In spring this year I had spoken to a friend who told me about the
compressor house in Brownley Hill, not having explored this mine in too much
detail I had never come across it. I mentioned it to Karli and Mark and they
had been to it a few times, we have been meaning to visit it for the last 6
months, but never got round to it until now.
The compressor house is
along the Nentsberry Hagg's link from Brownley Hill so we ended up killing two
birds with one stone. We made a bee line along the Wellgill Cross Vein heading
north west, just past the right turn and scramble up into the Brownley Hill
North Middle Vein, we climbed up an limestone outcrop on the left and slid down
a muddy shoot and then proceeded to climb the rise that greeted us. Karli
climbed up first and dropped a lifeline for us to follow. The compressor house
is very impressive. The arched roof and walls are in excellent condition, there
are fittings hung on the wall and many artifacts. The timbers that the
compressor sat on are reasonably intact and there are air pipes leading to
where the compressor would have been. At the back of the house there are two
passages that lead into a large shale chamber. There are some wooden supports
on the floor which indicate that there may have been a shaft here. In one of
the corners there is a rise.
After coming down from the compressor house
we (yet again) had lunch followed by the obligatory photograph, documenting
this important fact. Afterwards Karli and Mark led the the way to the shaft
that links to the Nentsberry Hagg's Level and Mine. We passed a square hole in
the ground, which had an air pipe going down it, further on we dropped a metre
or so and doubled back on ourselves. We came to the air pipe that could be seen
before. Here a steel ladder had been installed which led to a platform, and
then further down to another platform and into the watery passage that leads to
Hagg's. We finished the trip by retracing our route in. |
