In exploring the loft tonight I found amongst other things the Jug Holes pictures I havn't got ::) and a few other bits including this one....
🔗Wapping-Lead-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-33414[linkphoto]Wapping-Lead-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-33414[/linkphoto][/link]
This was my first introduction to the underground .... It's the entrance to Cumberland Cavern (& Wapping Mine) as I remember it and I also remember thinking "Like I'm getting in there"..... oddly I was the last person to think I'd enjoy it yet I carried on where the guys who took me packed it in a few years after....

What I do remember was grabbing the tree route and sliding myself into the unknown and feeling the wet & mud on my back whilst wriggling into what felt to me like a rabbit hole. I slid down a slope to rip my overalls on a piece of protruding metal at the bottom whilst at the same time sitting in thick yeuchy mud.... Whilst (of course) my so called mates wet themselves laughing having told me ..."we'll guide you in Ian, you go last"..... :lol:

So how was your first time????

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This prompted me to have a look through my old trip reports and find the first one...
It was in fact GB Hole in Mendip (a cave not a mine); the thing that sticks in my memory best is the writing that was above the entrance

NO NOVICES - NO CARBIDE

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Oh crapsky.... Bl**dy Carbide lamps... :lol:
I had the original carbide lamps with replaceable bases bought if i remember correctly from caving supplies at Buxton......
Another first memory was the amount of carbon Graffiti on the walls from the damn things! 😞 not that I ever left my mark as a young explorer or took a piece of Galena... noooooooooo not me 😉

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My first was when me & my mate Kevin (sadly long gone) went to explore Lowlands No.2, a footrall near Kidsgrove one Sun afternoon in 1970.
We got about half way down the dip when we were met by two irate colliers, who wanted to know what we were playing at.
Quick as a flash Kev replied that we were passing & had seen a little lad go down & we were trying to find him.
One collier replied that if we were just passing why is yer mate (me) wearing a pit 'at & lamp!
He took our names (Kev was fast enough to give a false one but not me) & school.
Not a great day out, I fell off my bike on the way home & broke my shoulder. It was the 13th Dec - funny I remembered the date.
We also got a bo***cking off the headmaster when I returned to school, but he decided not to tell my parents, as I'd suffered enough 😞

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Absolutely outstanding.... :thumbsup:

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The Cumberland entrance is completely blocked off these days, although the Troggs' graffiti is still there.....

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Yes I had noticed on one of my walks.... was there not a proposal to re-open it at one point... late 90s perhaps...

I remember seeing the troggs mess and rubbish in various parts of Cumberland...

Still one of my favourites though, thinking this thru my first trips were

Cumberland & Wapping
Devonshire
Owlet
Long Tor (top and bottom)
Jug Holes
Masson
Hagg
Ball Eye

I think that lot probably qualifies as a nice classic introduction to the underground.... for me at any rate... :thumbsup:

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I think people have muttered about attacking the Cumberland entrance but the landowner's not keen. The rubbish has mostly been removed though.

That list is certainly a good start to the Derbyshire mines, though Owlet is now inaccessible thanks to some over-enthusiastic security measures by the Arkwright society, and Ball Eye is gated with no access. Long Tor grotto has also been altered by Severn Trent at the riverside so the storm drain water that gets into it now backs up inside the level, leading to a particularly unpleasant wade through black stagnant water and mud to get in and out... :curse:

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What has the Arkwright Society got to do with Owlet? Isn't this mine a PDHMS project/doesn't PDHMS control access?
Being involved in one or two things in the area, I have gained the impression that the Arkwright Society has control of rather too much and of things which it really has no buisness or valid interest in. If the above impression is correct (and if actions have been accurately reported) it would explain a number of negative impacts in areas not connected with what should be the function of the Society.
Comments please regarding the above impression and on how the Arkwright Society has gained this power.

The Arkwrights either lease or own outright Slinter Wood (not sure which). Given the upper Owlet Hole entrance is right by a footpath, it does need securing and they do have a legal duty to sort this out - unfortunately they barred rather than gated it. The lower bit of Owlet Hole is gated, although it's apparently been padlocked since I last visited it. Most of the other Slinter Wood workings such as Cowhole pipe are still accessible.

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Cowhole pipe is that the one behind New Tribes mission off the back of the top path?
Regs ICC

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RE. Owlet Mine and the Arkwrights - did they not and should they not laise with PDHMS? Surely this mine should remain accessible if not for sporting interest but for it's historic value? If my impression (previous post) is correct the Arkwright Society is not well known for co-operation. I hope I am wrong and if not then that things will change.

The barring happened before I joined PDMHS so I can't comment on what discussion did or didn't take place beforehand....

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I lived in cromford most of my life ..well from my teens, I remember finding a small "cave/mine" above the mill near top of the wood, it had a small pool with pearls and a stalacmite in the middle.that area, balleye , wapping, cromford court (as was) and upperwood. including cumberland when it was a show cave (pre teens) was my playground in and out of the mines in balleye quarry before they blew em away, that was in the days of carbide or candles or the old bullseye torch, every day was an adventure, now long gone. I would also think that because the gell family owned most of the area in and around via gellia that they would be the people to say yes or no to requests,

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Coooool.... tell me this what was the sough like tunnel immediatley behind what became New Tribes Mission... It was a nice crawl as the tree roots had grown into the floor making a soft carpet.... when i went it was blocked after 100feet...

There was an open level into the top of the hill above that and I wonder if that was Cowhole...

Both been a mystery to me for years although i have been into both....

Think I have a pic of the lower one which seemed to have had a wooden gate at some time...

Regards IANCC 🙂

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hi, will have to look at my notes (gettin old..brain dead i think..i think) there was a large landslide there many years ago which changed the footpath behind the mission. at the junction of the path. one leads to upperwood (straight up) one leads to masson mill via a lot of steps ( to the right) on the left was an old mine with a shaft further in just to the left of the entrance is another hole which is/was quite interesting it ended in the mine, an oriental gentleman tried to throw me off the land once ,,he never tried again ! up and above the mission was a mine which headed towards the mission from underground on an incline, think it was run by barton and banks the mining duo of the time, a friend of mine was killed in there. further along the path to cromford are some rocks on your right, there is some levels in there but probably blocked now, there is a shaft just past thet on the right hand bend just over the wall, seems to be blocked, always wondered if this system was the level mine talked of in the old days, have you heard of it. cheers iw

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Thinking about the Owlet Mine/Slinter Wood discussion above are they not at different locations? Owlet Mine is in Matlock Bath and owned by PDMHS. Slinter Wood is on the Via Gellia. Is it Owlet Mine that is blocked off now and if so by who? What mines are potentially under threat now that Slinter Wood and Dunsley Meadows are owned by the Arkwright Society (assuming the latter organisation is unsympathetic towards/unaware of the need to preserve these and maintain access?

Owlet is MB and Slinterwood is VG... no idea re ownership... I must admit I was surprised to hear Arkwright lot owned/managed it!

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Owlet Mine was recently recapped by the coffin dodgers - len and ralf etc
it is locked and the key can be got tfrom the meseum and they will also copy some surveys for you if you ask nicely
len and ralf also fixed the laddrds
MrC did you help with that lid?

my first trip waS in box with my dad before the gates were fixed

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No that's not one of mine!

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