History
Grinkle Mine was established in a steep-sided valley in North Yorkshire. Due to the terrain & that the Easington & Twizziegill becks meet they were culverted & then covered using millions of tonnes of spoil from the local Ironsone Mines up to a level 70ft up from the valley bottom, allowing for mine buildings to ironically....be built.
Opened in the 1880s Grinkle was linked to the harbour at Port Mulgrave via a tramway which left the mine, headed south under Ridge Lane through a tunnel then over 3 wooden viaducts to Dalehouse & into the extended mile long Port Mulgrave Tunnel where it exited on the cliff face and onto the loading Jetty"s, where the laden Boats took it to Sir Charles Palmers blast furnaces & Ironworks were situated in Jarrow.
The culvert has had major collapses throughout it"s existence up to & including the present day. Currently there is a huge operation going on to excavate & replace some of the Culvert funded by the nearby Boulby Potash Mine which includes remedial works like digging out the Culvert entrance/exits. Local rights of way are suspended during the contract.
I din"t know of the culverts existence until a friendly local farmer mentioned it while we were talking about the nearby Ridge Lane tunnel (cheers) so i decided to pay it a visit after finishing the Tunnel. Admittedly travelling in the wrong direction for god knows how far in my wellies
One U-turn later i found myself at the exposed brickwork, Easington Culvert exit which has now been dammed by the contractors for some reason? which made access into the Culvert impossible due to the new water level and me being in wellies. The sound produced by falling water inside the culvert is immense & gives the impression on a steep drop (which i now know not to be the case after researching old reports on the NET)
I carried on my walk up the valley and into the Secca manned contractors compound & came across the excavation work the Farmer had told me about. Which going off the above blurb makes it at least 70ft deep to the actual running water, and i"ve no idea how wide the terraced part is (not that it matters
took my pics & after a quick look @ Grinkle Mine remains walked down to the Culvert portal.
Lots of work has been done here to clear part of Easington beck pre culvert & remove trees etc that had been washed down in storms & blocked the beck after piling up on the steelwork installed into the beck floor to stop it entering the culvert & blocking it (which you will see has not really worked
Once inside the culvert portal you start to appreciate a few things 1. How deep the quicksand like mud/sand combo is. 2.How fragile the previously collapsed roof both looks & actually is as you walk underneath it, with bits still coming down. 3. How bloody noisey it is in the culvert, it sounds like it contains massive drops inside in the obviously total darkness as you move through. 4. how many roof supports are either missing/ defective/ smashed or piled up along the culvert route. adding to my solo insecurity
As i had no previous knowledge of the culvert i didn"t know what to expect (never a good thing) so took it pretty steady with just the varying depths of quicksand wanting to relieve me of my wellies constantly. On reaching the junction with Twizzlegill Beck there"s quite a substantial blockage with tree roots, branches & roof supports
and the sound like Niagra Falls, but actually isn"t but i wish i"d had my ear plugs TBH. Anyway i took my pics & slowly climbed down the dam and progressed further along the culvert where finally a small bit of light could be seen in the distance with more waterfalls noise. At this point the roof level was either lowering or more likely the floor was deeper going off how often i was getting sucked in now so i decided it was time to reverse & GTFO
Cue a long valley walk in wellies into more valley of nothing & return to the culvert and then through the contractors compound at the speed of a snail as i could hardly walk by this time due to blisters & the impact from walking on the loose hardcore paths in wellies DOH
This follows on from Mutagens excellent report
on the culvert & Grinkle Mine areas (We should have teamed up mate & as i"d already posted it on my Flickr i decided to post it. But even in the short time-span of our 2 reports there"s quite a few differences to the culverts level & work carried out. I can only presume the contractors will carry on through the hillside & fully replace the whole of the culvert, I"m just upset it was too deep for me to enter the brick built culvert as i like a bit of brick porn
Shown i order of visit & reverse pics in er.......reverse
The now dammed culvert exit
Brick culvert exit
Contractor excavations
Excavations, showing exit culvert in the bottom. Remaining steel roof sections into brickwork arch.
Looking down into Easington Beck collapsed portal
Looking down into the culvert portal area, showing cleaned up riverbed & bank. ready to flow back into the beck @ next heavy rainfall
Unfortunately i couldn"t find a way past the impressive defences, until i thought like a log.
Entrance portal
Coming under the first roof collapse area on the long walk
Heading down
So that"s whats been missing...roof supports.
That Damned Dam
Dam
Looking back up to the entrance portal & showing Twizzlegill beck spur with mooring Bollard
Proceeding down past the Dam
Light at the end of the tunnel, showing roof supports coming down.
Reverse trek looking towrds the Dam & entry portal
View attachment 635778
Reverse shot of the Dam, bigger than it looks.
Let there be light.
View attachment 635782
Reverse shot of the defences
Grinkle Mine was established in a steep-sided valley in North Yorkshire. Due to the terrain & that the Easington & Twizziegill becks meet they were culverted & then covered using millions of tonnes of spoil from the local Ironsone Mines up to a level 70ft up from the valley bottom, allowing for mine buildings to ironically....be built.
Opened in the 1880s Grinkle was linked to the harbour at Port Mulgrave via a tramway which left the mine, headed south under Ridge Lane through a tunnel then over 3 wooden viaducts to Dalehouse & into the extended mile long Port Mulgrave Tunnel where it exited on the cliff face and onto the loading Jetty"s, where the laden Boats took it to Sir Charles Palmers blast furnaces & Ironworks were situated in Jarrow.
The culvert has had major collapses throughout it"s existence up to & including the present day. Currently there is a huge operation going on to excavate & replace some of the Culvert funded by the nearby Boulby Potash Mine which includes remedial works like digging out the Culvert entrance/exits. Local rights of way are suspended during the contract.
I din"t know of the culverts existence until a friendly local farmer mentioned it while we were talking about the nearby Ridge Lane tunnel (cheers) so i decided to pay it a visit after finishing the Tunnel. Admittedly travelling in the wrong direction for god knows how far in my wellies
One U-turn later i found myself at the exposed brickwork, Easington Culvert exit which has now been dammed by the contractors for some reason? which made access into the Culvert impossible due to the new water level and me being in wellies. The sound produced by falling water inside the culvert is immense & gives the impression on a steep drop (which i now know not to be the case after researching old reports on the NET) I carried on my walk up the valley and into the Secca manned contractors compound & came across the excavation work the Farmer had told me about. Which going off the above blurb makes it at least 70ft deep to the actual running water, and i"ve no idea how wide the terraced part is (not that it matters
took my pics & after a quick look @ Grinkle Mine remains walked down to the Culvert portal. Lots of work has been done here to clear part of Easington beck pre culvert & remove trees etc that had been washed down in storms & blocked the beck after piling up on the steelwork installed into the beck floor to stop it entering the culvert & blocking it (which you will see has not really worked
Once inside the culvert portal you start to appreciate a few things 1. How deep the quicksand like mud/sand combo is. 2.How fragile the previously collapsed roof both looks & actually is as you walk underneath it, with bits still coming down. 3. How bloody noisey it is in the culvert, it sounds like it contains massive drops inside in the obviously total darkness as you move through. 4. how many roof supports are either missing/ defective/ smashed or piled up along the culvert route. adding to my solo insecurity
As i had no previous knowledge of the culvert i didn"t know what to expect (never a good thing) so took it pretty steady with just the varying depths of quicksand wanting to relieve me of my wellies constantly. On reaching the junction with Twizzlegill Beck there"s quite a substantial blockage with tree roots, branches & roof supports
and the sound like Niagra Falls, but actually isn"t but i wish i"d had my ear plugs TBH. Anyway i took my pics & slowly climbed down the dam and progressed further along the culvert where finally a small bit of light could be seen in the distance with more waterfalls noise. At this point the roof level was either lowering or more likely the floor was deeper going off how often i was getting sucked in now so i decided it was time to reverse & GTFOCue a long valley walk in wellies into more valley of nothing & return to the culvert and then through the contractors compound at the speed of a snail as i could hardly walk by this time due to blisters & the impact from walking on the loose hardcore paths in wellies DOH
This follows on from Mutagens excellent report
on the culvert & Grinkle Mine areas (We should have teamed up mate & as i"d already posted it on my Flickr i decided to post it. But even in the short time-span of our 2 reports there"s quite a few differences to the culverts level & work carried out. I can only presume the contractors will carry on through the hillside & fully replace the whole of the culvert, I"m just upset it was too deep for me to enter the brick built culvert as i like a bit of brick porn Shown i order of visit & reverse pics in er.......reverse
The now dammed culvert exit
Brick culvert exit
Contractor excavations
Excavations, showing exit culvert in the bottom. Remaining steel roof sections into brickwork arch.
Looking down into Easington Beck collapsed portal
Looking down into the culvert portal area, showing cleaned up riverbed & bank. ready to flow back into the beck @ next heavy rainfall
Unfortunately i couldn"t find a way past the impressive defences, until i thought like a log.
Entrance portal
Coming under the first roof collapse area on the long walk
Heading down
So that"s whats been missing...roof supports.
That Damned Dam
Dam
Looking back up to the entrance portal & showing Twizzlegill beck spur with mooring Bollard
Proceeding down past the Dam
Light at the end of the tunnel, showing roof supports coming down.
Reverse trek looking towrds the Dam & entry portal
View attachment 635778
Reverse shot of the Dam, bigger than it looks.
Let there be light.
View attachment 635782
Reverse shot of the defences
