Driving to Redruth for work as usual on Saturday I noticed that Camborne shaft has had a large fence put up around it and a smaller one on the inside.

It's not the best thing that could have happened as it makes it stick out like a sore thumb when before you would have never known it was there.

I have a feeling it will be capped soon as it is right by the road and now that attention has been drawn to it I am sure people will get their knickers in a twist about it being open. From what I know it is a shaft that 'goes' and people have explored it in the past.

This post is just a heads up for anyone who wishes to get a look in before any possible capping operation is carried out.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&safe=off&q=scorrier&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Scorrier,+Redruth,+Cornwall,+United+Kingdom&gl=uk&ei=E69NTJXWIJHQjAfFxIHYDA&ved=0CBcQ8gEwAA&ll=50.256379,-5.181671&spn=0.000916,0.002406&t=h&z=19 

I didn't get any photos, it's pretty much the same style of double fencing they did down in poldice and consols but the outer fence is very high up. The height of the fence should stop people chucking larger objects down the shaft but with the large laybye there I can forsee people chucking smaller stuff down the shaft and dumping larger items around it. Drawing attention to that shaft was a damn silly idea.

I can't work out who did the capping from driving by but there are a few signs stuck in the ground around it with a warning sign, there may be a small contact number or company name on the signs.

Mr Rosewarne is the chap opposite. He's a nice bloke and has Buckingham's Shaft in his garden, as well as another. Both being capped (minecap 80's), I presume. I gather that Wheal Busy has been explored in the past but the air was very dodgy at best and barely breathable at worst.

My concern is that they will try and cap it along with the other Lord Falmouth owned shafts at Hallenbeagle during the super duper industrial estate project which is due to kick off pretty much now.

The air in there is marginal and if you worry about gas meter readings, it's no better than 15% and at points is barely breathable.

That whole tract of mine (from North Downs through to Creegbrawse) has marginal ventilation and ever atom counts, capping it could affect various bat habitats, which is a concern.

Busy has been open for a while and people have been keeping quiet about it, as the shaft was so close to the road and any fuss may have resulted in it being capped. It really is a sore thumb now and a proper invite to be used as a bin.

A few Wheal Briggan shafts got done when Wheal Peevor was "improved". I can see the same thing happening here.

Again, it's the only way in to a bit of very marginal air and I gather it's one to take very very carefully indeed. Note well.

How much does lord Falmouth own?

Loads.

L/F was planning some pretty big stuff in the 80's with the Wheal Busy site and now it seems there is something pretty large in the offing at Hallenbeagle just over the hill instead.

Read:-

http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=24640 

Particularly Chapter 5.

I'd like to see the shafts fitted with secure bat castles rather than plugged.

I gather it is policy to fit open shafts with bat castles these days, but what constitutes "open" is probably subject to debate. I'm not sure how much of a historian/mining enthusiast LF is, but judging by the past sound-offs, he's probably not that bothered.

there's no reason he should be.

Bear in mind that these historic mining operations were developed for purely commercial reasons, on behalf of people who in quite a few cases never saw them; he is just carrying on the tradition, in that sense.



I'm also not very comfortable with the whole idea of exploration of marginally breathable workings. One of my contemporaries at CSM was suffocated in Wheal Jane in the 70s; when I was working on the London Water Ring Main project in the 80s, there was a double suffocation involving a young engineer who went inside a sealed welded pipe at the bottom of a shaft out of curiosity, apparently not realising that it was sealed because it contained an inert atmosphere, and of course his 16-year-old chainman went in as well.

I was in Aberdeen about 3 years ago when a triple suffocation occurred on a vessel tied up about 3 berths along, in this case involving Polish seamen accessing a former chain locker with a single access and no ventilation, who had left their BA outside because of the small size of the hatch. Again, one went in when his mate didn't reappear, etc.

these things aren't remotely amusing, either at the time or subsequently.

I wouldn't go into places like that. I was interested a while ago in a trip into some old ironstone workings in Northants, but dropped it when people started talking about poor breathability. I do at times, get the impression that this forum contains a fair few people who don't understand the nature and probability of the risks they are taking.

Actually cavers can be just as bad, although the practices of "squeezing" boulder chokes and the amateur use of explosives in digs appear to be much less common than they once were

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Me creating this thread was in no means an attempt to encourage people to go into bad air, it was just a heads up for anyone who had an interest in this particular area of mines down in Cornwall.

It's the last open point of access to a very historic mine site and bad air or no bad air it is still a loss if it ends up being capped.

Indeed.

I totally get the sentiment of redevelopment of the whole site, after all, it's just a load of tailings which have been spread around at various times.

However, the geology and underground features are historic and in my opinion are important that they are not sterilised. In my opinion, the underground remains are of higher value than a lot of the surface ruins.

It's academic as you can't educate pork. Even if you put together a wonderful TV Series on the wonders of Cornish mining remains, the same bucktoothed idiots would be demanding that it was all concreted up forever in the interest of Auntie Gill's poodle being off the lead (and probably crapping everywhere).

I have faith that the modern unitary council has a better approach to dealing with the remains in a cost effective, safe way. ie:- Put a fence around it and a cone over it and if anyone manages to fall down it, they deserve to be removed from the gene pool!

Rant, moan, etc.


Edit:- Rather than the bad air, the deep shafts are the barrier to entry in the area. Busy shallow adit is 250ft there. County adit is about 110m or so.

I have seen one or two old shafts capped with grates and locks, then a wall, I guess to allow those who are properly equipped to go back down to explore, assuming you could find out who the Key holders are.

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Time to drop the gas meter down there again Stu. If in imminent danger of capping exploration might have to happen sooner rather than later.

Interesting that all of the surface remains are listed buildings but the underground workings are closed off. Particularly since the arsenic calciner is coated in extremely poisonous stuff, which imo is much more of a potential threat to little Timmy (or indeed Auntie Gill's poodle) than a clearly marked hole with a fence around it.

It's a shame that there aren't other open shafts in the area to allow ventilation. Wheal Busy is historically of great interest and should be preserved. Anyone know what's down there to see? If Killifreth is anything to go by, some truely ancient ocherous stalagtite formation and the feeling that it has been left to the knockers for a long, long time.

Edit: went and poked around up here this evening, and did the pebble drop test. Sure is a long way down, and that fence looks like the first step on the way to capping.

It's probably a good idea to let this thread lie now. Before there are a coachful of people throwing themselves down it.