors..... Hardly 'opened' Redwinch. Our model of opening Scaleburn Mine on the other hand was free to access for all.

There have been instances of artifacts taken from mines appearing on eBay, in Browns Folly (Wilts) there was a fountain in the shape of a fishes head, this was mindlessly destroyed some years ago. There are those who just take from the mines, and those who give something back.

So who do we thank for the horse gin?

Its a good idea before one discharges ones weapon to ensure that its pointing at the right target

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Handbags at dawn ladies, er I mean gents, top tip, put a few cans of beans in (or would that be minerals / steel work) for extra clout.

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Quite right Roy!!! This is after all a forum entitled 'Mine exploration at Nenthead', NOT 'Mine exploration at Nenthead and a chance at Mineral Collector Bashing by the wide eyed zealots'!!!':) Lot's can be achieved, just a question of sticking to the topic in hand........

[tweak]Indeedy, mineral collector bashing is not the subject of this thread and it would be preferable if it didn't become so...[/tweak]

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Well before my time but Rampgill is still fairly well supplied with aritfacts (or at least aritfacts that won't fit through the first door anyway!).
Is that likely to have been the case had there been unfettered access throughout the period in question?

Well before my time but Rampgill is still fairly well supplied with aritfacts (or at least aritfacts that won't fit through the first door anyway!).
Is that likely to have been the case had there been unfettered access throughout the period in question?

A good point and something for the person who cut the door off to ponder.
I can remember spending about an hour putting a newspaper page together from the bits, "Burtons, another link in the chain"

3 weeks later it had gone.

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Well before my time but Rampgill is still fairly well supplied with aritfacts (or at least aritfacts that won't fit through the first door anyway!).
Is that likely to have been the case had there been unfettered access throughout the period in question?

A good point and something for the person who cut the door off to ponder.

Presumably if the frame is there, then it would prevent the removal of anything large...

There's always a balance to be struck between access and the risk that artefacts go wandering. It's very difficult to get it right, sadly.

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Presumably if the frame is there, then it would prevent the removal of anything large...

The frame for the small first door is still there and somewhat worryingly every time I go it seems increasingly likely to prevent the entry of me nevermind the removal of anything!

Where was the vanished sign? Rampgill Shaft?
I thought Helen had a picture of it on here but I can't find it now.

This one I guess
[photo]Rampgill-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-025[/photo]

Never got to see it.
Presumably stuffed in someones shed somewhere only to go into a skip when they snuff it.

Wow, never saw that notice before.... Fantastic! Where was it in relation to Rampgill Shaft????

Ha, I never got to see it either.
Maybe there is some bizarre conspiracy between artifact thieves to keep peoples attention focused on those who collect and deal in minerals, in the hope that their activities become unoticed.
:lol:

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