Ball Eye Mine

[AR]

Somewhere I've got a photocopy I used for field notes and recorded what's been lost since the 1960s. I'll try and find it...

 

[Brains]

@Gritstone , your videos of the solo swim grovel squirm up the sough to the dam and back are very impressive. I have limited availability but will definitely be waiting for drier weather!

 

[Gritstone]

@Gritstone , your videos of the solo swim grovel squirm up the sough to the dam and back are very impressive. I have limited availability but will definitely be waiting for drier weather!

Haha, it's a lovely grovel in tepid water. It will be grim when that mud is sticky.

 

[History Trog]

Attached is part of our survey of the Ball Eye sough downstream to day, which we did in June 1970, exactly 55 years ago, not knowing of Hurt's survey which was published the same year. We were only just starting out as surveyors and not making a very good job of it. Hurt's mainline is more accurate than ours but he is very short on detail. There is nothing of interest in the downstream length, no side passages, collapses or anything.

 

[Brains]

Attached is part of our survey of the Ball Eye sough downstream to day, which we did in June 1970, exactly 55 years ago, not knowing of Hurt's survey which was published the same year. We were only just starting out as surveyors and not making a very good job of it. Hurt's mainline is more accurate than ours but he is very short on detail. There is nothing of interest in the downstream length, no side passages, collapses or anything.
View attachment 26566

Thanks, much clearer, if not as precise! Looks good to me
I assume that the red dots are shafts? Given the clagged up nature of the sough currently, what are the odds of improving flow to the tail ("iron pipe")? There is a concrete cap outside the tin shed, presumably over a shaft. I assume it's the same one you have marked as "filled in shaft 6' deep." Does that refer to the shaft prior to capping at surface, or as seen in the sough?

The water tank is at shaft 3, or rather what is left of it!

 

[pwhole]

Sorry for the delay folks - I've been underground today. The survey is pretty much done, I just need to give it the once-over. It's probably too large to post on here at full-size, but I can do a small version to show the improvement. Not sure where to put the full-size one though? I don't allow downloads on my Flickr account, as it's a global setting, not per-file, and I don't want to change that.

 

[pwhole]

Here's the small version at 1600 pixels across, at 96dpi. The full-size version will print to 84cm across, at 300dpi, which is pretty much all desktop printers can manage anyway. I put the key inside a box and tightened it up a little, but other than that I've left the main survey alone, apart from tiny touch-ups. The double-image issue on the text and on some symbols in the key I couldn't easily remove, but it's not a deal-breaker. Despite the size here, all the text is legible on the large version.

 

[Brains]

Sorry for the delay folks - I've been underground today. The survey is pretty much done, I just need to give it the once-over. It's probably too large to post on here at full-size, but I can do a small version to show the improvement. Not sure where to put the full-size one though? I don't allow downloads on my Flickr account, as it's a global setting, not per-file, and I don't want to change that.

The green and pink are the main areas of interest at present, but the red as a whole would be good. Apologies for the dodgy appearance!
Can .zip files be included here?

 

[pwhole]

I could put a link to it in a folder on my website? Though to be honest I'm not too keen, on an open site. I don't think I can attach files other than images on here either, for security reasons.

 

[Brains]

Perhaps those with interest could DM an email for the zip?

 

[pwhole]

That makes sense, as it's no hassle to me, and pretty secure too.

 

[LJR]

At about where the word 'via' appears on Roger's plan, there is another shallow shaft onto the sough tail. It is in the small loading bay at the roadside.
That is where we threaded the electric supply and the blue pipe into the iron pipe to get it under the road.

 

[Gritstone]

Attached is part of our survey of the Ball Eye sough downstream to day, which we did in June 1970, exactly 55 years ago, not knowing of Hurt's survey which was published the same year. We were only just starting out as surveyors and not making a very good job of it. Hurt's mainline is more accurate than ours but he is very short on detail. There is nothing of interest in the downstream length, no side passages, collapses or anything.
View attachment 26566

Thanks, so nothing other than silt fill has changed in there since 1970, that's good to know.

 

[Gritstone]

Attached is part of our survey of the Ball Eye sough downstream to day, which we did in June 1970, exactly 55 years ago, not knowing of Hurt's survey which was published the same year. We were only just starting out as surveyors and not making a very good job of it. Hurt's mainline is more accurate than ours but he is very short on detail. There is nothing of interest in the downstream length, no side passages, collapses or anything.
View attachment 26566

So is the iron pipe entrance the one blocked up at the start of the climb uphill next to the road? Also the water from the Sough does not follow that course it appears again in the chamber below the two shafts marked in red in the entrance chamber by the tin hut. It enters from beneath a packwall and sinks in what appears to be a collapse.

 

[Gritstone]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/140mTeKkixSADvKPOVsb32a26NrOhNvdw/view?usp=drivesdk

 

[Brains]

So is the iron pipe entrance the one blocked up at the start of the climb uphill next to the road? Also the water from the Sough does not follow that course it appears again in the chamber below the two shafts marked in red in the entrance chamber by the tin hut. It enters from beneath a packwall and sinks in what appears to be a collapse.

Would imply that the sough is blocked with silt, or at least overflowing. Does any water emerge from the pipe into the river at all?

 

[Gritstone]

Would imply that the sough is blocked with silt, or at least overflowing. Does any water emerge from the pipe into the river at all?

I'll check tomorrow while I'm down there but the water passing into the chamber carries mud from the Sough when it's stirred up so at least some of it goes into there and as water takes the easyest path it may be that the pipe is choked.

 

[Stoney Boy]

Just out of interest but how much of the mine has been lost to quarrying?

Id like to have a look in there at some point.

 

[Brains]

Houghton Pipe in red has a buried entrance but could probably be reopened easily. The area in green was inaccessible in 2021(removed or collapsed) when the quarry was closed. Since reopening a lot of runoff has entered the N end and got into the sough. This area is now off limits or might be no longer existent. The easily seen part is the central area including Van Trav, and the rake working that C9C developed a through trip recently

 

[Gritstone]

Would imply that the sough is blocked with silt, or at least overflowing. Does any water emerge from the pipe into the river at all?

So there is water coming from the pipe, it is not flowing water. Heaven knows where it goes. The pipe next to it also has the blue pipe in it but carries no water. See pics.
The dam is a no go, I could not touch it with hand tools, it will need chemicals but is still full to the top.