News: Roy Fellows Completes Impressive Efforts in Talybont Mine

Roy Fellows reports that his hard work stabilising Allt-y-Crib (Talybont) Mine is now completed. This project featured briefly on Darkness Below in January this year. Roy has been working on this for about 12 months, visiting the site about once a week. A log of the progress on this impressive project over the past year can be read on the AditNow website.

Ladderway to deep adit, Talybont Mine. The subject of Roy Fellows' stabilisation work 2015-16, including the concrete wall on the right of this photo. Photo: Roy Fellows.
Ladderway to deep adit, Talybont Mine. The subject of Roy Fellows’ stabilisation work 2015-16, including the concrete wall on the right of this photo. Photo: Roy Fellows.

The most recent report speaks of admirable stabilisation work in the ladder shaft to deep adit. Roy discovered that much of the timber in the shaft was contributing little if anything to the stability of the area, and most of it has been removed.
A list of material used includes:

    • 2 of 7ft steel reinforced lintels
    • 2 of 4 ft steel reinforced lintels
    • 4 of 8ft x 3ft 5mm wire galvanised steel meshes
    • 12 of 1 metre heavy allthread plus nuts and plate washers
    • About 6 bags of cement plus through bolts and brackets etc
Ladderway to deep adit, Talybont Mine. The subject of Roy Fellows' stabilisation work 2015-16, including the concrete lintel visible bottm left, and the wall below that. Photo: Roy Fellows.
Ladderway to deep adit, Talybont Mine. The subject of Roy Fellows’ stabilisation work 2015-16, including the concrete lintel visible bottom left, and the wall below that. Photo: Roy Fellows.

Roy is justifiably extremely proud of the results of his hard work, and hopes that the mine will still be accessible long after he has gone. The mine is now available for visits, and details of how to arrange this are on the Cave Access Limited website.

Ladderway to deep adit, Talybont Mine. The subject of Roy Fellows' stabilisation work 2015-16, showing extensive use of steel mesh. Photo: Roy Fellows.
Ladderway to deep adit, Talybont Mine. The subject of Roy Fellows’ stabilisation work 2015-16, showing extensive use of steel mesh. Photo: Roy Fellows.

Roy has also done some rebolting for SRT to avoid chronic rope abrasion. It’s best now done on a single 40 metre rope. You belay to a tree with a long sling, the first pitch is about 60 feet at a slope of about 55 degrees, clip to hanger at the bottom, traverse across to second hanger for rebelay for final 25 foot loose slope.

Thanks are due to Roy for his fascinating log of the project.