With our foray into Gudhamgill Mine yesterday and then looking at
the plans, we thought that having a look at the surface remains would be a good
late morning jaunt. We followed Gudham Gill up stream until the first level was
reached. Karli and Aubrey pointed out the Gudhamgill Level entrance for me,
just past this there was a sleeper covering of a hole into the level.
We
tried to look for another level which was supposed to be a trial a bit further
up on the opposite bank, but there was no sign of it. Proceeding up the gill, a
line of shafts could be seen progressing up the moor, these paralleled the
vein. Karli showed us one of the shafts that was open and venting, near it was
an air pipe. Could this be the Borehole Sump from the surface? After this we
headed further up the moor to reach the heaps from an adit.
The level is
open at the entrance but a few metres in it must be collapsed as there is a
depression on the surface. Aubrey pointed out that the water coming out was
actually spilling out of the depression, hinting that it could be fully
flooded. At first we thought that this was the Firestone Level, but looking a
mine plans later on, it could not be as the Firestone Level would be much lower
down. We proceeded to some other mounds and these were all shafts, 2 of which
were capped and open, one was not that deep and could possible go into the
Firestone Level, whilst the second one was deep, judging by the time rocks took
to fall down.
On the way back down we looked at some of the spoil heaps
to see if any more adits or shafts could be found - only a couple more totally
collapsed bell pits really, though I did manage to find a fair sized crystal of
purple fluorite on one of the heaps which was a surprise. In the end this
little surface trip was a bad idea - venting open shafts, possibilities of
getting into the Firestone Level - as if we don't have enough stuff still to
explore...! |
