1,600ft deep or more

[Mick F]

I cycled past Gunnislake Clitters Mine this morning, and there's barriers up now. Never used to be, so something must have slipped perhaps.
I've peered down the shaft before - there's a grating over it, thank goodness - and it's a frightening thought that it's so deep. From what I can remember, there's a plaque on one of the walls that tells you how deep it is.

Considering that the mine head is at 500ft above sea level, the bottom is in Davy Jone's Locker 1,100ft under the sea!

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/ ... ry/1017088
http://www.cornwallinfocus.co.uk/mining/clitters.php

[philvantwo]

That's deep Mick F......a third of a mile?

[mercalia]

why the video surveillance notice?

[reohn2]

Compared to coal mines that's not deep Parsonage Colliery was 1250m and that's only to the shaft bottom,the seams were worked on the dip* and so the actual faces were much deeper.
Parkside where I worked at Newton le Willows was 812m to shaft bottom(sump) then the faces again worked on the dip* so deeper still.

BTW Point of Ayr Colliery in North Wales worked seams a mile out under the Irish sea.

*geology in the Lancashire coal field is at an tipped on an gradient which varies In different areas,the seams are worked on the dip of the geological gradient for safety and weight(pressure arch)reasons and worked away from the shafts so the workings go deeper as the coal is won.

EDITED for corrections to Parsonage shaft depth

[philvantwo]

Maybe the video surveillance is looking out for people without a TV licence?

[Mick F]

I stood there and looked, but there didn't seem to be a camera anywhere. Maybe signs are put up like that to deter rather than to record.

[Cyril Haearn]

Maybe the cameras are exceedingly small and disguised a birds nests

[al_yrpal]

I know of a secret Cornish mine on land owned by a builder. Convenient tip!

Al

[Tangled Metal]

I know an old lead mine owned by a university that got taken over with the department that owned it by another university that I went to. It was used by the caving club as a relatively safe training venue. Plus my course got shown around it too. Along with an illegal demonstration of how to get lead out of lead ore. The simple but inefficient and polluting way (fire).

All I know is I can not see how those miners stuck underground for so long in South America several years back didn't get messed up in the head being down there. Unless they had light and power. We turned out lights out and the darkness is not natural. We're a surface dwelling animal, not made for underground IMHO. Not got the senses to make sense of the complete darkness.

[Mick F]

All I know is I can not see how those miners stuck underground for so long in South America several years back didn't get messed up in the head being down there.

William Bant and John Rule stuck down Drakewalls Mine.
Feb 1889
http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/mines ... ewalls.htm
They were stuck down there with one rancid pasty and a half inch of candle. They spent two days in complete darkness without any knowledge of them ever being rescued. The people up on top were used to mining accidents, but usually the people involved died, so Bant and Rule were quite famous after release from their "entombment" and it even made the London papers.

One later committed suicide, and the other became a priest.

Drakewalls Mine is just up the hill from here.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.51474 ... 312!8i6656

[reohn2]

..........All I know is I can not see how those miners stuck underground for so long in South America several years back didn't get messed up in the head being down there. Unless they had light and power. We turned out lights out and the darkness is not natural. We're a surface dwelling animal, not made for underground IMHO. Not got the senses to make sense of the complete darkness.

Think how it was before battery powered cap lamps when lighting was solely by Davy lamp,and in the tin and lead mines where there were no inflamable gases,by candle
Total darkness is total.
When I was a mining Deputy and had to do occasional rotored w/end safety inspections alone,after inspecting my district there wasn't much else to do,so switch off the cap lamp,put out the Davy lamp(Deputies Davy lamp is a re lighter)and have a bit of a nod.Waking up in total darkness can be a bit of a shock to the system especially if the coal face made a big cracking noise as it took a weight.
The whole experience of working underground takes some getting used to but we,like other animals,are adaptable creatures,that doesn't make mining any safer as a working environment though.

[pwa]

I know a couple of people who illegally gain entry to disused mines (the dry ones) and do a variation on potholing. They have all the gaer, the best helmets, lights and rope. They leave the gates, fences in good order when they leave. I do like the total disregard for their own safety. There's not enough of that. But if it goes wrong they will be calling out the emergency services.

[Mick F]

But if it goes wrong they will be calling out the emergency services.

How?
Mobile phones don't work down there.

Hopefully, one of the group may be able to get out and raise the alarm, but maybe not. No matter how many people you have in your party, they can all get stuck.

Best way, is to leave a time that you'll be back, and if not back by the correct time, they can raise the alarm.

[pwa]

But if it goes wrong they will be calling out the emergency services.

How?
Mobile phones don't work down there.

Hopefully, one of the group may be able to get out and raise the alarm, but maybe not. No matter how many people you have in your party, they can all get stuck.

Best way, is to leave a time that you'll be back, and if not back by the correct time, they can raise the alarm.

They know all that stuff. They are really clued up about it. But the risk is part of the attraction, as is trespass. In their defence, they make a point of leaving gates and fences as they found them when they leave. Even so, if I were the site owner I'd be a bit peeved at them.

[ferrit worrier]

I retired from the local caving in 2016 after 25 years had a great time working underground in the mines at Alderley Edge. In 1995 we found a pot of Roman coins in a mine shaft that we were making safe. Channel 4 have produced a series of programmes about historic cities, the first being Chester, towards the end of the program they visit the mines at Alderley. No prizes for guessing who the bloke in the blue boiler suite is

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/brit ... /66155-001