A cobalt mine, abandoned in the early 19th century, has been discovered at Alderley Edge in Cheshire revealing a ‘time capsule’ of personal objects and equipment the workers left behind. The shaft ran in after the unusually wet weather in 2019/2020 and was found by a warden surveying the field. The Derbyshire Caving Club then…
NAMHO 2019 Mid-Wales – A programme of excellence
My workplace annual leave is a precious resource, and I try to use it sparingly and wisely. In respect of this year’s NAMHO Conference, I think I made a good decision, extending the weekend on which the conference presentations took place by three days, so I could also attend some field trips. The organisers, the…
Ritual protection in the Chaldon Quarries – health and safety in the 16th century
For the first time, curious chalk inscriptions on the walls of an ancient stone quarry in Surrey are being systematically recorded, as part of a wider research project to better understand the long and hitherto hidden history of this important source of stone for London. Many of the chalk inscriptions have been identified as ritual protection marks (RPM).
News: Chaldon Quarries, Surrey – Radiocarbon Dating Results
In January 2018, we reported that the Wealden Cave and Mine Society had been awarded the opportunity to get free radiocarbon dating work performed on archaeological samples from the Reigate area. By the end of March, the results were available, but disappointingly, two of the three samples submitted did not contain sufficient carbon to provide…
NAMHO 2018 – Lecture Review
The 2018 annual conference of the National Association of Mining History Organisations was hosted jointly by Gloucester Speleological Society, Royal Forest of Dean Caving Club, Hades Caving Club, South Gloucestershire Mines Research Group and Clearwell Caves, and held at Park End in the Forest of Dean. There was a comprehensive list of field trips available…
Welsh Mines News Digest, Spring 2018
Here are some brief snippets of news, courtesy of Roy Fellows. Filming for “Hidden Wales” Lazerbeam Productions has been filming surface and underground at Cwmystwyth for a forthcoming series “Hidden Wales”. Roy accompanied a filming team underground and he will probably feature quite a lot in the Cwmystwyth episode, which he hopes will provide a bit of…
News: UNEXMIN: An Autonomous Underwater Explorer for Flooded Mines
Thirteen organisations from seven countries across Europe are collaborating in an ambitious project to develop a submersible robotic system for surveying and exploration of flooded mines. The €5 million project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research programme, includes the development of a Robotic Explorer (UX-1) for autonomous 3D mine mapping to gather valuable…
Summer 2017 Mining News Digest
Talybont (Source: Roy Fellows) Access is now open with the rotten timberwork all stripped out and the access shaft concreted. Rotten ladders have been replaced by steel ones. There is no more work required on this site in the near future. Cwmystwyth Lefel Fawr (Source: Roy Fellows) Work on replacing the second tube with a…
News: Descent 257 Now Available
Descent 257 is now available! As ever, Newsdesk will bring you up to date with news from around the world, including the news that the Royal Geographical Society is hosting a British caving weekend from 1st to 4th December at its headquarters in London. The title of the event is A Golden Age of Cave…
NAMHO Annual Conference 2017 – Lecture Review
It fell to me to arrange and host the two days of lectures for the 2017 conference of the National Association of Mining History Organisations (NAMHO), while other members of the hosting group, the Wealden Cave and Mine Society, worried about pig-roasts, field trips, beer and the Saturday evening’s live band. The conference was held…
Bookings for NAMHO 2017 Now Live
Bookings are now open for the National Association of Mining History Organisations (NAMHO) Conference 2017, to be based around Godstone, Surrey, UK over the weekend of 23-26th June 2017. A lively and exciting weekend of underground trips, lectures and social events, hosted by the Wealden Cave & Mine Society, in their 50th anniversary year, so…
New Website : Northern Mine Research Society
If a society wants to thrive nowadays, it is important that they have a good website. It is by far the best way to promote what you do, and to encourage others to get involved. The Northern Mine Research Society has recently introduced a radically improved website. In the course of reviewing it for this…
NAMHO Conference 2017 – Call for Papers
The 2017 Annual NAMHO Conference takes place over the weekend of 24th / 25th June, and will be based at Godstone in Surrey. It is to be hosted by the Wealden Cave and Mine Society. The theme will be: “Mining History Organisations – Achievements and Challenges” WCMS are very keen to provide a full set…
News: Latest NAMHO Newsletter highlights launch of mining research agenda
In the latest newsletter from NAMHO, Peter Claughton gives a detailed account of the launch of the Archaeology of Mining and Quarrying in England Research Framework at a seminar earlier this year in April. In the discussions that followed the presentation, and quoting from Peter’s report, it was the matters of maintaining comprehensive inventories of…
News: Cwmystwyth Mine works – Phase 1 completed
Roy Fellows reports another completed stage in the stabilisation program in Cwmystwyth Mine. The underground works phase 1, support of the stull above the skipway, is now completed and the area cleared. Normal access to Roman Level is now open, the path has been widened at the bottom as the work has encroached on this…
Update: Cwmystwth Lefel Fawr work commences
The planned stabilisation work in Cwmystwyth Mine, reported here in December 2015, has now started. Roy Fellows reports: Work started on 10th April. Please note that the climbing route above the skipway up to Roman Level is out of bounds due to the work being done to reinforce the big stull and to support the sagging…
News: Descent 249 Now Available
Descent 249 is now available! Catch up with caving and mining news from around the regions. Features in this issue include: a fascinating article on the loss of Penderyn Cave mentioned in the previous issue (248); a description of the at times hair-raising Croesor-Rhosydd traverse through a mountain in north Wales, complete with some excellent…
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…
March 2016 NAMHO Newsletter
In the March 2016 NAMHO newsletter, the headline story is, understandably, the closure of Kellingley Colliery, the last deep coal mine in Britain, which took place in December 2015. There is a link to Ian Castledine’s impressive photographic record immediately after the closure, at http://www.kellingley.co.uk/ Details of a forthcoming publication are described. “The Archaeology of Mining…
News: Progress at Tankard Shaft, Somerset
In January, Darkness Below reported that work had started on a new dig called Tankard Shaft, an undocumented mine shaft, tantalisingly close to Tankard Hole, itself a promising dig abandoned in the 1950’s. The dig team is happy to report that after a significant amount of shaft stabilisation work, they have broken into a complex series…
News: Tankard Shaft Dig, Priddy
An enthusiastic team of cavers, has been given permission to investigate a mine shaft that opened up in a field just east of the Hunters’ Lodge Inn, Priddy. This shaft is quite close to Tankard Hole, which was last investigated in the 1950s. The old dig was in a very large shakehole, and it reached…
Mining News: Alltycrib (Talybont) Lead Mine, Ceredigion
Can everyone please stay clear of Talybont shaft to deep adit, please, until further notice. Heavy rain plus ongoing work has caused some movement at the bottom of the shaft. The ongoing work involves the stripping out of timber originally installed when the access shaft to the deep adit was sunk by members of the…
December NAMHO Newsletter Published
A good source for news on things that matter to mine explorers and historians is the NAMHO newsletter. The latest issue, for December 2015, has just been published. The theme and some details of the 2016 NAMHO conference in the Republic of Ireland are announced. If your society owns or leases a mine site, there…
Kellingley Colliery closure – a time for reflection
At midday on 18th December 2015, the last shift of miners was brought to surface at Kellingley Colliery in Yorkshire. The papers and television channels hailed it as the end of the era of deep coal mining in Britain. 450 workers were made redundant, like countless miners before them over decades of pit closures. I…
News: Ra Paulette’s luminous subterranean world
In one of the first posts on Darkness Below UK we briefly highlighted the work of US cartoonist John Tudek. At the time we were not sure how to categorise the post – should we create a category for Cave Art? Should there be one for cartoons? Should it appear under Deep Thought? In the end we popped…
Mining News: Groverake Mine under threat
Mine-explorers usually have a passion for what remains above ground as well as delving deep into the earth. Groverake Fluorspar Mine closed in 1999 and has the last surviving headframe in the Northern Orefield. There are currently concerns that authorities are seeking the demolition and clearance of the remaining surface structures of this mine, and these…
NAMHO 2016 details
NAMHO have released more details of their 2016 Conference. The 2016 NAMHO Conference is being hosted by the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland on the 17th-19th June 2016. The meeting will be based at Dublin City University, which is handy for the airport in the north of the city. On the Saturday there will be…
NAMHO 2016
Hosted by the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland and (to be confirmed) takes place in Dublin 17th 19th June 2016.