Visited on multiple occasions by myself and with @Gudd87
I found myself with some time on my hands recently so decided to have a look round at some of the underground stuff around me. This is quite cool because as one of the great unwashed bus wankers, I can get here on two buses. Quite nice for a quick jaunt underground and relatively easy to give Gudd87 her first underground experience.
Scout mine is a relatively small pillar and stall affair between Waterfoot and Water in Rossendale, Lancashire. The rock that was worked here is part of the Haslingden Millstone grits deposits which were laid down between 314.5 & 315.5 million years ago, during the Yeadonian stage which was part of the Carboniferous period. The world was a very different place, atmospheric oxygen was at the highest level in history and the reptiles and amphibians were the dominant life forms. In the moist oxygen rich atmosphere flying insects were abundant, and some attained huge size, such as Meganeura, with a wing span of 70 centimetres. According to a source the UK was pretty much covered by a huge tropical delta leading to the muddy nature of the gritstones and relatively small particle size. The delta was a huge elongate delta: the nearest modern equivalent is the Mississippi / Everglades ‘Birds Foot’ type delta. for this reason at least one quarry in the area have been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The rock cleaved from the ground here is quite visually appealing, with different colours across a small area and some very nice patterning. As well as being visually appealing, the hardness and silica content is also great for building, apparently being comparable to granite.
The mine itself is quite nice if you ignore all the rocks littering the floor and the places where the roof is delaminating... It's no worse than some of the dodgy areas of Cwmorthin I've ventured through but very different is how the rock was worked and won. There's a few relics to be seen here and there, old roof supports and even a tiny amount of rail remaining relatively deep in the mine. I'd recommend it as it's a fairly straight forward lay out and you're unlikely to get lost, don't forget though bring multiple torches and spare batteries. Anyway, on with the pics:
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The drop into the mine is relatively straighforward, although don't let the initial vista disappoint you, there's more to Scout than initially meets the eye...
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The first major features you see are the multiple entrances that lead onto people's houses!
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You rather rapidly come to interesting geology and the boundaries between the different types of rock.
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Press further into the mine and you get to the nice big areas. Sorry, no banana for scale, but I'm 6' 1" / 186 cm tall
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You come to the pretty much full thickness of the Millstone Grit
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The drop into the mine is relatively straighforward, although don't let the initial vista disappoint you, there's more to Scout than initially meets the eye...
[2]
The first major features you see are the multiple entrances that lead onto people's houses!
[3]
You rather rapidly come to interesting geology and the boundaries between the different types of rock.
[4]
[5]
Press further into the mine and you get to the nice big areas. Sorry, no banana for scale, but I'm 6' 1" / 186 cm tall
[6]
You come to the pretty much full thickness of the Millstone Grit
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It was close to this end of the mine where @Gudd87 and I were sitting and chatting, I decided to give her her first experience of pitch black darkness. I turned my torch out, asked her to do the same and complete darkness reigned. The type of pitch black stillness you only get underground; no traffic noise, no discernible breeze and no light to see your own hand in front of your eyes.
To geek out for a second, there are thousands of particles from passing the sun passing though you every second while you're down there. They're called neutrinos and are such strange particles (relative to electrons, protons & neutrons). They interact with 'normal matter' so infrequently that according to the Ask an Astronomer segment on the Jodcast astrophysics podcast to experience a flash of light from one interacting with your retina, you'd need to be sitting underground for about 5,000 years!
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I said that there were some nice features, and I hope this doesn't disappoint
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I hope you've enjoyed the photos and I'll leave you with one more....
Cheers!
