Middle Adit


		Middle Adit


	The dressing floor (left) and adit portal (right) early in 2004 prior to work commencing. At this stage we still had 120+ yards of rail to lift in Shallow Adit. The crossed timbers in the portal were installed several years previous to hold up a large boulder perched above the entrance.

Looking down the adit from the entrance. Note the water level now (just over welly height!), and the tide marks indicating previous levels (well over waist deep).

The water level was dropped to make access more comfortable some time ago but the level would need to be completely drained to allow the tramway to be installed.

For now though, there was still much work to do before serious digging started. The job of lifting the rail was pretty slow as no one really wanted to be dismantling the tramway that had only just been completed and never really used in anger.

While track was still being lifted in Shallow, Bob Waterhouse made a start on surveying the surface works at Middle.

His findings seem to confirm that this was in fact a small ore dressing floor with clearly identifiable ‘finger’ dumps. Other finds that still need further investigation include a small rectangular depression in line with the adit that might have been a bob pit, drain sump, silt trap or possibly used for ritual purposes.


	Just as intriguing is the remains of what might have been an ore chute from (approximately) the middle of the dressing floor heading down the steep hillside. Following the line takes you to the lower dressing floors suggesting perhaps that the ore was partially dressed to remove most of the waste before being finished on the ‘main’ dressing floor below.

Once Bob W. was happy that all the important features had been recorded and a site plan drawn up, a small trench was dug out along the original line to the ‘bob/drain/sump’ to drain the remaining water.

The resulting muck filled the ‘thingy’ and overflowed forming a vivid scar down the hillside heading for but not reaching the lower dressing floor area.

A few weeks later Lee’s dog (the one that likes to eat people) decided to run straight through it and six weeks later was still noticeably yellow underneath!

Colin walking back towards the entrance. The water has now gone but the remaining sludge is still only just below welly height.

Months of scraping shoveling and cursing removed the remaining sludge and with all the track now lifted from Shallow, work could start clearing the surface area in preparation for track laying.

One of the first jobs was tree clearance. In particular one very large tree was hung up in fir trees right over the adit portal.

Although still partly rooted and very much alive, the alarming creaking in even a gentle breeze was very disconcerting.

Bob Le Marchant negotiating the surrender of the hung up tree.

This was enough to crush all further resistance from the trees and in short time the dressing floor area was clear of major obstructions. A JCB was then used to clear the floor area which was still much higher than adit level (years of leaf litter).


	This uncovered yet another pleasant surprise. Although we had agreed that this was a dressing floor, we didn’t expect it to still be intact. The clearance with the JCB uncovered a fine cobbled floor which extended from just outside the portal right to the edge of the ‘floor’ and out towards the dumps. The full extent is yet to be determined.


	Colin and Rick digging out the track bed along the upper edge of the dressing floor to eliminate or at least minimise the chance any disturbance. The soil was easy digging but shallow root runners made the going a bit awkward.

The first track has now been laid (about 18 feet in total) and the skip is at last back on track!

Unlike the previous dig, this tramway will all be 18-inch gauge on one level of continuous tramway. A turntable will allow a 90-degree turn to avoid the dressing floor.

The same scene from a different view. The steep track on the left is probably a modern one (forestry work perhaps).

The small clump of trees on the right edge of the picture have almost certainly grown up through the cobbled dressing floor.

The turntable installed (left) and (right), Colin and Rick modifying rail to fit with the assistance of good old ‘Jim Crow’.

Although not as severe, this level is still very tight and meandering with few straight sections. Fortunately we’ve been here before - we’re getting good at this !


	While the rest of us are fannying about in the level trying to fit our square peg rail into our round hole mine, Colin has built a tipping dock. It’s like Blue Peter - one minute he’s got a mongrel pile of wood and the next a fine tipping dock. ‘Heres one I prepared earlier’ he was not heard to say.

By July 2004 digging is back in full swing, and despite Lee Lamble disappearing to Ireland for 6 months over the winter, work progresses at a remarkable pace with Rick, Colin and Bob W. working like wild things!

The first major hurdle comes in the form of a large fall. It is possible to climb over the top and knock a stull out with your head going down the other side (Rick) but it all has to be cleared to continue laying track.

By the time Lee returns in January, this fall has become part of the outside world again and track work continues apace.

The spoil heap soon engulfs the tipping dock and Colin extends the trestle. We now have (due to the steepness of the hillside) an alarming drop on both sides and the front of the tipping dock.

Colin, being a consciences builder of tipping docks and tireless advocate of safe working practices demonstrates how dangerous it can be if you fall off - by falling off.

We all agree that falling off should be avoided and rejoice that a. Colin does not suffer any long term damage and b. he’s given us a tipping area about the size of Nebraska!


	At the tipping dock. Tramming the skip from the dig face to the tipping dock is getting to be a long walk and the heavily encrusted skip is getting heavier. There is talk of getting a Loco to pull the skip.

Colin digging at the ‘terminal’ choke (left) and (right) preparing to tram another full skip - note the ‘tide mark’ on the passage walls, which is well above Colin’s head!

The digging at this point is relatively easy - an indication of the looseness of the ground ahead?

The ‘way on’. A body sized triangular tunnel about 4 feet off the ‘floor’ and some 12 feet long - this may or may not be the end of the blockage. The timber (left) and a little bit of friction is about all that’s holding back tons of loose rock and clay.

This section of passage opens out into a distinctive slot with the ‘load’ and therefore the hanging wall and foot wall tilted at about 30-degrees off the vertical.

The ‘roof’ is some 20 feet above us and the blockage slopes backwards gently to roof level.


	It was unanimously decided that under no circumstances should anyone go into the ‘hole’ because it was too dangerous - a collapse would be fatal.......... So we sent Rick in with an iron bar to have a gentle poke at the far end - just in case it was also the end of our ‘terminal’ choke. The results were inconclusive. The dig was starting to get serious so we decided a lockable gate at the entrance might be a good idea.


	A new portal was constructed and a metal gate fabricated (far left) - quite a contrast to a year prior (middle) and the entrance as it looked in 2004 (far right).

From this point we really only had two ways forward;

1. dig out everything - propping the hanging wall as we moved forward - not too technical but still a major undertaking.

2. start ‘spiling’ - that is, creating a route under the collapse constructing a roof over our heads as we go - more technical but probably safer.

We decide to spile. The first upright and cross timber is installed (left) and we start to gently remove enough spoil to get the second ‘set’ in place.

For added security, a set of vertical and horizontal props are placed temporarily using ‘acro’ props.

This should stop the old timbers from fully collapsing just long enough to get our next set of timbers in.

While mucking out under the props we discover a metal wheel on an axle embedded in timbers. This is a good find because it adds credibility to the theory that there was a chain running back and forth in the level (indicated by rub marks in the level), possibly driving a water pump or some sort of ventilation. Further archaeological work at the entrance, the rectangular ‘bob/sump’ thing and beyond the choke should provide a better idea.

Sadly, by the time we get back to the dig the following week our new find, the acro props, ladder and half our tools are buried under rock and clay.

Worse still, a large chunk of the roof and hanging wall have peeled away and are perched just above our heads.

Close inspection reveals a brittle roof and the remaining hanging wall, now under immense pressure is shedding small flakes. Two stulls are quickly installed to keep the remaining hanging wall in place while we clear a space beneath the fallen ‘slab’ to get a third stull in to prevent it moving further.


	Thoughts of spiling are now put on hold and all efforts switch to propping at a higher level. A row of stulls at this point should keep everything above us from moving and take the sting out of anything falling out of the roof, allowing spialling to continue at the lower level.

A week later, and things have deteriorated further. The slab has shifted lower knocking out a stull, and more smaller pieces are perched behind it.

There is now no safe way to install the upper row of stulls without first dealing with the slab and the hanging wall therefore remains largely unsupported

Things are now starting to look decidedly Chernobylic, and although various options are considered - none of them seem very clever.

Luckily though, we have a secret weapon.........................

Using the precision sledge hammer, the team reduces the slab to it’s component parts whilst studiously ignoring the roof and hanging wall (on the basis that if we ignore it perhaps it will go away).

With the slab gone, we should now be able to carry on installing a forest of stulls to hold back the hanging wall and catch anything that leaps out of the roof........

If it’s still there when we go back!


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			Last updated 19th March 2006


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