Background
I visited here pretty regularly last year between March and May, exploring the various parts of the mine site and the culvert. To my eternal shame, I never made the through trip of the culvert when it was at its gnarliest (see the following link for one of various reports: http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2014/04/tunnel-hacking-abandoned-grinkle-iron-mine-culvert/), making excuses about not having waterproof gear on. My last visit in May took place after a contractor had been put in place to dig out the knackered culvert and reconstruct it, pretty much at the same time as Acid-Reflux visited and got some shots of the cavernous maw that opened up to access the culvert from the surface. I went back a few weeks ago and realised that all the construction work had finished and the culvert was therefore fair game for exploring again - true, it's now a sanitised version of its former self, but is still interesting if you'd read up on the history of the place. Water levels stopped me getting in until February though.
History (lifted from my previous report)
Grinkle Mine was established in a steep-sided valley near Staithes in North Yorkshire after a proving drift found the Cleveland ironstone seam deep in the valley. Due to the terrain the valley (and the fact that the confluence of the Easington and Twizziegill becks is found in the valley bottom), the two streams were culverted and millions of tonnes of mine spoil from local ironstone mines was used to fill in the valley bottom, providing a level plateau some seventy feet above the old floor for the buildings etc.
Opened in the 1880s with production starting in 1882, Grinkle was part of a much larger infrastructure, being linked to the harbour at Port Mulgrave via a tramway which left the mine, headed south under Ridge Lane through a tunnel then around to Dalehouse on a raised embankment before entering a final tunnel which exited in the cliff edge at Mulgrave onto an old iron jetty to serve the Jarrow ore boats. Later in the mine's life, an incline was built to link the mine directly to the standard gauge W&MR track to ship the ore to Middlesbrough.
The culvert caused innumerable issues during the mine's lifetime, with a major collapse in 1927 causing widespread flooding in the mine and necessitating much reinforcement with iron props (now all gone ... *sob*).
Some 50 years and 22 fatalities later, Grinkle closed and has been left to the ravages of time ever since. More huge collapses of the Easington Beck culvert occurred (some very recently): ICL who own the adjacent Potash Mine employed SES Contracting to repair the culvert to prevent flooding due to culvert blockages
There are footpaths criss-crossing the site and access to the site is ridiculously simple - one thing to watch is the water level .... the day after heavy rains, the water level inside the culvert is markedly higher than in dry weather and this can have a huge impact on your ability to explore properly.
The revisit
The repaired culvert now consists of three distinct sections: the eastern section running from the portal to the pipe (approximately forty metres or so) has seen the existing brick being completely reinforced with steel sections; the middle section (which was the place where the really gnarly repairs had taken place in the 1920s) is now through a pipe set in concrete to support the crumbling brickwork and spoil of the original section and the last section has been left as a blasted section through the bedrock through to the western portal. This portal has been significantly reinforced and blocked to restrict access. Check out my previous report to see the before shots!
East portal:
The steelwork section:
To the pipe!
Totally tubular, dude:
The junction of the Easington Beck and Twizziegill Beck culverts (@ACID- REFLUX - it's not a mooring bollard, it's a capped pipeline from the drainage level further up in Twizziegill culvert):
Looking out to the west portal:
The west portal itself:
Heading back in towards the Twizziegill branch:
A couple of shots of the Twizziegill branch - the lower section further up is a belly-crawl for those who don't mind getting bloody frozen, wet and cramped!
This shot to the west of the pipeline start shows where there has been some massive reinforcement of the roof and a shaft that runs up to a surface manhole:
From the surface:
Back in le pipe (branch on the left runs to a collapsed drainage level from the old mine workings):
The collapse:
Looking out of the pipe to the steelwork section on the way back:
Back towards the portal:
The view out:
Thanks for reading!
I visited here pretty regularly last year between March and May, exploring the various parts of the mine site and the culvert. To my eternal shame, I never made the through trip of the culvert when it was at its gnarliest (see the following link for one of various reports: http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2014/04/tunnel-hacking-abandoned-grinkle-iron-mine-culvert/), making excuses about not having waterproof gear on. My last visit in May took place after a contractor had been put in place to dig out the knackered culvert and reconstruct it, pretty much at the same time as Acid-Reflux visited and got some shots of the cavernous maw that opened up to access the culvert from the surface. I went back a few weeks ago and realised that all the construction work had finished and the culvert was therefore fair game for exploring again - true, it's now a sanitised version of its former self, but is still interesting if you'd read up on the history of the place. Water levels stopped me getting in until February though.
History (lifted from my previous report)
Grinkle Mine was established in a steep-sided valley near Staithes in North Yorkshire after a proving drift found the Cleveland ironstone seam deep in the valley. Due to the terrain the valley (and the fact that the confluence of the Easington and Twizziegill becks is found in the valley bottom), the two streams were culverted and millions of tonnes of mine spoil from local ironstone mines was used to fill in the valley bottom, providing a level plateau some seventy feet above the old floor for the buildings etc.
Opened in the 1880s with production starting in 1882, Grinkle was part of a much larger infrastructure, being linked to the harbour at Port Mulgrave via a tramway which left the mine, headed south under Ridge Lane through a tunnel then around to Dalehouse on a raised embankment before entering a final tunnel which exited in the cliff edge at Mulgrave onto an old iron jetty to serve the Jarrow ore boats. Later in the mine's life, an incline was built to link the mine directly to the standard gauge W&MR track to ship the ore to Middlesbrough.
The culvert caused innumerable issues during the mine's lifetime, with a major collapse in 1927 causing widespread flooding in the mine and necessitating much reinforcement with iron props (now all gone ... *sob*).
Some 50 years and 22 fatalities later, Grinkle closed and has been left to the ravages of time ever since. More huge collapses of the Easington Beck culvert occurred (some very recently): ICL who own the adjacent Potash Mine employed SES Contracting to repair the culvert to prevent flooding due to culvert blockages
There are footpaths criss-crossing the site and access to the site is ridiculously simple - one thing to watch is the water level .... the day after heavy rains, the water level inside the culvert is markedly higher than in dry weather and this can have a huge impact on your ability to explore properly.
The revisit
The repaired culvert now consists of three distinct sections: the eastern section running from the portal to the pipe (approximately forty metres or so) has seen the existing brick being completely reinforced with steel sections; the middle section (which was the place where the really gnarly repairs had taken place in the 1920s) is now through a pipe set in concrete to support the crumbling brickwork and spoil of the original section and the last section has been left as a blasted section through the bedrock through to the western portal. This portal has been significantly reinforced and blocked to restrict access. Check out my previous report to see the before shots!
East portal:
The steelwork section:
To the pipe!
Totally tubular, dude:
The junction of the Easington Beck and Twizziegill Beck culverts (@ACID- REFLUX - it's not a mooring bollard, it's a capped pipeline from the drainage level further up in Twizziegill culvert):
Looking out to the west portal:
The west portal itself:
Heading back in towards the Twizziegill branch:
A couple of shots of the Twizziegill branch - the lower section further up is a belly-crawl for those who don't mind getting bloody frozen, wet and cramped!
This shot to the west of the pipeline start shows where there has been some massive reinforcement of the roof and a shaft that runs up to a surface manhole:
From the surface:
Back in le pipe (branch on the left runs to a collapsed drainage level from the old mine workings):
The collapse:
Looking out of the pipe to the steelwork section on the way back:
Back towards the portal:
The view out:
Thanks for reading!
:
)
New section does look nice though & nice to see the other parts to the Mine ( there was no way i was crawling up there last time )
