I had been told by a few explorers that there was a 'dwarf' level
that you could get into on the sharp bend of the horse level as it reaches the
High Raise Vein. None of us had been up into it before apart from Sal when she
visited it with WMRG sometime ago. Mentioning this to the others it was decided
to be a good area to go and see even though it was small as it would help with
the current plan I am drawing up of Haggs.
We made our way along Hagg's
Vein and upon reaching Wellgill Cross Vein, we turned left heading further into
the mine. Up and over a fall and we were in orange ochreous water. It seemed a
lot deeper then we remembered, but could that just be the six years' worth of
memory loss since our last visit here? Another 300m and we came to the junction
with the High Raise Second Sun Vein and the crosscut to the rise giving access
to the Admiralty Flat. We passed this and carried on for another 250m until the
horse level reached the High Raise Vein. On the corner here there were a lot of
ochreous mud formations and a steel ladder going up into a hole. We are sure
that this wasn't here last time and we wondered if this ladder had come from
the rise up to the Admiralty Flat?
Climbing up the ladder gave entry
into a grotty little stope. There were a lot of colourful formations in it and
the only way on was up a partially collapsed manway. However, it looked sound
enough due to all the calcite glue covering everything and also other explorers
had conveniently also put in the odd rail and bar to help get up it. The only
real iffy bit was at the top of the climbing section where you had to pass
under a rotten stemple which was holding back a mound of rubble. Once under
that you came into a little chamber and the way on was up a little incline that
still had a bit of ladder in it. On the right hand side of the incline there
where some fantastically coloured formations; yellows, oranges and browns with
a surprising splash of green amongst them as well. At the top of the incline
you came out into a short crosscut that met with the High Raise Level, running
southwest - northeast, below the stope workings above. At this junction there
was a further rise, but this looked choked at about 8m. In the little crosscut
on a rock shelf in the wall we saw three candle stubs and a circular bracket
like fungus growth on the floor.
Taking the northeast side first, we had
to clamber over stemples (that is assuming that they were stemples and not
sleepers?) about 30cm above the floor. In their current state they looked to be
keeping the level from closing in. Moving further along some small hoppers were
seen on the right hand side. Everything in this level seemed to be on the small
side of things - maybe this area was worked by dwarf miners? About 20m in there
was an open rise that entered a stope above the level. The stope was a mess
with an undulating floor and no way on. Back down in the level it went for
maybe another 75m or so and ended in a fall. Going the opposite way from the
junction the level had some interesting black formations on the wall and then
an area of collapsed rotting timber was reached. You could have tried going
through it but it wasn't really that inviting and so we left
it.
Dropping back down to the stope below, we ended up having some
lunch. Then it was back down to the horse level and out. Upon reaching the High
Raise Second Sun Vein junction Karli and Pete had a play at water management
whilst I went to have a look at the rise up into the flat workings. At the rise
there were two ropes going up. I could not remember from last time, but had
always thought that there only ever was one and an old piece of tat at that.
The tatty one was still there and the second one was labelled with NR 07. I
came back to the water workers and they had quite a gush of tomato soup running
through the channel they had excavated. Ah… bring on the glow
tan. |
