Club trip long since arranged regrettably. But if you like digging in wet muddy conditions please feel free to pop down to one of our digs on the moors any Tuesday or most Saturdays. We have lots of it!

Due to other commitments I seem to be single handed tomorrow so I will just take some materials up to the dig site. I probably won't do much at the site because the fall is a bit active & I have a very active imagination when it comes to mobile rocks above me! ;(
However if anyone is free next Saturday we could get the job done. I think it would be good to try & get this fall dealt with soon before it blocks the level any worse.
Can't do Sunday as it's an NMCS Carrs open day to which you would all of course be welcome. :flowers:

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Timber on site - a long winded process. Less painful than I thought it would be because I could just float the wood in like loggers do for a long way. A bit like herding cats mind...

Fall looks a bit like this, or it did on Saturday

🔗Brownley-Hill-Mine-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-95610[linkphoto]Brownley-Hill-Mine-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-95610[/linkphoto][/link]

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So is anyone up for some fall rectification work tomorrow?

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Not this weekend i'm afraid.
Family stuff.

Oh well, I'll just put the new gate on Rampgill instead...

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Update

Stu & I had a spell of hard labour at the fall & some timbering was put up which now makes it passable though the section inbye is currently unprotected. Doesn't look brilliant but it was my first go and the fall is still quite active...

Rumblings above mean that I can't really recommend it as a through route at the moment, pulling through the ropes from Scaleburn would certainly be a bad idea!

Picture not ideal as we only had Stu's phone...
🔗Brownley-Hill-Mine-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-95764[linkphoto]Brownley-Hill-Mine-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-95764[/linkphoto][/link]

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Update is very much appreciated..

Thanks

Of vague relevance, a recent account of the through trip but without mention of either the collapse or Nick's work. Suggesting presumably that all is in order now?
www.white-rose.org.uk/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=258

A particularly odd dismissal of Smallcleugh, one of the most explorable mines around for those prepared to wander off the beaten track but never mind...

Thanks for the posting RJV but what did you expect from a caver?

As you correctly stated Smallcleugh has a wealth of places to visit, and whilst I cannot say that I am over sensitive, I have always found Smallcleugh to have a friendly atmosphere!
A view shared by many of my explorer friends.

Partly in order...personally I wouldn't want to go through until I've got the job finished as the fall is rather active and only timbered half way along. I did recommend, indirectly, that they didn't pull the ropes through in case the fall had slipped again!

The party didn't do any damage to the dig though they had managed to knock over a fair number of the sleepers that had been leant up against the wall (so I didn't trip over them when wading in post-dig exhaustion).

Not surprising the water level was higher before, we've dropped it a fair bit from where the fall had backed it up to.

I must remember to put my light on full beam and point it directly at the eyes the next time I meet a caver, it seems to be part of the caving etiquette ;D

If you get from Capelcleugh entrance to Proud's in 2 hours 15 min, you certainly aren't going to see much on the way - 'today's Tuesday, must be Belgium' comes to mind!

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Ah cavers are ok, at least they are going places like that, there seem to be increasingly few mine-explorers interested in doing trips of that magnitude for some reason. Agree entirely re speed however, the 'as the crow flies' route they have taken does serve to keep you largely away from the more interesting places. Saying that however. do seem to recall Sparty Lea soloing the route in a phenomenal twelve-and-a-half minutes or somewhere thereabouts not long after Mr Mike & co reopened Haggs... 😮

Should anyone be needing to work off some beer & pie excess, or want a justification to have more, we'll be up on Sunday and help would be gratefully received. :)
Hopefully this trip will be finishing the job but you never can tell...

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Dig now a bit more solid, the outbye side - which had run - is now timbered and seems to be holding.
We've put in a length of drainage pipe to drop the water level without undercutting the timbering so at least part of the through trip is now not so deep. There is still a neck deep section further inbye to give the proper experience. :devil:

Please take care when going through, nothing is guaranteed here! Hopefully dropping the water level will mean that the loose shale will dry out and solidify a bit - ever hopeful me!

Thanks to Stu for doing the labouring while I had the easy job - lying down at the working face. 🙂

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Being one of the caver's on the White Rose trip, can I just say that we weren't the people responsible for knocking the railway sleepers over. We're both very careful to leave things as we find them.
Our aim for that day was to get the traverse done,as quickly as we could. We have done, and no doubt will in the future, take the time to have a look off the beaten track. However, that was not the aim of our trip.
Apologies for my shining a lamp in your eyes gNick, I didn't realise I'd done it.
Many thanks for the directions to Nentsbury.
Good effort shoring up the collapse.
There appears to be quite a bit of bitterness toward caver's. 😞

There appears to be quite a bit of bitterness toward caver's. :(

Mine explorers can be a grumpy bunch of bas"£$%^£%'s especially if they don't know you and are of an older persuasion.

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I think this caver/ miner banter stems from the former generally feeling that mine exploration is easy, in comparison to caving!
I am not sure how they view the cave system in Hudgill Burn Mine, the original entrance from which I entered the system was one of the hardest trips I have ever completed!

Much mine exploring IS alot less strenuous than caving ;)
I rather like caves too, although I'd rather spend time digging some grotty little sink in the hope it turns into something interesting than join a queue to follow a trail of bolts through Kingsdale....

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There appears to be quite a bit of bitterness toward caver's. :(

Mine explorers can be a grumpy bunch of bas"£$%^£%'s especially if they don't know you and are of an older persuasion.

I regard this as an ageist comment and this writer should be struck off from aditnow.

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Heading gently away from slightly poor ground...

Here is the latest of the dig, not brilliant looking but holding. Take care with the cross timbers as they aren't locked to the uprights and could be knocked out with the increased chance of being crushed to death.
Probably needs some more work on the inbye side but passable with care.


🔗Brownley-Hill-Mine-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-96861[linkphoto]Brownley-Hill-Mine-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-96861[/linkphoto][/link]

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