UPPER
PASSAGE BEYOND BEAR PIT |
Beyond Bear Pit, the mine splits into
three branches. The northern one would require
you to traverse across a drop so we will not go that
way and the southern route takes you to the coffin
levels  . The
usual route though is to go to a chamber which often
has a pool in it. This chamber was mined in
the nineteenth century and ends at the cross fault
but you can climb up that way to the Balloon Shaft
area .
Above the pool, there is a ladder up to the Top
Levels which gives
you another route to Balloon Shaft. Off to one
side of the chamber is an interesting view into
earlier workings on the fault itself. From
here, you can look back to the main chamber.
If you do not want to go on to Balloon Shaft, you
can of course return to the Upper levels around Bear
Pit . |
WEST
END EXTENSION |
Over the last twenty years, a
great deal of work has been carried out by a
determined team at the western end of Engine Vein to
try to reveal the passage which we confidently
believed extended from the Balloon Shaft area.
Several minor breakthroughs were made into
handpicked passages which could date from the
eighteenth century but in 2000 a significant section
of passage was found which could be eighteenth or,
more likely early nineteenth century. At the
foot of a shaft from the surface (which is half way
between Engine Vein and Beacon Lodge), a late
nineteenth century date was found but this could
have been the result of a re-visit by the Alderley
Edge Mining Company. Exploration is being
continued in this area. There is only one way
back out again . |
TOP
PASSAGE |
Climbing a fixed ladder takes you up
to one of the levels closest to the surface.
In one direction, you come to two filled shafts from
the surface which would not take much excavation if
we chose to have yet another entrance to the
mine. In the other direction, a crawl through
a timbered area leads into the workings above the
Balloon Shaft area. Do you want to go down the
ladder or through
the wet crawl to Balloon Shaft ? |
COFFIN
LEVELS |
Along the line of the cross fault
(roughly north/south) there are two coffin levels so
small that they must have been dug by children or
particularly small miners. They branch off on
the south side of the passage which links the upper
section of the mine
to Balloon Shaft area . |
BALLOON
SHAFT AREA |
Balloon Shaft was found in the 1990s
following digging along Blue Shaft passage
west. When we found the shaft, it was capped
with two layers of timber with a 20m empty shaft
below! It is now capped with concrete and a
steel lid. The area can also be reached from
the upper levels of the mine and may have been a
collecting point for ore from this part of the
mine. The picture shows the route from Blue
Shaft. A light railway was put in to remove
waste mud and rocks. You can leave the area by
five routes: to Blue Shaft passage west , up to the
top level of the mine , into the
coffin levels on the cross-fault ,
straight back along the upper level or into the
West End of the mine . |
RIPPLE
ROOF CHAMBER |
You can get to the Ripple Roof
chamber from the chamber below the Bridge or from
Blue Shaft passage. There is a winding path up
and down the slippery slope connecting the chamber
with the Bridge. The chamber itself is
entirely nineteenth century and is interesting for
the very clear evidence in the roof of sand ripples
when the rock was deposited, hence the name given to
the chamber. The mineral deposit ends abruptly
here because of the presence of a cross fault which
is the same fault as in the Cobalt Mine. There is
evidence in the chamber of an ore chute constructed
when the miners began to take out ore. The ore
was dug from the top downwards and until the chamber
reached its full height, ore would be shovelled into
a chute and then dropped into trucks which left the
chamber by the cross-cut to Blue Shaft
passage. Do you want to go up the slope to the
Bridge area
or across to Blue Shaft Passage ? |
BLUE
SHAFT PASSAGE (WEST) |
This passage was probably an
important route for ore in both the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. In its full length, it
connects seven shafts to surface, at least four ore
chutes and two shafts to the bottom of the
mine. The section here is the piece between
the Bridge and Balloon Shaft that goes past Bear Pit
and Blue Shafts. The passage was a crawl in
the early 1980s and has been enlarged by the Club
into a stagger! On the north side, though, is
a very good exposure of slickensides, the polishing
of rock on a fault through the movement along or
down the fault. There are two routes to Blue
Shaft, one is a climbing route which enabled the
miners to descend to the bottom of the mine without
ladders and the other is on the slope. Bear
Pit is cut about half way down by this
passage. You can therefore go many ways from
here: you could for example follow the eastern arm , go back to
the Bridge ,
ignore Blue Shaft and go straight on to Balloon
Shaft , take the
cross-cut to Ripple Roof chamber ,
go down Blue Shaft itself
or even drop down Bear Pit on a rope to the
bottom [take care here, you will land in an ore
chute which may be blocked at the time]! |
BLUE
SHAFT AND BEAR PIT |
Blue Shaft is a sloping shaft which
we think was dug in the 1750s by Charles Roe's
miners. It leads to a coffin shaped level and
has handpicked sections off it. By comparison,
Bear Pit is a large oval shaft which looks more like
a Derbyshire shaft. It is possible that it was
sunk in the early eighteenth century by Ashton and
his partners. In the late nineteenth century,
Bear Pit was not used to raise ore but as an ore
chute to the Hough Level. Blue Shaft has some
interesting colour on the walls arising from copper
leaching out from ore further up. From Blue
Shaft, you can climb up to the Blue Shaft passage or go down
to the bottom of the mine . |
| BLUE
SHAFT PASSAGE (EAST)
 |
This is a grovelly passage that
connects the area covered in concrete with the mine
below the bridge. The section in the photo is
only about 3 feet high. Nevertheless, it is
fun to crawl through (if you are suitably dressed)
and shows evidence of an ore chute where mineral was
tipped down into trucks. A steel bar is still
jammed in the ore chute. There are no branches
off this passage so you can choose either to crawl
to the concrete or towards
the bridge where you can either go into the chamber
below the bridge
or straight on down the western branch . |
DICKEN'S
WOOD |
This is the bottom entrance to the
Hough Level. If you've got here, you will have
to go back into the mine or return
over the surface to Engine Vein , possibly
visiting the Mines on Stormy
Point on the way.. |
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