Most worrying place you've ever been in a mine...· Page 6

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leo sprayer
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Newbie

4 years ago

#101

Hi, old git here.
Ooh, worries! ^^^^
I was also worried in Cwmorthin, after a night on the lash, I desperately needed a poo AT THAT MOMENT.
I luckily found a secluded corner to perform my runny poo.
Apologies to future explorers who may have lifted up that chunk of slate I covered it with.

I was also quite worried in a coal and fireclay mine somehere near Leeds (I know, coal mines are dodgy as feck)
airflow was good until two of us entered a side passage and immediately felt awful, we left straight away.

My final worry was when we got briefly lost in one of the Northants ironstone mines...

It’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

TwllMawr
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4 years ago

#102

"leo sprayer" wrote:
I luckily found a secluded corner to perform my runny poo.
Apologies to future explorers who may have lifted up that chunk of slate I covered it with.

Date stamp and Coordinates please... to 10 digit accuracy... Or as a minimum, a better description of the slate ‘chunk’ 😞 😉

Roy Morton
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4 years ago

#103

You could always just follow your nose :lol:

"You Chinese think of everything!"
"But I''m not Chinese!"
"Then you must have forgotten something!"

crickleymal
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4 years ago

#104

I remember going back to an iron mine in the Forest of Dean that we'd previously explored a bit of. We had only got no more than 30 or 40 yards from the entrance and dropped 5 metres when we felt a bit off. The one smoker tried to light his Zippo and it wouldn't light. He went back to the entrance and it lit so he returned checking it every few feet. It refused to light no more than 10ft from the entrance. That was a bit scary. We were about to drop down another 6ft or so into a lower passage.

Malc.
Rusted and ropey, Dog eared old copy
Vintage and classic or just plain Jurassic
All words to describe me.

leo sprayer
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4 years ago

#105

Ah yes, fag lighter failure, one of the chaps encountered that whilst in Thistleton.:ohmygod:

It’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

leo sprayer
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4 years ago

#106

"TwllMawr" wrote:

"leo sprayer" wrote:

Date stamp and Coordinates please... to 10 digit accuracy... Or as a minimum, a better description of the slate ‘chunk’ 😞 ;)

Probably around 2009/10.
Listen mate, I was so hung over after the previous nights cider and skittles vodka fest, that I didn’t dare drive even the next day, jumped in the back of a mates Land Rover to get there.
I don’t have a clue where the poo touched down, nor do I have any geological details about the mineral used to hide it.:lol:
It’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

derrick man
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Newbie

4 years ago

#107

Some parts of the Corsham/Box complex.

Places I certainly wouldn’t work in...

Thrutch
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4 years ago

#108

I recall back in the 1960s that some parts of the mines in Matlock/Matlock Bath were 'missing' when we went back to revisit them. One on trip into the Speedwell complex I noted a huge block on the floor, and the same distinctive shaped mark on the roof.
Magpie Mine in the area around the main shaft has to rank as one of the most unpleasant places I have visited. The block of stone that almost fills the sough on the way in, plus the odd smaller one should be a warning. Looking along a side passage that had a notice in it advising that it should not be entered then hearing a crack from the roof somewhere past it was a little disconcerting. Moving on towards the shaft was not good.
Cromford Sough was a bit 'iffy' when I visited that.

pwhole
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4 years ago

#109

On a recent permission trip (two years ago) up Magpie Sough, we got to the shaft area, and encountered a section of timbered roof that had yellow fur hanging from it like sheep fleeces, so we figured it probably wasn't worth it. Climbed up into a couple of stopes above that, but it was all a bit too sketchy to pursue really. A shame after such a long wade! 😞

Paul Marvin
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4 years ago

#110

We have had a few worrying places, namely when you are the first to dive along virgin flooded tunnels laying safety line and not knowing what you are going to find around the next corner. Can be both exhilarating and very nervy at the same time, always with a very elevated heart rate ! 😢.
There are fewer and fewer virgin tunnels nowadays although some are on our radar.

"I Dont Know Where I am Going, But When I Get There I will Know Where I am"

dwarrowdelf
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4 years ago

#111

"TheBogieman" wrote:
About 4 years ago was exploring in Cwmorthin and headed east towards Oakeley on Floor F. Going along the level, the rock quality changed from good, sound slate to very loose, flaky shale. There had been a fall by the entrance to the next chamber but there was a hole big enough to crawl through. Inside, there were small, glittery flakes floating in the air, a smell of freshly cleaved slate and every few seconds, tinkling sounds as bits peeled off the ceiling and hit the rest of the slate rubble floor.
Never been so glad as to scramble back out of that chamber - it looked as though there was a clear way on at the far side of the chamber but the chance of the ceiling coming down and blocking the only certain way out, no way, Hosé...
Simon L knows which chamber!!

Is that a couple of chambers east of the zigzag stairway from DE to F ? If so have a photo of that somewhere. It leads into a awful looking collapse cavity where once there was a chamber. There does look if there's a way on, and I wonder if anyone has tried to push it in the past. NOT recommended I must admit - It exceeded our dodgy limit :blink:

'I wonder how many breakfasts, and other meals we have missed inside that nasty clockless, timeless hole?'

'The Hobbit'
J R R Tolkien.

TheBogieman
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4 years ago

#112

Yes, Seriol, that's the one. F32E I think it is. I 'think' one of the Thursday Nighters has been across but can't remember whether they found much - maybe a missing bridge across the next chamber.
I certainly won't be going in there again even if it's still possible to get in. And I thought 8E was bad enough - where the main access stairway used to be, well part of the bottom of it is still there to see if you do the 3 section ladder from OV D7E up to the west end of 8E on Fl C and hastily cross to end up at the hurdles. The mid and upper parts of the steps now being well buried under what used to be the ceiling up to recent years...

Explorans ad inferos

dwarrowdelf
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4 years ago

#113

Last time in Cwm we were going to go down the ladder in 7E old vein but the first one to see the hole in the fall out of chamber 8E thought better and turned back.

Considering floor F chamber 32E would be intrigued to know if at one time it would have been possible to pop though the way on at the other side of this chamber, where I feel sure I could see a hole of sorts then go down the chamber beyond to floor G and get to the top of the staircase (beyond the little caban) which goes from G to H. I understand you would now hit water pretty quickly though

'I wonder how many breakfasts, and other meals we have missed inside that nasty clockless, timeless hole?'

'The Hobbit'
J R R Tolkien.

TheBogieman
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4 years ago

#114

The bottom of 8E is reasonably safe. Once through the rabbit hole amongst the fall, you are only a few seconds from reaching the safety of the continuation tunnel and on to the hurdles.

As regards Fl F, you won't get me in that chamber again even if there is a way on! I've been looking at various u/g maps and Fl F East of Ch 33 seems to be missing so I can't say what lies East of there from Fl DE down to FL G. Having gone along DE East of the compressor chamber into Oakeley some years back, all the chambers off DE to the north appeared to be collapsed - at least, the entrance tunnels off DE were so that would be Ch 31 and down to the mid 20's. There is, or was, a degraded link tunnel off which enters the back of DE 32 where the remains of all the pumps are on your way from the head of Ch 34 winder to Lefal Ffrench.
Wondering now whether that dodgy chamber is actually F31E now...

Explorans ad inferos

dwarrowdelf
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4 years ago

#115

The dodgy chamber could well be F31, as I remember another discussion on here, where I think it was established that this collapse cavity was more or less under ch 31DE which has the cracks in the ceiling. The degraded tunnel seems to go through inside the wall of 31DE to opposite the Oakeley DE boundary collapse. I was informed that it was actually passable within the memory of the mine exploring community but I have no idea how long ago this was, so the whole area appears to be gradually disintegrating - A legacy of the Great Fall. You can climb over a collapse into the back of chamber 31 off the DE level east of the compressor chamber, but it only leads through the chamber round in a circle back to the area of Leval Ffrench. I do not recommended doing this as it gains nothing and is only navigating a very nasty part of the quarry which I think is probably worse than 8E. In wet conditions there is water issuing out of the ceiling cracks, not to mention the "seismic" boulders on the floor !!

'I wonder how many breakfasts, and other meals we have missed inside that nasty clockless, timeless hole?'

'The Hobbit'
J R R Tolkien.

TheBogieman
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4 years ago

#116

Yes, the whole zone east of Ch32, under where the now empty lake on the surface is, is definitely bad ground. Down on Fl G, the passage to the "hidden caban" is now blocked by a big fall. It's (or was 18mths ago) still possible the access the back of the caban through the crumbling hole in the passage wall and walking across the back filled chamber to it but I wasn't happy going through that hole, it's very highly stressed... Will have to take a careful wander down that tunnel to have a look when Covid restrictions allows a trip but even if it hasn't yet collapsed, won't be going back through. Pity we've effectively lost that caban, it was a favourite to use for the then annual AN Victorian Mining Day, great fun getting togged up in period costumes and using candles and hurricane lamps...

Explorans ad inferos