I thought I recognised the handsome chap in this photo that popped up as the "random photo" on the home page 😉

I enjoyed that trip :thumbsup:

Photograph:

🔗Magpie-Sough-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-49144[linkphoto]Magpie-Sough-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-49144[/linkphoto][/link]

From memory the workings were on the right hand side of the sough, after one passed the "Boil up", they were known as Blende Vein. The workings were before one encountered the bricked up wall with the square hole in, which separated the sough from the mine workings that led into the stopes and the main shaft. Mr. Varvill (of Millclose Mine fame) adviser to Derbyshire Stone Ltd who then held the mineral rights during the time of "Op Mole's" exploration in the early 1960'was very interested in this ore body and we took a grab sample out for him. He wrote a report about it. I had the privilege of visiting Mr. Varvill and his wife after they retired and lived in a flat on Southsea front in the early 1960's (Nellie Kirkham introduced us), he was extremely deaf but we had a very enjoyable and interesting evening with him, and afterwards he sent me a copy of his articles on Millclose Mine which (from memory) had been printed in "Mine and Quarrying" Magazine. These articles are in my papers which I deposited at the Derbyshire Record Office, Matlock in 2000.

This photo brought back memories, my last trip was early 1963 just before the sough tail collapsed, when Paul Deakin, my No. 2 ex Reg Howard and myself carried out a basic survey from the "Boil-up" to the main shaft, which Nick Butcher used in his article on Magpie sough (see list of articles below). I still have my mud smeared readings in a note book which I jotted down at the time of the survey, which was carried out using carbide lamps and wearing yellow ex-naval dry suits. I also have a black and white photograph of the wooden launder which was found in the mine workings in the passage leading to the main shaft, I must put that up on AN when I find it.

If you are interested in articles about Magpie mine and sough, the following have been printed in PDMHS's Bulletins and Mining History publications:-

"The Magpie Mine and Sough" by J. Matthews
Vol.1, No.3, May 1960. PDMHS Bulletin

"Magpie Mine and the Garlick Family 1881-1930" by Ivor J Brown. Vol.4, No.4. December, 1970 PDMHS Bulletin.

"Magpie Mine and the Bacon Family 1930-1951" by Ivor J Brown. Vol.5, No. 1. April, 1972 PDMHS Bulletin

"Geology of the Blende Vein, Magpie Sough" by N.E. Worley
Vol.6, No.1, May, 1975 PDMHS Bulletin

"The Geology of Magpie Sough and Mine" by N.J.D. Butcher
Vol.6, No.2, October, 1975 PDMHS Bulletin

"The Re-opening of the Magpie Sough" by Lynn Willies
"A survey of Maypit and Red Soil Mines, Sheldon" by Lynn
Willies.
Vol.5, No.6, October 1974 PDMHS Bulletin

"Maypit and Red Soil Mines": Comment and Reply ---
Nellie Kirkham and Lynn Willies.
Vol.6, No. 1, May 1975 PDMHS Bulletin

"Mine Drainage and Water Resources" by Roger James
Vol.13, No. 4, Winter 1997 Mining History

"Letters to the Editor - Mine Drainage and Water Resources by Dr. Roger James. Bull PDMHS Vol.13, No.4 (1997)pp.74-80" by Margaret L. Howard (formerly Oakley)
Vol.14, No.2, Winter 1999 p.p.66-67 Mining History

"Geophysical Survey at Magpie Mine, near Sheldon to identify the Position of the 1840 Winding House and it's Boiler House" by John Barnett and Robert Vernon.
Vol.16, No.5, 2007 Mining History

Incidently the PDMHS "Bulletin" changed it's name to "Mining History" from Vol.13, No.1 Winter, 1997 onwards.

Two other interesting articles in other publications about Magpie mine and sough are:-

"Explosion at Magpie, Derbyshire" by Harry Parker,
Derbyshire Caving Association Newsletter No. 5, 1966.

"Magpie Mine and It's Tragedy" by Nellie Kirkham
Derbyshire Miscellany Vol.2, No.8, September, 1962

Derbyshire Local Study Libraries should be able to help in obtaining copies of these articles as they stock copies of PDMHS publications along with Derbyshire Archaeological Society's Local History Section's bulletin entititled "Derbyshire Miscellany".

John Palmer on his very informative Wirksworth Parish Records website has detailed in full, information concerning the murders that took place at the Magpie Mine. The link to his website is:-

http://www.wirksworth.org.uk/REDSOIL.htm 

He has scanned a 35 page booklet entitled "Trial of the Persons charged with the Murder of Thomas Wager, Isaac Bagshaw and Francis Taylor in the RED SOIL Mine at Sheldon, near Ashford on Monday September 2 1833" and accompanying this booklet are photographs of the surface of Magpie mine which includes the Red Soil mine, also maps and lots more information which is very interesting.

Yes, a great shame you cannot now get through to the main shaft from the sough although I think we must have been pretty close. I guess there is now no way to visit the shaft other than veiwing the top?

The blende vein chamber was most impressive as were the underground lock gates.

The temperature change of the water once the boil up was passed was quite noticable.

Couldn't help thinking the journey back out would be much better with a rubber ring or similar 🙂

We always took old lorry inner tubes with us in our numerous trips up the sough (I think I did 15 trips) and boated out on them which made life a lot easier. It was good fun too. The arched part of the sough containing metal arches hadn't collapsed then and all in all it was a good trip, apart from the dicey entrance bit at the sough tail. We were also able to explore a few of the stopes on the left hand side of the mine after climbing through the "hole in the wall" after leaving the sough. There were also rail lines on the raised part of the sough from the "hole in the wall" back down past Blende Vein. The stopes in the mine were in a pretty dangerous then, and there was an abundance of long stringy root fungi (the same as encountered in Hillcarr sough when we explored that in July, 1962) hanging down everywhere. I took an excellent black and white photo of one set of the lock gates (which were then in a reasonable condition) with my Agfa box camera and flash gun, must find that too and put it up on AN.

Would be interested to see those pictures. How far could you get up the stopes? We didn't go too far.

I've been reading through several of the old bulletin articles in preparation for the talk I gave to the Sheldon local history group last night.....

From what I remember of ths stopes at the far end of the sough, they didn't look very nice, a section of the floor towards the shaft had collapsed and although the rails were still hanging in space there wasn't much supporting them so we didn't try traversing over the gap on them. Might take an electron ladder on a future visit and try getting into the space below, from memory it was about 20' down.

---

We walked a little way in the opposite direction I think, the floor did look a little shaky and we kept our feet on the rails, we certainly didn't get to the end of anything though and turned back as the group was waiting for us.

I seem to recall a gap in the side wall were you could look through into the stope below but may be confusing it with somewhere else :confused:

Hi,

I am the photographer and was the Leader. Glad you enjoyed the trip. I posted a number of photographs on the site. If you need any copy's you are welcome to have them,just e mail me
and I can send them over.