We had a fun TSG trip down Winnats Head today - ten of us I believe. This time I was specifically sniffing out mineral, and there was plenty, once we started looking properly. I found decent-sized lumps of galena in virtually every section of every boulder choke down to the main sump pool, and large amounts of other vein and pipe mineral (especially whorled baryte), both on the floor and still in the walls - several small veins cut through the cavern walls. Lots of blue or black fluorite and some lovely lilac pieces. On the left wall of the approach passage into Down in the Sewer is a large panel of orange fluorite cubes, many well over an inch across. No evidence of mining anywhere, other than the apparent tailings everywhere - however, the field to the west (which also sits above the top of the 'up' pitches) is full of hillocks and hollows, so maybe that was where Winnats Head Grove was, and they were mining the extensions of the veins seen inside Winnats Head? Maybe we are just seeing naturally-smashed vein from a major shake event that also collapsed the cavern, but the whole site is somewhat baffling - I love it.
The vein traversing the roof of the main sump pool is almost exactly E-W, according to my handheld compass, which may not be that accurate. So it has the potential at least to be developed on the same cavernous fault as Halfway House Series/Longcliffe, which is admittedly more NW-SE and would cross the road in Winnats Pass twice to reach WH - but hey, the road wasn't there then, and arguably neither was Winnats Pass
