While Eldon Quarry was being worked a metal plate was used to cover a cave in the bottom of the workings somewhere, i am sure most Derbyshire diggers have heard the rumour. Is there any truth in this or is it just a myth? And if it is true who covered it as they must still be around as it is not long since Eldon quarry closed.

Dan

Is it possible it was part of the now quarried-away Lower Slitherstones mine? That was in the south-east corner, where the track crosses? It was 110 fathoms deep to a natural streamway (probably P8's) that the miners used to dump their crap in.

Well that would be really interesting if it could be found. But who will know roughly where it is?

Chris Heathcote at PDMHS

Page 8 being particularly interesting...

http://www.pdmhs.com/PDFs/ScannedBulletinArticles/Bulletin%2014-5%20-%20A%20History%20and%20Gazetteer%20of%20the%20Mines%20in%20the.pdf

http://www.pdmhs.com/PDFs/ScannedBulletinArticles/Bulletin%2015-1%20-%20Surface%20Remains%20of%20the%20Castleton%20and%20Peak%20Forest%20Area.pdf

Very interesting!

pwhole said:

Is it possible it was part of the now quarried-away Lower Slitherstones mine? That was in the south-east corner, where the track crosses? It was 110 fathoms deep to a natural streamway (probably P8's) that the miners used to dump their crap in.

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I wonder if that is the same fabled streamway under Eldon Hole..... :-\

'Twas always the rumour.

I'm assuming that the P8 and Coalpithole streams merge under the quarry somewhere, possibly around this point, and then the combined flow heads SE under Eldon Hole before swinging NE toward New Rake. Somewhere around the Linacre area, I would expect another break or branch to occur, with the water possibly heading N for a short while. It's all guesswork, BTW - no new data, just endless re-reading of what's available.

I'm also guessing that there's another fault similar and parallel to Stemple Highway, but further west, maybe around Linacre, and that's what causes the water to change direction.

Incidentally, Roger Flindall's "Mines, Quarries and Murders in the Peak District", a PDMHS special bulletin (not yet online but available to buy at the museum) includes strong hints that the legendary shaft at the bottom of Eldon Hole was a total wind-up, and possibly one perpetrated by Lloyd himself...I'll dig it out and check the text...

Dan said:

Well that would be really interesting if it could be found. But who will know roughly where it is?

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Us PDMHS types have our ways and means....By dint of overlaying the 1898 25" OS map on a screengrab from Google Earth, it looks like the shaft is either on the upper bench a bit further round from Sidetrack, or it's on the quarry floor pretty much at the face. If it did get covered with a plate, that would mean slightly less dead rock has gone down it during quarrying but there'd still be a lot to haul out to be able to get into the workings, assuming they're not well and truly shaken to bits. If it didn't, then there's a hundred meteres of quarry shrapnel needs to come out....

Of course, there's still the quarry access issue before you even think about shaft clearance - has Big Jim not been round to see Mr Gregory with offers of bribes/booze/sexual favours yet?

I have already spoke with him he says we can do as we like as long as we speak with him first.

Wont someone like T, eddie mason, keith joule or john beck know of someone who worked there and who may still be living locally?  Failing that, borrow a metal detector and get searching and just hope it wasnt in the area now covered by 10ft of grit from the crusher.  Personally I think that mine just east of the top of Eldon Hill (Burning Drake????) could be worth a poke - its a big fat winding shaft covered in sleepers but looks to be backfilled.... but maybe just a plug)

J

If there's someone who does know what the quarry did about the shaft when they were working, that would be a good start. My preferred way fo getting a location would be to get hold of the current 1:2500 map for the area, overlay the 1898 onto it, then find some fixed points you can get measurements from to a point on the quarry boundary fence. Once you've got this, tie a bit of condemned string to the fence and chuck it over the quarry face, then go back into the quarry  and mark where it's come down then you know roughly where the shaft should be.

As for Burning Drake, I've had a look at that shaft and it's choked or filled, plus the site is scheduled so you need to ask Engilsh Heritage nicely before having a poke at it....

I remember surveying a cave they had broken into in the quarry floor in the early 70's. As far as I know though it was later quarried away and what remained is now Sidetrack and Alsops.

But who would know if it was covered with a metal plate? I think the old quarry managers name was Haden Gill.

Dan said:

But who would know if it was covered with a metal plate? I think the old quarry managers name was Haden Gill.

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Kim Shilcock was the quarry manager I have his email address still, don't know if he is caver friendly or not as cavers played a big part in getting the quarry shut in the first place.

cavers played a big part in getting the quarry shut in the first place.
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Lets get this straight, Eldon Quarry license with Chatsworth estate was due to expire, as was their mineral extraction license, they decided that the only way was down, so they applied to go deeper, straight into P8 etc., Thats why cavers objected.
The scale of Eldons operations at that time suggested to me, (I attended the site consultation) that a "tin lid" over a cavity would not be tolerated, more likely to be a lot of big rocks chucked into any inconvenient hole.
However, on the site visit I did spot an accessible (natural) shaft in the floor of the third terrace, in line between Sidewinder and the quarryface rift that is obviously part of the Eldon Hole development, it had a BIG rock dumped in it.
I don't know what the place looks like now, might be able to get some sightings from any surviving quarryface features but I would have to be certain that any access arrangements are official and formalised (considering what has recently gone before) before I volunteer to help anyone out in there.

Spoke to a guy from the village who works at Doveholes quarry, he works with some blokes who worked at Eldon (one of them for over 40 years).
He assured me that any holes that were found in the floor were simply filled in as soon as they were uncovered

bograt said:

they decided that the only way was down, so they applied to go deeper

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IIRC - the reason for heading down was because there were planning constraints related to the skyline in that they were not allowed to alter the horizon/skyline of the hill so could not push the quarry any further south. Also (from wikipedia)  Their application to go east was denied, thus Down was the only option left.