Brownley Hill Lead Mine · AditNow Community

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Vanoord
54.4% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

18 years ago

Is this a natural cave with man-made reinforcements, or entirely man-made? The walls look rather odd?

Photograph:

[img]http://www.aditnow.co.uk/showimage?f=/community/Brownley-Hill-Mine-Lead-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-011/[/img]

Hello again darkness, my old friend...

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LAP
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

18 years ago

I think it's sandstone...?

Kein geneis kanaf - Cain gnais canaf
Byt vndyd mwyhaf - byth onddyth moyav
Lliaws a bwyllaf - Líows o boylav
Ac a bryderaf - ac o boryddarav
Kyfarchaf y veird byt - covarcav yr vairth
Pryt nam dyweid - poryth na'm dowaith
Py gynheil y byt - Pa gonail y byth
Na syrch yn eissywyt - na soroc yn eishoyth
Neur byt bei syrchei - nour byth bai sorochai

Captain Scarlet
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

18 years ago

A feature of the Nenthead mines is access levels driven in soft banded shale. The shale is rather weak & so many collapses have occured. A condition of the mining leases was that all access adits in the shales were to be masonry lined. That is why the Nenthead levels are lined with the beautiful masonry arching. The arching is very strong and has lasted far longer than any other system of tunneling support would have. The craftsmanship has to be seen to be believed. There is no natural cave in Brownley hill, although there is a natural cavern in the Hudgill burn mine a few miles down the road.

STANDBY FOR ACTION!!!!...

LAP
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

18 years ago

While on topic.. do you know of any shale mines?? - I know there's a shale quarry at ribblehead....

jagman
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

18 years ago

The arching stone is different to the stone within the mines and quarried on the fell above Nenthead. The quarry still operates today.
Brownley Hill is a vast lead mine, linked to Rampgill up the valley and Haggs Bank mine further down toward Alston.
Surveys say that there are enough reserves of zinc in Brownley Hill to produce 55-60,000 tons of or a year for another 50 years. Moves where made a couple of years ago with the intention of re-opening the mine but I think enviromental considerations made it unpopular with planning authorities.
The river Nent is dead as a result of metal mining in the area and likely to remain so for many years to come, nobody wants to know about the possiblity of re-opening mines there

Vanoord
54.4% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

18 years ago

Zinc is rapidly becoming a very valuable commodity. The price of anodes for boats has pretty much doubled in the last two years. Obviously the Chinese are to blame :sneaky:

What does **** me off somewhat is that we now receive outboard motors manufactured in China - these arrive on metal pallets which have a protective metal frame around the carbdoard box the engine sits in. When the engines were built (assembled in reality) in Belgium, they arrived on lightweight wooden pallets. But now they have to be shipped halfway round the world, they arrive on steel pallets to keep them safe. And so, the demand for steel rises and the price goes up. And this is counterbalanced by us taking the steel that the Chinese have sent us to be weighed in at the scrappy.

So... we pay more for 'new' steel because of the high demand, but we have more unwanted steel to 'throw away', which is sent to us as a packaging materioal by the very same people who pushed the price up in the first place. Comnfused? I am...

Anyway, back on-topic :)

No doubt the price of zinc will eventually get the better of someone and the dmand to re-open will overwhelm the objections, if only because the additional margins can pay for measures which will overcome the environmental problems.

And going back to where I started, that's a man-made chamber in soft-ish rock and not one of those natural chambers that you find blokes with beards in. And you northerners have a taent for building walls. Excellent: I'm learning 😃

Hello again darkness, my old friend...

jagman
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

18 years ago

That softish rock is so soft that it crumbles in your hands 😮 and doesn't hurt when it falls on you (unless in vast quantities!)
You haven't really seen proper mines until you have travelled a North Pennines metal mine. Slate? easy mined. Hard Rock metal mines, real hard men who dug there way through shale, limestone and burrowed beneath peat hags, thats something you need to see.

Barney
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

18 years ago

"LAP" wrote:
While on topic.. do you know of any shale mines?? - I know there's a shale quarry at ribblehead....

There are many south of Coventry, its a prehistoric river bed that has been proven to be miles wide. The shale was dug here for use in the construction of the M6 and M1 motorways. They are all quarries though'

Captain Scarlet
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

18 years ago

The geology of the North Pennine Orefield consists of alternating beds of horizontal(ish) Shale and Limestone. All the beds were known & named by the old man. The richest ore bodies were generally found in the "Great Limestone". The old miners would often but not always drive their access levels in the softer shale and then drive shafts and sumps up/down into the ore bearing limestone beds.

STANDBY FOR ACTION!!!!...