royfellows
16 years ago
Yes, but I am single and can still pull them!
My avatar is a poor likeness.
davel
  • davel
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16 years ago
No comment ...

Dave
Roy Morton
16 years ago
"davel" wrote:

Yeah ... but I'm not (quite) as old as you! 🙂

Dave



You only have to look at Roy's avatar to see that! :angel:
"You Chinese think of everything!"
"But I''m not Chinese!"
"Then you must have forgotten something!"
Cornish Pixie
16 years ago
And I can vouch for the fact that Roy can still nip up many an incline, stope, rope or mountain, leaving us younger folk standing still!! :thumbup:
Den heb davaz a gollaz i dir
Roy Morton
16 years ago
Ah! ....Now!.... Which Roy would that be? ::)
"You Chinese think of everything!"
"But I''m not Chinese!"
"Then you must have forgotten something!"
Cornish Pixie
16 years ago
Well the 2 Roys on here are both incredibly fit, but only one wears shades while he is prusiking!! :thumbup:
Den heb davaz a gollaz i dir
dwarrowdelf
14 years ago
"grahami" wrote:

:offtopic: My favourite is Lord of the RIngs - for the bit about Moria, now a 40 mile (?) wide "delving" has got to be good! I like to think of Oakeley as Moria, with the Lake at one end (Cwmorthin) and the vast halls illuminated by shafts of light at the other (Oakeley/Welsh Slate).

Cheers

Grahami







I noticed this on my first trip to Cwmorthin. The similarities may be pure coincidence, but there are just too many such coincidences here, eg the lake, it's general shape and forboding atmosphere, the position of the lake level adit in relation to the lake, the size of the chambers,the bridges in danger of collapse, the many floors and the vast scale of the place.
I have read somewhere that Tolkein was interested in Wales and the Welsh language, but have had no success so far in finding out if he actually based his Mines of Moria on Cwmorthin/Oakeley. His books which are a firm favourite of mine, are influenced by so many different folk traditions, mythologies and places and have such an erudite background to them that its left me wondering ever since I set eyes on Cwmorthin! 🙂
'I wonder how many breakfasts, and other meals we have missed inside that nasty clockless, timeless hole?'

'The Hobbit'
J R R Tolkien.
lab rat
14 years ago
My favorite book is 'Biology of Extreme Survival', then 'Extreme Medicine' and 'Wilderness Medicine', then the 'Caving Bible', then 'Wild'.
Love it . . . 🙂
davel
  • davel
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14 years ago
How about Winnie-the-Pooh? There's an underground incident in that which comes to mind occasionally when I am underground. (I am reluctant to say more for fear of reprisals.)

Dave
lab rat
14 years ago
pooh gets stuck in rabbits hole :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Love it . . . 🙂
davel
  • davel
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14 years ago
Hmm ... that's not quite how I would have phrased it ...

Dave
lab rat
14 years ago
i know - thats why i put it up instead! :lol: :lol:
Love it . . . 🙂
Vanoord
14 years ago
"grahami" wrote:

:offtopic: My favourite is Lord of the RIngs - for the bit about Moria, now a 40 mile (?) wide "delving" has got to be good! I like to think of Oakeley as Moria, with the Lake at one end (Cwmorthin) and the vast halls illuminated by shafts of light at the other (Oakeley/Welsh Slate).

Cheers

Grahami



Honourable mention for the film of Lord of the Rings - somehow, the Moria scenes seemed to get the sound right for being underground.

A slightly odd way of considering it, but it seemed all the more authentic because of it.
Hello again darkness, my old friend...
Teigl
  • Teigl
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14 years ago
Any book that has "M. J. T. Lewis" on it as author or co-author. My favourite non-mining book has to be "Railway Adventure" or "Narrow Boat" by LTC Rolt, agree with John on that one. :thumbsup:
If the phone didn''t ring, it was probably me.
RJV
  • RJV
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14 years ago
Anything by Len Deighton would be my first answer though a feasible connection to mining unfortunately eludes me at the moment. Otherwise The Ironstone Mines and Railways of Cleveland and Rosedale by TE Rounthwaite. Actually a collection of articles from the Railway Observer rather than a purposefully written book but dating as they do from the industry's dying days in the 1960s they have a very different air about them to the modern Cleveland literature.
Tamarmole
14 years ago
"RJV" wrote:

Anything by Len Deighton would be my first answer though a feasible connection to mining unfortunately eludes me at the moment. Otherwise The Ironstone Mines and Railways of Cleveland and Rosedale by TE Rounthwaite. Actually a collection of articles from the Railway Observer rather than a purposefully written book but dating as they do from the industry's dying days in the 1960s they have a very different air about them to the modern Cleveland literature.



I "discovered" Rounthwaite in the late 80s. His articles inspired me to start exploring the mines and tramway systems of Great Ayton and further afield. This led to me seek out the (late) Richard Pepper who introduced me to mine exploration (Moument Mine at Great Ayton being my first mine trip). Splendid stuff.
dwarrowdelf
14 years ago
"grahami" wrote:

:offtopic: My favourite is Lord of the RIngs - for the bit about Moria, now a 40 mile (?) wide "delving" has got to be good! I like to think of Oakeley as Moria, with the Lake at one end (Cwmorthin) and the vast halls illuminated by shafts of light at the other (Oakeley/Welsh Slate).

Cheers

Grahami




This maybe an idle speculation, but I find it more than a little creepy that the Mines of Moria in 'The Lord of the Rings' was the scene of a terrible massacre, and Cwmorthin itself was traditionaly known as the 'Slaughterhouse' on account of the large number of men who died there.
I also seem to remember Tolkien's description of a winding or zigzag path up a mountain - the man-way up the tips at Oakeley by any chance?

At the time of the Lord of the Rings films, a number of books were published which discussed the background to Tolkien's master- work. I have consulted some of these but still can't find any indication that the Welsh slate industy found its way into ' The Lord of the Rings'. However, many influences on the author probably went undocumented, and short of asking Tolkien himself - now impossible, perhaps we will never know for certain.
'I wonder how many breakfasts, and other meals we have missed inside that nasty clockless, timeless hole?'

'The Hobbit'
J R R Tolkien.
Teigl
  • Teigl
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14 years ago
Yes, Lord of the Rings...I loved the Moria sequences! (In the book and in the film).We're all familiar with that great noise that the orc skull made when that "Damn fool of a Took" dropped it down the shaft...lol!

Allan Garner's superb "Wierdstone of Brisingamen" has a great chapter about the West Mine at Alderley Edge...he must have gone down there at some point to write about it so well.

If the phone didn''t ring, it was probably me.
Wormster
14 years ago
Errr............

Hows about Arthur Ransome's book "Pigeon Post", its got the lot! or Bevis The Story Of A Boy, by Richard Jefferies, no mining but honest childhood adventures.
just my 2p
Better to regret something you have done - than to regret something you have not done.
Vanoord
14 years ago
" dwarrowdelf" wrote:

This maybe an idle speculation, but I find it more than a little creepy that the Mines of Moria in 'The Lord of the Rings' was the scene of a terrible massacre , and Cwmorthin itself was traditionaly known as the 'Slaughterhouse' on account of the large number of men who died there.



To be fair, Cwmorthin's attrition rate wasn't any worse than most other slate mines!

Hello again darkness, my old friend...
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