Thanks for uploading this photo gmarsh2008. Looks like a very nice job has been done on the rebuilding of the portal.

Has this affected the water level at all?

Photograph:

🔗Sir-Francis-Level-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-62588[linkphoto]Sir-Francis-Level-Lead-Mine-User-Album-Image-62588[/linkphoto][/link]

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Excellent job.

I wouldn't imagine it will have had any effect on the water level, the collapse is well in from the entrance and you drop in on the far side of it.

Presumably the same group did this as did the Brandy Bottle incline work a few years ago?

What is the arrangement with the landowner?, they must be on good terms to allow this kind of thing?

Chris.

I wouldn't imagine it will have had any effect on the water level, the collapse is well in from the entrance and you drop in on the far side of it.

That's good, the cages and hydraulic engine probably benefit from having half a mile of nose deep water between them and the outside world :thumbup:

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Superb work there :)

I really need to get over and see this one soon :thumbsup:

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For those who haven't seen it, this is what it looked like beforehand. Rather a close-up shot, but you can tell the renovation has been a bit more than "making good".

🔗Personal-Album-2571-Image-62631[linkphoto]Personal-Album-2571-Image-62631[/linkphoto][/link]

Presumably the same group did this as did the Brandy Bottle incline work a few years ago?

What is the arrangement with the landowner?, they must be on good terms to allow this kind of thing?

Chris.

Is it still Lord Peel ?

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This group has done an excellent restoration job.As far as I know there is not an original photo of the entrance in existence so we do not what the original inscription might have been.
Many of the North Pennines ones simply stated the name of the company and the date rather than the name of the level,but that aside it is an impressive job.
It cannot effect the water level inside as the level between the first air shaft and the entrance had run in some time prior to 1965 and when I first explored the mine that was the shaft we laddered.Subsequently the level between the first and second air shafts ran in, around the mid 70's and after that date entrance had to be made via the second air shaft.

As far as I know there is not an original photo of the entrance in existence so we do not what the original inscription might have been.

Says in this previous thread its from a photo of the original

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/community/viewtopic.aspx?t=5489 

I take the point, but I must add the keystone was not there when I explored the mine in1965, but at that time it was thought that someone was actually collecting these keystones.
However no names were forthcoming and it might have been a pure rumour.

I take the point, but I must add the keystone was not there when I explored the mine in1965, but at that time it was thought that someone was actually collecting these keystones.
However no names were forthcoming and it might have been a pure rumour.

It was also rumoured that one of the blockages was deliberate ????? using some form of chemical persuasion

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....it was thought that someone was actually collecting these keystones.

The feeling amongst many is that Swaledale's mines have with very few exceptions been comprehensibly hoovered of anything of interest. That this spread to the surface is probably of no great surprise...

I am not able to cast any light on the possibility of deliberate damage to the airshaft/ level.

I was told about the airshaft blockage sometime around 1975 by the late John McNeil and he told me that the new access point was the second air-shaft. He did not elaborate and I was next in the mine in 1992 and noted that someone presumably Earby had made an effort to dig out the Old Rake connection. The entrance looked dangerous and so I did not examine it and on a subsequent vist had completely run in.

The feeling amongst many is that Swaledale's mines have with very few exceptions been comprehensibly hoovered of anything of interest. That this spread to the surface is probably of no great surprise...

Sadly thats true.

[photo]Brandy-Bottle-Incline-Lead-Mine-2-User-Album-Image-41601[/photo]

Hi there - glad you like the re-build. It took over 4 months to complete. No the water level is just the same inside. It discourages folk from wandering too far inside without the right equipment to go on into the mine which is no bad thing.

The original keystone was in place circa 1960 to 1964 - I have a photograph showing it. The replacement was copied from that photograph and the wording picked out in white as per the original.

If the collector or vandal ( one and the same in this case! ) had not taken the key stone the damage may not have happened.
Also great restoration work a credit to all involved.
:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

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Thankyou for the positive feedback on the entrance re-build at Sir Francis Level. If you visit the mine you will also find we have improved the access via the air shaft. Other re-builds we have done to date include Brandy Bottle Inclines, Priscilla Level, Hard Level entrance and Adelaide level - where we found the original key stone which is now on display for all to see in the Folk Museum in Reeth. A replica key stone resides in the arch to the entrance to Adelaide level.

With regard to Redwinch's recent comment, the level was indeed deliberately blocked using a little chemical persuasion, sometime in the 70s as I recall, in response to a perceived threat to remove the hydraulic engine and associated artefacts. Hopefully it will remain blocked.

Thanks Mike for throwing some light on the nature of the entrance blockage at Sir Francis.

Your information dovetails into what I know already,although the outcome seems somewhat drastic!
In the early 70's Harry Parker told a group of P.D.M.H.s members that he had been told that someone had proposed removing the Sir Francis engine and re-erecting it on surface.
We said,collectively that this was almost impossible in view of the nature of the level etc.
Clearly other groups had a different opinion.
In view of the removal of the end tipping wagon from the top flat workings in Brownley Hill Mine, sometime in the 80's -I think- I would not criticise this explosive response.
There is a picture of this wagon on p133 in Richard Bird's book(1977), Yesterday's Golcondas. Maybe R.F. has a pic?

Amazing how stories go around!

The removal of the Wills Founder engine to preservation in Derbyshire was partly funded by the Science Museum.
Following the successful first phase of this operation in summer 1976,
PDMHS was asked by the Science Museum to evaluate the possibility of removing the Sir Francis engine also.
You must bear in mind that in those days Francis level was not expected to remain open.
In December 1976 a group of Wills Founder veterans took representatives from the Science Museum into Sir Francis to view the engine.
As a group, we would have liked the challenge of recovering the engine (if someone else was paying...), however, we never really thought it would happen once we showed the layout of the engine.
The marvel of the engine is not the iron bits but the beautifully built chambers that it is housed in.
The Science Museum people could see that the engine was not very important compared to the cost of building a replica mine to put it in and so the idea died (fortunately).
Even then, someone had been unbolting odd bits of engine and removing them so the thing wasn't complete anyway.