Walk a Mile with Mick
Mick Melvin's Walks
www.michaelmelvin.co.uk
THE LEAD MINES OF WEARDALE (WHIT CAMP 1963)

As we proceeded we kept crossing shafts in the floor, and rotting timber was covering the floor to a large extent. After 300ft. the passage took two levels, and on following the lower one we soon came upon water. After wading knee-deep for 100ft. we came to a roof fall where we could all stand clear of the water. From this point the water was crystal clear and about three feet in depth. On the bottom there were piles of broken wood which made wading too dangerous, so we returned to explore the upper level. One point which springs to mind about this water is that the old miners may have broken into a stream passage of some unknown system which now connects with the far end of the flooded passage. This is doubtful but not impossible as you will see later in this account. The upper level proved difficult to reach, but each man helped the other and we managed it. A large round passage followed which proved to have one or two small passages running from it, usually running for 75-100ft. then ending abruptly. It was in one of these short passages that we found clog prints, and the marks of heavy cord pants in the mud, (remember that the rest of the mine looked as if it had been flooded at various times) and an old paper bag with an advert on it, which fell to pieces when I tried to pick it up. There were candles sticking from the clay all over this gallery and in another side passage we found what we thought to be a small vein of Blue John stone, although none of us profess to be geologists. This was definitely the most interesting mine in the area and it seemed to us to have been left untouched since the miners left it. If this is the case the existence of the canal was unknown until we found it, and my theory of a stream passage connection cannot be disproved until somebody goes to the end of it. The other mines which we found in the area were all levels and had mostly been explored by cyclists, hikers, etc. All other mines were very dangerous and I must utter a warning to anyone wishing to descend them.

Mick Melvin (2010)

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