Ok, I wrote this lot up a while back, some recollections from my mining days, might be a few technical misdescriptions/errors etc but then I'm not a mining engineer.


Ok this is just the recollections of some typical days working down my first mine, that mine was South Crofty tin mine at Pool Crossroads between Camborne and Redruth.
It was 1972 I was 23 years old, I only worked there for couple of years at most but boy what a learning curve.
I was working as a radio/tv engineer back then, I finished half day one week and drove over to South Crofty tin mine, I had never been underground before except when we were kids exploring the copper mines at Alderly Edge in Cheshire.
I found the Mine Captains office and he happened to be there “Can you give us a start” I said “Yes” he said “Be in the miners dry by 5.30 am this coming Monday” 5.30 am, I was normally going to bed then!
I turned up with some spare old clothes, a flask of tea, some butties and crisps and a bottle of Robo's Barley Water, they fixed me up with some boots, a hard hat, an Oldham cap lamp and battery belt and a tally tag. There were about 10 of us as new recruits.
“Ok pard' “ (Cornish for partner) said the mine captain “ Your all going down to the 310 fathom level” (below adit) “The shift bosses name down there is a Mr Salmon” We were duly escorted to the headgear by a miner, he was to ride down with us in the cage down to 310, the cage was a double decker very small floor plan, the banksman squeezed 5 of us in the top deck and 6 in the other then he dropped the cage gates on, the miner shouted to us to switch our cap lamps on, the cage slowly started to descend until it reached maximum speed which was quite fast, all we could see was the granite walls of the shaft broken by the blur of the shaft timber setts as we went on down, every so many feet was the lights of the various shaft level stations, the miner shouted out “290 fathom, 310's next”

The cage began to slow down, coming to a halt at the 310 fathom level, it was bouncing as the rope stretched and contracted, one of the new recruits wasn't looking to good, after a few seconds the miner unhitched the cage gate and out we poured, it was my first glimps of life in a working mine, the poor lad who wasn't looking to good wanted to go back up again, that was the last we saw of him. 310 shaft station was a gloomy place, lit by a single light bulb, the only other light was a bulb in the shift bosses “office” which consisted of 1 round blasted out of the side of the shaft station with a wooden door slung across it, inside his office consisted of two planks for a desk and an old wooden dynamite box to sit on, we were all introduced to him his first name was Vernon he was in his sixties.
By this time the cage had come back down again full of miners, as they passed us by Vernon shouted to one of them “What are we going to do with this lot then” “Stick 'em up a raise” was the reply” Vernon laughed, we all looked worried, what was a raise? Not that long to find out!
What struck me was how quite it was at the shaft station, I was expecting to hear a lot of noise but all was quite except for a steady stream of water running down the shaft, the shaft station was warmer than up on surface (grass) quite cosy, I was soon to change my mind.

The shift boss told us that he was going to give us all a tour of the level for the first day just to show us what's what, most of the tin lodes in Cornwall run on an East West line, to intersect these lodes a North South crosscut tunnel is driven from the shaft, this was refered to as the main crosscut, intersecting the various lodes as it progressed. The main crosscut and the lode tunnels or drives as they were called had rail track installed, from memory it was 22 inch gauge.
Off we all went up the main crosscut, all the crosscutts and drives are graded back to the shaft for drainage purposes.
The roof at the shaft station was quite high, as we walked up the main crosscut the roof (the back) got lower, I was tall so it meant watching my head some of the other guys and the shift boss were shorter than me, the main crosscut also got narrow in places, running along the crosscut were two pipes, a 2 inch and a 4 inch, the 2 was for water and the 4 was for compressed air, both these would be connected eventually to the various rock drills in the various work places, on we proceeded, occasionally there would be a lode drive shooting off to the right and the left, we were starting to hear some feint noises and rumblings by now.

To be continued.

Lozz.

The Mines Pt 2.

As said we were making our way up the main crosscut on the 310 fathom level this was the Northern crosscut from Robinsons Shaft at South Crofty, Robinsons Shaft was the man riding shaft and New Cooks Kitchen shaft was the ore shaft where the ore was hauled up in skips to feed the tin mill.

The Northern crosscut from Robinsons shaft headed out towards under what is now Cornwall College, the shift boss was explaining to us all how all the drives and levels were driven at a slight incline gradient from the shaft so that the water would find its way back to a sump near the shaft, from there it was pumped up to adit level where it was discharged some was diverted to the tin mill for the tin proccessing.
Along the side of the drives and levels was a drainage gully for the water to run in.

As we proceeded we were starting to hear the sound of compressed air drills, at that point we saw a light coming towards us down the track, the shift boss said it was the trammer pulling dirt from one of the stopes (the stope is where the ore is blasted out) the shift boss took is hard hat off and waved it (and hence the beam) side to side, this was done to alert the trammer to our presence and to take caution, the trammer replied by nodding his head up and down and hence his beam, this was to acknowledge that he was aware of the situation.
The loco approached us and came to a stop, he had a bit of a natter with the shift boss for a minute or so, the electric loco was pulling 15 one ton wagons full of broken ore (dirt or muck)
He then continued on his journey.
The air was starting to get a lot warmer as we proceeded and was full of dust, we started ditching our sweaters and shirts leaving just our tee shirts on.
After what seemed a fair old walk we came to another lode drive, it went both East and West from the main crosscut, the entrance to to these drives was curved in order to take the rail track, there was also a turntable a bit further up, to facilitate all this busy junction a large area had been blasted out leaving some square natural rock pillars for the roof support.
We carried on, he said he was going to show us something interesting, about a hundred yards further up the main crosscut the country rock changed from granite to killas, killas is like a metamorphosed shale, this was formed when the granite magma came up at a later geological period in time, the junction of these two different types of rocks was like night and day, in mining terms down here it's called the “contact” We proceeded further up the main crosscut until it came to a dead end, clearly there were no more tin lodes to be found.

We turned around and headed back to that East West track junction, when we arrived there the shift boss said do you like heat, we all looked at each other, he took us into the Eastern lode drive, this he said was No: 9 Hot Lode, the hot air suddenly hit us, it was like walking into a hot greenhouse, a few yards on we hit a veil of funk, funk is the mist in the air from both the heat, humidity and the compressed air exhaust from the drilling machines.
By now sweat was pouring from us from only walking, the shift boss smiled and said you'll like it in here.
The No: 9 drive was narrow and crooked, the track was in the middle and about 18” either side to the walls, he explained how the tunnel was driven on lode and pointed out the mineralization in the roof (aka back) of the tunnel, a narrow white quartz vein with dark streaks running through it, that's cassiterite he said, that's what we are down here for, to blast it out. Mixed in with the vein was arsnic and heamatite, a lot of the hematite was decomposed, turning into a red clay.
He explained that the lode dips at an angle, in Cornwall this angle can vary from almost flat up to nearly 90 degrees, typically at South Crofty it would be 70 to 85 degrees or steeper ie: 30 to 15 degrees from the vertical, most tin lodes were narrow mainly averaging 6 inches to a foot in width,

We carried on, the funk (mist) was getting worse, about 4 yards visibility, it was getting hotter and the roar of the machines was getting louder, we eventually came to a timber structure on the foot wall side of the drive, he explained that when the ore has been blasted out this left two walls the foot wall on one side of the dip and the hanging wall on the other, he explained that the hanging wall was the most dangerous because if left unsupported then it or slabs of rock on it can come in on you, he explained that this can happen also with the foot wall but less so, a loose slab on the foot wall would break away and slide down the wall, a loose slab on the hanging wall would simply break away and fall vertically. It was an important lesson.
Back to the timber structure, this was called a chute and was constructed from baulk timbers and thick boards with some iron work as well.
The chutes were installed at the draw points at the bottom of the stope at intervals along the lode, the chutes were connected to the bottom of the stope by short vertical shafts called box holes, these box holes were driven up from the roof of the drive for about 20 ft, they were spaced at intervals along the lode, the tops of the box holes would be all connected together by a very small tunnel called an inter or inters, the name being derived from sub level interconnecting drive, there is no track in them, once the inters had been driven and all the box holes were connected then stoping (ore extraction) would begin, this was done by first drilling and blasting, all the broken rock would fall down and fill up the box holes and the timber chutes below them, as the rock pile in the stope increased in height then the chutes would be “pulled” to draw the rocks (dirt) down into the trammers wagons, this reduced the height of the broken rock pile so the miners had enough vertical height to operate the machines in, this would continue, blasting upwards and upwards and for the full length of the stope until within about 20 ft or so of the next level up, that 20 ft block of ground being left for support, the pressure from the hanging wall in a fully excavated stope is very large, if the blocks of ground left for support are to small then the pressure from the hanging can crush them.

The timber chute is a basic construction, a bed is blasted out of the foot wall at about 6 to 7 foot up from the track level, the bench would be about 18 inches deep and 6 ft wide, two large timbers or “stulls” would run from the back of the bed on each side and up at a steepish angle across to the hanging wall, the timbers were cut to the exact length and the ends to the exact angle so once in place they could not drop or fall. From the hanging wall ends the tops of the stulls were double lagged with 3 inch boards, an opening was left further down, this is where the broken ore passes through. From the foot wall side of the rail track two large timber legs would run up from the level up to support each stull, these were the support legs and also supported a sloping timber bed.
An 8 x 6 was bolted across the two legs about a foot higher than the top of the ore waggons a double layer of boards were then run up from this cross support up at and angle to the back of the bed, the ore would (if you were lucky) run down this bed into the waggons.
Timber sides were then put in, these were then trimmed vertically at the end of the timber bed (the waggon end) Attached to these timbers and the chute legs were large “U” irons a gap was left within the “U” irons to slide some loose fitting stop boards, lifting these boards up would allow the ore to run into the wagons, when a wagon was full the boards were pulled down again to stop the flow of rocks.

To be continued.

Lozz.

The Mines Pt. 3

We carried on up No: 9 drive past all the stope chutes, the shift boss explained that this particular stope was now worked out up to the next level which was the 290 fathom level and that all the chutes were empty as all the dirt had been pulled from the stope.
He also explained that because of the grade of the ore the natural rock support pillars between all the box holes might be drilled and blasted out by a pillar recovery crew once the rest of the other stopes along that lode had been fully worked out.
If a section has all the pillars blown out then that whole section is blocked off with a timber “No Road” this is because once the pillars are removed there is nothing supporting the hanging wall as it soars up 120 ft or more into the dark, it's an erie site and can be a very dangerous place to be. Some times these old empty stopes are use to dump waste rock or “deads” in from the level up above.

We continued, the noise was getting quite loud now, we came to a ladder way at the beginning of the next stope, the air and water pipes were tapped off the main supply pipes and went up by the side of the ladders, the shift boss rattled the pipes with an iron bar to alert the miners above that we were coming up, the drills kept roaring, they obviously had not heard anything, not suprising really.
The shift boss climbed up the ladders first, we all followed, it was a near vertical climb, the ladders were made from wooden runners with round iron bars for the rungs, at the top of each ladder was a small wooden platform or sollar, this supported the base of the next ladder.
The ladders ran up the footwall of the stope, the hanging wall was behind us and overhanging as it towered above, the left side of the ladder way was the end of the stope, the wall being solid granite, the right side of the ladder way was timbered all the way up to contain all the dirt from the stope, this timber structure was called a timber “rearing”. Two parallel holes were drilled into the footwall and the hanging wall, into these were inserted iron shoe pegs, these consisted of two iron pegs with a shoe welded on to the ends, the pegs were pushed into the holes leaving just the end of the pegs and the shoe protruding into the shoes was placed a 8 x 8 timber, these were placed about every 4 to 5 ft vertically up the stope, the inside of the timbers beams were lagged with 3 inch gapped boards, the gaps were there to let the concusion through when blasting otherwise the whole lot would blow out.
The ladder way was cramped it was around 2ft 6 inches wide by about 4 ft the sollars were littered with broken rock, two detonating lines ran down the ladder way, we climbed up about 60 ft, this was how far the the stope had advanced in the vertical direction at that time, the distance between the 310 fathom and the 290 fathom levels was around 120 ft so the stope at that time was about half worked.
As we climbed we looked up, the shift boss was standing on the top rearing beam waiting for us, by this time we were soaked in sweat.
We popped our heads over the top rearing beam, the noise was almost unbearable and the funk was thick, there was an unusual smell, it was the smell of granite with a tinge of arsenic and dynamite (I can still smell it to this day!)
We advanced along the stope over the broken rock, we could stand up in places but not in others, through the funk we could see two dim cap lamps and the shadow of the the miners drilling, the miners worked in pairs, they were still drilling, both machines going full bore, the noise at such close proximity was at the threshold of pain in such a confined space, we were about 10 ft away from them, they shut the drills down, the two men were drenched in sweat, one was in his underpants the other in a pair of shorts, the only other things were boots, battery belt and hard hat, the shift boss had a natter with them and introduced us to them.
They were drilling horizontal benches in the back of the stope, they were using jack leg machines, the drilling machine was the world famous Holmans 303, the drill was hinged on the end of an extendable jack leg, the jack leg was powered by the same compressed air line as the drill, it could extend from it's closed position of around 4 to 5 ft to 8 ft or so in length.
For vertical drilling a stoping machine was used, on these the drilling machine is intrigal with the jack leg and can only drill vertically or at a steep angle.
The stoping machine was called the widow maker, that term being derived from the early machines that did not have a water feed facility to damp the dust down, granite dust is bad stuff, the old miners soon contracted silicosis, once that set in bad then their days were numbered.
The miners who were drilling were called “Machine Men”

We continued along the stope, climbing up and down rock piles until we reached another ladder way at the other end, the machines fired up again, what a place.
We finally climbed down back to the main level, what we considered to be a hot level seemed positively cool now....

To be continued.

Lozz.

The Mines Pt.4

Back down on No:9 level we continued, we came to a sub drive off to the North, it was only a short walk to the end, the place was full of hematite and red ochre, the air was pretty foul and the temperature was still very hot.
In the face at the end of the drive were some large gate valves that had been grouted into the rock, the shift boss explained that this is were they holed through into the old East Pool mine which was East of South Crofty.

East Pool had closed many years before and had flooded, Crofty wanted to pick up some of the old lodes in East Pool and discover new ones, before this could be done the old workings had to be drained, there was a large head of water in there and at the point where we were standing was one of the places that it was drained from, the breakthrough point however was not here but in another drive on 310, they had not broken through yet but that was to happen soon, I will talk about that later.

No: 9 lode drive fizzled out and a cross cut had been driven to connect further up into the No: 5 or 8 lode (can't remember which exactly) we eventually got to the intersection, the shift boss explained that the extension of this lode was still in development, we walked up the new development, we could hear the feint roar of the drilling machines, we walked for what seemed a long time, the temperature had dropped from hot to quite warm, still tee shirt only weather.
We eventually got to the end where the crew were drilling the tunnel, this tunnel was larger than the ones in the old workings, it being an 8 ft x 8ft drive, they were advancing 8 ft per day shift, the night shift did the mucking after the blasting fumes had settled down.

We headed back West to the main cross cut, when we got there it felt cool now compared to what we had experienced. By this time it was around 10 am and dinner time or “Croust “ time as it is locally known, we met up with a bunch of miners in a short stub drive, this was one of the croust places, the miners croust seat was a couple of blocks of wood on the floor with a plank across, behind the plank between it and the wall was an upright plank slotted in and leaning back at a prefered angle, over that was hung the rest of their cloths that they came down the shaft in, the seats were low, about 8 inches off the ground, there wasn't enough room for all of us to sit so they found a couple of short handled miners shovels (known as a banjo or a Mexican drag line) these were turned the other way round and upside down, the handle was lodged into the floor about a foot or so from the wall, the now upside down blade which was angled was placed against the wall, instant seat, I still do that today when I'm out digging or down in the woods cutting timber.

Croust time was typical half an hour or so, butties, lumps of cheese and cans of cold beans seamed to be popular, quite a few drank lemon tea as opposed to milk tea, a right laugh was had, lots of p*ss taking and jokes.
After croust the miners left to resume the daily grind and we carried on.
The shift boss took us into No 3 lode drive East where they were mining, we came to a hole in the roof with a roaring noise coming down from it, this he said was called a raise and there was only enough room for two of us up there, I volunteered as you do.
The shift boss explained that the raise was being driven up to the next level and that they were almost through, it's about a 120 ft haul, yeah ok I'm up for that. I was expecting to climb a long series of ladders, no such luck, the only ladder was a short one from the floor of the drive up to the roof where the raise started, the shift boss climbed it and off he dissapeard up into the dark, two of us followed, all that was at the top of the ladder was an iron chain hanging down the foot wall, we started hauling ourselves up the chain the raise was driven on lode, the angle of the raise was about 25 degrees from the perpendicular and was running to the left, the raise was only about 4 ft wide and about 5 ft deep between the foot wall and the hanging wall, this was hard work!
About 30 ft up the steel water and air pipes finished and from then on it was by rubber hoses, they had push and twist connections just like the ones you see connected to road breakers etc. We climbed and climbed, a voice shouted down c'mon where the bloody hell are you, havn't got all day!
About 60 ft up there was a dog leg in the raise, the raise then veered to the right.
We finally got up to where the two miners were drilling, the noise was painful especially on the rib cage, much louder than in a stope, the funk as usual was everywhere.
There was no room for us to stand or rest, we had to hang on to the chain unless a tumble was fancied, the two machine men shut the drill down, there was only enough room for one drill and two men but the shift boss had managed to squeeze in on the staging.
The staging consisted of two loose iron “L” pegs pushed into a couple of short holes that had been drilled into the foot wall, the pegs stuck out by about 2 ft, across these pegs was laid one or two timber boards and that was it, that took 2 men plus drilling machine plus drilling steels plus odds and sods, one of the men had a safety harness on tied to one of the pegs, the other man didn't.
It was a case of a quick intro then headed back down the raise to the level.

Further in was another stope being worked but this time it wasn't a climb up it was a climb down.
This was called a underhand stope, the stope we were in earlier was an overhand stope or shrinkage stope, shrinkage reffering to the shrinking of the rock pile via pulling dirt from the chutes in order to maintain a working height up in the stope.
We arrived at a hole in the bottom side of the level, again a machine was roaring, the shift boss explained that this was the entrance to the underhand stope and we would be going down, he explained that this hole was infact the top of a raise driven up from the level below which was the 335 fathom level, he explained that about 20 ft down the raise were two sub level tunnels driven on lode, they were also called “inters”
These inters were used as an advance for the stope development, we climbed down the accsess ladder about 20 odd feet, at the bottom were a couple of planks laid across the raise between the two inters, he again said there was only enough room for a couple of us down below, I and the rest sat down and waited in the inter while the shift boss and a couple of the lads descended, again it was by chain, they got down to a dog leg this is where some of the benches were being drilled and blasted, they called the lowest bench the point bench. The shot holes have to be drilled downwards, the drilling machine is taken of the jack leg and a starter drill steel inserted, the starter drill is 2 ft long, the holes first have to be collard, all holes drilled in any part of the mine have to be collard, as the drill steel will initially bounce all over the place until the hole has been started for a couple of inches or so.
Collaring was done by the machine mans mate, in a under hand stope it's a hand and knees job, you have to climb down to the bench that is going to drilled off, the benches arn't very high, each bench is about 4 ft to 6 ft or so in depth, to collar the drill your two hands were cupped around the bottom end of the drill steel with the sides of your hand firmly pressed down on to the floor of the bench, the machine man would then fire up the drill and it was the mates job to make sure that the drill steel didn't wander all over the place, once the start of the hole was established you could then let go, it's a bit of an art at first, get it wrong and you could end up with broken fingers or worse a smashed hand.

As said there is no jack leg when drilling downwards so to give the drill some driving force both miners stand on top of the drill, one leg a piece whilst bracing themselves against the foot and hanging walls, these drills are rotary percussive and powerfull, pressing down with your body controls the bounce and forces the drill in to the granite, it's a bone shaking, teeth shaking job.
We climbed back up to the level.

To be continued.

Lozz.

The Mines Pt 5.

We headed back to the main cross cut and headed back towards the shaft station, just before the shaft was the main ore pass and grizzly, shooting off along side the grizzly was the old No: 1 lode drive, the shift boss took us in there.
The drive had been condemned years previously but was still being used, a lot of the support pillars had been blasted out at the top of the old stopes below us, these large open gunnises had been bridged with timbers and decked out and track laid along, they sounded hollow when a load of wagons was running over those sections, the pressure of the hanging wall was starting to crush the pillars above, instead of timber setts in the drive half section steel hoops had been fitted and lagged with thick timber boards, the drive was very crooked and narrow, in parts just wide enough for the track and a loco plus wagons.

We eventually came to a branch lode that was being worked on, the drilling crew were advancing the tunnel, by the time we had arrived they had stopped drilling and were charging all the holes up with dynamite, all was quiet except for the dripping of water and a gentle hiss from a small air leak in the pipes. I had never seen dynamite before, one of the miners threw a stick to the shift boss for us to look at, we were all nervous, watching too many cowboy movies I guess, without a detonator it's pretty harmless unless it's very old and unstable.

The miners were charging all the holes up ready to blast, blasting time was always at 1.30 pm.
All the holes except some of the center ones were charged up, the first to go in is the primer, that stick has the detonator inserted in to it, a hole about 2 inches long is made in the end of the dynamite using a non ferrous pointed bar with a tee handle on it, a pricker, the detonator is then inserted and the wires wrapped and half loop knotted towards the detonator end of the stick.
The primer charge would then be pushed into the hole and pushed to the back of the hole with a round wooden charging stick, once at the back it would be tamped in, the rest of the dynamite followed and was firmly tamped in, some times wooden spacers were used in the cut in place of every other stick, it depended on what the rock was like.
The cut was usually drilled as a 9 hole or a 5 hole cut, the cut holes extend to the same depth as the other holes which was 8 ft for a standard round, with a 9 hole cut the holes were drilled in three horizontal rows of three to form a square pattern, the holes were close together on around 4 to 5 inch centers, the hole diameter was 1.5 inches, the cut holes were at the center of the face, in a 9 hole cut, so far as I remember, the center hole was charged and the ones above below and to the sides of the center hole were left free to break, the resultant pattern resembling a diamond shape (north south east and west) with the charged center hole in the middle, the next set of holes were drilled (prior to charging) to “square up” the diamond, the next set were diamond shape again but drilled about a foot from the cut holes, this shape was then squared up again and so on, diamond square, diamond square etc.
The detonators were time delay detonators numbered 0 to 9, the delay was more in parts of a second rather than seconds. The cut hole was primed with a 0 det. The diamond point holes were primed with a No: 1 det. The squaring holes with No: 2 det. and so on.
When fired the cut was blown thus giving a free space for all the other holes to blow into in succession, the final holes were the back holes (top holes) and the lifters ( bottom holes) the lifters were drilled at a slight angle downwards so when mucking out a slight upwards grade could be achieved for water drainage.
All the detonators are connected in series, a twin blasting wire is connected which runs back to a safe firing point, we were going to hear our first blast.
We made our way back to the firing point about a 100 yds away round a corner, the drive was checked to see if anyone was lurking around, the detonator lines were connected to the exploder then we waited until we heard shot reports coming up through the rock from the level below.
The shot reports started, crack, crack crack......It was time to fire this one off, the exploder was wound up until the light lit up and with a piece of dry stick in his hand he shouted “fire” three times and pushed the button with the stick (he must have been a telly engineer!) Off the charges went, he counted them and said yes, the they have all gone off, the blast concushions hit us in a series of waves, an experience never forgotten.
Time to go back to the shaft and wait for the cage to surface and a hot shower.

To be continued.

Lozz.

The Mines Part 6.

Back at the shaft waiting for the cage were all the miners and other folk from that level, the machine men were sitting on their upturned wooden detonator boxes, every one else was just milling around, everyone was having a natter, all were wearing coats and jackets by now it was chilly compared to inside the mine having your clothes soaked with sweat and water.
After a short while a cage descended past our level, a voice shouted “310 after this one”
A few more minuts later the miners gathered at the shaft gate, they were all pushing and shoving for position, the reason why was to become clear, the cage arrived, the top deck was first, there was a mad scramble and a lot of effing and blinding was going on, once the top deck was full the cage was hoisted so we could get in the bottom deck, I made it in, the others would have to wait for the second lift, sometimes there was a final lift in case there were any straglers.
The cage started it's ascent, an old miner smiled and shouted “send it down” a few seconds afterwards tea, water, orange juice and anything else started flowing down through some holes in the top deck floor, we were packed in like sardines, knowhere to move, we got soaked in this stuff “more, more, send it down” was the cry, what a mess, all the guys were laughing, I asked them if this was especially for us newcomers, he said no, we do this every day!
Daylight finally broke, the sky seemed bright, I handed my cap lamp and battery in and my tally and after a quick report to one of the shift bosses I walked through to the miners dry and showers clocking off on the way.
The showers were pretty basic all concrete and blocks, bodies everywhere, the dry had the smell of steam and sweaty socks and sweat laden underground clothing and cheap soap, it was good though, after that I was off back home feeling good that I had survived the ordeal.

To be continued.

Lozz.

The Mines Pt 7.
I will skip a bit of time now:

The following day there were only about 4 or 5 of us original recruits that turned up, we were put back down on the 310 fathom level and took into No: 9 East Hot Lode, the remit was to dig and clean the drains out, we were given a banjo each and a spare ore wagon to shovel all the muck into.
Once full the one ton wagon was pushed back to and across the main crosscut into No:9 West to an old stope raise, this is where the contents of the wagon were to dumped.
The heat as described earlier was bad and the air not to good we were soon stripped down to our pants.
This was a fortnights job and clearly was supposed to be a test to sort the men from the boys, I never was a quitter so I stuck it out.
After two weeks there was just two of the original crew left, myself and a bloke called John.
We were reffered to as OC men, OC generally meant Off Contract as in drilling and blasting contract.
The OC men's wage in 1972 was £20 a week plus any bonus money, the £20 a week was gaurenteed, bonuses varied depending on what job you were doing, a particular value assigned to a particular job.
Digging the drains attracted the lowest bonus, after two weeks on the drains I had earned £50 so that was £5 bonus for each week, it was a bit more than my Radio and TV job in Cornwall.
The shift bosses confidence grew in our abilities, he started to give us other jobs which attracted a better bonus which included timbering, repairing and installing track, replacing and extending the main air and water pipes, ventilation baggings and so on.
It wasn't long before I got my break, the machine mans mate who was working that stope in Hot Lode had an accident and was going to be off work for at least a fortnight, I was to be the substitute.
The machine mans name was Joe, he was a Geordie and ex army, he had drilled and blasted a lot of the tunnels in the Rock of Gibralter, we got on fine, though working up in that stope was a killer.
The day would start off by making our way to the croust seat, after a swig o' tea a buttie and a roll up it was my job as drillers mate to climb up into the stope after the previous blast to hose down the dust off the roof, the foot wall and hanging wall, it used to stink in there first thing, the air still being laiden with dynamite fumes, once the hosing down was done then it was time to bar down or scale down any loose rock or slabs, Joe would join me for that, it was a two man watch in the interests of safety.
Barring down was done with a longish steel pinch bar, the walls and roof would be sounded out with the bar listening for any hollows, the crack was found and the bar inserted and the rock and slabs levered off.
The slabs could vary in size from fist size to those weighing a couple of hundred weight or more, only when the walls and roof rang true was it safe to start drilling, it was the mates job to haul and set everything up, sometimes the drilling machine was left up in the stope at a distance when blasting to save hauling it up and down the ladderway each time, other times the machine had to go back up to the engineering shop for maintainace/repairs.
Hauling the machine up that narrow ladder way was hard work, some times it was hauled up with a rope, other times it was carried up, depending on how fit I felt.
Also to be hauled up was all the drill steels and later on in the shift the dynamite etc.
With the work place ready it was time to start drilling, all the holes had to be collard by the mate, Joe showed me how to do this without damaging fingers or hand.
The drill steels were 2 ft (the starter) 4 ft, 6ft and 8ft in length.
Some drillers would start off drilling with a long 8 ft steel to save drill swapping time, it put the mate in a vunerable position when he was collaring the whole with an 8 ft steel, the stress on a long steel that has hardly entered the hole is considerable, they start whipping and sought of standing wave sets up on them as they vibrate, this makes for a lot of stress towards the shank end of the steel where it connects to the drill chuck and sometimes they will snap, if the machine is on the jack leg then the pressure in the jack leg will lunge the machine complete with the sharp snapped off drill shank towards the mate, if it catches you in the back then serious injury can result, it happened to me once with another driller it was a lucky escape, I have still got that snapped off drill shank somewhere!
The shift would continue, non stop drilling except for a breather and croust, for several hours, after a few days we got another machine up into the stope, we then collard all the holes in one go and got two machines running side by side Joe on one and myself on the other. I've said it before, the noise and physical vibration was painful although after a few weeks it seemed to be less and less so.
A previously said, the heat was unbearably hot, funk everywhere and drenched in sweat, your boots would fill up with sweat and they would slosh around when walking, every so and so we had to climb down from the stope down to the level to get some air, the exhaust air from the machines was full of oil from the oil feed bottle which was in series with the air line feed to the machines, we were always coughing stuff up.
Anyway, all holes drilled it was time to charge up, it was the mates job to go and fetch the dynamite, the dynamite was kept in the magazine at the shaft station which was some considerable distance away. Once there the shift boss would open up the magazine and dish out the dynamite, it was a pain carrying it all the way back in, if it was a lot then it was hard work, the only option was to find the bottom half of an ore wagon (the bit with the frame and wheels on) and used that as a trolley and push it all the way back to the stope with the dynamite on it, even that was hard work as it is uphill all the way.
Once back and hauled up the ladderway the charging would begin, the first thing Joe said to me was whatever you do don't wipe the sweat off you brow with you hand if you have been handling dynamite, how right he was, I did make that mistake once and never again, the resulting headaches were severe to say the least, like someone banging your head with a hammer, the worst I ever experienced.
Charging up was relatively simple, I have covered that in a previous part, I have not however covered what happens with a missfire.
Missfires (when the charge doesn't go off) were quite rare with electric detonators, it only happened twice in my prescence with electric detonators when working down there and once with a cut and lit safey fuse.
With an electric det. missfire zilch happens when you fire the exploder, the brief was to wait for 10 minutes the go in and sort it out, it was the mates job!
On this particular occasion I drew the short straw, checking the main detonator on the way in I went, climbing up the ladderway, it's a lonely and nervous feeling, all is quite except for the blast reports coming up through the rock from the lower levers as blasting time had already started, there was not a lot of time, soon smoke from the lower levels would be finding it's way up, that smoke can be nasty stuff.
I climbed over the rearing into the stope, all the det. wires hanging down in a matrix, time to get on, the dets. are all wired in series, break the circuit half way and test for which half is o/c and so and so on 'till you've got the one that's duff, the det. can't be removed once charged up and tamped in, the only solution is to prick the last stick of dynamite in the hole and push a new det. in of the correct time delay, connect up and test, job done.
Time to hightail and and try again, success, all fired off and all reports counted, head back shaft.

After blasting up in a shrinkage stope the rock pile obviously takes up more volume than the rock displaced, this reduces your head and working hieght, the hieght is increased by pulling dirt from the chutes below, that's the trammers job, the machine man would tell the trammer 20 waggons from this chute ten wagons from that chute etc etc until the pile goes down, the chutes were placed at regular intervals along the lode, this means that when pulled the level of the rocks in the stope would end up having several troughs and peaks, these had to roughly evened out, the peaks were shoveled into the troughs with a banjo and a steel bar, the distance between the peaks and the roof could be very short, sometimes 2 ft or less, so it was a climb up and get on your side job, blasted granite does not make a comfortable bed to lie on, it was hard work, sometimes it would take half a shift or longer to sought it out.
Sometimes when the trammer was pulling dirt from the chutes the chutes would hang up ie: some dirt coming out but the level of the stope is not shrinking.
The quickfire solution was to blast the chute, this was the trammers job using what was called a “pop” of explosive, it was similar to a plastic explosive in a small square pad, the was detonated by a cut saftey fuse.
A length or lengths of 2 x 2 timber strapped together called blasting staffs would be stuffed up the gob of the chute with the charge on the end, the stope would be emptied of all personel and one of us would be watchman on the level at the far ladder way while the others lit the fuse and retired.
Nine times out of ten this would bring the pile down with a roar, once the smoke had cleared it was back to the grind.
Occasionally this would not work, the only alternative was to climb up into the stope and turn the water hose onto the pile and wait from gravity to do it's stuff.
Hung up chutes were very dangerous if working up in the stope, the void created can collapse at any time, burying everything with it, a no road barrier was erected in the stope around the known vicinity of a hung up pile.

To be continued.

Lozz.

The Mines Pt 8.

I served my time with Joe up in that shrinkage stope until his mate was fit enough to return to work,
I was then assigned to a raise on a branch of No: 3 lode to stand in for the machine mans mate who was off work for a few weeks. We were advancing the raise with 6 ft rounds using a Holmans 303 on a jack leg.
When I joined, the raise was already up a fair way and past the dog leg, it was a long drop, the only way up and down was by climbing the raise chain, we only had one machine rigged up, to tight for two.
It was my first time working up a raise, the working platform was just a couple of boards slung across a couple of iron pegs, apart from the sweat it's a very wet job as the water from drilling upwards soaks you, there is no escape, you are wet all shift long, in the cooler parts of the mine you could wear oilers but in the warmer parts you just sweated to much with them on.
The cut was normally drilled as a 5 hole cut, the center hole was enlarged with a reamer bit, the reamed out center hole was not charged up, the reamed out hole was the breaking space for the first charge, the first charge being the 4 corner holes of the 5 hole configuration, these were fired with a No: 0 detonator, then it was diamond square, diamond square etc as previously described.

Not much room on the perch, it was very tight, it was a long way down if you fell and would result in a very serious injury or death, harnesses were worn at all times when up there, well at least mine was, some didn't bother.
The machine was roaring away right next to your head, very deafening, all the granite chipings and water from the drilling were raining down and getting everywhere, especially in the eyes, some times we would drill a whole hole with eyes shut, we ended up looking like grey zommbies.
Every so often we would stop for a roll up, the cap lamp was a great asset, tobacco and papers could be dried out on the bulb cover if it was damp or got wet, same with matches etc. Nobody ever bothers you when your up a raise as it is quite a climb up, the shift boss would shut the air off down on the level and bang on the pipes, he would shout up for a response, we would shout back down and that was that.
I kinda liked it up in the raise, all self contained and no worries, the down side of raising was the wet and the fact that everything had to be hauled up and down the raise chain including ourselves.
The raises back then at South Crofty were not large in cross sectional area and required less holes to be drilled than a standard tunnel round, once all the holes were drilled then the next job was to drill two shallow holes in the foot wall at a suitable height for the staging pegs in ready for the next lift after blasting, one was also put in for an eye peg for the raise chain, the raise chain was left in place for obvious reasons and took the full force of the blast, once done, all the gear had to be hauled or lowered down except a charging stick and the staging.
Next was the dynamite, so a trek back to the magazine, you tried to get a cardboard box that the dynamite came in to put the sticks in.
Back at the raise it was time to climb up the chain, single handed with the box of dynamite slung under the other arm it was a pig of a job, often due to the heat and wet the bottom flaps of the box would become unglued and all the dynamite would fall back down the raise, I got fed up with this so I made up a small canvas ruck sack for the job, two hands on the chain all the time, much easier and safer.
When blasting a raise all the muck blows straight down and on to the level, the night shift would muck it all out ready for the next drilling shift.
Going up a raise, especially if it is advanced high up can be very dangerous as there is no through draft whatsoever, it's carbon monoxide, the silent killer, and dynamite fumes
I would start off by climbing up a few feet with an air and water line, these two lines would be fitted with lever valves, climbing up with them both turned on, one for dust dampening the other for air, so far up the raise they would be both tied to the raise chain and the air line opened full bore, it was then time for a cup o' tea while the air cleared up the raise.
Once done we climbed up and erected the staging for the days shift, hosing down all the dust and barring down any loose rocks or slabs, next was to haul the machine up along with a jackleg and the drilling steels etc and do it all over again.

To be continued.

Lozz.

The Mines Pt 9.

Ok that's an explanation of shrinkage stoping an putting up a raise so far plus some general duties working on the level.
Next is tunnel drilling, I worked as machine mans mate on several tunneling jobs, one in particular was where we were drilling and blasting and also mucking our own dirt out, this was where the good money was to be made but you had to go some, forget your early start tea break and be very fit!
This contract meant drilling and blasting an internal crosscut tunnel, no night shift to muck out or share your contract with, the mucking was done by ourselves the morning of the day following the blast, hence the dirt had to be mucked out before you could start drilling, it could be done but we had to be organised.
First was to find a place to dump the muck, we were lucky, just a short distance to a switch back track then a quick rumble down to an opening of a sub level stope which was empty, we had secured a loco and wagons and an Eimco “over the shoulder boulder thrower” rocker shovel which ran on the track, the track was never laid up to the face as it would get blown out at the blast, instead the end of the track was fitted with some slider shoes, a ready made section of special track with strap ties was slid into the shoes, the temporary track could be pushed and advance by the bucket on the rocker shovel as mucking progressed.
It was to be a 6 x 7 ft tunnel and to advance 6 ft per shift which was about the limit for two men if self mucking.
The first day was easy, two machines drilling, we finished early so had a good break before blasting, the machine man was an ex spar miner from Derbyshire, he was 28 and I was about 24.
The next day I really learned what work was, all the dirt from the blast had to be mucked out in order to get to the face of the tunnel for drilling the days round, he was on the rocker shovel going full bore, I would pull the wagons and dump them, the wagons had to be tipped by hand, once you get them rocking they soon go over and discharge their one ton load, it was non stop, this lot had to be shifted by croust time at the latest.
After a shortened croust it was back in, collar all the holes, rig up two machines and get drilling, he would drill the cut while I was drilling the outers, when the cut was done he would join in drilling the outers, back holes and lifters, it was a tight schedule, meanwhile a track man and his mate would come in and lay the sleepers and track for the next advance, they were on seperate bonus.
Once done it was on the loco and back to the magazine for the dynamite or powder as he called it, for obvious reasons we were always late charging up, we were still charging when the rest of the mine was blasting, the smoke used to come up from the other levels, a bit of a rush, still we made it and even managed first cage up, I remember my first weeks pay on that, well over a £100, that was serious money back then.
Once the tunnel was completed we were put on putting up box holes for stope development, a nice job but not as well paid, only around 25 ft high and full staging, we used stoper drills.

To be continued.

Lozz.

The Mines Pt. 10.

The next job I was on was back with Joe, my first mentor, it was to be in a underhand stope further up No: 3.
There were two underhand stopes being worked there by two seperate crews and a shrinkage stope up above being worked, we all shared the same croust place so organizing safe blasting ie: when we were all ready was no problem.
Joe had been working in the underhand stope for a while but his mate was on holiday so I was to be his mate until he returned. Working in a underhand stope is a bit of a nerve stretcher.
Access was down a ladder to some staging at the inters and from then on down by chain, it's an awsome place, especially working on the lower benches, all that hanging wall and roof some times a 100 ft above which can not now be reached for scaling and barring down, it's like a giant slot and somewhere down there are the miners.
The benches were the width of the stope, ours were about 4 ft wide and ran about the same front to back, the benches were drilled 4 or 6 ft deep at most.
When drillng down a jackleg can't be used so to give the drill some drive pressure you have to push down or stand on it, we had safety harnesses coupled to the chain, the benches ran down the stope like a giant staircase.
We were always on the look out for stuff coming down from the long out of reach roof and hanging and foot walls, there is not a lot of room to run.
On the plus side these underhand stopes were generally only developed in narrow vein lodes where the ground was good and solid, still we were always feared of stuff coming down.
I stuck it out for the stretch but in honesty I was glad to get out of there, it's the kind of stope you would feel very open and vunerable in.

After that I was put on driving sub level inters with an Italian miner, boy that was hard graft, the sub level inters had no track and were narrow in places, sometimes just wide enough to get a wheel barrow through. The sub level inters run about 20 ft or so below the main level.
All the rock from the blast had to be shovelled by hand in to the barrow and pushed back to the raise then tipped down it, because it was all hand mucking the inters were driven very tight, the Italian was a short bloke he drilled the round at 5 ft high which was ok for him, I'm 6 foot two inches tall.
It was my job to muck the lot out each shift so he could start drilling, sweat pours out with abundance.
Part of the pile was removed first so he could get the machine in to drill the holes, once in I would collar all the holes and leave him to it while I continued mucking the pile.
The first round or so in from the raise blows right out and down the raise due to the force of the blast, from then on it's hand mucking, tons of rock per shift, the further you advance the worse it gets, after about 50 ft the air gets real bad as it is a confined dead end, I used to dread the geologist and the samplers coming down “yes a bit further please” great!
After that job I worked in various stopes, drives, raises etc as and when.

This series of articles by no means covers all my time down there, the next part will describe how we broke through into the old East Pool tin mine workings from the 310 fathom level.

To be continued.

Lozz.

The Mines Pt. 11.

This will be the last part for my time at South Crofty tin mine.

This is about the time the old workings at the old East Pool tin mine were holed into with a view to extending the ore reserves at South Crofty mine.

I was pulled of the machines to join the crew on the East Pool gang, I guess it was because by now I had graduated to a half decent all rounder. The heading to the breakthrough had not long started, it was quite away in up the old No: 1 drive east on 310 and through a detour to another drive, to get to the heading (the tunnel) you had to go through a watertight dam door, this had been in place for sometime, it's method of construction was that the drive had been widened all round for a distance, a former for the passage through it and the entrance and exit portals had been made and positioned, including holes for ventilation bags, service pipes and detonator lines.
The whole thing had been shuttered up and filled with mass concrete, there was about a foot of water flowing through it at all times, the track was laid through it although that was under water.
There was a two man drilling crew who I had worked with before on the tunnel plus a couple of gophers. The ground was not too good and I was cutting and putting in timber setts with timber lagging behind to stop the ground falling or running on to the track. I was also helping to put in track sleepers and tracks.
The surveyors had been in and marked the course as it were, they would come on a frequent basis to make sure all was well, drilling and blasting was under way and good progress being made, at each blast we were supposed to close and secure both dam doors and detonate from the “dry side” easier said than done, when they built the dam and the doors they did not take into account the hieght of the rail tracks which meant we could not close the doors without taking the track up, the track through the portal was all welded up with metal strap sleepers, the fish plates were under a foot of highly corrosive mine water it was a pain so we never bothered.
After the tunnel was advanced so far the instructions were given to drill several pilot holes before drilling the blast round off , this was an indication that we were getting close.
The pilot holes were 18 ft long which would give an adequate rock barrier between us and any flooded workings, the old mine had been drained to our level (in theory) one of my jobs as an OC man was to go to the drain valves that were connected to the old workings one of which had a small 1 inch stub pipe and valve where a pressure gauge could be connected, I used to record the readings and the mine engineer could work out what head of water was still to drain.
A couple of days later there was a shout from the drilling crew, one of the pilot drills had lunged forward, the drill was through, three more 6 ft rounds and that would be it.
The day came, the last round was all charged up and connected ready for detonation, we all made our way back to the firing point on the far side of the dam door, we were instructed that the section of track must come up so that both bulkhead doors could be shut and secured, it was a bit of a job, the water was murky, anyway after a lot of fiddling and grunting the fishplates were all undone and the track was removed and all doors shut, the ventilation bags and service lines were disconnected and all openings shut, time to fire, the machine man wound up the exploder shouted fire and let it rip, we were all intrigued, would any extra water from the old workings come under the small gap under the bulkhead doors, we hung around, not an extra trickle, all was good.
The next day we all made our way in to see what was what, we had holed into the top of an old flooded stope in the old East Pool workings, the first people to see that for many years. The water level was an inch above the floor of the breakthrough tunnel, the surveyors had done a good job.
We hung around and the mine manager turned up, he wanted to swim up the back of the old stope and do a bit of exploring, he wanted a couple of volunteers to go in with him, another lad and myself volunteered and were quite keen, ropes were sourced and tied round our wastes, the mine captain turned up and played holy hell, the mine manager was to go in alone, he was gone for about half an hour, swimming around in the murky depths, he came back and said it was all very interesting, quite an event. I worked in that section of the mine for a couple of weeks then I was sent off to stand in for one of the trammers, pulling dirt from stope chutes back to the grizzly on the main ore pass.
The main ore pass ran down through most of the levels all the way down to the 380 fathom level where the primary crusher was, the ore pass was connected by short raises or winzes to the grizzly, the grizzly consisted of a matrix of steel GWR's arranged in a grid pattern and all bolted up, the grizzly was directly above the hole, from 310 fathom level down to 380 was over 400 ft, quite a drop, the idea of the grizzly was to stop any oversized rocks from reaching the crusher the matrix was on about 15 inch square openings, the grizzly was set about 3 ft down from the level.
Any oversized rocks had to be broken up with a sledge hammer, for safety, a harness was worn when working on the grizzly it was connected to some thin aircraft cable which was contained in an inertia drum which was hung from the roof of the grizzly just to the side of the track.
Busting rocks on the grizzly was hard work and a bit of an art, we used to get some biguns....
tipping the wagon butts over into the grizzly was done by shear muscle, later on and after I left larger wagons were used, these being tipped with a hook and hoist.
Tramming in general was ok and quite well paid, you were paid per wagon, there were two types of locos that were basically the same model the older ones had a wheeled hand brake, the brake on them was next to useless you had to be careful if pulling more than 5 tons, the later version had a large ratchet brake, they were spot on.
Many times the loco and or some of the wagons would derail usually at a spot where no one was around, the trick to getting them back on was to find a couple of rough wedge shaped rocks and use them to ride the wheels up over and just above the rails, a quick lever over with a long bar would then usually do it.

Well I have just about covered most aspects of life down a tin mine all so we could solder, eat beans out of a can and look through float glass windows...what a job. Lots of tales and events but too many to write about here.

Still, no regrets, I was there for a lot less than others, some spent a life time down there, my hat goes off to them. I was about to end up in colder climes.

I might do a shorter series on life down a gold mine, totally different ball game but nevertheless interesting.

Lozz.

I have been reading this as you have been uploading it, and fascinating reading it certainly is!

Have you published this anywhere else before?
If not it should be submitted to PDMHS or NMRS for publication, or maybe if you have other stuff to write, in your own book.
Your 'tell it as it was' style of writing is very readable.

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I have been reading this as you have been uploading it, and fascinating reading it certainly is!

Have you published this anywhere else before?
If not it should be submitted to PDMHS or NMRS for publication, or maybe if you have other stuff to write, in your own book.
Your 'tell it as it was' style of writing is very readable.

Hello Roy, I put it on another none related forum for "storage" but no not published it as such, I am not a writer in the pro. sense of the word, I did the tell it like it is style as opposed to a bullsh*t style so it would make easy reading, as said my whole time down the mines was a lot less than most, it would be nice to hear some other stories from those who gave a lifetime to underground, the other thing is that back then Crofty had hardly changed, this I gather was to happen latter more in the 80's and 90's.

Lozz.

Well I seriously think that it should be submitted for publication in British Mining or similar.
I will send an 'appropriate' email with a link to this thread.

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Well I seriously think that it should be submitted for publication in British Mining or similar.
I will send an 'appropriate' email with a link to this thread.

No gaurentees Roy, although retired I am usually very busy, if I did get round to it it won't be for a while.

Lozz.

very interesting.. thanks for telling us about your experiences :thumbsup:

Mr Lozz, if NMRS are interested all they would need would be your permission and they copy it from this website.
The thing is that memoirs such as yours should be recorded for posterity. I appreciate that is exactly what you are doing by uploading them to the aditnow website, but, and I mean no disrespect to aditnow, they would enjoy a better circulation by inclusion in a future BM.
The thing is that this is going to be a forgoten thread in time, but inclusion in BM is a more permanent medium.

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very interesting.. thanks for telling us about your experiences :thumbsup:

No problem,'tis as I remember, there are more memories but maybe to many for me to write about, all I can say is that in a way it was an honour to work down there with such a great bunch of blokes, some real characters, and some great laughs.

Lozz.

You write very well. It's a pleasure to read.

What more can be said, other than Brilliant!

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