Swan Mine - 28 Aug 2006

Monday August 28th 2006

Members present: Adrian Turner,  Gary Douthwaite,  Laz Abbott,  Matt Ewles

It was a superb mine. Walking through it was like taking a trip back in time, and it was very easy to imagine what it must have been like to work down there many years ago.

Many implements still intact though rusty, including a saw sharpening bench (eek!), the crane was immaculate though I fear it won't stay that way for much longer.

At each of the working faces, a small cubic indent in the ceiling had been carved, where the crane would have slotted in to haul out the spoils. The crane would have been moved from bit to bit by horse and cart. The cart tracks were prominent all through the mine, with sections where the wall had been scraped away due to the proximity to the cart. Some areas of horse hoofprints had been taped off. 70+ year old hoofprints in the clay!

Superb cave pearls had started to form on the floor, some of them surrounded by a pile of rocks to notify people not to stand on them, but many not (watch your step!). Water dripping from the roof has formed lots of small indents in the clay floor, and some of the best examples of cave (mine?)pearls (in their millions) were to be seen inside.

Many of the wooden props used to support a rather crumbly ceiling were rotten, or had fallen out, and those still in place I suspect were doing rather little. Loads of people must have been killed down there... some parts looked in immenent danger of collapse.

The walls were covered in etchings and sums, where the miners had used charcoal to add up weights or numbers of some sort. Very interesting!

Requires a return trip with a camera!