What to expect:
A full day exploration of two historic mining sites, plus optional visits to later workings at Cashwell Mine. To get there, we have an 8km walk with 400m of ascent along good tracks from Garrigill. Depending on time and how people feel, we can also look at the later Victorian workings
The two upper sites are dispersed, but include hushes, watercourses, knocking stones, washing floors, old dams, opencut ‘rake’ workings, capped shafts, levels, bouse teams and barrow ways. There are also plenty of carved boundary stones to be seen.
The newer sites include wheel pits, a smelt mill and waste heaps, old smithies, mine shop remains and, the surface shaft location of two hydraulic pumping engines, one of which is mentioned by WH Auden in his Watershed poem. He probably explored the underground workings here c 1920 as a twenty-year-old, just before the mine closure in 1922/3. He may have heard the ‘groaning pumps’ located 100m below the surface. For the geologists, there are fossil worm tracks, shells and plenty of purple fluorspar and other much rarer minerals to be seen.
Meet at Garrigill village, ready to start walking on Saturday* at 09:00, you need to be fully self-contained, with hill walking kit, waterproofs, food, snacks and drinks.
Dogs are welcome to join us but must be on leads as we are in a nature reserve.
*NB If the weather forecast looks foul for Saturday, we may need to postpone until another date, which could be the Sunday if things look better.