Brown's Folly mine

[KevinR]

Hi
Can anyone tell me the current situation re access to Brown's Folly? the CSCC entry is a little ambiguous, is the it the new AWT entrance that is closed pending a Mine report or is it the old entrance as well?

My club has a key, but didn't want a wasted trip there if the key doesn't provide access! also could someone confirm if the key is for Entrance 1 or Entrance 2 (based on Wig's '82 survey)
Thanks in Anticipation.
Kevin

 

[Cookie]

I agree the entry has evolved somewhat and could do with a tidy. If I could get a definitive position I would do it.

To answer your question it is all the entrances on AWT land.

I'm not sure if the gated entrances are currently locked, the local kids frequently take them off. However if they are locked it will not be with CSCC padlock. The agreement between CSCC & AWT  isn't currently operating.

 

[Maggot]

Current status of Monkton Farleigh Quarry (Brown's Folly Mine):
The "Official" steel door entrance (marked "Entrance" in red on the SMCC survey) has 2 locks; one is currently broken and stuck in the locked position.

"Shakespeares" entrance (West side of quarry, marked as "Entrance 2" on the SMCC survey) has recently had a padlock put on by persons unknown, guess sooner or later other persons unknown will "restore" the access through this entrance.

However "Muddy Hole" (not shown on survey, but enters the workings close to the feature marked "steps" in the middle East side of the quarry) is wide open, ungated and easily accessible. It's also not on AWT land as it's the other side of the County Boundary Wall.

 

[Cookie]

Hi Maggot, I should wander around on the surface one day and get this clear in my head.

The MCRA records 7 open entrances:

Entrance 1
Main Entrance
Grilled Ent 1
Grilled Ent 2
Tower Entrance
Back Entrance (Muddy Hole)
Entrance 2 (Shakespeares)

I reckon Entrances 1 & 2 correspond to the 1&2 here http://www.lancock.co.uk/mcra/live/surveys/Brown%27s%20Folly%20Mine_web.jpg NB North is to the left.

Is Main Entrance the gate AWT constructed in 2002 and the one you describe as the "Official Entrance"

So we have gated and locked: Entrance 1, Entrance 2, Main Entrance

Grilled (no gate): Grilled Ent 1, Grilled Ent 2

Open: Back Entrance (Muddy Hole)

Does Tower Entrance get you into the main system? And is that gated and locked?

Cheers for any info.

 

[Brains]

Had a trip in there today via Muddy Hole, no issues.
Some new spray paint in blue and green- not really needed "becky" please dont do it again
Also a manky Christmas tree festering at Clapham Junction that needs litter picking...
Ditzy will be sorting her pics out later...
The other entrances are of variable security!

 

[Maggot]

Cookie, I'm up for a surface wander to check access. Especially if there's beer involved. Entrances 1 & 2 seem to correspond with my data. Muddy Hole I know about, the rest are a mystery to me.
Brains, leave our xmas tree alone. It's a valuable artefact from a rave.

 

[Cookie]

Maggot, I'm up for that. Beer will be involved! Will get it touch once back from Tenerife Lava Tubing.

Brains. Has the Xmas Tree still got the Blue & White Police Incident tape around it? 

 

[Maggot]

Blue & White Police Incident tape

Not only is is a valuable artefact, it's also evidence.

Is the mouldy sausage still stuck in the upper branches too?

 

[Brains]

Didnt get that close to it to identify any decorations, just looked a mess and out of place to me. Didnt have any means of bagging it up so its still there. I'm not local so wont be back very quickly anyway. Noticed much spray paint had been brushed away or washed over, but also that some new is appearing as well.

 

[wildside]

I was at muddy hole last week and there has been a lot of concreting work and messing about done there. as a disabled caver it has made it very difficult for me to get in I would love to know what its all about as it also looks as though a bang in the wrong place and it would all fall in!

 

[ditzy 24//7]

the darkplaces group have done it to make it harder for people to get in as their has been lots of spray painting and attempts to steel the railtrack.
i dont think its a good idea as they havent got permission to do it.

 

[wildside]

It is certainly a bad idea as what if there was an accident in browns folly muddy hole is or was a nice big entrance that a stretcher could be got through and as you say its not their quarry to go messing about with. Ive looked on their site and it seems to be that all the quarrys  are on there and its easy to find locations once you have a name  no wonder every where is getting gated! Im pleased that I saw all the quarrys before this lot got involved with messing them up and ive seen some that are now blocked forever due to mindless vandalism and trespasing. I hope that they dont start messing around on mendip!

 

[Les W]

There are other entrances.

Muddy hole used to be a flat out muddy crawl and there were no problems, then persons unknown dug it large enough to walk through. After this the grafffitti got out of hand, along with an attempt to steal rails from Clapham Junction (which is very near Muddy Hole). The restriction at Muddy Hole is an attempt to make it less desireable to the spray painting scum and also to make it difficult to stop railway lines from being taken through by scrap thieves.

The works there are funded by and supported by CSCC.
Any alternative will be a gate or complete backfilling.

Like I said, there are other entrances, larger and open. Just a long way from Clapham...

 

[menacer]

the dickplaces group have done it to make it harder for people to get in as their has been lots of spray painting and attempts to steel the railtrack.
i dont think its a good idea as they havent got permission to do it.

Am I misunderstanding this?
You don't think the stirling work done by the Darkplaces people to erase graffitti and reduce the size of one of the many entrances (supported by the CSCC),  to prevent the further theft of the ironwork in this mine,  is a good thing, because they don't have permission?

I must be misinterpreting this, because without the work, permitted or not, there may be more theft, less archaeology in the mine and more graffitti.
Surely only those about to cash in the scrap, or those in receipt of new Christmas spray paint would be offended by the work.
The rest just need a lesson in astrophysics.

image borrowed without permission from http://www.myinterestingfacts.com

 

[Peter Burgess]

You can't please all the people all of the time. I reckon those spraying paint everywhere and taking the rails probably didn't have permission either. When you don't like things that happen, it is worth spending five minutes thinking - do I not like this because of WHAT has happened, or simply because of WHO did it?

 

[mikem]

It's usually just that it hasn't been explained why it was done...

Mike

 

[Peter Burgess]

There was a long discussion on the DP website a few months back. Although I had nothing to do with the work or the problems it was meant to solve, I felt a lot of sympathy for those who were putting a lot of effort into the work to protect the mine and its contents, especially when they seemed to receive more criticism and little praise from some people for the work they did, which was all done with the best of intentions as far as I could tell. Maybe there was something "going on" that I wasn't aware of, but I suspect not. So it was explained what was being done, and in the obvious place - the DP website is pretty well known and is many people's first port of call if they want info on the bathstone workings.

 

[Maggot]

Having been for a look, I reckon the muddy hole entrance is no smaller now than it was before the unknown persons dug it out, and the concreting and steelwork that has been put across the top has probably improved what was, before, a potentially unstable roof.

 

[UKscrap]

Hi all! My names JD! Im fairly new to these unground shenanigans and was hoping you guys might be able to point me in the right direction on a few subjects..?
Im not into gettin stuck or anythin like that just wanna go for a wander down the mines and make it out again.. lol Ive managed to get a copy of Browns Folly survey but im unsure as to where the entrances are in the real world! I live in Midsomer Norton (not too far away) and ive got a few mates that are up for wandering the mines but again, dunno if ive found the right hole... (Sorry couldnt resist.. )
Anyone fancy showin a few noobs around next week sometime..?

 

[ChrisJC]

Probably best to post on dar kplaces, as that forum is very much centered on that area.

Note that for historical reasons, one musn't mention d ar kplaces on here, and it automagically mutates d a r k places to darkplaces, hence the odd spacing in the words.

Chris.