Hi all;

Just did a search and found this:
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=30749 

I had heard of there being a few quarries in the area, but not much info was coming to light, any pointers?

regards

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Just had a look at the pics and it looks very much like facit quarry (underground) shawforth near rochdale. CRO did a rescue there many years ago and left chalk arrows to find your way back to the entrance. Iam going down there on the 13th september to take pics, will be keen to see if they are like those on 28DL. There is a rumour that the mine links up with a quarry in stacksteads in another valley, my mate and I will be trying to find that though route, will keep you all informed of any developments.

My advice is take care. I have been down these a couple of times and have always come out (un-intentionally) from a different entrance from the one I entered. The air quality is also variable in places. I have never known a mine where everywhere looked the same.

There is a nice crane with some blocks waiting to be loaded.

Best of luck.

My advice is take care. I have been down these a couple of times and have always come out (un-intentionally) from a different entrance from the one I entered. The air quality is also variable in places. I have never known a mine where everywhere looked the same.

There is a nice crane with some blocks waiting to be loaded.

Best of luck.

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I have been in before a few times many years ago and yes everywhere does look the same! will try to locate the crane never seen that before. There are also some mines above the main road in Waterfoot, smaller than this one but much the same, not any artifacts that i can remember. Thanks for the luck i might need it!!

Sorry, my last post didnt seem to work; thanks for the replies
Yes good luck, wouldn't mind taking a look myself some-day; is there a survey of the place by any chance?

regards

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There is no survey i know weather CRO has one after the rescue i dont know, but i've roped in another mate to help out and we might me able to map some of it. We aren't going to see it all in one go, no one really knows how big this place is.Also the railway ran very close by in the valley, disused now so I'll be looking for inclines or any other clues which might indicate if they used the railway or not.

Just been down this saturday, posted a few pics will post rest on tuesday, BIG mine. will post more details Tuesday.

Oh! Great work!

Did you find the crane?

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i regularly drive past the facit mill on my way to the bacup coal mines is that the area where these are as there are lots of quarries higher up the hill there.keep meaning to have a wander about up there.

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Sorry no crane on this trip, hopeful for the next one.

Yeah facit mine is among the quarries high up, the map ref is 883201, go up oak street, on the left coming from rochdale to bacup and park up near some modern housing. a public footpath is opposite the end of oak st. take this up to the pine trees and turn left. 100 yards on is a stile, go over this and make your way up a waste tip of stone to your left. up here is another stile and over this is a quarry area were motocross bikes go. the entrance is a chamber worked through to daylight in the crag across the way ( see pics, facit sandstone mine)
:thumbup:

got all the photo's up now, hopefully i will have some more soon.
Thanks Graham for the old map, most interesting 😉

Greetings,

This is a copy of my post to the deerplay Mines Thread. I am the owner of the mines at Facit Quarry, and was interested to see your pictures - nice work. I was last down there about 15 years ago with a sines safety consultant, who took some good pictures.

I would like to discuss withe someone the whole issue of access, safety and indemnity. My aim is not to prevent access, but to ensure that only suitably experienced people enter these mines, and that they do so at their own risk. If I am able to get some kind of agreement or protocol in place, I will be happy to permit access. If not, then the safety and indemnity problems will force me to seal off the entrances again. I will check back on this forum from time to time to check responses. Yours expectantly, Mine Owner.

PS I also have old maps amnd extensive documentation of these and various other mines in the Whiworth Valley. (Mountain Coal Mine in particular) which may be interesting to members.

IP: 88.202.192.14

Hi Facit Mine Owner,

There are several excellent negotiated access agreements in place with particular landowners at various locations throughout the UK, with particular refference to the Box Mines in Wiltshire & more recently Cwmorthin slate mine in N. Wales.

See http://www.cwmorthin.quicksite.info/page.asp?id=25 

I'm sure that someone from Friends of Cwmorthin could give you a lot more advice/details of the agreement reached with the landowner there.

It would be excellent if you could upload some of the old maps and documentation for this and other mines in the Whitworth Valley to the database under the particular mine name concerned (photographs need to be in JPEG format & documents PDF format) 😉

Cheers,

Jimbo

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Hi Facit Mine Owner

Have activated your PM access now as requested so hopefully, either here on the forum or between you and interested parties some sort of mutually beneficial access agreement can be put in place as Jimbo says.

The Cwmorthin example is a very good one, the mine has it's own insurance policy meaning any suitably equipped underground explorer can access the mine by requesting the keycode. Another area that works well is Nenthead where mines are gated with large heavy swing gates.

Thanks,
Simon

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Incidently the person on the 28days site is a very experienced mine explorer its not me but I know who it is

I would like to say thanks to Jimbo and Simonrl for the quick response they have given to mr facit-mine-owner. I hope to be able to meet up with him so I can address any issues he may have. :angel:

I think we must applaud the owner on his common sense approach. Please note that Landowner Indemnity Insurance is available through the BCA. If there is a cost for this I for one am prepared to contribute.