Plackett Mine Caverns, Winster question about location

[Dirty_Soap]

I was flicking through my copy of caves of Derbyshire by Gill & Ford a few days ago and noticed a mine by the above name, what stood out was the mention of it supposedly having a "vast cavern, 120 yards high" which had been recorded in 1811 by Farey. Today i spent multiple hours milling around the south west of Winster trying my hardest to find the shaft/s to Plackett mine. I found 2 shafts one at 53.143291, -1.646280 in the middle of a field with a large immoveable rock on top and another at 53.143291, -1.646280 covered by a mixture of sleepers and various vegetation. I also have a plan of the mine i got from an old bulletin however that is apparently only vaguely representative of the actual layout and distances in the mine. 

I have no real way of telling if these shafts are actually the ones belonging to Plackett Mine as there seem to be a colossal amount of mines around Winster. Does anyone have any further information on this site at all as that cavern alone sounds worth the trouble of people having investigated it at some point. A section plan would be worth my first born son.

Thanks

(im new to this sorry if ive broken any forum etiquette)

 

[Fishes]

Plackett is an interesting place, especially if you like mud. There are natural chambers (and lots of mud) but nothing so big in the parts I know of.

 

[alastairgott]

There?s also a whopper of a sinkhole in that field as far as I recall.

Was the second you refer to off to the right of the track to the field you talk about?

I have something I need to put in the postbox, but when I?m back I?ll try and pin some locations on google maps.

 

[pwhole]

I may have something, somewhere, but I'm guessing at the moment. There's certainly some info In Jim Rieuwerts' vol. 3 - I think it was Buckdale Sough that drained Plackett. I've wanted to visit it too, but also have no idea how to get in.

 

[Boy Engineer]

I have something I need to put in the postbox

Here?s hoping it?s a letter, or it?ll make an interesting day for the Magistrates.

 

[alastairgott]

HAHA one of my mates was saying something about putting something nasty into newspaper and setting it alight so when someone comes to put it out they step in the something nasty.  :thumbsdown:


And I've been thinking of sawing bits off the sofa and fridge that have been flytipped near my flat and mailing them to the council to complain about them being a "statutory nuisance".


Alas, it was just a Birthday card

I have something I need to put in the postbox

Here?s hoping it?s a letter, or it?ll make an interesting day for the Magistrates.

Below follows a transcript from the TSG Forum from 2 years ago, might be some answers in here.

Obtained Grid Referance, Plackett Mine Caverns, Derwent South.
Post by AlastairGott  Sun Jul 28, 2019 6:38 pm

Had a weekend of not doing very much ##personal waffle excluded##

Anyway, I popped out to Hamps and Manifold which was rather uneventful, didn't really find anything of interest (i'll have to go back and have a first look in the woods between the Town of Calton and the bend in the river north of Hinkley wood rising). I'd probably park on the Calton side, as its less suspicious. A bit too obvious on the Ilam side!

Anyway I got bored of that quite rapidly and moved onto Derwent south which I'd been scouring for something surface related which looked interesting, so off I toddled past Carsington and parked above Winster. I had two 6 figure grid references to check out relating to Plackett Mine caverns.

I checked out the "another" reference first at 239 608, but found nothing really there bar a track up the hill (which looked like a miners track), a shack on the top of the hill there for some reason, Lots of nettles, an interesting depression about 6ft wide and 6ft deep and also a stone platform which could well be a shaft top, but seemed to be oddly boarded out with wooden rail sleepers at the front. so not really sure!

I then went to check out the main event at 237 610.
Prior to arriving at 610 I found a big shaft fenced once with barbed wire and another time with the crosshatch stuff they use at schools, the crosshatch stuff had found it's way "halfway" down the shaft, or at least half of the dark hole I could see! This shaft was located at SK 23786 61032

There was another shaft which was not open and had good protection of Sleepers over the top, this shaft was located at SK 23826 61064.

So some interesting stuff around this part of Winster, just hope the gas is ok down there.
-----
Post by AlastairGott  Sun Jul 28, 2019 7:45 pm

Sorry Phil you'll also need Altitudes for updating the cave registry:
Plackett open shaft SK23786 61032 alt 217m
Plackett Sleepered Shaft SK23826 61064 alt220m
-----
Post by Phil  Sun Jul 28, 2019 10:47 pm

Jim Rieuwerts knows tons about Plackett mines and who was last down there so I'll ask him. Sorry for the brief response but time is tight
-----
Re: Obtained Grid Referance, Plackett Mine Caverns, Derwent South.
Post by AlastairGott  Mon Jul 29, 2019 7:02 pm

Pulled out lead mining in Derbyshire #3 last night, too late to properly ready it. So will do some good reading of that covering ?Elton to via Gellia?.

It may answer some questions (as it was written by Jim... i?ll Do my homework for Jim and come back )
-----
Re: Obtained Grid Referance, Plackett Mine Caverns, Derwent South.
Post by Phil  Mon Jul 29, 2019 11:37 pm

I've got a few other scraps by Jim not in the book that I'll email you tonight.
Real Name: GOTT ZONE.
Location: North Midlands
Post by AlastairGott  Tue Jul 30, 2019 5:50 pm

For clarity, I didn?t really look at Sk 237 610, I would read that as 23700 61000, but there did not seem to be much else in the vicinity, I think 237 610 is the northerly end of the Pipe workings whereas the shafts are at the aforementioned 10 fig grid references

 

[alastairgott]

From Pers comms. please find a selected quote from an unknown 'John' on the general subject of caves/mines in Winster.

"tubes a metre diameter completely full of sediment, awaiting digging. But there's nowhere to put the spoil! When I asked him why no-one else had tried to push these after they did, he said that 'No-one can be bothered to come to Winster'."


and a tiny portion of a map I was shown by email, of which I think we've covered most of the Grid references in word form anyway

 

[Dirty_Soap]

The second one is located more or less in the center of plackett woods. If you walk down from winster and left into plackett woods the shift covefed by sleepers is probably 20 meters from the path on your left

There?s also a whopper of a sinkhole in that field as far as I recall.

Was the second you refer to off to the right of the track to the field you talk about?

I have something I need to put in the postbox, but when I?m back I?ll try and pin some locations on google maps.

 

[Dirty_Soap]

Thats really interesting. Do you know if anyone has actuslly recorded these 100m tall caverns since the 1810s?

Plackett is an interesting place, especially if you like mud. There are natural chambers (and lots of mud) but nothing so big in the parts I know of.

 

[Dirty_Soap]

This is enormously helpful thankyou

HAHA one of my mates was saying something about putting something nasty into newspaper and setting it alight so when someone comes to put it out they step in the something nasty.  :thumbsdown:


And I've been thinking of sawing bits off the sofa and fridge that have been flytipped near my flat and mailing them to the council to complain about them being a "statutory nuisance".


Alas, it was just a Birthday card

I have something I need to put in the postbox

Here?s hoping it?s a letter, or it?ll make an interesting day for the Magistrates.

Below follows a transcript from the TSG Forum from 2 years ago, might be some answers in here.

Obtained Grid Referance, Plackett Mine Caverns, Derwent South.
Post by AlastairGott  Sun Jul 28, 2019 6:38 pm

Had a weekend of not doing very much ##personal waffle excluded##

Anyway, I popped out to Hamps and Manifold which was rather uneventful, didn't really find anything of interest (i'll have to go back and have a first look in the woods between the Town of Calton and the bend in the river north of Hinkley wood rising). I'd probably park on the Calton side, as its less suspicious. A bit too obvious on the Ilam side!

Anyway I got bored of that quite rapidly and moved onto Derwent south which I'd been scouring for something surface related which looked interesting, so off I toddled past Carsington and parked above Winster. I had two 6 figure grid references to check out relating to Plackett Mine caverns.

I checked out the "another" reference first at 239 608, but found nothing really there bar a track up the hill (which looked like a miners track), a shack on the top of the hill there for some reason, Lots of nettles, an interesting depression about 6ft wide and 6ft deep and also a stone platform which could well be a shaft top, but seemed to be oddly boarded out with wooden rail sleepers at the front. so not really sure!

I then went to check out the main event at 237 610.
Prior to arriving at 610 I found a big shaft fenced once with barbed wire and another time with the crosshatch stuff they use at schools, the crosshatch stuff had found it's way "halfway" down the shaft, or at least half of the dark hole I could see! This shaft was located at SK 23786 61032

There was another shaft which was not open and had good protection of Sleepers over the top, this shaft was located at SK 23826 61064.

So some interesting stuff around this part of Winster, just hope the gas is ok down there.
-----
Post by AlastairGott  Sun Jul 28, 2019 7:45 pm

Sorry Phil you'll also need Altitudes for updating the cave registry:
Plackett open shaft SK23786 61032 alt 217m
Plackett Sleepered Shaft SK23826 61064 alt220m
-----
Post by Phil  Sun Jul 28, 2019 10:47 pm

Jim Rieuwerts knows tons about Plackett mines and who was last down there so I'll ask him. Sorry for the brief response but time is tight
-----
Re: Obtained Grid Referance, Plackett Mine Caverns, Derwent South.
Post by AlastairGott  Mon Jul 29, 2019 7:02 pm

Pulled out lead mining in Derbyshire #3 last night, too late to properly ready it. So will do some good reading of that covering ?Elton to via Gellia?.

It may answer some questions (as it was written by Jim... i?ll Do my homework for Jim and come back )
-----
Re: Obtained Grid Referance, Plackett Mine Caverns, Derwent South.
Post by Phil  Mon Jul 29, 2019 11:37 pm

I've got a few other scraps by Jim not in the book that I'll email you tonight.
Real Name: GOTT ZONE.
Location: North Midlands
Post by AlastairGott  Tue Jul 30, 2019 5:50 pm

For clarity, I didn?t really look at Sk 237 610, I would read that as 23700 61000, but there did not seem to be much else in the vicinity, I think 237 610 is the northerly end of the Pipe workings whereas the shafts are at the aforementioned 10 fig grid references

 

[paul]

Thats really interesting. Do you know if anyone has actuslly recorded these 100m tall caverns since the 1810s?

Plackett is an interesting place, especially if you like mud. There are natural chambers (and lots of mud) but nothing so big in the parts I know of.

There are lots of old rumours about huge underground voids below Winster but accessing them is another matter.

 

[AR]

From Pers comms. please find a selected quote from an unknown 'John' on the general subject of caves/mines in Winster.

"tubes a metre diameter completely full of sediment, awaiting digging. But there's nowhere to put the spoil! When I asked him why no-one else had tried to push these after they did, he said that 'No-one can be bothered to come to Winster'."

and a tiny portion of a map I was shown by email, of which I think we've covered most of the Grid references in word form anyway

That John will be John Wood, who lives in Winster, on top of the Drake Mine cavern - he has a filled shaft in his back garden. There's some very squalid flattings down that end of Winster, I've seen the ones in Limekiln Mine which made me understand why the mine next door was called "Shitten Hole"! The map extract was drawn up by Jim Rieuwerts, for one of the reports he did for the Peak Park over the years - the majority of what's in those reports was later published in "Lead Mining in Derbyshire"
As for what Farey wrote about Plackett, I personally doubt it's true - remember he wasn't going down the mines himself but relying on information from miners and mine agents, and that particular bit smacks of a miners' tall tale spun after  several beers...

 

[Fishes]

Thats really interesting. Do you know if anyone has actuslly recorded these 100m tall caverns since the 1810s?

We went down there in the 1990's and basically just got back into what the previous generation of Op Mole had found. There was a survey in Doug's collection but I can't remember who made it.

I'm doubt there are caverns anything like so big as 100m as thats about as deep as you get and there is a layer of shale above most of the workings.

I did access a short streamway in some workings between Orchard and Placket but nothing to get too exited by and its no longer accesable - "Description of a Shaft and Workings at Mooresfold, Winster." Bulletin of the Peak District Mines Historical Society. 12:2,(1993) pp. 60-61.

Most of the interesting natural stuff I saw around Winster was on the other side of the village in Horse Buttocks and Yatestoop Mines.

 

[pwhole]

To clairify on the quote above, which looks like me, about sediment-filled tubes and no-one digging them - that was indeed on a trip with John Wood, but it was on the lower workings accessed via Weet (or Wet) Sough, down by the farm - much down there was natural, but slathered in mud. I've got a few photos. He took me on a couple of trips down Burning Drake, which was fabulous, but sadly the connection to Horsebuttock was sumped, so we never got round to that. The farmer who owned the Horsebuttock shaft apparently always insisted on going down it with explorers, but he was now 75 or something, and wasn't up to it. Last time I asked, John was waiting for the situation to change, as it were. I really should get in touch.

Incidentally, the 'cabin' in the field above Burning Drake/Yatestoop that they all used to use for the digging projects is another marvellous slice of 80s-90s underground life, largely preserved intact. On a topless calendar on the wall someone had scrawled in marker pen, all over one of the ladies (I'm paraphrasing but it's close) "Can someone tell my bloody husband to come home?".

I'm sure some of those will be on here

 

[markpot]

Horsebuttock to burning drake is a superb trip,i remember doing it some years ago. A very interesting area,the spiral garland in the shaft is a beutiful piece of work 

 

[pwhole]

Some photos from Weet Sough on the trip with John Wood - firstly the fixed ladder dropping through the shale floor of the sough/roof of the entrance chamber, on the shale/limestone contact. The rest are various passage of natural origin within the pipe-workings.

 

[pwhole]

There's an article on Plackett Mine in Derbyshire Caver 92 - though fairly short and of a slight 'comedy' bent, it might still be interesting:

https://thedca.org.uk/publications/newsletters/send/3-derbyshire-caver/155-dca-newsletter-92

And a couple of shots from Burning Drake Mine.