Adit Addicts

One of the team members has been digging here for the last few weeks. We're right on top of the adit, but we've also uncovered what we believe could be the foundations of an engine house, which is marked on the historic plans right next to the adit entrance.

Unfortunately, a large tree stump appears to have been buried directly in the entrance, so our next step is to carefully dig around it and see what lies beneath.

The mine was closed in the 1940s and the site was levelled during the 1960s, so we're finding a mixture of mining remains and more modern debris. So far, we've uncovered sections of rail and various bits of rubbish dating from the 1960s.

It's never straightforward in this world

Entering a freshly opened coal mine. When it was first opened, the air was terrible and we couldn't even get inside without the gas meter going crazy. After a week or so of letting it air out, we went back and managed to get a few hundred metres in before hitting bad air again. Still, it was well worth a look around.

Sorry for the bare legs and welly combo 😂

After dragging ourself through a tight passage, we reached what we believed was a collapse. Turns out it was a gravel plug holding back a significant amount of water 😬

Pushing a flooded tunnel with very little headroom. Every step released trapped gas from the ochre, causing the air quality readings to fluctuate. The levels weren't too concerning, but combined with the tight conditions, we decided to turn around and explore other passages instead.

We won't know whether our attempts to drain this section have worked until our next visit. If they haven't, we'll carefully push it anyway 😂

After a long crawl through thick ochre in this abandoned coal mine, we reached a new shaft to the surface.

We tried pushing further through a very tight passage, possibly a drainage route but bad air forced us to turn back from that section.

Crawling back into fresh air.

After pushing through this tight passage in an abandoned coal mine, we discovered a new shaft to the surface. The air wasn't terrible, but it was fluctuating enough that, in such a confined space, we decided not to push our luck.

Video of the shaft soon.

The never ending adit in this old lead mine

Old coal level with branching adits.. dates to the late 1800s.

This is as deep as we got before turning back. It got very sketchy..