Bit of a shame that the BVI is now filled up: it would be a very convenient way in...

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It would have made a lovely way in.

I tried pushing it from the inside a few years ago before i knew it was blocked. It was a very very scary place to be.

Not quite as scary as where you took me though 😢

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Had a walk up to Cwm this morning and entered by the floor 2 gate.
There is a big collapse, but not in the same place as the one cleared before in the slate brick walled area . It is quite a bit further into the mine, but it can be passed by going down into a chamber to the left of the fall into the level below etc. I did not investigate much further as I did not have time. But I know for a fact It had not come down during the first session of clearing the original collapse in the adit in February 2008 as I was able to enter the adit by the incline.
If you do go in to investigate wear wellies as there is a good foot of water for a long way along the adit.
Hell of a shame to see this collapse as I remember that before the bricked area collapsed circa 1989 you could walk in along the floor 2 without any obstructions. Then climb up the incline to daylight.
R. E. Jones used to reverse a stripped down Landrover in there to carry blocks of slate out in the early 1980's while they were also clearing the collapsed floor 1 adit enterance with an old Ford H45 digger and an battered Bedford TK tipper.
A friend of mine bought the landrover that was left in the floor 1 chamber where the sawing table was. They had quite an adventure in getting it out though as they towed it with a smokey diesel dumper with no lights.

🔗Personal-Album-106-Image-45704[linkphoto]Personal-Album-106-Image-45704[/linkphoto][/link]

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Aha!

There are two floor 2 adits and this appears to be a discussion about both of them!

He-he, but it was very funny watching the conversation. Like Chris said, easy to get confused unless you have a look at the Cwmorthing mine plan Graham I produced, explains it all.

.... I haven't yet managed to find the smoke flue from the inside of the mine on my own...

What..! It's easy! Go to the head of the OVI and continue through the small water fall. Follow round to the right towards a collapse and you will find the end of a steel cable hanging from above with a large weight on it. Follow the cable over the collapse, through a passage and up onto a scree slope. As Chris said, climb the slope through the manway at the top and you are in the smoke flue. 😉

I have been studying your plan speedy and it can be seen that the two adits are running quite near to one another, but the levels are not quite the same are they.
Chris and myself were talking about two different adits, but which were also the same in one sense.

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If I recall correctly (without consulting the survey but with reference to GrahamI's surface map), Lake Level (Floor 1) and Floor 4 are the only two to have a single adit, with the remainder (most of the way up) having an adit per vein (Back/Old).

Floor 4 also has an adit in the North Vein (not to be confused with the original nomenclature which labelled the Back Vein as the North Vein), but that's an oddity to say the least.

The Floor 2 OV adit is the smoke flue, the Floor 2 BV adit is now buried under the tip, but there is/was still some airflow through it.

Then heading upwards:

Floor 3 BV adit is under the tip, somewhere above Floor 2 BV and is reached from the top of Floor 3 via a long tunnel, but again is blocked.

Floor 3 OV is somewhere above the Smoke Flue, but is lost. GrahamI's book suggests that the two Floor 3 adits were connected by a tramway along the face of the tip, in which case it's probably not impossible to locate it.

I'm not aware of anyone making it to Floor 3 OV?

The Floor 4 adit is blocked permanently and the inside end (OV) is extremely unpleasant and thankfully very difficult to get to.

Then, there are various adits above this which do not go far: there were originally BV adits on Floors 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9; and OV adits on 5, 6, 7 & 8.

We've poked into a fair few adits up in the tips, but never quite got round to working out which ones they are. This is complicated massively by the destruction caused by untopping, which has removed the inclines/levels as a means of identification.

Still, it'll provide an afternoon out sometime...

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Follow the wire cable installed by SpeedyCaver over some very large slippery slabs.

Yes - what *was* the point of that btw?

...and why is the subject line of this thread changed? How rude!

Grumpy of Exeter

Follow the wire cable installed by SpeedyCaver over some very large slippery slabs.

Yes - what *was* the point of that btw?

Grumpy of Exeter

Probably to help prevent geriatric explorers (like me) slipping into an untidy heap. 😉

That is the route that has to followed in and out of the mine via fl2 now as you cannot get to the back vein incline now due to this roof collapse.
'Speedy' has done a bloody good job of the wire rope hand grip I must say. The route would be very difficult without it.
Well done.

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That wire rope really is very useful as some of the slabs over the top of the fall are treacherously slippery. Possibly a good idea to wear gloves though if handling it? A big rusty steel cable splinter through the hand is going to be a day spoiler 😢

While beneficial to be familiar with as an alternative exit, I wouldn't use the route on a regular basis when it is a simple matter to use the lake level adit. Parts of it are quite unstable and you get wet feet most of the time. 🙂

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