On Sunday i was in the canada level of Carrock mine and on examining the timbers 20-30 feet from the entrance i noticeed that one of the roof supports had rotten through and had dropped off its rock shelf. the whole thing is just sitting in the air and i am not sure whats holding it up. Is this New (it looks it) or has it been like this for a while?

Do you mean like this
Or have more gone?

🔗Carrock-Wolframite-Mine-User-Album-Image-027[linkphoto]Carrock-Wolframite-Mine-User-Album-Image-027[/linkphoto][/link]

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ah.. thats the spot but i was not referring to the fallen beam but the one on the right of the picture i think. you can see the remains of the rotten wood laying on the recess where the beam was and now its dropped a few inches but goodness knows why its still sitting there.
so is this old news? and why has it all not fallen down.

Sometimes timber goes in as a precaution and its not really holding anything up.
Sometimes whatever the timber was holding up, over time, gets cemented together by minerals.
Sometimes its just waiting for some unwary explorer to bang their head on it before everything comes about their ears. :lol:
Your guess is as good as mine!

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ok thanks for that. Anyone want to give it a knock as safety test before i go back in?

Is it possible to look between the timbers anywhere and see if there's deads on top? Given how close to day it is, I'd have thought it would be easier to tram out and tip any deads when driving. So, the timbering may just be to stop bits of loose dropping onto people's heads, although having said that, halfway up Magpie Sough there's a bit where a grand piano-sized bit of loose has dropped, squashing the steel ring arches that were put there to keep it up in the 1950s.... :blink:

The innermost part of Magpie sough also had some stacked deads on 1950s timbers which were getting pretty dodgy, I was shown a photo taken of this area in the late 1990s, when the NAMHO conference was hosted by PDMHS and we got permission to do trips up there. On our most recent visit in May 2006, we found the warning sign from that time telling people not to go further was still there, with a complete collapse six feet further on! 😮

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thanks for the info guys.

The dodgy timberwork has now come down. It seems it wasn't actually holding much up and its still possible to get in... carefully... round the right hand side.
🔗Carrock-Wolframite-Mine-User-Album-Image-167[linkphoto]Carrock-Wolframite-Mine-User-Album-Image-167[/linkphoto][/link]

Edit I cant tell my left from my right sometimes 😞

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i am glad that did not decide to drop when we were in there. very surprised the roof has not collapsed but maybe that is the next thing to happen. is it liekly that CAT or the MOles would take up the challenge for clearing this up? looks like a major job.

Just goes to confirm what I've felt for years - that mines are ephemeral. Sooner or later they collapse, their contents are sealed in, and all is lost forever. This fall may or may not get dug (but with the petty and hostile attitude of the LDNPA I am not optimistic), but over time the mine, like any other, will conitine to deteriorate and odds are that eventually there will come a point when it is irrecoverably gone. We should make the most of the accessible mines we still have. Recording and preserving what we can while we can.

While I agree some mines tend to fall in and some may be lost this particular fall is just a heap of timber, for now, and is easily passed.

If the bits either side go, particularly the outbye section where the roof looks more broken, it could be a different story.

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