Frongoch Lead Mine

[S_am]

Hello new here but i was on adit now for many years as "Mr Sam" although didn't post a great deal.

Has anyone on here got any more info on a recent surface collapse at Frongoch? I happened to see some pictures posted on a 4x4 group as the mine surface is now used as a Range Rover breakers yard, a large sink hole has opened up and swallowed a few Range Rovers. This interested me greatly as the most recent underground pictures i've come across were 2012 which showed a note left by @royfellows in 1995.

The other real interest in this mine being when i was a child in the early 90's my grandmother lived in Cwmystwyth Village and I was never allowed to go see the surface features there, she then moved to New Row which is a row of miners cottages associated with Frongoch.

anyway heres a short clip of the collapse my mother found the note left by Roy and some surface pictures i took a few years ago.

https://flic.kr/p/bRrbEz

 

[will photobilly]

mmm best place for an RR lol... looks like a nice band of rubbished buried there to, bit naughty

 

[S_am]

From pictures i've found Im thinking its this cravass / adit that been filled in with general rubbish and then collapsed.

In more recent years the European Union has spent lots of money on filter pools to try and clean the water outlet of the mine so maybe the water in this old picture had been diverted.

https://flic.kr/p/Gzwbre

 

[will photobilly]

Wouldn't at all be surprised, seems a common past time for mines to be used as land fill the locals...

 

[royfellows]

The landowner is Mr Mark Skitt who i havent had a chance to speak to recently, so I have little knowledge of the collapse except what I see here. But I dont think its a sinkhole although there could have been open stopes in that area. Its probably Orebreaker shaft, Pryse's Shaft was filled in with mill fines in the last years of working, both look as though they are in that area. Undergound, I have added a bit more to whats explorable, the 14 fathom is now accessible as far as just inbye of Williams Shaft where a collapse is being actively dug, although its probably been 9 months since I was last working there due to other committments. You get to it via about 80 feet of fixed ladders, be careful if you use them as conditions undergound can change dramatically in a short period.