Thursday 16th September
A WCMS evening trip into Marden mine, my first underground trip with my new Fellows MagnumStar lamp. A fantastically bright light - very impressive. Lit up the longer passages like daylight :thumbup:

A couple of lads from work came along and a good time was had by all.

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An evening trip into Godstone Main Series last night, taking a lad along from the company across the road.

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Some local chaps along too for a first time trip, great fun had by all although most opted out of the crawling part.

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Last Sunday I joined the trip into the Clayton Adit arranged by AR. We met an eccentric chap at the surface then headed in for a trip up the adit. We had a look as far as we could up the pipe workings, admired the engine chamber and then went up Bag level to the connection with Waterbank mine where we encountered some deterioration in air quality at times. A good trip!

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I stayed at Magpie overnight, when I arrived there a photographer and model were doing a photoshoot of wedding dresses.

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On Monday as the weather was so fine I opted for a walk across Kinder before heading home.

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Last weekend (28-31 October) we spent at the WCMS cottage in Penwyllt and explored the remains of the silica brickworks and associated quarrys, trackways and limekilns. We also ventured underground and if a picture of an natural cavity can be forgiven :flowers: the usefulness of the Magnumstar for photography can be seen (2 second exposure with no flash).

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Incline

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Magnumstar illumination

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The cosy WCMS cottage

A festive trip up to the Peak, was supposed to be for a stroll with Mrs T but as she was feeling unwell Summer and I took her friend next door.

A first underground trip for Daisy into the entrance of Giants was suprisingly successful and she is eager for more! A mine trip is in order next time.

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Then tea and cakes in Castleton and a stroll up Cavedale

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18/1/11

An evening trip into Bedlams Bank towards the East and looking at the numbered bays. Derrickman came along.

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In Portsmouth over the weekend with Mrs T I spotted these entrances in a quarry face;

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I had a couple of goes climbing up but was in my best clothes and the chalk was wet and slippery and the climbs deceptively difficult with handolds coming away and footholds crumbling, after slipping down twice and getting covered in chalk I gave it up as a bad job and returned to Mrs T for an ear bashing re: aforementioned best clothes 😢

Looking it up now it turns out to be Paulsdown Quarry wartime underground radio station and a bit further on there is an easier entrance up a slope... ::)

A visit to the Sister-in-law in Spain. Exploring around the town (Antequera) there were quite a few chimneys like this;

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No sign of mining activity nearby but the stone is limestone, I wonder if they are associated with lime-burning?

Also visited the Antequera Dolmens. I had visited these a few years back when you could just wander in. Now there is a visitors centre however access is still free. OK not mines but pretty impressive for pre-historic below ground constructions!

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I also visited some caves.... :angel:

Half Term, 19-21/2/11

The first weekend of half term we spent in the Peak staying at Magpie Mine. Myself, Mrs T, young T, our next door neighbours daughter and one of young T's school friends. My stepdaughter and her boyfriend also came up during the day on Saturday and we threw them all off the viaduct at Millers Dale 😉

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Acoomodation at Magpie was slightly fresh until we got the fire going, the girls had a great time in the snow :thumbup:

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Sunday morning we met up at Mouldridge with Brains, Ditzy, Jon and Jon's son for a trip into the mine.

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A good time was had by all, then it was off to the pub.

After lunch we spent a while in the mining museum.

Monday morning the weather was pretty grim so we headed home around lunchtime.

26/2/11

A WCMS trip into Box. A first for me as I've not been here before! A large group made for a slow paced but very social trip. A good day out!

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1-3/4/11

A WCMS trip to North Wales.

Saturday we had a good look round Wrysgan, went in the ventilation adit at level 6 and worked our way down to the bottom abseiling between levels. Unfortunately I didn't take the camera.

Sunday we went into Cwmorthin through the smoke flue, got a bit lost, then out of the lake entrance via the incline and the steps.

My first trip to Welsh slate, very impressed, will be back soon! 😉

22/4/11

Spent the day assisting with a club project to stabilise an entrance. Day slightly marred by breaking down and spending 2 hrs on the hard shoulder on the way.

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14/5/11

Spent the day helping out at the WCMS Reigate open day for the sand mines and medieval tunnels under the castle. I spent most of the day in Barons Cave.

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Bedlams Bank Naked Flame Trip 31/5/11

Last night we had a celebratory trip into the Chaldon workings organised by Peter to commemorate the 100th anniversary of them being washed open and re-discovered following a severe thunderstorm on Derby day 1911.

Young T made some "100" cakes to take along.

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To fit the theme only light sources available to the original explorers were to be used, some brought carbide lights and the rest of us relied on candles in a variety of holders.

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We had a fixed ladder in the shaft which made it a bit easier given our various encumbrances!

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The trip itself was fairly slow going requiring frequent stops to re-light.

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It was definitely rather more dimly lit than usual!

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At the furthest point of our exploration (not particularly far 🙂 ) we ate the cakes.

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Peter's video of the Naked Flame trip

Upper Dinas Silica Mine

17-19/6/11

Back to Penwyllt for the WCMS annual BBQ at the Stump :thumbsup:

A long drive up on Friday evening after picking young T up from school.

Saturday morning a small group of us went to look at the Silica mines.

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We also had a look in the middle mine but no-one fancied getting too wet so we didn't get all the way through, then we sat in the gorge and enjoyed a brief spell of sunshine.

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Saturday evening was the BBQ, good food, drink and the squeeze machine - 148mm!!!

Sunday mainly taken up with driving home after a slow start.

6/7/11

A work trip to Manchester gave the opportunity to return via the Peak and quickly nip underground to try out the re-built Magnumstar returned from Roy.

Initial impressions were very good, the daylight setting is very impressive, will probably not get the chance to give it a proper go until the NAMHO conference.

29/7/11 - 1/8/11 NAMHO Conference

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We took the camping option and tried out the new tent.

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Friday afternoon we had a trip to Crickheath, the opinion on the day was that it might have been more of a lead mine :confused: Young T had a go at knocking me out with a large stone ::)

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Saturday afternoon we had a trip down Llanymynech Ogof. Impressive to think some bronze age mining went on here, a bit crawly in parts. All good fun :thumbup:

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We also had a look in the nearby Victorian workings.

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Sunday morning we went to Clive, later on young T voted this the best trip of the weekend.

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The far side of the traverse.

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Young T in the section stabilised with PFA

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Sunday afternoon we were in Cambrian Slate mine, young T was impressed at the scale of the place. Another good trip in good company 🙂

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A mine where you can't touch both sides at once!

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Monday afternoon we had a trip beyond the tourist section of the Ironbridge tar tunnel. A fascinating place. Unfortunately young T felt a bit off coulour and developed a headache. This cleared up once back in the fresh air. There were slightly reduced oxygen levels so perhaps this was the cause.

All in all a very good weekend. Many thanks to all involved :flowers: already looking forward to next year :thumbsup:

13/8/11 Reigate Caves Open Day

This Saturday I spent the day at the Reigate Caves open day. As before I helped out at the Barons cave and gave a few tours of the site. All visitors seemed very interested. I'm always struck by how pleasant the folk of Reigate are 🙂

Slaley Sough 15/10/11
Booked onto a PDMHS trip on Sunday I managed to get away on Saturday and so had a wander round the Via Gellia and a look in Slaley Sough (although it took me a while to find the entrance) spent a pleasant but unusually quiet night at the OCC.

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Sundays trip was a "no publicity" event.