Cults Limestone Mine, overall passage length.

Mine exploration, photographs and mining history for mine explorers, industrial archaeologists, researchers and historians

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

DaveM
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

7 years ago

Does anyone know the total passage length of the Cults limestone mine? I've made a rough estimate by measuring the passages on the plan using the scale on the map, a third of the plan is unmapped and marked as 'old waste' so has to be guessed at but it seems that Cults has (at a conservative estimate) in the region of 40km or about 25 miles of tunnels, this is the mine as a whole, some is now flooded.

Wanna join the discussion?! Login to your AditNow Community forum account or Register a new forum account

JeremyL
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

7 years ago

David. Have you seen the plan John_Smith has put on the documents section. It may be of some help. As at today top of the list on the home page. Jeremy

DaveM
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

7 years ago

Yes, Ive seen that thanks, I also have the official mine plan from the Cults Limestone company, which rather unhelpfully shows mostly what are now underwater areas of the mine! The mine starts to flood at about the 10410 level and goes as deep as about 10280 which is over a hundred feet below the water table. it would be a truly vast place to explore if all of it was dry.

biscuitfuelled
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

7 years ago

I know some divers who would be keen to explore the flooded sections, however your photos of the unstable roof don't inspire confidence!

Cuban Bloodhound
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

7 years ago

The roof's fine, it won't come down on you unless you bring it down. If you do dive it stick some pictures up :thumbup:

DaveM
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

7 years ago

If diving in Cults you would have to do an exploratory trip to locate a suitable entry point to the flooded areas as you could search for hours looking for a point that looked OK, also be warned you encounter exceedingly sticky and dense mud at some points where flooding begins, you wouldn't want to get stuck in that stuff. Unfortunately what was possibly the best place was the far eastern adit (just west of the crossroads) which has been sealed to within about 1ft of the roof beam with concrete blocks, it leads down about 100ft or less to a flooded main haulage route which led straight to the deepest sections of the mine.

biscuitfuelled
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

7 years ago

Would you mind showing us around at some stage Dave? Ideally we'd need an entry point to the water that's free of any mud etc, it can play havoc with regulators etc.

RichardB
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

7 years ago

I'd go as far as saying that the sealed eastern adit is the only part of the mine you could dive. I think the flooding in the other bits is a sump at the end of the mine rather than flooded passages.

biscuitfuelled
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

7 years ago

Thanks for the info Richard, disappointing to hear the adit has been sealed! Do you know how deep the workings might have extended to?

RichardB
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

7 years ago

#10

https://www.aditnow.co.uk/Photo/Cults-Mine-Northeastern-Section_113579/

The flooding starts just before it branches out, so there's a fair bit you could access if you could dive in there. I think it climbs out of the water again because there's another adit (well and truly sealed) at the top of the hill.

biscuitfuelled
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

7 years ago

#11

Looks to be quite near the farm buildings to the north. I take it that a traverse from the west tunnels over to this section would be a bit of a challenge?

DaveM
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

7 years ago

#12

The adit at top of hill is marked as an airshaft and was presumably vertical. The very easternmost parts appear to rise up above the water table, according to the map (over the 10410 level). I did look for that shaft but its location is in an incredibly dense and tangled thicket with many fallen trees obstructing exploration, I was unable to get to the spot it would have been.

The eastern adit led in about 800m or so, reaching a slightly separate inner area thats now the deepest flooded part, I think it would be bit reckless trying to reach that point as you'd have to do decompression stops, its 100ft+ water depth there.

DaveM
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

7 years ago

#13

Be happy to show anyone around who isn't familiar with Cults.

There's flooded points at the end of the 'long walk' tunnel which would certainly lead to deeper areas but the roof seems to be very low there, only about 2ft high (I can never make sense of that point as its on the haulage route with rails still visible but seems too low for wagons to have got through)

biscuitfuelled
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

7 years ago

#14

There wouldn't be much point in heading to the 'long walk' tunnel if the head height is that low in the flooded areas. I personally use a rebreather when diving in mines and caves so it helps to reduce decompression penalties, but agreed any push into the deeper sections would need to be done on a slow and controlled basis.

DaveM
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

7 years ago

#15

Heres an example map showing roughly where flooding begins and the areas more to the west where you'd encounter the dead end sumps, south of the blue line is below water table, virtually all the rest of the east area is flooded also.
Put this on flickr as you can't upload very large files to this site;

https://www.flickr.com/photos/86071306@N03/40708765281/in/dateposted-public/

biscuitfuelled
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

7 years ago

#16

thanks for the info! Looks like there would be plenty to explore that's for sure!

DaveM
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

7 years ago

#17

Yes I'd imagine theres quite a bit more abandoned wagons, rails etc down there, it seems amazing they kept such a large area pumped out just for extracting limestone, which isn't exactly a highly valuable mineral, though the processing costs would have been quite low compared to metal ores, the limestone only had to be crushed to powder for agricultural use.
Would be interesting to know how long it took to flood once abandoned, I'd imagine several months probably.