Aldery edge copper mine, 18th July 2010

Alderly edge Copper mine 18th Jul
D Thompson.
I had heard a lot about Alderly edge copper mine over the years so I had been looking forward to this trip, for a while, I was not to be disappointed.
Ian had kindly offered to drive, so I was waiting outside my house at 7.40 all excited, with my kit in a Bernies bag, ready to go.
I was a little early, so I decided to walk up the lane to the corner, this would save Ian having to drive down my lane, however, halfway up the lane I realised that it was possible that he could come from the other direction, so I had to wait in the middle of the bend in the lane, where I could see both ends, I wish I had some sense.
All was well however and we set off for Cheshire, an hour or so later we were pulling into the National trust car park where we were to meet our guides from Derbyshire y 2010 caving club.
There were five of us from UCET, Ian, Johno, Dave the cave, Sammie, whom I had just met, And myself, then there were our two guides Ed, and Paul, and Ed’s friend Bev.
Across the road from the car park, there lies a wonderful little one up one down stone building where we were to get changed, we entered, via an outside staircase to the first floor room, though there was access to the ground floor room via a trap door with a vertical wooden plank fixed to the wall which had foot holes cut into it like stirrups.
All kitted up and ready to go, we set off across the road and through the woods to the entrance, on the way, Paul pointed out various surface features relating to the mining operations, some of which dated back to pre historic times.
The most dominant and obvious feature remaining on the surface is a large channel, cut into the rock where the original mineral outcrop had surfaced, though much of the Stope, is now capped off with concrete and soil, and grassed over.
We entered through a steel door, and were immediately rewarded with ancient and mysterious passages, mixed at times with more modern workings, and evidence of the enormous amount of work that has been put into digs and restorations to gain access to parts of the mine which would otherwise be lost.
Metals have been mined here since the bronze age, and it is generally understood that the Romans put much effort into these mines, commercial mining eventually ended around the time of the first world war.
Paul is a mine of information about the old and modern mining practices, and the geology of the area, pointing out as we went, ancient river beds and fossils in the strata, as well as an “apprentice passage”, which demonstrated how mine apprentices were taught the various skills needed work a mine such as this.
Ed did an admirable job of leading us through the different levels, and wonderful passages and chambers, and when we came to a flooded passage, he and Bev, sailed in a bathtub, several hundred yards to the other end, and returned with two more boats, Well I say, boats, one was a boat, the other was another bath tub.
We survived the crossing, even though Dave and I found ourselves in a bathtub, not just any old bath, no, ours was a corner bath, you may not know this, but I can tell you now, the navigability of a corner bath is not its best feature, and the stability could be improved by having the water on the inside, instead of the out.
However, after recovering my land legs, and to some extent, my dignity, I was impressed by the ingenious, pedal powered winch in the next chamber which by all accounts has shifted several hundred tonnes of sand over the years.
We were shown passages which had previously been almost completely blocked by sand, and had been dug out over the last twenty years or so.
There is also a railway extending several miles into the mine complete with points and curved track, built to facilitate the restoration work, in fact everywhere we went, we saw evidence of the dedication of the group who look after this special place.
In another chamber where the roof is actually the fossilised mud of an ancient river bed, we saw fossils of a prehistoric bird, a tree, and other unnamed bones.
The rocks through which the mine weaves its way, are varieties of sand stone, conglomerates, and marl, dating to the triassic period of about 250 million years ago, at the time that the main body of these rocks were being laid down, the landmass which now, forms most of the British Isles was almost, at the Equator, and was a dessert, with rivers, (probably seasonal) flowing across it.
It would have been much later, many millions of years later, that the metals, and other minerals would have invaded the fractures and faults which were formed during upheavals, and squeezing and stretching by plate techtonics, as the continental plates were shoved around the globe.
Now we were climbing again, through the layers of sandstone and marl, with intrusions of minerals, like copper and lead, a lot of silica, iron staining in the sandstone and some calcium.
All together the trip was very pleasant, mostly undertaken in an upright posture, with hardly any of the slithering through mud, which tends to punctuate most of our caving activities.
Thanks everyone.

Thanks Doug - a cracking read. Make me wish even more that i could have come with you.

cracking trip report doug!!!!

Tim - are you back this week?

Ev,

I'm due back home on thursday afternoon - coming off 14 x 12hr nightshifts and i'll have been awake over 24hrs by the time i travel home - that said - i'll try to come out thursday night

cool trip report doug informative and funny as usual

Cracking trip report Doug.

Just a small correction - The Tertiary Period started about 70Ma ago not 250Ma.

250Ma was around the Permian and Triassic boundary. This was the time of deserts and of England being located just north of the Equator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_time

p.s. It appears that the Tertiary no longer exists, it is now called the Paleogene and Neogene.

Sorry I stand corrected
I dont know what possessed me to say tertiary period when I should have said Triassic, Shame on me. I have corrected it now.

Les W wrote:

Cracking trip report Doug.

Just a small correction - The Tertiary Period started about 70Ma ago not 250Ma.

250Ma was around the Permian and Triassic boundary. This was the time of deserts and of England being located just north of the Equator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_time

p.s. It appears that the Tertiary no longer exists, it is now called the Paleogene and Neogene.

don't listen to les douge , he's only a walk in walk out caver scientist who 's only friends are PLASTIC SCOUSER'S who get stuck in cave's

Les W wrote:

Cracking trip report Doug.

Just a small correction - The Tertiary Period started about 70Ma ago not 250Ma.

250Ma was around the Permian and Triassic boundary. This was the time of deserts and of England being located just north of the Equator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_time

p.s. It appears that the Tertiary no longer exists, it is now called the Paleogene and Neogene.

I was just wondering, if the tertiary no longer exists, how should we refer to the KT boundary, would it be the KP, or the KN, or would it be the KPN, the K, always confused me anyway when refering to the Cretaceous period.

doug wrote:

Les W wrote:

Cracking trip report Doug.

Just a small correction - The Tertiary Period started about 70Ma ago not 250Ma.

250Ma was around the Permian and Triassic boundary. This was the time of deserts and of England being located just north of the Equator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_time

p.s. It appears that the Tertiary no longer exists, it is now called the Paleogene and Neogene.

I was just wondering, if the tertiary no longer exists, how should we refer to the KT boundary, would it be the KP, or the KN, or would it be the KPN, the K, always confused me anyway when refering to the Cretaceous period.

Its a good point Doug. I wonder if the powers that be thought that one through,

As for the Cretaceous being represented by the letter K well, Wikipedia is your friend:

The Cretaceous (pronounced /kriːˈteɪʃəs/), Latin for "chalky", usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide (chalk)

my heads just exploded!

It's certainly an education.

That explains a lot actually.

Les W wrote:

It's certainly an education.

shame when cavers cant tell when theres bad weather tho eh les

martymarty wrote:

Les W wrote:

It's certainly an education.

shame when cavers cant tell when theres bad weather tho eh les

To be fair, to somebody from the Wirral, it probably looked like normal weather.