Greenside and Kit Hill Explosions

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patch
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Newbie Topic Starter

15 years ago

Does anyone know if there is a definitive account of the explosions by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority at Greenside Lead Mines, Cumbria and Kit Hill, Cornwall. There are cursory mentions on Wkikpedia and other sites but there is very little linking the two, which, I believe, were part of the same project.

Don't wait for a light to appear at the end of the tunnel, stride down there and light the damn thing yourself

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jagman
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15 years ago

Sub-Brit have a good write up under the title Operation Orpheus

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/features/operation_orpheus/index.html

Mr Mike
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Newbie

15 years ago

Ian Tylers book, 'Greenside, A Tale of Lakeland Miners' has info on it, 5 pages, it was called Operation Orpheus.

Mr Mike www.mineexplorer.org.uk

Jimbo
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Newbie

15 years ago

"jagman" wrote:
Sub-Brit have a good write up under the title Operation Orpheus

Clicky link http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/features/operation_orpheus/index.html

and also a link to the Sub-Brit Excelsior Tunnel (Kit Hill) page http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/e/excelsior_tunnel_operation_orpheus/ 🙂

"PDHMS, WMRG, DCC, Welsh Mines Society, Northern Mines Research Group, Nenthead Mines Society and General Forum Gobshite!"

Mr Mike
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Newbie

15 years ago

SB's is much more comprehensive.

Mr Mike www.mineexplorer.org.uk

ttxela
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Newbie

15 years ago

How were those perfectly spherical chambers in Excelsior set-out & dug, must have been a very skilled operation!

I recall that a good burp inside one of the chambers produced a most impressive amplified echo :thumbup:

Vanoord
54.4% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

"Jimbo" wrote:

"jagman" wrote:
Sub-Brit have a good write up under the title Operation Orpheus

Clicky link http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/features/operation_orpheus/index.html

and also a link to the Sub-Brit Excelsior Tunnel (Kit Hill) page http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/e/excelsior_tunnel_operation_orpheus/ 🙂

Slightly off-topic plug, but just to mention that Excelsior Tunnel will be featuring in the 2010 calendar! :thumbup:

Hello again darkness, my old friend...

Tamarmole
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Newbie

15 years ago

"ttxela" wrote:
How were those perfectly spherical chambers in Excelsior set-out & dug, must have been a very skilled operation!

One of the chaps who did was involved with blasting the spheres was "Pop" Courtis. "Pop" got his nickname whilst working at New Consols in the late 1940s, his party piece was sorting out hung up ore chutes. Pop later worked at Prince of Wales in the early 1970s and was also a key figue in the reopening of the George & Charlotte. In addition to mining pop was also a small holder and Salmon fisherman. The work he did in Excelsior was his prodest acheivement. Aparently the drilling was done using a "bar and arm" drifter set to carefully calculated angles.

derrickman
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Newbie

15 years ago

that sounds about right.

I set out the bolting fans at Robertsbridge incline ( British Gypsum ) in the 1980s in the same way, the vertical post was positioned accurately and then there was a schedule of holes by length and angle. The angle was set using a clinometer

the most time-consuming setting-out I've ever done would be either step-plates for running tunnel junctions at Angel Station and London Bridge ( a series of cotangent circles of converging diameters ) , or building rings for escalator shafts ( 7.5m dia cast iron segmental rings which have to be within 5mm all round or you can't finish the build! )

the most technically difficult would be either the piston relief ducts ( again, cast iron rings in a tapered shape forming a sort of down-and-round shape to line up with pre-surveyed joints in the existing tunnel ) or a cable tunnel which zig-zagged around the West End, following the street plan from Leicester Square to Grosvenor Square and culminating in a shield-to-shield junction under Saville Row.

''the stopes soared beyond the range of our caplamps' - David Bick...... How times change .... oh, I don't know, I've still got a lamp like that.

DougCornwall
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Newbie

15 years ago

#10

Wow that all sounds seriously tricky and impressive bit of tunneling not that I understood half of it.
It must be really frustrating to spend a chunk of life's time doing something so special, something that you are really proud of and yet be unable to sit back and show the grandkids saying 'I did that'. 'Did what grandad?'
I guess thats where lives spent mining and tunneling compared to those constructing and building are the opposed ends of life's thread. Without one there would not be the other.
Sorry to ramble off thread.

[/center][/i]Always have a backup plan.[i][center]

derrickman
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Newbie

15 years ago

#11

well, to a fair extent that is true.. but I did do the survey control for the Angel Station, which includes the longest escalator in Europe, plus escalators at Liverpool Street and Waterloo ( the one down to the Northern Line )... I also did work on the Liverpool Street roof reconstruction, which although not a tunnel job, I was particularly proud of.

ttxela ( on here ) is actually my nephew, and worked as my assistant at times in the early 90s, so did my elder son more recently.. so I have the family laurels about covered. 😉

actually, when it comes to the 'big boys toys' stakes, I do enjoy the offshore stuff... and spending 6 months establishing a pipeline centreline in Tunisia a couple of years ago was lots of fun, too

''the stopes soared beyond the range of our caplamps' - David Bick...... How times change .... oh, I don't know, I've still got a lamp like that.

ttxela
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Newbie

15 years ago

#12

"Tamarmole" wrote:

"ttxela" wrote:
How were those perfectly spherical chambers in Excelsior set-out & dug, must have been a very skilled operation!

One of the chaps who did was involved with blasting the spheres was "Pop" Courtis. "Pop" got his nickname whilst working at New Consols in the late 1940s, his party piece was sorting out hung up ore chutes. Pop later worked at Prince of Wales in the early 1970s and was also a key figue in the reopening of the George & Charlotte. In addition to mining pop was also a small holder and Salmon fisherman. The work he did in Excelsior was his prodest acheivement. Aparently the drilling was done using a "bar and arm" drifter set to carefully calculated angles.

They are definitely very impressive chambers, I guess someone knowledgable in those methods could see how it was done from some of the partially finished chambers.

ttxela
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Newbie

15 years ago

#13

"derrickman" wrote:

ttxela ( on here ) is actually my nephew, and worked as my assistant at times in the early 90s, so did my elder son more recently.. so I have the family laurels about covered. 😉

Very interesting it was too, and not a scaffold bar in sight 😉

derrickman
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

#14

no readybrek in those days, either :lol:

there was some seriously scary scaffolding at Angel Station.. the Lower Concourse chamber was 9.5m or 10.3m diameter, I don't recall which, and there was a 'bridge' from the lower ascalator passage along the long axis to the pilot tunnel for the No 2 Escalator. A ladder lead up from this to a gallery in the crown where the two lasers for the respective axes ( 3.85m dia pilot and 7.5m dia main tunnel, respectively ) were mounted.

standing up there and looking forward and down into the No 2 Escalator was a loooong way down.... there's a lot of bluster about Elf'n'Safety at times but I have to say, I'm not sorry I don't have to go places like that any more.

''the stopes soared beyond the range of our caplamps' - David Bick...... How times change .... oh, I don't know, I've still got a lamp like that.

ttxela
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Newbie

15 years ago

#15

I've added a couple of photos from the 2007 NAMHO to the album.

That was a fun trip especially the wet grovel under the gate.

Tamarmole
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15 years ago

#16

"ttxela" wrote:
I've added a couple of photos from the 2007 NAMHO to the album.

That was a fun trip especially the wet grovel under the gate.

Glad you enjoyed it - my trips have something of a reputation for being squalid

ttxela
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15 years ago

#17

It was my first NAMHO. I had a great time, what was the mine we visited that was chest deep in thick orange mud with the fantastic formations?

Tamarmole
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Newbie

15 years ago

#18

"ttxela" wrote:
It was my first NAMHO. I had a great time, what was the mine we visited that was chest deep in thick orange mud with the fantastic formations?

Wheal Russell - A Tamar minng Group dig back in the mid 1990s

Two of my trips - you must be something of a masochist - having said that I did both Excelsior (under the gate) and Wheal Russell twice that weekend!