Having visited Nentberry Haggs mine for the first time last month,
we decided to try to open up the collapse just inside the adit with a view to
opening that great Nenthead trip, The Greater Nenthead Traverse - a multi mine
(5), multi level (8), 9km through trip. Not having done any proper digging
before, this looked like a good starter project for us. Click on the thumbnails
for a full picture and description.
1st Dig, Quick Progress. (Karli and Mike) - 25/05/08: The
ground work that Aubrey, John and Karli had laid down a few years ago gave us a
real head start and made things that much easier. They had cleared some of the
level and installed drainage pipes to keep the water level down. Also at the
collapse forehead a pipe had been knocked through for draining the water from
the other side of the collapse, as well as one scaffold pole - the start of a
roof support, things could not be better.
Our first attempt at digging
was after a trip down Wellgill Shaft, so it was late in the afternoon by the
time we got down and we only ended up being underground for an hour, including
a lunch stop. We're not part timers, honest. With Karli at the forehead,
picking away at the rubble and mud, I was behind taking his spoil out of the
way and down the passage in an attempt at not letting the floor to roof height
decrease. After maybe 20 minutes or so we had removed about a metre of rubble,
and obtained a flat face. The water that was coming out of the drainage pipe at
roof level was a real bonus, it helped in shifting material down the
level.
With time pressing on (its a pain living in Manchester) we put
another 20 minutes in and gained another metre. Then a little break through, it
looked like we had broken through to the other side of the fall, admittedly at
roof level only, this produced a large torrent of water which started to clear
our spoil for us. Not bad. At this point we left it as things needed to settle
a bit. We had done the easy bit, as the material had been dug out against the
right hand side, which was the solid rock wall. When the left hand side is
tackled we will need to put in supports. We exited shouting out loud at the
very much deeper water as it chilled certain parts of our bodies. Already
dreaming of the traverse!
2nd Dig, Good Progress, Destroyed in Seconds. (Karli, Mike and Peter)
- 21/06/08:
After last months digging we were full of hope in
getting through this weekend. Armed with scrounged scaffold pole offcuts,
clamps and some fantastic timber that Pete managed to get from work (3" x 6" x
5') we dragged all this in to the fall. Reaching it, not surprisingly it had
come in again. Karli digged at the forehead (the boy does like digging) and
myself and Pete removed his spoil down the passage, at the same time lowering
the floor level as well.
Things where looking really good and we put up
2 support sections of scaffold frame up, on top of this 5 sections of the
timber went up. it looked pretty good, we where all pretty pleased. More
digging and the water flow started to increase, great stuff, this really helped
shifting spoil down the passage.
Problems started occurring now. The
water flow started to undermine the scaffold pole supports, one sank as we were
looking at it - we got a bit of a hot flush at this point. We took a break for
lunch and rethink, ah yes, hindsight, some footing for the poles would have
gone down quite well! We returned to the dig, do see the frame looking all
skewed, not good. Some material had landed on top of it and coupled with the
water flow doing its work in the wrong area things did not look good. It was
decided to take the frame apart and rethink. We managed this with no problems
despite some of the material that had come down.
It was annoying, what
had happened, a result of rushing and not thinking. Anyway we just sat there
for a while wondering, every so often looking at the cavity, and the splats of
material coming down. There was a big chock stone wedged up there and it looked
like it was going to come down as some point, better to assist it rather than
smashing down on the frame, Karli did assist it with one of the longer poles.
This was the last nail in the coffin. The stone came down, it also started some
deep rumbling above, a rapid tactical retreat was made as this point. Debris
started to come down, more retreat, more debris, lots of deep rumbling.
Nooooooo. All going to pot. Finally when it finished, there was no water flow
anymore and not only the excavated area had been filled in, but around 2m of
debris had spilled into the 'clear' passage. All the scaffold poles, clamps and
Karli's new lump hammer where gone. On the bright side it was none of us at
least.
We attempted to do some digging of the debris, but we where just
not in the mood after all that, and we shortly packed it in for the day.
3rd Dig, Almost Back to
Square One. (Karli and Peter) - 01/07/08:
After much thinking for
two weeks it was decided that there was nothing for it but to get back at the
dig. With no drain of water now, we felt it could not be left like that. So I
made arrangements with Karli for a night time digging mission. Our aim was to
at least retrieve all the stuff that was buried from the last effort. Armed
with a spade and half barrel we headed for Haggs. On arrival at the blockage it
was evident that thankfully it had not budged since last time.
With
Karli taking the first shift at the face we started to move the sticky, wet mud
and large rocks in the half barrel to the deep water back down the passage for
dumping. Things progressed quickly and within 30 minutes we had started to
uncover the scaffold poles. The hardest part was dragging and tipping the
barrel. After an hour it was time for a change around so I swapped with Karli.
With some new energy at the face, things moved quickly again and in no time the
buried poles, clamps and more importantly Karli's new hammer were liberated.
All remarkably untouched. After another 30 minutes of digging we noticed that
there was water flow around the sides of the muck and from the bottom. Also by
this time every thing lost last time was recovered.
Working along the
right hand side of the level, the water flow continued to increase. After 2
hours of digging it was time to stop, before leaving we hammered in one of the
long scaffolding poles do see if we could get some drainage flow going. We got
it though to the other site after about 1m, wiggling it about created a small
flow of water.
With this small victory we decided to call it a day and
headed out, only to be eaten alive by miggies! Good progress made to about the
point that we started on last time. We shifted approximately 10 to 15 very full
half barrels, which equated roughly to a 5' advance. Report by
Pete.
4th Dig, Day of the
Flood. (Karli and Peter) - 09/07/08:
Strike while the iron is
hot, I thought, so after last weeks success we organised another night time
dig. Finishing work, I headed for Nenthead and Karli's house. On arrival at
Haggs we discovered a good flow of water coming out of the gate. Once we got to
the fall we could be see that the water had worked its way through the fall and
cleared a small channel. We decided that the first priority was to remove a
large rock from the floor, which was causing a real obstruction to the smooth
running of the barrel. After 15mins of digging the rock was found to be
somewhat larger than first anticipated! Another 15mins and it was out and
turned out to be the size of a small wheel barrow.
The rock removed, we
turned our attention to the fall. This time we used the water flow, to help
with shifting rocks instead of the half-barrel as we moved the mud and rocks
back to the deep water in stages - a bit of mini hushing. We cleared some large
rocks away from the fall and worked in along the right hand rock wall. After
about an hour the water flow really increased to the point that rocks the size
of footballs were just washing past us. At its peak, the flow was about 60cm
deep. After some 10mins or so it subsided to a constant depth of around 20cm.
We continued for another 40mins shifting muck.
We could clearly see the
crown of the level on the other side of the fall so we decided to give it a
poke with the scaffolding pole. It was at this point it was discovered that
although this was the crown, it sloped down. Leading us to the conclusion that
there is much more digging to be done. We also need to shore up the work we are
doing, so the next task is to drop the floor level and get some substantial
timbering in place. Report by Pete
5th Dig, Timbering. (Karli and Peter) - xx/xx/08:
A
re-think is needed for the whole concept. For now we just put in some timbers
to try and stop the shaft material from stopping the water flow. Report by
Pete.
6th Dig, Muck
Shifting. (Karli, Mike and Peter) - 14/12/08:
Not much to report
apart from shifting muck and rocks from the fall face and floor
level.
7th Dig, First Steel
and Spiling. (Ian, Karl, Mike, Dog Pete, and Student Pete.) -
25/04/09:
As the diggers amongst you will have noticed, we are
new to this game, and as a result a lot of time has been wasted so far with not
getting anywhere. Having had a few trips with Dog Pete, I mentioned the project
to him. After looking at the fall, according to him, no problem, this is how to
do it, this is what you need....
A month of so later, things had been
set in motion, namely more volunteers to help and the gathering of materials. A
sharp start at 10:00 had us all going to the fall to have a look and see if
anything had changed - no. A plan of action was made and between us, we started
to; move some of the rocks that were blocking the water flow nearer the adit,
bring materials in, lower the floor level at the fall and clear some of the
shaft material to get a bit closer to its lip. Once this was done the holes in
the sides of the walls for the first piece of steel 'I' beam were started on.
The idea was to knock out some of the rock to make slots for the beam to sit
in, this took forever, with Dog Pete being the main driller, chiseller and plug
and feather user. Whilst this was going on, the rest of us just shifted rocks
and rubble. Finally, deep enough slots got cut out and a measurement was called
out for the first piece of steel - all got very excited - do we need to get
lives? No way. The measurement was relayed to Ian who did the business with the
grinder. Soon the steel was ready to be put in. However, I and Pete had to
spend another half hour or so removing rock so that it could be pivoted (that
is a too nice a word, banged more like) into place. At last it was hammered in
- large grins from everyone.
Ian started knocking in rail lines over the
beam, and then we took turns in doing the hammering as well, however Ian ended
doing most of it, if you saw the size of him you would understand! After the
rails went in we added another 6 scaffold poles, everyone taking turns in
hammering them. The spiling looked impressive and made us all feel a lot safer
from the material in the shaft that seemed always ready to come down. With the
poles and rails in, a bit of tidying was done around the steel, wood and rocks
was put in to tighten things up.
Now it was time to do some muck and
rock shifting, all hands to deck and a barrel train was started to take out
material from the fall. We stopped at an appropriate point, so that we had
enough room to work on the next steel sockets without removing a dangerous
amount of material from the shaft pile. Towards the end of the day we got the
water flowing at a nice fast rate - why does everyone like fast flowing water
around a dig site?
8th Dig,
Second Steel, lots of Rocks and Muck. (Ian, Karli, Mike, Dog Pete, and Student
Pete.) - 26/04/09:
All were very keen after yesterday and a 9:30
start was arranged. The water was still flowing at its usual rate, which was a
promising sign. First thing was to get to the fall face and see if anything had
changed, thankfully not. Dog Pete started on the first slot for the second 'I'
beam, it was going to be hard work. Whilst I worked on lowering the floor level
approaching the fall. Ian and student Pete cleared out an alcove where we had
been storing gear and proceeded to stack large rocks in there along with making
a channel in the finer material for water flow. Karli joined us a little bit
later and installed himself with Dog Pete for the slot chiselling, taking turns
to do it. The rest of us carried on doing the glamourous job of rock and muck
shifting.
Time was getting on and I was wondering if we where going to
get another steel in today, as the rock being worked was so hard. Not sure
when, but a long time after starting and some time around 13:00 a measurement
was called out, time for Ian to cut another length of steel. It went in like a
hand into a glove! It got packed out with some timbers on top to take up the
space between it and the rails and poles. After a bit of a break, Karli and
Student Pete hammered in some more scaffold poles over the second beam, then
the two Pete's started to dig at the fall, generating lots of rocks and muck
for us to take away, including another course of water management. As the water
poured out from the fall, suddenly something changed, a draft started up and
the mist disappeared, we had air flow, and it was drafting in to the mine.
Amazing how such a simple thing can bring so much pleasure. By the end of the
day the alcove was starting to look rather full, and the deep water before the
approach to the fall was getting shallower due to the amount of rubble dumped
in it. A lot of barrel loads were taken away from the face - if the barrels
could be considered as ore trucks, then Ian was the loco on a lot of
them!
It was starting to get to the time of day when we were going to
have to call it in, gathering under the steel we all had a bit of chat and look
at it all. Looking at the rock that was supporting the first steel it was
decided to put in some stemples across the left and right walls to stop any
potential peeling away of rock. We took some fence posts out (taking the
opportunity to take some tools out as well) and Ian got cutting with the chain
saw, with a last moment suggestion of cutting some wedges. These were hammered
into place, and the wedges all got used up. De-ja-vu, another stemple needed,
back out for another bout of chain sawing, back in.
We all made our way
out, and felt good for the day and the whole weekend. Thoughts of through trips
percolated in our minds. An excellent weekend push by everyone! A week or so
later, Student Pete popped down to have a look at the state of things. The pile
of muck under the spiling had slumped down, and it was possible to see the
other side of the shaft wall and the spiling supporting the contents of the
shaft - all doing its job.
9th Dig, Third Steel and the Break Through (Ian, Karli, Pete, Dog
Pete, and Student Pete.) - 23/05/09:
After a few weeks break
since the last visit another digging session was planned, with the hope of
breaking through and finishing the project. Mr. Mike suggested meeting at 10am
at Haggs, though he himself was busy running a photography course for NPHT that
day; we were too keen and all arrived at around 9am instead. Ian was the first
to arrive and had already cleared a lot of large boulders from the first
collapse by the time I got there, improving drainage and making it a little
easier to pass. Karli was next to arrive, with a trailer full of timber; as we
were unloading this, Dog Pete turned up too.
At the dig face, things had
moved somewhat since our last session; the pile of muck had slumped down,
exposing the whole of the shaft. Everything above was now totally supported by
our steelwork and the muck could be cleared from underneath without the worry
of destabilising it all. Dog Pete, Ian and I began the task of clearing the
muck pile; digging the slurry into blue barrels and dragging it back down the
level to be dumped. Once a channel had been dug through, the water behind began
to do a lot of our work for us; we dug the rock out and let the water carry the
muck away. As we were digging, the third Pete arrived, speeding the operation;
shortly afterwards, Karli returned from dropping the trailer back
home.
With the full team now on site, discussion began about where to
place the final steel beam; a suitable arrangement was planned and Dog Pete
began to chisel out a ledge for it. I think most people had a bit of a go at
the hammering at one point or another, while the others continued shifting muck
and digging a channel to lower the water level beyond. A few bits of rock
dropped out of the roof, and we heard movement higher up, so fearing another
possible collapse, we quickly laid down tubes in the channel, so drainage would
continue if anything were to happen. Fortunately, nothing more did come
down.
With the pile of rock and muck cleared, and the drainage tube in
place, it was time to measure up for the final steel; this would have been
easier if the tape measure hadn't been washed away! While the others cut the
beam and got it into place, Dog Pete and I headed up the level as far as the
junction to Brownley, to check it was clear all the way; it was. On the way
back down, we spent some time clearing a few collapses to lower the water level
in a couple of the deeper stretches.
While we were gone, Ian, Pete and
Karli had been busy and had got the final steel into place as well as putting
in timber braces. They had done a fantastic job, leaving the dig finished* and
looking very professional. (*There are still two scaffy poles that need
trimming off at some point - watch your eyes). All that was left was to remove
all the spare steel and timber, as well as the digging tools. All in all a very
productive and satisfying day, made all the better by the anticipation of the
big through trip the next day! Report by Student Pete.
Thanks:
Having started
this dig with the goal of opening and doing the Greater Nenthead Traverse, we
soon realised that help was needed as we had ended up messing around. Having
shown Dog Pete the fall, he came up was a plan of action for the dig. A call
for help on a Adit Now materialised it in the form of Ian and Student Pete both
of which, provided much needed man power, with Ian also kindly providing tools
and lots of steel - a thank you to all who helped. |
