For the last few years Aubrey and John have been exploring the
stopes to the west of Bogg Shaft from the Smallcleugh Horse Level, they have
entered into Caplecleugh High Level and from there managed to climb up into 2
more levels eventually leading them to the bottom of a fairly deep shaft where
a small peek of daylight could be seen - last month both of them along with
Alistair managed a surface through trip after locating the shaft on the
surface. Having heard this news, I was keen to do this trip and to survey it so
that we could get a better fix of the levels and corresponding surface shafts.
I joined Alistair to do the survey and to be shown the route.
We rigged
up the surface shaft and proceeded down 35.5m, landing in a level (1st) which
headed roughly west and east. West was blocked and the route was in the eastern
direction. About 5m from the shaft bottom was another shaft, where it went to
we had no idea and any future attempts at going down it looked very risky as it
had timber supports piled high with shale ready to drop. Past this the passage
was in reasonable condition and we carried along it for some 73m, eventually
coming to an ore shoot which was the way on.
Past the ore shoot there
was an ore truck in remarkable condition, from the ore shoot the passage
carried on another 34m ending in a collapse. We dropped 8m down the ore shoot
into another level (2nd). This level was driven in shale and low. Pretty much
immediately some graffiti from 1854 was visible, that had been carved into a
slab of shale. Along this passage we came across clog prints and two shafts.
After some 90m a laddered manway rising up was reached, and then just past that
a rise which was rigged up, the state of which we could not determine. Another
10m and the level ended in a shaft, here we had a 15m descent which took us to
the stope above the Caplecleugh High Level. Now I knew where I was, Aubrey had
took us to this part of the mine 2 years ago (see:
Bogg
Shaft, Smallcleugh Mine).
We had a quick look around the stope, to
the west it was possible to drop down into Caplecleugh High Level, however the
continuation was blocked, and at some point a dig had been started. We returned
to the east side of the stope and dropped down back into the Caplecleugh High
Level following the large pipe that greeted us. At 22m we reached the sump that
connected to the stopes above Smallcleugh and past Bogg Shaft. To finish off
the survey Alistair crossed the sump and continued on along the level to see
how far it went - a total of 43m, soon I heard shouts and I joined him, the
level was open all the way to Bogg Shaft, however near the end it was in very
unstable shale and you had to be careful not to disturb the walls and roof. At
the end we could see Bogg Shaft and where the pipes came in from the roof at
this level. The hole that they came in through was rather small and just big
enough for the pipes - we had always thought that the shaft was big all the
way. Another item which dawned on us was that at first impression it looked
like the level opened out into a large chamber, however it looks like the
chamber is a result of shale coming away from the walls, hence all the rubble
and rocks below.
Retracing out steps we descended another 8m into the
stope above Smallcleugh and then dropped a further 6m to the stope floor level,
we where now 13m above Smallcleugh. We passed under Bogg Shaft having an
excellent view up it now since all the rubble had fallen and proceeded to
descend the final manway into Smallcleugh. We had lunch at the junction of
Middlecleugh Second Sun and Longcleugh Vein. Finally we arrived at the portal
after a fantastic through trip with a total decent of 91m to Smallcleugh from
the surface via 5 pitches.
Many questions spring to mind after this
trip, the first and second levels correspond with where Middlecleugh Level
should be in terms of horizontal elevation, are they both classed as it or are
they unconnected? Super imposing one of our mine plans of Smallcleugh and
Middlecleugh onto an OS map, it is possible to align the surface shaft we
descended along with Bogg, Frog Shafts, and Perry's Dam. This shows that the
surface shaft is on the Middlecleugh Second Sun Vein (MSSV), however the levels
that we think are Middlecleugh do not align with the Middlecleugh Level shown
on the mine plan. The mine plan is based on the VM abandonment plans, which are
known to be inaccurate as far as bearings go, and so it is possible that the
Middlecleugh Level shown may be incorrect, if the Middlecleugh Level on the
plan is moved up in a northern direction then it aligns with part of our survey
and surface shafts shown on the OS map. It would be interesting to find out if
the Middlecleugh Level actually followed the MSSV above Smallcleugh, because on
the VM plan it shows it being in between MSSV and Longcleugh
Vein?? |
