A new event has been added to the Events page.

Event name: Cwmorthin Work

Date & time: 22/03/2007 at 10:00

Details: Cwmorthin work weekend - Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd March (Easter Sunday)

Note: Due to various ongoing discussions between Friends of Cwmorthin and third parties, the aim of this weekend may be subject to change, but work will be carried out whatever happens!

Provisional list of jobs:
- tidying round the smoke flue entrance and possibly removing some of the remaining rubble
- building up the far end of the new causeway with the aforementioned rubble
- filling in the depression at the end of the causeway to enable easy access towards the adit
- tidying of the causeway outflow, possibly with a couple of small walls either side
- possibly some attention to the stonework of the base of the right hand wall at the smoke flue entrance
- possibly some further work to clear the blockage in the smoke flue

Note: although this is a work weekend, it is suggested that if people can only attend one day, then Saturday would be preferable.

Event added by: Events Admin

Full event: http://www.aditnow.co.uk/events/?uid=22 

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[tweak]Some earlier posts removed to tidy the thread: some of this might not make sense any longer![/tweak]

Yes there will be people from DarkPlaces, But there will be also people from MineExplorer.

Also there will be persons coming that have no connection to any of the above forums.

Should be a great weekend, so please come along as all are welcome 😉

There will be people on site from Friday morning and will be there through to Monday.

I would not want to label this a DarkPlaces event.

Fair enough; I just wanted to be sure that it wasn't perceived by anybody that this site was organising this particular event. That wouldn't be fair or reasonable when the credit for organising this event lies elsewhere.

Should be a great weekend, so please come along as all are welcome 😉

There will be people on site from Friday morning and will be there through to Monday.

Agreed :thumbsup: I'm sorry I can't make it to this one 😞

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Surely it is a Friends of Cwmorthin event?

I hope to be there one of the days, but at this stage not sure which.

I look forward to meeting everybody!
With it being Easter weekend, parking at the top may be at a premium, so arrive early! Given my previous experience, I'll park lower down and walk up!

I would join in the event, but being a holiday weekend I have family commitments. Don't work too hard and have a good weekend.
🙂

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A delivery of materials has been made to Cwmorthin in preparation for the weekend's work - thank you in particular to the person who provided the means of transport :flowers:

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Just about to head off again for today's festivities!

Thank you to everyone so far who has toiled away in the cold :flowers:

As of last night the first flight of steps in Ch.1 on the back vein has been repaired with some lovely slate steps. The dodgiest of the remaining beams was - very carefully - replaced yesterday in a very tricky operation than ensured no collateral damage occurred.

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Glad to see all is going well in deepest Wales. I spent yesterday chopping up a tree and fixing a fence.....oh and dropping part of said tree on me left foot....OWWWWW

DP

Some pics of the weekend's work.

Firstly, the steps in Ch.1 back vein - this is a great bit of work and has made a huge difference to access in the BV. Hats off to those who did this and to one in particular (you know who you are!).

🔗Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-002[linkphoto]Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-002[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-008[linkphoto]Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-008[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-006[linkphoto]Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-006[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-005[linkphoto]Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-005[/linkphoto][/link]

One beam was also replaced in the adit - this was marked as 'C' and was immediately outbye of 'D' as can be seen in the floowing pics. The job to get it out was rather tricky as the original beam was supporting quite a lot of roof and in particular some longitudinal slabs: these were held up with a temporary prop whilst the work was done, causing some interesting access problems.

The adit floor has also been shoveled clear of most of the rubble that came down at the last retimbering weekend: this has improved drainage considerably and the uprights are no longer standing in puddles.

🔗Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-003[linkphoto]Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-003[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-004[linkphoto]Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-004[/linkphoto][/link]

Many thanks to all those who attended and helped out - and especially those who camped in the 'hut' in freezing temperatures. It made me feel a bit guilty to come home last night and return this morning to find snow had fallen in Cwm Cwmorthin!

Finally, a pic of Chamber 1 back vein, lit by a floodlight at the top - this was quite a sight, although the wet weather had increased the amount of moisture in the air, somewhat compromising photography.

🔗Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-001[linkphoto]Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-001[/linkphoto][/link]

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Cwmorthin lake level adit 6th November 2005:

🔗Cwmorthin-Slate-Mine-06-11-2005-Image-012[linkphoto]Cwmorthin-Slate-Mine-06-11-2005-Image-012[/linkphoto][/link]

Cwmorthin lake level adit 23rd March 2008:

🔗Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-004[linkphoto]Work-weekend---Easter-2008-Image-004[/linkphoto][/link]

What a difference a couple of years makes! For reference, the wall on the left hand side steps out a bit - this is at the top of the collapse in the first picture and about a third of the way in on the second picture. The older picture was taken a bit further out than the newer one, which was taken at the gate.

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Again another fantastic job done. Looks great.
Love the steps 🙂
Would love to have been there but half term and Family Things to do.

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the steps are the dogs. and took a long time to cut with simply,s shtill saw then getting them back up to the chamber using lil bro's vitara with a trailer which was near 1/4 mile away then taking them to the chamber by putting them on your sholders avaraging 50kg each then taking them down one step at a time and plonking them onto the existing 1"thick 12"long 100year old pins 😮 one by one not all my work had a lot of help with it and theres lots more to do on the next work weekend. the timber retructuring by vanoord jagman and simply had its hairy moments there were times when jagman looked ready to run before it all caved in shame the jack kept playing up but vanoord has nerves of steel standing under many thousands of tonnes of slate ready to drop. rather you lot than me putting the timbers in i'll stick to the steps on the next one :thumbsup:

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the steps are the dogs. and took a long time to cut with simply,s shtill saw then getting them back up to the chamber using lil bro's vitara with a trailer which was near 1/4 mile away then taking them to the chamber by putting them on your sholders avaraging 50kg each then taking them down one step at a time and plonking them onto the existing 1"thick 12"long 100year old pins 😮 one by one not all my work had a lot of help with it and theres lots more to do on the next work weekend. the timber retructuring by vanoord jagman and simply had its hairy moments there were times when jagman looked ready to run before it all caved in shame the jack kept playing up but vanoord has nerves of steel standing under many thousands of tonnes of slate ready to drop. rather you lot than me putting the timbers in i'll stick to the steps on the next one :thumbsup:

Nothing focus's the mind more than taking a chainsaw to the timbers holding up the slate tip above your head 😮
We cut a foot long section out of one of the worst ones (holding a lot of slate up) and it didn't fall down! was quite a strange moment and we had to physically force it to come out of the roof 😞

Yes, that was a bit weird. Never did quite work out exactly what was holding one of those stones up there. A bit more of Vanoord's magic I think!

Next time around, we'll have more toys! In addition to Ronnie's project, Vanoord has a wee shopping list...

As an aside, it's amazing how much difference a few hours makes: to start with one tends to jump at the slightest sound of movement or a few grains of silt dropping, whereas a while later you're quite calm when lumps drop from the ceiling and bounce off your helmet. Mind you, it's probably not entirely good to start thinking like that :confused:

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Yeh its very easy to get blase about the smaller stuff falling on you and it probably isn't a wise attitude to have. 😉
Tell me more about the shopping list...... :lol:

The stand for the jack is being welded as I type and I'm hoping for another bit of fabrication to be sorted as well.

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The stand for the jack is being welded as I type and I'm hoping for another bit of fabrication to be sorted as well.

Splendid, should be able to put the roof under serious pressure with that contraption......