who: Dave G, Mark J, Steve R, Tich S, Rich S, John S, Simon P
where: Jacks entrance to Backdoor skirting the old entrances
when: 10:30 - 14:30 31st December 2015
role: Navigator (Mark J)
Box Quarry Entrance TourThis year we only just managed to arrange the traditional tourist trip into Box Quarry between
Christmas and New Years Eve. But it was a good turn out in the end. The plan was to enter
Jack's and to leave from Backdoor skirting the western boundary of the quarry visiting
the old entrances to give the photographers in the group some challenging voids to capture.
Simon was keen to visit the Colonel Northey poster again that we had discovered on a previous trip. This prompted Mark to tells us of some further research about the poster
(soon to be published on - the Box people and places website).
They had discounted some of our wilder
theories about the nitrate king, but had uncovered a rich set of stories connected with the event
and people mentioned in the poster. They have yet to visit the poster but they know more about
the poster than anyone else - watch this space or rather watch theirs!
Rich was a Box virgin (but a grovel veteran) so we had to visit the Cathedral too.
Steve R issued a plea to be nice to Mark and DP as he wanted avoid one of Mark's punishment crawls. While we were outside I promised him I would keep quiet (fingers crossed), but sadly we did more crawling than I expected.
An ethical trip as we finished off in the pub (it was open all day) A good trip with precise navigation by Mark.
Anyhow here are some of my photos from the trip
Steve hurrying under some frightening hanging death
Walking past a side passage
Graffiti - 1887 C Oatley
Stone crane
Heading to Bridgegate
Getting near to Bridgegate
Tich about to pass the hanging death on the way to westgate
Graffiti on pillar
Timber ceiling props near westgate
admiring the cartway towards westgate
Water on the floor in the passageway near westgate
A slither of a rotten timber that is barely standing
Calculations
Someones Bath stone order
A football game
Captain Coombes - Salvation Army Corsham Corps
Graffiti - RAF inauguration rite
Graffiti - The shithouse - This is not the place to linger but to make haste
Unusual tally - Blocks with dimensions
Mark trying to decipher the block diagram
Finished stone
The cartway
Mark admires the re-found skull
The skull returns as a navigational feature
We found a solitary boot - and this prompted Mark to tell the story of how in North Wales
the slate miners would often leave a boot as they finished in a passageway as offering to the slate gods.
Looking at the boot sole
Sadly this fine story was somewhat undermined because
Steve found a whole lot of old boots. We found several shaped lady shoes,
football boots, a whole range of sizes. So we had simply found some rubbish pushed inside the entrance
Back to the cartway
Finished blocks
More of simon's research - some graffiti mentioned in the
scripta legenda near Rems crawl. It tells the story of the hanging of Charles Kite who murdered someone in a pub brawl in Bath. However Simon also googled for Charles kite and found an account of the incident on a website dedicated to victorian hangings
Charles kite murder in bath
February 25th - 25/2/1884
Charles Kite – Bath
Everyone was relieved when a quarrel between two young labourers at the Malt and Hops in Bath was resolved with fisticuffs in the yard outside the pub. The protagonists, Charles Kite and Albert Miles, both aged 21, went back into the bar after the fight.
"Let’s make friends and shake on it,” Kite said. He offered his left hand. Momentarily confused, Miles pulled away, and as he did so Kite lunged at him with a knife he had hidden in his right hand. Miles collapsed and died on the spot.
Kite fled but was arrested within an hour while hiding in his mother’s house. He was hanged on Monday, February 25th, 1884, in Taunton Prison, and had the distinction of being the last man to be executed there.
Finally Rich's first view of the cathedral
The start of the crawl over deads to reach the poster
The poster with the remains of the original glue
Closeup of some of the local people named in the poster
Closeup of Colonel Northey in the poster
Oddfellers
Admiring the poster and debating the latest findings
Wooden top bearing for a stone crane
Old cigarette cards
old Ogden's cigarette card - a Birmingham boxer - 107 Jem Carney 1902
Files and Rasps
More research from Simon
Another great find was this 'transfer' of a file packet label.
It was stuck with mud above a well-used saw bench, maybe as a reference when ordering more files.
The label has dissolved leaving just the ink.
The absence of a 'Ltd.' after the name may indicate this is a pre-1849 label.
Barnsley & Sons is well documented in many great Urbex reports. Between its closure in 2004 and 2010ish there were some incredible photo's taken, after 2010 it seems more artifacts were taken than photo's. None however show any photos of a label similar to this one in Box.
unusual graffiti tally - super is mentioned several times in adjacent graffiti
Great trip - thanks for the navigation taking us back to see the poster, cards, and file imprints.
Dave
Caver turned quarry explorer