Tamarmole
  • Tamarmole
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15 years ago
On a recent brief trip to N Wales I took a look at Catherine & Jane Consols.

My intention was to take a look at Deep Adit. I think I found the level adjacent to the wheelpit, below a forrestry track approached by an ochre filled cutting. As the portal was ochre filled with only a few inches of airspace I bottled out. Was I in the right place and I was just being a wuss?

I also examined a higher level which had a very tempting winze in it - is this a back door into Deep?
davel
  • davel
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15 years ago
Your description corresponds to the deep adit - I've not been in that way but a certain Mr Fellows has - and has produced a sketch survey.

The winze you mention does lead down into the deep adit - about a 50' inclined pitch. As might be expected as you go outbye in the deep level the water gets deeper - I stopped at chest deep (but I'd like to go back with a wet suit).

You can also continue past the winze through a fall and follow the middle (smithy) level through to Ross shaft (which is near the engine house). There are some nice pump rod remains in the level beyond the fall.

Dave
ChrisJC
15 years ago
It is entirely possible to make a nice through trip, and emerge from the deep adit. The precise details of the route escape me though, but I have done it with The King (whilst other members wussed out). The water did bubble a bit with the disturbance.....

Chris.
mwynwr
  • mwynwr
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15 years ago
There is a third (shallow) level, below the path from the Smithy up to the Engine House. This also leads to the Ross Shaft. You can cross the shaft on a ledge and continue for a short distance beyond. You can then scramble down through the workings on to the Middle (Smithy) Level and come back to the shaft from the far side.

Graham
Graham Levins
Sec.
Welsh Mines Preservation Trust
Alasdair Neill
15 years ago
Does anyone know what the adit a bit further north from Catherine & Jane Consols was, I think marked as "manganese works" on the 6" OS. Explored this probably 25 years ago, running east with various stopes up in one place daylight visible, & also a winze down taking a stream which we did not descend but surmised might connect to C&JC deep adit. Sorry don't have a grid ref to hand but can find it if necessary, but it was probably on the east side of the stream which runs past C&JC.
royfellows
15 years ago
"Alasdair Neill" wrote:

Does anyone know what the adit a bit further north from Catherine & Jane Consols was, I think marked as "manganese works" on the 6" OS. Explored this probably 25 years ago, running east with various stopes up in one place daylight visible, & also a winze down taking a stream which we did not descend but surmised might connect to C&JC deep adit. Sorry don't have a grid ref to hand but can find it if necessary, but it was probably on the east side of the stream which runs past C&JC.



Hi Aly, hope you are well.
You will have to be a bit more precise.
There are other workings in the area, there is Cae Fali a small lead working just below the Ffestiniog railway line, there is Rhyd Mine slightly to the north east. Here the upper adit corresponds with your description; it progresses above hading stopes on the footwall and ends at a winze to the deep adit. The deep adit was reopened a few years ago by some WMS members but all connections with the upper adit are blocked.

Very slightly to the north of Catherine and Jane is an adit that connects with a shaft after a few feet, there is an iron pump rod on the floor. The adit continues but would need a lot of gear to get across the shaft, which is really a stope. You would remember this one because years ago there was a tin shed outside the entrance. There are other minor levels in the vicinity.
.
My avatar is a poor likeness.
Alasdair Neill
15 years ago
the adit I was thinking of is at 636413.
I have never found any original documentation to indicate what the actual name of this mine was.
davel
  • davel
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15 years ago
"Alasdair Neill" wrote:

the adit I was thinking of is at 636413.



I know that location as Hafod Boeth (lead?) mine - but I've no documentation to support that and I'm not even sure where I got that name from.

In the first edition of A Gazeteer of the Welsh Slate Industry, Richards mentions a metal mine called Hafod Boeth at SH638418. (No mention of it in the second edition though.)

Dave
mwynwr
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15 years ago
JR Foster Smith - Mines of Merioneth p9. (1977)

HAFOD BOETH SH 637 415

A trial for lead ore was made here on a vein striking about east and west in Cambrian rocks, and which may be an extension of the east and west striking vein worked in the Bwlch Y Plwm Mine. No details of the workings are known, but the trial was evidently not successful.

Graham

SH corrected from SN, thanks to Dave Linton for advising me. I am too used to using SN in Ceredigion !
Graham Levins
Sec.
Welsh Mines Preservation Trust

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