Wow! This is NOT a small place 
Middleton Mine is probably what Box would look like if it wasn't full of deads and then times by 10. The size of the chambers in here is collosal and therefore a pain in the ass to light paint without resorting a million and millions of candle powahh (luckily we had this).
A massive thanks to the Notts boys for kindly showing me and Rigsby round even though I complained allll the way round about my legs aching (sorry about that) Quad bikes and cars would be the ultimate mode of transport for this place although avoiding the sheer drops into pits of hell is strongly advised.
Thanks guys!
A bit of info nicked from somewhere on the interweb:
Middleton Mine is located 4 miles south-west of the small town of Matlock. The mine works the Hopton-Wood Limestone which occurs underneath Middleton Moor. Middleton Moor is on the southern margin of an area of the Peak District known as the The White Peak, a block of carboniferous limestone stretching 50 kilometres north to south and 20 kilometres west to east.
Historical
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when Hopton-wood limestone was first extracted on the site now occupied by Middleton Mine. Certainly by the 1900's there was a well established dimension stone operation at the site. It was a surface operation and was cut where the Hopton-wood outcrops on the eastern flank of Middleton Moor in the middle of the village of Middleton-by-Wirksworth.
Dimension stone operations continued until the 1950's when due to the rapid development of concrete technology the demand for natural stone products fell. Derbyshire Stone, the then operators and owners of the site, had pre-empted this fall in demand by developing a small processing plant to crush the limestone to supply the steel and sugar industry.
Towards the end of the decade the situation with the surface operations reached a point where it became increasingly uneconomic to keep stripping the overburden (which was increasing in depth as a quarry cut into the moor) to gain access to the high purity Hopton-wood beds. The Company was reluctant to lose the customer base it had built up with the processed products, so the decision to commence underground operations was taken.
The company at that time were operating a lead mine in Matlock and moved two of the personnel to Middleton. Work on a drift access was started on February the 4th 1959 and to date approximately 16 million tonnes of high grade limestone have been extracted for the underground workings.
At present Middleton Mine consists of 35 kilometres of workings covering an area of 1400 metres west to east and 800 m north to south. Middleton Mine is divided into five main production areas by normal faults.
In 1968 Derbyshire Stone was absorbed into the Tarmac Group who ultimately put the mine up for sale towards the end of 1990 along with two other units located in Derbyshire which formed it's Industrial Product Division The three Units were purchased by Croxton and Garry Limited who were owned equally by Pluess-Staufer and Blue Circle at the time of the purchase. Pluess-Staufer are now the sole owners of Omya Croxton and Garry.
Comedy glasses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Middleton Mine is probably what Box would look like if it wasn't full of deads and then times by 10. The size of the chambers in here is collosal and therefore a pain in the ass to light paint without resorting a million and millions of candle powahh (luckily we had this).A massive thanks to the Notts boys for kindly showing me and Rigsby round even though I complained allll the way round about my legs aching (sorry about that
) Quad bikes and cars would be the ultimate mode of transport for this place although avoiding the sheer drops into pits of hell is strongly advised.Thanks guys!
A bit of info nicked from somewhere on the interweb:
Middleton Mine is located 4 miles south-west of the small town of Matlock. The mine works the Hopton-Wood Limestone which occurs underneath Middleton Moor. Middleton Moor is on the southern margin of an area of the Peak District known as the The White Peak, a block of carboniferous limestone stretching 50 kilometres north to south and 20 kilometres west to east.
Historical
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when Hopton-wood limestone was first extracted on the site now occupied by Middleton Mine. Certainly by the 1900's there was a well established dimension stone operation at the site. It was a surface operation and was cut where the Hopton-wood outcrops on the eastern flank of Middleton Moor in the middle of the village of Middleton-by-Wirksworth.
Dimension stone operations continued until the 1950's when due to the rapid development of concrete technology the demand for natural stone products fell. Derbyshire Stone, the then operators and owners of the site, had pre-empted this fall in demand by developing a small processing plant to crush the limestone to supply the steel and sugar industry.
Towards the end of the decade the situation with the surface operations reached a point where it became increasingly uneconomic to keep stripping the overburden (which was increasing in depth as a quarry cut into the moor) to gain access to the high purity Hopton-wood beds. The Company was reluctant to lose the customer base it had built up with the processed products, so the decision to commence underground operations was taken.
The company at that time were operating a lead mine in Matlock and moved two of the personnel to Middleton. Work on a drift access was started on February the 4th 1959 and to date approximately 16 million tonnes of high grade limestone have been extracted for the underground workings.
At present Middleton Mine consists of 35 kilometres of workings covering an area of 1400 metres west to east and 800 m north to south. Middleton Mine is divided into five main production areas by normal faults.
In 1968 Derbyshire Stone was absorbed into the Tarmac Group who ultimately put the mine up for sale towards the end of 1990 along with two other units located in Derbyshire which formed it's Industrial Product Division The three Units were purchased by Croxton and Garry Limited who were owned equally by Pluess-Staufer and Blue Circle at the time of the purchase. Pluess-Staufer are now the sole owners of Omya Croxton and Garry.
Comedy glasses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
