I am new to the forum but not to exploring/surveying, my background is in aquatic exploration of coastal cliff base features until 3 years ago when by pure chance I stumbled across a deep adit that had been uncovered by a storm. The silver mine (1834-1846) located on Little Sark was of special interest to me because my Great Grandpa x 6 was one of the Cornish Mine captains employed by The Sark Mining Company.

The landowner where the mine is situated has granted unlimited access only to a small team including myself and 3 other emergency services personnel from Sark Fire and Rescue who specialize in cliff rescue including rope/harness/winch work. Our primary objective is to survey the mine, collect samples and record all data.

I will hopefully start a Member Journal or Member Project thread on our progress and look forward to other forum members input and suggestions!

Cheers
Andy
Guernsey

Welcome !

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I am new to the forum but not to exploring/surveying, my background is in aquatic exploration of coastal cliff base features until 3 years ago when by pure chance I stumbled across a deep adit that had been uncovered by a storm. The silver mine (1834-1846) located on Little Sark was of special interest to me because my Great Grandpa x 6 was one of the Cornish Mine captains employed by The Sark Mining Company.

The landowner where the mine is situated has granted unlimited access only to a small team including myself and 3 other emergency services personnel from Sark Fire and Rescue who specialize in cliff rescue including rope/harness/winch work. Our primary objective is to survey the mine, collect samples and record all data.

I will hopefully start a Member Journal or Member Project thread on our progress and look forward to other forum members input and suggestions!

Cheers
Andy
Guernsey

Robert Waterhouse (Archaeologist for the Societe Jersiaisse) and I exhaustively surveyed the mine in 2010 - 2011 for a private client.

At the time of the our survey we were informed that Engine Shaft blocks at circa 30m depth. I've been over the edge on rope in 2010 and had a look see but did not bother bottoming it as this certainly looked to be the case.

Down in the zawn there are two adits, one above each other. The upper adit (we took a builders ladder with us) is a short trial which ends as a blind a couple of metres in. Below that is the true deep adit which starts in a sea cave. This encounters the run in Le Pelley's (if memory serves) Shaft a couple of meters in.

This thread may be of interest

https://www.aditnow.co.uk/community/viewtopic.aspx?t=8607&txtSearch=sark&lblnWhere=all&lblnMatch=any 

So no chance of getting any of them silver speckies out then? :devil:

So no chance of getting any of them silver speckies out then? :devil:

We probably "dumped" 5 ton of silver ore down the shaft when accessing the Deep Adit lol! 😉

Hi Tamarmole,

Thank you for the info if my suspicions are correct I think your Sark "private client" is David who I have known for many years and is the exploration team's mine history consultant. David has also kindly granted the team access to your excellent survey data to give us a more detailed understanding of the mine and it's environs.
The team has accessed the deep adit to the Hope Shaft (also descended it) and we are preparing to access the shallow adit through it's cliff face entrance about 10m below the cliff path.

I would greatly appreciate any input, information and advice!
Cheers
Andy

Hi Tamarmole,

Thank you for the info if my suspicions are correct I think your Sark "private client" is David who I have known for many years and is the exploration team's mine history consultant. David has also kindly granted the team access to your excellent survey data to give us a more detailed understanding of the mine and it's environs.
The team has accessed the deep adit to the Hope Shaft (also descended it) and we are preparing to access the shallow adit through it's cliff face entrance about 10m below the cliff path.

I would greatly appreciate any input, information and advice!
Cheers
Andy

Correct.

Sounds like you are making good progress underground. Good luck and stay safe.

Down in the zawn there are two adits, one above each other. The upper adit (we took a builders ladder with us) is a short trial which ends as a blind a couple of metres in. Below that is the true deep adit which starts in a sea cave. This encounters the run in Le Pelley's (if memory serves) Shaft a couple of meters in.

Whoops, not Le Pelley's - Sark's Hope is the run in shaft encountered just inside the portal.