Brightling Gypsum Mine · AditNow Community

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River
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

16 years ago

Thanks for the pics of the old aerial ropeway,there's not a lot left of it now,just a few of the cable car bodies minus lids,and by the Oxley Green bridge,a short distance down a public footpath,a short length of the running cable and some of the smaller section haulage cable.There's also a mangled sign in some holly bushes saying "Aerial Ropeway in operation"
The conveyor's looking abit battered these days,and doesn't seem to run much.

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derrickman
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

16 years ago

I posted in another thread, that I thought the conveyor had been aborted, because the work promised to the contractor ( Miller Buckley ) in the mid-80s seemed to lead nowhere.

from previous post, this seems to be a mistake on my part

tell me more?

''the stopes soared beyond the range of our caplamps' - David Bick...... How times change .... oh, I don't know, I've still got a lamp like that.

River
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

16 years ago

Hello derrickman,
the conveyor was in very regular use up until a few years back
my mother was always moaning about the strange whirr that seemed to come from the mines-as she put it!Miller Buckley.l'd forgotten all about that name,and l think the conveyor was finished in the late 80's from memory.The ropeway was all but
completely dismantled at that time,some said it all went to Russia,but l don't know for sure.The old cable cars looked very odd in such rural surroundings,some of their supporting pylons were very high.There were,l believe,3 "corner stations" that looked like meccano gone mad,but very compelling to watch.Some pics of the system,both ropeway and conveyor,are on the flickr photo site.

derrickman
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

16 years ago

I was there in 1986 with Millers. They went into receivership and reorganised again later that year in rather dubious circumstances.

The Daniels brothers were the mining subcontractors and their work consisted of various support works in the drift ( there was a faulted area requiring bolting ) and excavating footings for the conveyor beneath the buckets.

There was a subsequent contract to construct a bunker for the conveyor.

from the looks of the cabins in the photos, they could be the ones left behind by Miller Buckley, they are the right colour.

''the stopes soared beyond the range of our caplamps' - David Bick...... How times change .... oh, I don't know, I've still got a lamp like that.

River
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

16 years ago

Hello derrickman,
l thought something like that happened,but wasn't sure.l don't even really know why they did away with the ropeway,maybe the conveyor was going to be cheaper to run in the long term.
lt must've been very tight working in the adit with the cable cars still there.There is another tricky place in Darwell Wood which is always very damp and muddy too,must have been difficult to build stable foundations for the ropeway towers especially,which were very tall there.l'll try to take some photos of the little that's left of the ropeway next time l'm in the area. l l don't know the actual last day of operation though,or even who made the ropeway.

derrickman
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

16 years ago

the work in the drift was all done at night, the ropeway didn't work between about 10pm and 6am. There certainly wasn't a lot of room to work.

Millers were trying to get into mining work at that time, but i think they found British Gypsum were just too difficult to do business with. Then the receivership intervened and I think they just gave it up as a bad job.

a former member of Miller's management set himself up as a consultant around that time and I did hear that the daniels brothers did the remaining work, and the work on the bunker, with him as Project Manager.

I was due to go to another mining job in the SouthWest, a place called Meldon Quarry, but I never did go.. I left Millers during the receivership changeround

''the stopes soared beyond the range of our caplamps' - David Bick...... How times change .... oh, I don't know, I've still got a lamp like that.

River
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

16 years ago

Sounds like you may have got out at the right time.Went up to Brightling this afternoon dodging the showers,and took a few pics of what's left of the ropeway.
Meldon Quarry,l'm sure that's where the railway got their track ballast from.
There's certainly not much of the aerial ropeway left up at Brightling though.