I have just joined this group (a few minutes ago) so I haven’t filled in all the profile stuff yet, but will do when I find out how to! I was prompted to join up because of a life-long interest in mines including a few years at the working face of a Bath stone mine and a passion for this particular mine.
I have been going down this hole in the ground for about 48 years. Yes it’s a long time, but much of the workings look the same now as they did in 1968. There have been changes of course. New entrances have appeared and old ones have been blocked. Small rockfalls have occurred and various digs have provided access to long forgotten workings. This mine has been the source of countless hours of enjoyment to those who have entered it. Geologists have observed Middle Jurassic geology from the “inside”. Historians have learned about the working methods and lives of the quarrymen. Others have simply found the mine a great place to walk about. Several contributors on this page however share my concern at the level of vandalism which seems to have become the norm recently in this wonderful place.
The mine is an important hibernation site for greater horseshoe bats, and I work with a team coordinated by Exeter University to study the numbers and migration of these in various mines in the region. We noticed that a large number of passages which previously provided air-flow, (enabling bats to assess temperature changes outside) have been blocked. We noticed throughout the entire workings, that walls have been built, graffiti has been removed (not just modern stuff, but original quarryman’s stuff dating back to Victorian times.
Now lets try and be objective about this. Those who have put effort into removing litter, cleaning out the stone-tank of detritus, removing modern graffiti etc. are to be commended: well done… but the person who is now building walls across passages, blocking passages he doesn’t want to use himself, putting thousands of small rocks all over the floor in the Clapham junction region, blocking the steel-gate entrance with concrete, putting mud all over walls to eradicate modern graffiti (eradicating the old stuff in the process), rearranging backfill covering up original quarryman’s writings, blocking the air vent near the southern entrance, using a lock which only he has a key for at the southern entrance… needs to be stopped.
So, Brian, well done for the cleaning up stuff, but now, will you please recognize that your OCD is now the prime driver of your activities, and see some specialist who can help you. Thinking of this mine as a landscape garden, and building little walls wherever you feel like is slowly destroying this beautiful piece of industrial archaeology. Self-appointing yourself as “caretaker” of the mine and making unilateral decisions to block entrances without consultation with any other parties with interests in the mine is grossly irresponsible.
I was interested to read the comments regarding whether AWT should become more involved with the issues within the mine. While I sympathise with the idea, I feel that there are dangers here. Any party whose assume a high level of responsibility for what is effectively a disused mine, is likely to undertake a safety assessment. While I am personally confident that, provided you don’t tempt providence, the ceilings in this working are unlikely to fall in, I (nor any person qualified to assess mine roofs) cannot say that it will not fall in. We cannot mitigate the hazard, but the obvious way to mitigate the risk would be to prohibit access. This has happened in other places.
This mine has been an important part of my life since I was twelve (out come the calculators) and I would dearly like to think that future generations will be able to enjoy it as much as I have. Let’s all work together before it’s too late, to save this place from being smashed.