As a newbie, can someone clarify the scope of Aditnow? Is it limited to underground extraction? Are people happy with surface extraction sites being added?

From my view, it seems sensible to include some interesting 'surface' sites such as Penrhyn and the Nantlle sites as they provide 50 percent of the whole picture of Welsh slate extraction, and are just as fascinating to visit as the underground sites. But in the SE, I see there are dozens of open chalk pits listed in the database, the majority of which are lost, filled, have little interest (to me) and are a completely different sort of site to the various chalk mines and deneholes. Similarly, the sand mines in Surrey and Kent have modern equivalents of huge opencast sandpits, which last a few years and end up as massive landfill sites with nothing to see or record.

In the world of mineral extraction, chalk is as important to the SE as slate is to North Wales, yet I feel more inclined to record or read about surface slate workings than chalk pits, with a few exceptions such as Betchworth and Brockham where there are unusual remains, railways, limekilns etc.

As a newbie, can someone clarify the scope of Aditnow? Is it limited to underground extraction? Are people happy with surface extraction sites being added?

Just a personal opinion but I don't see how you can limit it without severely restricting your perspective. You would lose sites important in mining and cultural history such as this in SA.

🔗Kimberly-Big-Hole-Other-Rock-Mine-User-Album-Image-001[linkphoto]Kimberly-Big-Hole-Other-Rock-Mine-User-Album-Image-001[/linkphoto][/link]

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Hi Peter (and anybody else wondering this)

Right from the outset, we wanted AditNow to cover all aspects of the hobby, to be as inclusive as possible and to cater as completely as possible for all areas of our mining & quarrying history and heritage.

To that end, quarries are welcome, as are mines. And mine photographs and documents from both above and below ground are welcome.

A fairly recent addition to the site was the Major Surface Feature facility allowing locations to be added in all manner of classifications, as well as linking locations together. So for example, a port or railway can be added (if it's relevant) and linked to all the mines/quarries/colleries/etc it served.

The full list of classifications is:

Mine
Quarry
Colliery
Tramway
Railway
Mill
Smelt Mill
Port
Factory
Tunnel
Shaft
Trial
Tin Stream
Museum
Stamp or Dressing Floor
Crusher
Smelter
Blowing House

This the gives the site considerable scope to cover all areas, both above and below ground, past and present. Hopefully the site structure and navigation/search tools make it easy enough to locate information within this very wide remit.

As a general note (not to anyone, just a general note) on adding locations (I don't call them mines any more because of that long list of classification types). Can people always double check that the mine/quarry/whatever doesn't already exist in the database. Either by the same name or similar (the 'sounds like' name search is useful for this). There are quite a lot of duplicates appearing at the moment requiring checking by the admins.

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So the Scope of Aditnow is the exploration, industrial history and archaeology of mineral extraction and related infrastructure.

The AN home page says it all really:-

AditNow is an information sharing resource and discussion forum for the mine exploration community as well as industrial archaeologists, researchers, historians and anybody with an interest in mine exploration or mining history. The site provides a searchable database of mines and quarries from across the UK, comprehensive information and thousands of mining photographs and documents.

Good - no silly boundaries then. I'd still find it hard to summon up any enthusiasm to record every chalk pit in the SE unless it was of some note historically or in terms of surviving remains. The website notes and what the website is actually used for in practice might not necessarily have coincided, and I didn't want to tread on anyone's toes or upset anyone's sensibilities. I might dig up some stuff on the interesting lime-burning sites I know about. Not much, but interesting anyway.

Indeed :)

The more interesting sites tend to get the more coverage and this, I suspect, is a useful bit of natural balance.

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As a newbie, can someone clarify the scope of Aditnow? Is it limited to underground extraction? Are people happy with surface extraction sites being added?

Just a personal opinion but I don't see how you can limit it without severely restricting your perspective. You would lose sites important in mining and cultural history such as this in SA.

Very very true!

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https://www.aditnow.co.uk/Community/viewtopic.aspx?t=12793 

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