Had a bit of a walk down Stoney Dale today and had a look down Hanging Flat Mine. Not having remembered to bring the description we wandered about for a bit looking for the way in. We ended up at the top of an old track near the car park of Horseshoe/Furness Quarry. Although we didn't find the entrance we did find some interesting shafts.
One on the left:
and one on the right:
Anyway, after a quick poke around we headed down back to the road and almost immediately stumbled upon the correct entrance. It really is very close to the road, you just don't see it until you're on top of it. It's right in-between the lay-by and the turn-in to the quarry car park.
The entrance is indeed still passable, although it could do with a bit of clearing. After a short wriggle the mine level quickly becomes a comfortable walking passage and remains quite large throughout the whole mine. There are an abundance of big polystyrene 'boulders' throughout the mine and just look like rubbish now.
The right hand branch passes an upturned hopper(?) and heads on to a collapse and a false floor over shaft. Above this area the mine appears to go up and I would hypothesise that we are in the area of the big shaft on the hillside above. The timbers down there are huge! We didn't talk too loudly in this bit
.
The left branch from the entrance heads through what appears to be some kind of scenery construction complete with more 'boulders' and on into a loooooonnng tunnel. On the way to the end there are 4 junctions. They all head off to the right and all come to an almost immediate dead end at collapse or back fill. A couple of them would probably 'go' if looked at more closely/violently. Possible connection to the other surface feature? The main level ends at what could be a muddy forefield or a collapse. Shovel in situ.
Well worth a look, don't kick any timbers.
http://www.aditnow.co.uk/mines/Hanging-Flat-Lead-Mine/