As most people who care know that the owners of the yard where Ridge Quarry slope shaft 2 is have put a padlocked gate on the entrance to stop people going on their land which is fair enough i suppose but it now makes it impossible (unless you cause criminal damage) for anyone to explore Ridge Quarry at all....,but in the woodland just across the road is where the now blocked Ridge Quarry slope shaft 1 is. According to mcra and some other sites Ridge Quarry slope shaft 1 and the lift shaft directly across the road from the yard where the well known shaft is were blocked after MOD surface buildings were demolished and bulldozed into them so surely it would take a bit of effort but Ridge Quarry slope shaft 1 could be reopened just as other mines like single way mine have in the past and nobody would have to enter that yard again to access the Ridge quarry.
I was thinking of spending a few saturdays or sundays of work to try and re-open Ridge Quarry slope shaft 1 so that people will once again have access the mine but I know it would be a difficult task to attempt on my own so if there is anyone who would be interested in helping me reopen the mine please let me know. I can bring some beers/ciders along to share as well.
Cheers

you will have a lot of dangerous digging to do as we attempted it years ago from inside and out and its not very safe that's why we left it as we did not want to end up as statistics when it all caved in on us!!!! I think it is good that ridge is locked as the wartime graffiti was starting to get damaged and it should be preserved no people going down with spoons or spray paint defacing it!! maybe one day it will get rediscovered and people will go wow .....

yea maybe it would be left for people to discover in the future but i think more than likely it would end up being filled with crap like copenacre has and pretty much lost. im not sure it would be a good idea trying to reopen it from the inside, that would be pretty dangerous as it could collapse on top of you but surely from the outside you are already on top of everything so at least nothing can fall on you. how far did you get before you gave up?