http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7185078.stm 

Hole appears at former mine site

A 10m deep hole has opened up on former coal mining land, which is popular with walkers.

The hole, which measures 20m in diameter, was discovered at Heol Gerrig in Merthyr Tydfil after heavy rainfall.

Officials from the Coal Authority have started investigations to discover the extent of the collapse.

The area has been cordoned off until it has been made secure due to the risk to the public. The site's long term future is under discussion.

Contractors have erected fencing in an attempt to stop people gaining access to the area which is unstable.

Work has started to make the collapse secure and it is thought that the hole and surrounding land will need to be filled in order to stabilise it.

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thanks SimonRl, interesting stuff. I was wondering around yorkshire a few weeks ago, and you see little collapses and infilled shafs like this one everywhere.

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A few months ago a hole appeared in the main road about 200 yards from my house. it was about 5m in diameter and 25m deep. I haven't actually seen the official report but I think an adit runs through this region. It also happened after heavy rainfall.

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A few months ago a hole appeared in the main road about 200 yards from my house. it was about 5m in diameter and 25m deep. I haven't actually seen the official report but I think an adit runs through this region. It also happened after heavy rainfall.

Lets hope the adit doesnt go under your property! 😞
I once saw a program I think set in the town that surrownds South Crofty, and some womans back-garden collapsed in when she was digging a swimming pool.

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Quite probably, there are quite a few examples. Not long ago a huge hole appeared in the garden of the local post office just 50m from the incident I just mentioned. A few years ago in Redruth a couples house disappeared. Fortunately they were out or they may have ended up having tea at the 100fm level.

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wow! Quite scary stuff, was this around South Crofty/Eastpool mining areas?
around Askhem not too far from me - the sand dunes and nearby hills are dotted with large numbers of flashpools and old shafts caused by Iron Mining. I think Hodbarrow iron mine might actually now be just a gigantic flashpool???

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Yes it's in that area, The BGS did a survey in 1984 and 3500 shafts were mapped and this an incomplete record. Ground instability is also locally compounded by past mining operations in lodes and stockworks close to the surface. Records for many of the larger and more recent mines are available for consultation, but there are none for earlier shallow and potentially more unstable mining operations. This looking east from roughly around Crofty c. 1895. You can see why the problem exists.

🔗Dolcoath-Copper-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-001[linkphoto]Dolcoath-Copper-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-001[/linkphoto][/link]

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It's not an uncommon occurrence round here too - I've seen slump holes near Alport caused by shaft fill settling, and there was a hole opened up in a local farmer's field last year which I had a look at. That one was a not-fully backfilled stope at the junction of two veins reopening, but you can get more spectacular ones - there was the case not all that long ago of a farmer at Wardlow having a large stope open up under his tractor. Fortunately for him, he had bale spikes on the front at the time which stopped the tractor disappearing down the hole, but I suspect he needed a change of underwear! 😮

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Malcolm is right, there are holes all over Cornwall that are totally unrecorded from minor pits to huge great caverns.
The problem is that when it became law to record mine workings, the majority only recorded the workings below adit, deeming the stuff above to be insignificant or of no consequence, them being so old. The authorities too seemed to be more interested in the working side of the mine rather than the ancient abandoned sections above adit. This was more for the safety of the miners in that it was intended to avoid mis-dials and drilling into 'Houses of Water' by keeping good records.
Shaft capping was designed to last a hundred years, and it certainly did and there has been a steady rise in the number of cases of workings 'opening up' since the early 1970s.
here are a few pics to worry about.
😮 😮 :o


🔗Personal-Album-342-Image-018[linkphoto]Personal-Album-342-Image-018[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗Personal-Album-342-Image-019[linkphoto]Personal-Album-342-Image-019[/linkphoto][/link]

🔗Personal-Album-342-Image-020[linkphoto]Personal-Album-342-Image-020[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗Personal-Album-342-Image-021[linkphoto]Personal-Album-342-Image-021[/linkphoto][/link]

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About 1985 in Heanor Derbys, contractors built a road across the fields in readiness for building houses either side. JCB drives over road about 3 weeks later and road collapses under heavy back wheels in a hole that just opens up!. They investigate and find a shallow mine working, in the upper coal shales dating from mining/general strikes early in the 20th Century. After investigation this appears to be spread all over both sides of the site, so they investigated and found actual pillar and stall coal workings with props and all sorts of bits like the odd boot and so on. They de-roofed it and at the edge of the site the main level could be seen disappearing under the 1940's houses. They ended up open casting the whole site both sides then filling it with hardcore, the coal was fairly decent and just about paid for the back fill. There was also a well in the same field .... which had bricklining and climbing handles.... you could not see the bottom.
Apparently these types of illegal mines were dug to keep warm and generate a little income during the strikes. Another good example is at Selston in Notts I am told.

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its quite interesting to note that theres a shaft less than 30 feet from my house in the street, heres the 1848 map and google aerial photo showing how close it is.
the coal athaurity did a survay last year for planning permision for developments and found it right under the road.....scary stuff.
[img]http://www.aditnow.co.uk/showimage?f=/community/Personal-Album-252-Image-028/[/img]

[img]http://www.aditnow.co.uk/showimage?f=/community/Personal-Album-252-Image-027/[/img]

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Tricky subject insurance. 😠 afterall we insist on building in the areas which can be considered a flood plaine. :confused:

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You find them hiding all over the place.... I found a 20' deep lead mine shaft hiding under a bit of rotten chipboard in the field we keep our ponies in, fortunately I found the shaft before they did! Not that there was much to it, it only went 4' either way at the bottom.

I have in my possession a coal authority map of South Bradford, there are a lot of shafts under Tong and there are some under the M606 too.....

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The ones under the M606 have most likely been removed or grouted and capped etc.
I'm sure you mean you've got a copy of a HSE plan from the Coal Authority 😉

Recently the Coal Authority have started an inspection of all the known mine entries - that's gonna take someone a while!!!

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The plan I've got is a stray one which I found when I used to do archival microfilming and scanning for Bradford Council - it wasn't the standard Coal Authority search results map you get for planning application searches, so rather than chucking it after scanning I held on to it.

It's surprising that Bradford hasn't collapsed into the ground, given the number of coal and stone mines under it - I remember some scary investigative drilling reports from the Idle area, which broke through into the stone mines there, I never did follow that one up to see if they did eventually build on top of it! I hope not, there's a new development in Bakewell which has a large patch left without houses on it which might appear puzzling at first until you see the plans for Pretoria chert mine and realise that if they built on that area, the houses would probably become ten feet shorter overnight!

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The ones under the M606 have most likely been removed or grouted and capped etc.
I'm sure you mean you've got a copy of a HSE plan from the Coal Authority 😉

Recently the Coal Authority have started an inspection of all the known mine entries - that's gonna take someone a while!!!

Probably. Just received this from the CRO. Covers most things.

http://www.coal.gov.uk/services/miningrecords/index.cfm  for their contact details if you would prefer to commission a copy from them).

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