In Smallcleugh on Sunday and noticed that there have been a few falls along the Horse Level a bit more serious than the usual drips of shale, paving slabs rather than bricks! Nothing too significant though the ground by Luke Hall's Sump seems to have rather bigger cracks than when I was last there.

The significant fall is on the crosscut on to the Middlecleugh North Vein just outbye of Bell's sump; this is now blocked. How bad the block is remains to be seen but it was giving all the signs of needing a proper dig.
The fall on the junction with this crosscut and the Horse Level seems to have got worse as well - I don't remember there being a large block there.
We decided not to try the crawls but if there has been movement in the area, they may need a bit od clearing...

On a positive side, inbye from Gypsum Corner all was well down to Cow Hill Cross Vein and the link to Capelcleugh is fine.

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The significant fall is on the crosscut on to the Middlecleugh North Vein just outbye of Bell's sump; this is now blocked. How bad the block is remains to be seen but it was giving all the signs of needing a proper dig.

This is pretty much always blocked and needs digging both where you initially leave the arching into the collapse chamber and then again a few yards later when you re-enter the arched level.

It's really rather good! :thumbsup: It's enough to deter 99% of visitors to the mine from passing and consequently once the level gets back into the limestone it's probably the most untouched area of the whole mine. At the risk of being elitist & unpopular, it's the best argument for restricting access to as many people as possible that there is! 😞

As RJV said, it was blocked with loose stuff before we visited a couple of years back.
Spent about 15 minutes clearing the way just with hands.

A sizeable lump of galena came out of the spoil which I broke and left near the junction (note that every last scrap has since been hoovered up by magpies)

It was all very loose, so its no major surprise its blocked again.

As both Chris and Richard have stated this crosscut has always been prone to falls.
However the quantity of material falling has increased considerably over the years!
Initially, where you dig, an arch could be seen, in the floor!
When we were through, with West Cumberland, this arch could no longer be seen.
Dave Banks wrote the whole thing up, including the connection to Capelcleugh.
However I feel there is still exploration to be carried out here!

I know what it WAS like - I've been over, though only to the other side. I had a quick scrape with my hands which acheived nothing, one of the embedded rocks was very solidly wedged in, meaning time for the crowbar, which I didn't have with me.
I will have a prod next time I am in.

Currently it is just like a number of Nenthead terminal falls, or at least like the ones that haven't been dug yet 🙂

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Yeah, I think Chris made it sound slightly easier to clear than it was. Although much of it was crumbling shale, there was one solid block which took some time and effort to clear.

Ah i must have been sat around watching you struggle with that then.

I don't remember moving anything big. 😞