Visited with SeanTaylor(ucet) and AndyJ(CPC).

We decided to do something in yorkshire so Andy could have a rest from driving a million miles every trip, so Buckden Gavel lead mine it was to be.

We planned to meet in Clitheroe at Andy's house at 9am, well God must of been
watching down on us, cos dispite the petrol station not been open near my house
and the fact i stopped at subway on the way, we still managed to make it to Andy's
by 9.05

Andy was clearly expecting us to be much more than 5 mins late, we know this as he
wasn't ready when we got there, he's useualy sat waiting for us, but to be fair,
we're normally an hour late.

A short while later, the car was loaded and off we went, we arrived at the
national trust carpark in Buckden where we were robbed by a pay and display
machine for £4.00, after picking our selfs up off the floor, we began to get
kitted up, Andy pointed along a long vally and said the mine was up there, my
heart sank, it was miles away, infact i couldnt even see the end of the vally.

We then set off on what i can only describe as a horrific hike up a mountain, i
really didn't feel well and by the time we got to the mine entrance, i didn't want
to go in, as in i really didn't want to go in. After some wonderfull words of
support "get in or your walking home" i braved it up and walked in.

Andy had done the walk in level a couple of times but had never done the upper or
lower levels, judging by the lack of any bolts on any of the holes in the floor,
neither had many other people. Having been a couple of times, Andy had told us to
expect waste deep water on the entrance adit, but told us it drys up quickly
It was a nice supprise to find the water wasnt even over wellie depth, but the
useual level was clearly visable on the walls.

Once in there we spent most of our time climbing up into upper level where all the
mining had taken place, dropping the lead ore down through the holes we were now
climbing up into. The best way to describe the mine is strange, the walk in level
is for the most part very uniform, passage ways in a grid like fasion, but once
you get up in the other level, it is total chaos, they clearly did not remove any
more rock than they needed to.

After around 5 or so hours in there, People were tired and had really had enough,
we only saw a small section of the mine due to the time spend climbing up into the
upper level and trying to route find only to find claps or dead passages, and
dropping down shafts again, only to find them dead.

We exited the mine just as it was going dark, the walk back to the car was not as bad as the walk up, graverty is a great thing.

Loved the report, loved the humour and (as always) awesome photos.

I could see the watermark on the wall but why was the water level low - had someone dropped the entrance ?



Ian

no idea ian, i was just happy it was low, to be honest i didn't enjoy it, i felt crappy, the walk up allmost killed me and i just had a bad feeling all day, didn't get many pictures, i couldnt be bothered, the ones i did try to take looked crap, it was just one of those trips.