So now I know about those buckets I drive under! Brick works aerial ropeway!

Cantclimbtom

Well-known member
Thank you, was posting that in the mining chat area due to industrial interest, I link directly and land in there and don't always stray into the caving areas (sorry)

Thanks for deleting the duplicate.
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Yes, this one at Claughton (pronounced "Claffton") is the only one in existence still working. Many forum members will have driven under it, if approaching the Dales off the M6.

I always fancied making something like this to automate a caving dig but have yet to find the right place. (It'd not surprise me if our Mendip collages have already done so, given their reputation for ingenuity.) I like the idea of using gravity for power.
 

SamT

Moderator
I'm in mind of the one at Grenoble - that you pass under on your way up to Autrans in the Vercor.

https://goo.gl/maps/Wz1de3KiwJmN5Vmr8
 

pwhole

Well-known member
There used to be one going from Smithy Wood coke works at Ecclesfield (on the outskirts of Rotherham) to their giant spoil heap nearer Thorpe Hesley - I remember us driving under it in the family car, with my dad cursing as lumps of shale hit the windscreen - no steel bridge on that one! The spoil heap is still devoid of grass and it must be 30 years since they stopped tipping there. The concrete footer block for one of the ropeway towers is one of the few remaining features, and it is slightly wedge-shaped, though not sure why. Maybe it isn't, and it's just tilted through subsidence. There's a lot of old subsurface workings very close by.
 

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Alex

Well-known member
Thanks for that, yes I always wondered about that. I thought it was a tourist thing not an actual working quarry.
 

moorebooks

Active member
The Shropshire C&MC  were given one of the disused trestles from  the disused ropeway at Claughton. Its  been installed at the Bog Centre on the Stiperstones. The stone bases of the original can be found still in situ but all the trestles have gone . Ropeways were used in several locations in Shropshire . I can't find my photos but follow this link for details

https://www.shropshirecmc.org.uk/news/bog_ropeway_trestle.html

Mike

 

Cantclimbtom

Well-known member
Pitlamp said:
...Many forum members will have driven under it, if approaching the Dales off the M6....
I'm planning to drive that way in Aug, I'll keep my eyes peeled  :blink:

Edit: Wow, you're right. Coming up the west route, it'd be pretty hard to find a way to Ingleton/Clapham without going under it.  If you go here https://www.bing.com/maps?q=Claughton&FORM=HDRSC4 and change the view to OS maps, it's marked "aerial ropeway"

Edit2: and seen here https://www.google.com/maps/@54.0910184,-2.6707577,3a,75y,78.94h,75.98t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s1i7f7EJocKWCJd0iRuaHJQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
 

IACooper

New member
moorebooks said:
The Shropshire C&MC  were given one of the disused trestles from  the disused ropeway at Claughton. Its  been installed at the Bog Centre on the Stiperstones. The stone bases of the original can be found still in situ but all the trestles have gone . Ropeways were used in several locations in Shropshire . I can't find my photos but follow this link for details

https://www.shropshirecmc.org.uk/news/bog_ropeway_trestle.html

Mike

Here's a snap of the re-errected one at The Bog
51311826193_4554d281e7_b.jpg


Some more photos taken during an organised visit to Claughton in 2014 can be found on my Flikr <https://www.flickr.com/photos/iacooper/albums/72157646960267874>
...and  funnily enough for some reason since Tom's YouTube video was published on Monday, views on my short video shot 7 years ago have spiked as well  :LOL:

https://youtu.be/RWU3pB--MiY
 

mikem

Well-known member
Not on here they haven't (as you've disabled playback on other websites) - sorted now.

Interesting article: https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/01/aerial-ropeways-automatic-cargo-transport.html
 

RobinGriffiths

Well-known member
Three examples from North Wales. The well known one up the Nantmor Valley, with a couple of really nice pylons towards the top. Ystrad/Silurian/Betws Garmon iron mine, nothing left apart from concrete pylon bases. I beleive that produce was roped uphill and then down into Llanberis, I'm sure there was a thread on AN to that effect. Also, an obscure one, Clogwyn y Gwin, a small slate quarry near Rhyd Ddu. Used to rope produce down to the Welsh Highland Railway - only remains a blocky, slate incline.
 

royfellows

Well-known member
Craig y Dinas - Upper Silica Mines in South Wales as well.

http://www.cambrianmines.co.uk/NAL/portfolio.html
 

davel

Member
Not much in the way of remains in north Wales other than those mentioned by Robin above, but ropeways were used in a number of places in north Wales in the past. See https://www.hendrecoed.org.uk/Ropeways/index.html

Dave
 
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