Graham's Grovel is seldom reported in these forums, so I decided to give an update.
Graham's Grovel is an exhausting 200ft belly crawl over deads that starts in Brown's Folly mine and ends in a large adit tunnel that until relatively recently was a way into District 20 of the Monkton Farleigh munitions site.
History: Brown's Folly Mine was originally part of the larger Monkton Farleigh Quarry. It was cut off from the main quarry when the War Department converted Monkton Farleigh for ammunition storage. From behind the Monkton Farleigh district 20 fan chamber an old stone quarry adit runs off into the old workings of Brown's Folly Mine. This tunnel was sealed off in June 1940, but in 1989 the owners of Monkton Farleigh at the time broke into it to photograph it. They had to break through a 4' thick concrete wall to get into the tunnel. For most of its length it is clear, but the last two hundred feet or so is packed full of backfill, and it took nearly two years to dig through into the extensive old workings of Brown's beyond.
The Trip: The crawl in from Brown's is a 200ft belly crawl which took us 25 minutes of pain, sweat and cursing.
Eventually it opens up into a high square cut adit
The tunnel shrinks halfway along at a brick archway with lovely stalactite detail
A water pipe and cables run the length of the adit:
The adit reaches the sealed end with no possible further progress. A badly spelt sign warns of the consequences:
Thanks
Graham's Grovel is an exhausting 200ft belly crawl over deads that starts in Brown's Folly mine and ends in a large adit tunnel that until relatively recently was a way into District 20 of the Monkton Farleigh munitions site.
History: Brown's Folly Mine was originally part of the larger Monkton Farleigh Quarry. It was cut off from the main quarry when the War Department converted Monkton Farleigh for ammunition storage. From behind the Monkton Farleigh district 20 fan chamber an old stone quarry adit runs off into the old workings of Brown's Folly Mine. This tunnel was sealed off in June 1940, but in 1989 the owners of Monkton Farleigh at the time broke into it to photograph it. They had to break through a 4' thick concrete wall to get into the tunnel. For most of its length it is clear, but the last two hundred feet or so is packed full of backfill, and it took nearly two years to dig through into the extensive old workings of Brown's beyond.
The Trip: The crawl in from Brown's is a 200ft belly crawl which took us 25 minutes of pain, sweat and cursing.
Eventually it opens up into a high square cut adit
The tunnel shrinks halfway along at a brick archway with lovely stalactite detail
A water pipe and cables run the length of the adit:
The adit reaches the sealed end with no possible further progress. A badly spelt sign warns of the consequences:
Thanks
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