Report - Grove Rake Mine, Weardale, Dec 07

[snappel]

What an amazing location - thanks to BigLoada for spotting it. It took me a while with my primative maps to find this place, but I certainly wasn't disappointed. It's like a baby Annesley, with a small little clean/dirty 'bath house', small winding room (for the drift mine?), a headstock and other bits and pieces, all for the extraction of lead and flourspar. No security, no vandalism, no grafitti.

As I got there, the weather had cleared and it looked really nice. By the time I left it was tipping it down, but not before I'd climbed the headstock and had a look round the bath house. Lots of bits and pieces in there, papers and boots and old bits of clothing. A shame it had to close down really.

 

[General Tosser]

Re: Grove Rake Mine, Weardale - REPORT

Please treat this site with respect!
Only a few years ago the whole sight was complete with the power on and the pumps running, since then scrap men have decimated the place including stealing the 2nd head gear that was over the emergency egress.
Everything remotely of value has been taken.
The mine is flooded at the 30 fathom level (the 1st set of workings) and is not explorable. The incline and horizontal drift are both in very poor state, bits of roof will fall on you in there and there is nothing much to see in there, the water begins before anything of interest.
Both shafts drop 30 fathoms to water (I have been down, you can't get to anything) and to a total depth of 90 fathoms, thats a 180feet drop into water 360 feet deep. The incline runs down to water which looks wadable IT ISN'T! in the water there is a submerged gantry which is invisble, to one side of it is an open stope flooded to about 200 feet depth.....
The horizontal level goes to collapses and is in very poor condition.
Lastly, beware of gamekeepers, you will not see them but they will see you, if they don't feel inclined to be nice you will know about it!
Planning permision for the mine states that after closure it must be returned to natural, which is a joke if you look around that valley as the whole place is just spoil heaps. The owners are trying to keep the headframe standing as an industrial monument but last I heard the council wasn't keen, with this in mind please do not raise the profile of the place to the extent that the owners are forced to remove the headframe, it would benefit us all for it to be left there for all time

 

[General Tosser]

Re: Grove Rake Mine, Weardale - REPORT

Nice explore and pics, i would of been tempted to find a way down the shafts:crazy

Going down the shafts is pointless
Just at the point you get to the 1st level 180 feet down you hit water, the 30fathom level roof just beng visible but no air space so you can't get in.
You will be seen on site, the place is sat in between grouse moors and the game keepers are up there all the time, you won't see them and they may or may not come and chase you off depending on their mood and what they see you doing! One of the keepers once listed the times and days I had been up there over the previous week and I only saw him once. He knows me well and didn't bother to come down and chase me off.
If you want to gu underground easy access to a vast network of lead mines is just over the hill at Nenthead, miles of mines there with no access restrictions, as easy or as challenging as you ant to make it, you can litterally wander for miles down there