Intake Dale Mine
Discussions following on from the Bradwell Catchment Symposium and after reading reports from the 80's of natural rift and chambers, EPC members have re-descended Intake Dale Mine and embarked on exploring it further.
Blogs:
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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Just Rob and I tonight with the mine being left "WIDE OPEN" from last weeks efforts. It's safe to say we were buzzing with excitement enjoying some rather stubby pre-beers whilst sat in my car. We decided to take the drill and a bag of lovely 11mm rope saving surveying and photography for when we have a few more TA members present.
Rob bombed down first and I followed with the bag full of rope which proved to be a right bastard all the way through, IDM being somewhat an assault course on rope. It wasn't long before I was ascending The Engine Shaft to the eye-hole where Rob and Dave had pushed beyond last week. Rob had scurried on leaving me to guess my way down the loose climbs and ledges, after a bit of faffing I found Rob's voice, he was placing a bolt somewhere underneath me, shouting at me to keep off the floor. After a brief exchange I realised we were only separated by a foot of loosely stacked deads hence his eagerness for me to stop moving. I did as I was told and climbed over the top and back underneath to meet him at the pitch head. He then took the rope from me and abseiled down in to The Tap Room.
I was knocked back by the dimensions of this place! A large bedding chamber with a central stacked funnel heading down to the rift below. The pictures from last week did not do this place any justice! There seemed to be leads at every corner but nothing wide open like the abyss below. Whilst Rob was bolting the pitch head I made a quick inspection of the chamber to try and find more evidence of T'owd Man but other than a few soot marks on the roof from candles I couldn't find anything, very strange as such a big space would've made a convenient workshop/break area.
Rob was ready to descend, about 5m below at the base of the stacking the rift shot off proper to the west and out of sight with loads of stemples, it looked tight and awkward so we decided to drop straight down where we'd been chucking rocks. It sounded good but looked terrible! All the water dripping in the tap room seemed to accumulate and cover the walls where we were about to descend - bugger it! Rob went down quickly leaving a short deviation gaining entry to the shaft proper. He was gone. I shouted down to him and after a couple of seconds he shouted up for me to come and join him, saying the abseil was pretty shit but there was a further pitch to descend.
Rob rigging down from the Tap Room (JRP)
I dropped down the funnel of deads and started a slower more detailed abseil of the shaft. As soon as I got below the deviation I was thoroughly soaked! I descended as quick as I could to a jammed boulder and realised I needed to drop west a further 5m to gain the floor. On closer inspection the rope was now resting against a large area of stacking which I was not happy about. I jumped off the rope and down-climbed the rest and made a mental note to avoid this on the way back up.
Rob was now bolting a further pitch to a larger level below us, similar in dimensions to the bottom of The Engine Shaft. The pitch was only about 6m and to the West headed for about 10m in water to a collapse. We followed the level East to hole in the floor which ended up in a void of boulders, presumably the other side of our natural West Choke. In the floor of the chamber the water drained down a small hole to pooled water a metre below us. Above this we collapsed a small stacked wall to reach a further void above with more evidence of miners tampering with the large natural choke with socket marks in the walls and rotten stemples on the floor. This all draughted strongly towards us. To the South a small rift natural rift headed off but too small to enter at this height.
We de-rigged this section thinking we might need the rope further on. At the top of this short pitch we bridged across to the westward continuation which was an upward slope in the large worked out rift. At the top of the slope the rift above widened massively and started to feel a bit more natural than the previous section, and with a huge draught heading up the slope to the west. Above us now was a humongous stemple ladderway which stretched out 20+ stemples high and out of sight! The slope beyond started to head down-hill but tightened dramatically. On first inspections it looked mega tight but after a quick dig and the removal of a small pokey out stemple Rob was through and gingerly bridged forward as on the other side of the squeeze the floor dropped 4m to the boulder floor with a small wet continuation heading back East but not inspected on this trip.
I followed through - literally and joined Rob on the far side, up and down another slope we hit a small clean washed shaft in the floor. Rob said I could take the lead and I made no hesitation in jumping down the shaft. As soon as my toes were on the floor I knew we'd hit big! To the West the level stretched off at walking height with stone stemples lining the roof. To the East Same again but obviously not as exciting as the way forward is West. I shouted up to Rob telling him we'd done good! He joined me in seconds and we inspected the Eastward extension which was in knee height water to a collapse (see photo). We then proceeded West through the large passage slowly inspecting the walls for more hidden gems left from T'owd Man. We soon reached a climber heading off above us followed quickly by a blocked natural cavity to the North with a possible draught but hard to tell. This was then followed by a further collapse which we could climb over. At the base of the collapse was and is the only Miner's ladder I've ever come across in Derbyshire, remnants of a wooden ladder with metal through the rung steps. We gingerly climbed over this and at the top of the slope the roof stretched out above where we caught a view back East and up West although the West Didn’t look too appealing!
Back at floor level looked the most appealing lead. A way on dropped down, deeper than floor level and was covered in mud. This looked the source of our flooding and the potential natural continuation! This was short lived as after a short crawl it ended at a large collapse more man made than natural - bugger! We decided to do a possible first "round trip" up and over back East and start on our way out. A short thrutch in the rift got us to the top of the climber we were looking up into from below. Westward continued above the blockage below but looked tight and awkward and would be a lead for next time and maybe tackled from higher above. We continued back East up and over false floors and dropped back in to Westward side of the tight squeeze. We negotiated the squeeze with ease and once back at the bottom of the rope decided to de-rig so we could traverse across over the top of all this next week.
Now was the fun part, the wet shaft...
Rob headed up first which meant I had the job of carrying the drill and making sure the rope wouldn't tangle when we pulled it up from the top. Rob shouted down that it was as shit as it looked and he also didn't realise how bad the rope rubbed on the stacking when he descended earlier in the evening. Once the rope was free I wrapped the drill up as well as I could in the tackle bag and freed the rope so it would pull up smoothly. I had to free-climb the lower half of the shaft to avoid the dodgy stacking and with large perched rocks on the opposite side I really didn't give two fucks about about anything as I started to get waterboarded from above. I climbed the rope like a demon stopping at the occasional breathers out of the water. Here I would look above to decide my next moves.
I made it to the top and although thoroughly soaked was quite warm from the efforts. We left most of the gear in The Tap Room ready for next weeks pushing at the higher level and started to make our way to surface. As soon as we got East of the Black Jack Choke we could feel the cold fresh air from surface. By the time I'd reached the entrance pitch I was freezing my knackers off and ran all the way up the dale back to the car.
Rob was already changed and declared it was 11pm and we might make the pub so I told him to go and we had a plan B of drinking post beers in the car park if it was closed. Getting even colder than before I eventually got my sorry, cold self back to The Anchor where we supped some lovely cold beer whilst sat next to the radiator. After an extraordinary evening down IDM we even lucked out at the pub as they were once again cleaning the pipes!
Great trip and another memorable evening!
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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Well last night was a trip to remember, at least for me and Dave!
After our pre-beers we again split into two groups, one poking the natural choke at the bottom heading back east towards Brexit Rift, and the other inspecting a lead heading west off the engine shaft about 20m from the top. The choke didn't do much, but I think Jon is keen to have another furtle there sometime. Or at least he was until we told him how we’d gotten on!
So the best lead left in IDM is the natural choke heading west at the bottom, because it takes the draught and is heading into blank space. However it’s a big undertaking and the general consensus was that this would only be attacked if/when the engine shaft could be opened and so provide a much easier and safer route in whilst carrying scaf. There was however one lead to the west that we’d seen whilst bolting up the engine shaft which had the potential to bypass the (significantly lower) choke, but because we’d never really noticed much of a draught up there I wasn’t convinced. Today was therefore more of a box ticking exercise as I just expected to find some narrow worked out rifts.
Looking across the Engine Shaft to the awesome ginged wall
However as soon as I'd bolted across to the opening I felt a strong draught going in and knew we were onto something. Dave came up to join me and we set off exploring. Following the rift it soon opened up slightly and after a bit a gardening we could progress quite easily along at this level. There are ways up and down and the whole place echoes well. For some reason at the narrowest bit I decided to put in a bolt and abseil down to inspect a lower section. Here large waves of calcite flow over the walls and rotting stemples, giving a strong contrast to the loose and dull rifts from before.
Soon we got to a bit with a solid roof (for once!) and we continued on in comfort until the way on west got too tight. An obscure way on was found in the floor back under the hanging floor where we’d just come from and instantly any comfort was quickly lost again. The draught was whistling down this route and Dave suggested I go first as it did look proper dodgy. Instead of doing any gardening I decided simply not to touch anything and it fortunately worked well. I was now working my way down a vertical rift and I could see a boulder floor about 6m below. As I got further down I realised that the walls belled out above the floor and really quite drastically! Judging the exact distance was very tricky from this perspective and I was worried I might not be able to get back up into this rift from below. However it looked really good beyond so I apologised to Dave for the potential consequences and jumped down. Thankfully it was only about 2m so I knew we’d be ok getting back up and I shouted for Dave to join me.
The Tap Room is a fully natural bedding chamber about 10m by 5m, and 2m high. Small stal stumps line the roof and there’s even a small nest of cave pearls on the floor.It has a very Bagshawe feel about it. We were buzzing! To the south a bedding passage heads off but soon fills to the roof with sediment. A dribble of water flows away down here and it definitely warrants another inspection. To the north a small passage heads off which looks like the miners have dug it open a bit. We didn’t have a proper look along here. Back in the Tap Room the main way on is to the west. A nicely ginged hole in the floor leads down into a large rift at least 20m deep and with a huge echo. The draught going down here is strong and beyond is a definite sound of water; maybe just an accumulation of a lot of drips, but it’s hard to say.
Dave Harley in the Tap Room
Dave looking down to the big way on
As we were really missing Jon and Luke who’d put in so much effort to this project we decided to turn around. Although to be fair had we any rope and bolts it’s unlikely we would have been this altruistic! Dave built a rock cairn to allow us to climb out of the Tap Room and we surveyed our way back to the engine shaft, bouncing off the walls as we went.
Luckily the others had got to the pub in time so we recounted our tales to them. Even more luckily the pub was cleaning the pipes through so kept bringing us an assortment of free beers! This extension now puts the survey of Intake Dale Mine at over 500m long and it’s definitely showing all the signs that it’ll keep growing…
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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All systems go on tonights trip featuring a full roster of Team Awesome; Rob, Luke, Jeff & Myself. We got the band back together for one night only.
After a quick pre-beer in the car we agreed on the trip, Rob and Luke were to finish the bolt climb up the Engine Shaft whilst Jeff and I were to head down into the Hobgoblins Hideaway to cap our way down into the enticing looking void below. Jeff and I went underground first whilst Rob and Luke checked out the Rake on surface with enough fresh snow covering to check for blow holes (nothing to report). We had to make sure we wouldn't kill each other whilst we ascended the Engine Shaft after our trip down below whilst Rob and Luke minced about upstairs some 50m above us. Anything that would be dislodged would most definitely end up at the bottom of the shaft almost certainly killing us below!
We made our way to The Hobgoblins Hideaway without mishap picking up the crowbar and lump hammer en-route. Once Jeff had caught up with his bag of tricks I made quick progress in removing some stacked deads on the floor giving us a bit more room to literally swing a hammer. Jeff took over from this point and started drilling some short holes so we could remove some on the east wall to enable us enough room to fit through. After a few very loud bangs with zero ear protection Jeff felt he had moved enough rock for it to be human sized. After passing me the gear back out from the constricted space We tied the rope on and Jeff slowly made his way below into the deepest known point of the mine. It seemed very un-nerving as Jeff "ummmed & Arrrrred" is way down through the constricted body sized hole. He came back out and decided to put his descender on his short cows-tail giving him just enough room to get comfortably through.
Jeff above the constriction in the Hobgoblins Hideaway (JRP)
Once down, the "ummmming & Arrrring" continued as the air was quite sour, still filled with fumes it looked pretty much like a white out down there! Jeff continued to inspect the area progressing east to a void above in deads but no way forward. West headed back in a pool of water to a very low level continuation with only 10cm of airspace. On closer inspection whilst trying to avoid taking a plunge this also seemed to reach a collapse after a few metres. Maybe worth another inspection in summer when the water levels are lower.
After Jeff had finally removed himself from the depths of the Hobgoblins Hideaway we retraced our steps back to the bottom of the Engine Shaft. It was getting late and we were close to not making the pub. I quickly ascended to a point where I made contact with Rob and Luke above, It's safe to say this made me ascend a lot quicker than I'd planned!. Once at the Y-hang and in a safe position to chill I sat and waited for everyone else to join me.
Rob and Luke had climbed within 5m from the top of then Engine Shaft but with not much point in reaching the top just surveyed up to it and headed back down, surveying en-route. This leaves the 2 Westward high level leads still to look at and the bottom east choke which'll make for one more trip until we gain proper access to attack the Natural West Choke.
& we managed to make the pub - Bonza!
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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Only Rob and I on tonight's adventure and with a later start of 7:15pm and after a quick pre-beer of the IPA variety we were underground for 7:45pm. Tonight's plan was to climb the engine shaft beyond the Black Jack Choke. Estimated to be approximately 70m deep from surface we pop in around the -45m level leaving this much to climb up, possibly straight to surface.
We didn't waste time and Rob got himself as high as our rope would take us on this evening a little under an hour with lots of faff and knocking down lots of loose rocks on his poor belayer below (Me). The Engine Shaft opens up to the west leaving two possible ways on but not as enticing as the natural westward boulder choke below. To the East is tightly packed ginging with a blocked natural looking passage but surely heads straight into known workings.
After placing a Y-hang at the highest point and nearly dropping the rope down the shaft whilst clipped into the bolts we started to descend with anticipation of making the pub for a swift 'un. We can see up a further 10m to what looks like timber and possibly sheet metal which might be the start of the blockage to surface - only time will tell. We estimate to be about 18-20m below surface.
Rob Climbing up the Engine Shaft (JP)
Next week we shall continue progress with this and hope not to kill one another...
Or drop the rope...
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- Written by: Rob Eavis
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Intake Dale Mine – 12th Feb 2020
JonP, JeffW, RobE
Hobgoblin is surely the best prebeer
With the scene set last week, we knew we had to hit it hard this trip. Tooled up to the max we sunk our prebeers and chased Jon down the cave. On my way through Blackjack Choke I installed the last scaf clip and then went down to sort a bit of rigging. Jon then lead Jeff through for his first time and we rendezvoused at the bottom of the engine shaft. After a passive aggressive discussion about how much gear to take on we fully dekitted and went pushing. Whilst award winning Jeff took some photos of my face Jon freeclimbed up 12m above the cartgate to where the rift enlarged in all directions. After a furtle about he came back bouncing about open leads and draughting digs. We finished up and surveyed up to him.
Indeed the rift here is impressive. At places nearly 1m wide and 15m high, most impressive of all was how natural the wall seem. Either it’s was a naturally open rift passage (unlikely) or the mineral was so easy to extract that T’Owd Man didn’t need to use tools. At the far western end a small climb down lead into a very natural looking boulder choke, similar to Blackjack. At furthest reaches a few small gaps between big, calcite rimmed blocks reveal some enticing black spaces which take a steady draught and will need a better study another time. Back at the climb it was Jon’s turn to pose for Jeff whilst I climbed up the rift to check for leads in the roof.
Enjoying finding another natural boulder choke that we'll have to dig someday
The roof is made from an undulating bedding plane which can be followed east all the way to the engine shaft and beyond. To the west a tightly ginged wall rises up above the bedding, holding back a solid mud collapse. Another shaft reaches up even further but this also ends in a muddy choke. I slide back down to reach the guys and we have an important discussion about pub or postbeers in the car. We were all keen to keep pushing and Jon liked the price of Jeff’s postbeers so we kept hitting it.
We rendezvoused again at the bottom of the engine shaft and this time headed east into the Goblin’s Lair. Only briefly perused previously by Jon, this loppy section heads back towards Blackjack Choke and the old cave with the closest section being Brexit Rift. Surveying our way in, Jon on point spotted another “JF” inscription on the walls before climbing up over a loose wall and around the top of a dodgy looking collapsed shaft. Here he started getting a little excited. By a thick stemple seemingly holding up the roof a clear view ahead shows how the vein has been bent 90° from vertical to horizontal, this now the 4th known example of this happening in this mine. A small ramp to the north meets the vertical vein again but it closes down quickly. Heading further east the passage is quite large and slopes steeply down to soon reach another natural choke. Here again a small gap can be seen through boulders to a continuation and a good draft in our faces keeps us interested, but this is surely very close to the old known cave. Just before the choke Jon slid down a small hole in the floor to a tight restriction down through which a large void can be seen! No noticeable draught here but a good echo and now deeper than anywhere else in this system puts this high on the agenda to push soon.
We start making our way out, but before we can award winning Jeff takes a few quick snaps looking down the engine shaft. Jon will agree this was a very quick process and we were all out of the cave before old age took us. Enjoying the postbeers over midnight was extremely welcome and we all went home thinking of what else lay down there to explore next.
Looking down the engine. Worth the wait Jon? - Photo by Jeff Wade