Production from Church Mine North, an adit driven into the hillside at the end of a quarry, known as Marsh's pit, began in 1923. The mine, along with others owned by the company, was laid out by a German engineer Hans Wolf . Headings were driven at an angle of 50 deg. to one another to give diamond-shaped pillars in order to increase the amount of stone that could be extracted over the usual 90 deg and square pillar method. The ironstone was hand-loaded into 2ft. 6in. gauge tubs and hauled by horses to a tipping dock near the adit where it was tipped at into 3ft. gauge railway wagons for transport to the nearby Islip furnaces. By 1933 the mine had been connected to Church mine (from then on known as Church Mine South) and the adits at North being used only for ventilation, all production leaving from the adits, about a mile away, at South.
In the mid 1930s diesel locomotives replaced horses on the main haulage runs with up to five being used in the mine and all built by Ruston & Hornsby Ltd. of Lincoln. In the 1940s up to eighty men were working in two shifts. The mine closed in 1947.
On with the pics...
Deep in the jungle
Aha!
Oil can?
Horse shoe
The remains of a mine tub?
Hobnail boot marks
Carbide lamp
At this point in this heading we turned around because the rock was flaking under pressure due to the walls being very thin here.
Brick walls were built to block off worked-out areas to divert airflow around the mine.
Iron oxide stalactites
The way out...
The vent shaft, which is 100ft. deep.
In the mid 1930s diesel locomotives replaced horses on the main haulage runs with up to five being used in the mine and all built by Ruston & Hornsby Ltd. of Lincoln. In the 1940s up to eighty men were working in two shifts. The mine closed in 1947.
On with the pics...
Deep in the jungle
Aha!
Oil can?
Horse shoe
The remains of a mine tub?
Hobnail boot marks
Carbide lamp
At this point in this heading we turned around because the rock was flaking under pressure due to the walls being very thin here.
Brick walls were built to block off worked-out areas to divert airflow around the mine.
Iron oxide stalactites
The way out...
The vent shaft, which is 100ft. deep.
