New Venture Mine - Peak District

[drainrat]

In a nutshell:

Met Jasonbirder and Phil on Bradwell Moor.
Hunted around the field for the New Venture Mine shaft.

Located shaft.

Descended using Belay Bar (TM).
Discovered the joy of using spits.
Shimmied around hanging death and rotten stemples.
Ran out of rope and had to downclimb last 2m.
Discovered there was not a lot to see at the bottom.
Got back out in time for a swift one at The Wanted Inn.
We all lived happily ever after.

Drainrat.

 

[SamT]

Is it still dodgy as ever then.

Went down about 4 or 5 years ago.

As far as I remember,

short shaft to land on a col - sort of chamber (possibly natural) off to west - with very dodgy looking walls/roof.
Rebelay to single spit (placed by us), down continuation shaft, to sort of 4 way junction amongst a world of dodgy ginging. Big high Rift chamber to north - evidence of spits in wall from where someones climbed the rift. Mine level running east west - ginged walls roof floor etc - very dodgy.
low arched roof passage heading south - filled with stacked deads.

Remember thinking that I wouldnt be returning in a hurry. There are some very interesting documents in the PDHMS journals about the capping of the shafts etc.

 

[drainrat]

Dodgy doesn't get close!! The stemples and deads that you have to squeeze past below the rebelay (they can't be avoided) was scary as hell.

The description was a bit misleading, it stated that there were 2 pitches. However at no point did we land at all. There was just a rebelay above the level at mid height and then the pitch carried on down the ginged shaft. At the very foot of the shaft was a large rubble cone caused by debris coming down the shaft, that had to be squeezed past to gain entry to any of the four passages. If any more deads fall down the shaft, the lower workings would be inaccessible. There was a plethora of wildlife on the rubble cone; centipedes, millipedes, beetles, frogs, newts and 4 dead voles to be precise!!

Drainrat.

 

[Pitlamp]

Early SUSS journals are extremely useful for info on a lot of the mine shafts up on Bradder Moor, in case this helps?

 

[Pipster]

Drainrat/jasonbirder...

I had a thought as to why the Bradwell map in ""Caves of the Peak District" showed the mine as being on the left hand side of the road (coming from Little Hucklow direction) when in actual fact it was on the right hand side - maybe pindale quary has been extended since the book was printed, and the road has been "moved" to the other side of the rake? dunno if thats plausable or not. Maybe the book was just plain wrong!? 

Anyway, thanks for the trip. 

Phil.

 

[drainrat]

Sounds plausible to me!

 

[danthecavingman]

Pindale Quarry has not been extended but Earles Quarry has advanced steadily over the years. The current road is now road no.3
The two old roads are both visible at either end - have a look on MSN Earth. The first is the first track left off the Pindale - Bradwell road, the second is about 250yds later after the bend. The current road was I believe proposed by Tony Marsden to give plenty of time for the quarry to grow. Alarmingly it is now within yards of the road again! Does anyone know how far the mineral extraction rights of the quarry extend???

Dan.

 

[SamT]

Hmm - we definately landed on something (albeit off to one side slightly). It was to avoid the rope rubbing against an area of projecting nastyness. (false floor of a level). Its hard to describe without a diagram.
but essentially ab down, shuffle off to left and down a bit to a level on left, to avoid landing on false floor projecting from right. rebelay under false floor to carry on down shaft, without any rope rub on the false floor above your head.
geddit?

I dont remember a rubble cone at the bottom really  - so putting two and two together - I think the false floor has collapsed, leaving a straight drop, but a rubble cone at the bottom.

I do remember lots of wildlife though.
(or should that be wilddead)

Im pretty damned sure that the current one is going to be the last road. I remember it being built and I think at the time it was said that it was at the absolute limit of what they where allowed to quarry.

Ive seen documents related to the de-commissioning of the quarry, you know - with artists impressions of how it will look when they've landscaped it etc. Just need to make sure they dont bury any decent cave entrance's (a la sidetrack). Oh and it would be nice if they could leave some nice clean face's to climb on - (a la Horseshoe but preferably better)

Caves of the Peak District does kind of describe it as a viable trip - but I think something ought to be put in the new guide to put people off - it really is just a frightening exercise in trying not to bring the place down around your ears.

Like the scaff bar setup  . Not sure why you didnt just use the appropriatly placed angle iron with a rebelay of the nice galvanised grid to create a Y.

 

[drainrat]

We used the angle iron as a backup only because one end of it has become detached from it's once sturdy concreted base!!

They were my thoughts exactly, i.e. the false floor you mentioned has collapsed down the shaft.

Just out of interest, down the hill in the next field are two shafts. One has a massive grille over the top, one has a big boulder over the top. Are these on Long Rake mine??

 

[SamT]

Nope - Bird Mine is the one with the Grill over the top - a massive 100m deep hauling shaft. The one with the boulder over the top is presumably the associated climber (no physical access as far as Im aware).  (I think the Chimeny on Earls Cement works is about the same height to give you an idea of perspective)

As a kid I used to play up around that area (grew up in castleton). I used to enjoy showing the lads from school bird mine, It used to just have rotten wooden sleepers over the top. You could lie close up the edge and drop stones down - Was always gobsmacked by how long they took to drop.

Got to go down there about the same time as New Venture - about 5 years ago . A friend of a friend married the farmers daughter - so we arranged a trip. Was no access back then, not sure now following the addition of the grill.
Its an awsome drop. the Ginging on the north wall is increadible - if not a little scary when you get down below it and see whats holding the veritable avelanche waiting to happen.
IIRC - there are 3 levels off - none of them lead to much  - and the bottom is a blind. Think the 3rd level is the most interesting - rails - draught doors - buckets etc.
Im sure more mine could be discovered with a bit of diggin - though its that close to the edge of the quarry that Im sure blasting will have rendered the whole place a little unstable.
Ascending up the 100m rope (no rebelays) is a bit nervey - having seen all the ginging at the top. One of the lads we went with was more of a high access worker - and used two handjammers yosemite style. He was all over the place and I was terrified he'd fetch the lot in. I remember sitting back from the window into the shaft watching him dissapear down below the window then shoot back up past me, up and down on the rope stretch.

Long rake is between the New Venture/Bird Rake and the Open Cast workings on Earl rake. Near the big modern Barn. A mega mine srt trip - akin to Oxlow/Maskill
Check out Google Maps satalite for awesome detail of this area.