Sallet Hole inaccessible
- Thread starter SarahW
- Start date
royfellows
Well-known member
Place is all falling in anyway, it would have all eventually gone on its own.
Tangent_tracker
Active member
Yep, not long before something very still happens in that place. It is long past its best now and the place should be left alone now.
Cantclimbtom
Well-known member
Wasn't that, by and large, both your comment and the consensus of a thread fairly close to 12 months ago https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?threads/sallet-hole-mine.28235/ that is was now (i.e. 12 months ago) too unstable for the GoonTubers and possibly for mine explorers too?
Tangent_tracker
Active member
I went past the collapse recently, and I was shocked at the state of the decline to sublevel 2... The whole place as taken a plummet in the last 5 years. How long are those ladders going to be suitable up to 40 and 130? The company needs to grout the entrance IMO and shut it off for good.
pwhole
Well-known member
Merely blocking the entrance won't stop the larger problem of course - of the water. It's quite high up the valley, and the drainage is limited to say the least, especially if new collapses start damming it in. Sub-level 3 was filling up a decade ago. Even the entrance track is getting bad - a few weeks ago I spent ten mins removing silt outside to let water drain down the track as a lake was building up behind it - it's not much, but even minor maintenance isn't being done by the people who should be doing it.
And Watersaw's even worse, with terrible security and a visibly collapsing roof. They do know about the YouTube videos done in there too, so I'm baffled why nothing's yet been done. They could do it in one day, and I doubt they need permission from anyone given the situation.
Stoney Boy
Member
I walked past Watersaw on Saturday....Is it true there are still significant reserves in there? 650k of ore I was told not long ago.
Tangent_tracker
Active member
It's a strange one as it is like they consider the place abandoned, but is it still care and maintenance? I suppose the watercourse would have to ultimately return to its previous routes? Maybe they don't want to think about it as the costs could cripple them?
I've been down to raisehole32 a few times, which is the other side of the collapse you have photographed here. It was interesting as you could hear the water somewhere in front but there was no sign of it! Cleary in the 10 or so meters of inaccessible passage it had found another route.. I think I might have found this on the survey.... Upper orange line is your photo, Lower orange line is where we got to. Shame as it just needed a trench digging but never got round to doing that.
pwhole
Well-known member
I dunno about that - I got the impression the urge to stay alive was overwhelming the urge to keep mining, and that's why they ran away, but I've not had that from the horse's mouth, and never been in there, owing to the state of the entrance! Putting it on Look North would close it down I'm sure, but I'm not doing it.
AR
Well-known member
I've heard the same claim made about ore reserves at Watersaw but I'm deeply sceptical - why do you strip out the compound, let the roadways fall to bits and give the idiot brigade free run of the place if that's so? Given it's still supposedly on care and maintenance the latter really baffles me, as the Mines Inspectorate would come down on them like a big run-in if some muppet earns themself a Darwin award down there...
I do wonder if not formally abandoning them is just a means of ducking the cost of restoration at the present time.
I do wonder if not formally abandoning them is just a means of ducking the cost of restoration at the present time.
Tangent_tracker
Active member
Yes it will surly cost a fortune to make all safe, and then there are potential unknown problems thereafter. Also, I have heard it would be safer to drive another adit as an excuse but really? Would it not be quicker and safer to shore things up in the existing? It's not like they haven't had to deal with instability previously. I wonder if it was an investment drive more than anything else?
Tangent_tracker
Active member
hehe sneak someone in there and let the fun begin
