I know I should get sorted earlier in the week but...

Is there anyone going underground who would let an enthusiastic but presently inexperienced middle-aged reprobate ie me, tag along on Sunday?

I can't do tomorrow as I MUST get the air-con fixed in the car.

Cheers
Nick

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I can't do tomorrow as I MUST get the air-con fixed in the car.

You as well!
:lol:

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Air con! A decadent luxury. Whats wrong with a metal flap with a lever?

My car has windows that can be wound down.

This allows entry of cool air, at no cost.

Isn't science wonderful.

I can remember driving down the M5 to Cornwall years ago in a real scortcher. Every window was down but it was still uncomfortable hot and blowing our heads off as well.

We move forward, at one time everyone had outside toilets and used candles and oil lamps.

The only thing is I suspect that it all combines to make us physically softer.

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My car has windows that can be wound down.

This allows entry of cool air, at no cost.

Isn't science wonderful.

Where exactly is the cool air if the ambient temp is 30C plus?

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The cool air is underground, so long as you don't go too deep...

Not helping my mining plight, though the aircon bit hasn't been too successful either, everyone is either shut or the recharge machine is broken or in the case of Kwik Fit Washington, the power has failed. :curse:

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Just think of all the fuel you are saving with having no air con working. Go out at nights when it is cooler.

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I'm thinking more of all the extra fuel I'm having to use by driving with the windows open... ::)

It looks like I'll be pottering around Smallcleugh on my own then. Only one way to learn a place I suppose and that is to be there. 😉

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You are all mad.

All you have to do is get your butler so soothe your furrowed brow with a teatowel filled with ice cubes and keep a portable fan playing over you as you drive.

Unless your driver is driving of course, which makes it even easier.

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Bloody air-con. Got 2 cars at the moment and aircon knackered in both 😞

It looks like I'll be pottering around Smallcleugh on my own then. Only one way to learn a place I suppose and that is to be there. ;)

I guess you made it out then ?

Do you know where you got to ? 🙂

Bloody air-con. Got 2 cars at the moment and aircon knackered in both :(

Change the auxilliary drive belt and fit a non-aircon belt if possible, much less hassle in the long run! 🙂

I got out, went in and got out again, either that or I am trapped inside and this is just a figment of my fevered imagination....

Up to the dizzy distance in of Gypsum Corner via Old Fan, Smallcleugh, Wheel & Whit Hudson's flats. Since I was there i thought I might as well go up to the Ballroom and be disappointed again by it being relatively tiny to several of the others.

I was a bit confused by the sump on the LHS as you head outbye on the Horse Level, just before the level heading West on sort of on the Middlecleugh vein. None of the maps I have looked at, the 2 on this site or Mike H's seem to have this marked and it does seem fairly obvious...
Also noted that the blind level marked that runs parallel to the level that leads to the ballroom actually goes quite a long way through mostly collapsed stope.

Pottered back through Hetherington's and had a good old nose about in the Smallcleugh flats, trying to find the assorted eastbound crosscuts & trying to work out how to get into the New Fan and Waterblast flats. By now I was running a bit late so reluctantly headed out to day with its unseasonably hot weather.

It would have been nice to have someone to talk to, other than me and the knockers but a fun time was had. Only bad bit was leaving gloves in the car, only noticed at the entrance so not going back, which meant my hands got all dirty boo-hoo blub blub. 😢 :lol:

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There are so many sumps on the horse level that the one you're talking about doesn't spring to mind.
Presumably its a blocked one ?

Waterblast flats are relatively easy to find, climb up just before you see a wooden door in the flats.

New Fan flats is up a wet rise on a dead-end just before that.

The place is this:

You turn right out of Hetherington's murder on the back, straight over the junction for the Bore-room, or more accurately slither across the fall from the rise, and end up at what I gather is gypsum corner. Where there is currently residing a late 20th or early 21st century fencepost but I digress.
Turning right here, as if going back to day along the Horse Level, there is a sump immediately on your left, I think just opposite the graffiti from 1850something, shortly followed by an adit also on the left and then you run into collapsed ground. The sump is nicely walled if that helps...

God is in heaven,
People are on earth,
The bear is in the forest

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Hey Nick

If you want some company exploring give me a shout. I've been down a few mines in weardale and done Smallcleugh a few times, but like you could do with some company while doing so as most of the time I explore alone :thumbup:

The place you're describing is labelled as G. Bells Sump on my Mike H map.

If its not on yours I suspect you have the V1 rather than V2

I'm afraid I know nothing about the sump itself though.