Report posted in Deeper underground to avoid future access problems to Cwmorthin... This report is based on two visits with Walsh, Ojay, Ninja boy, Xan Asmodi and Deviant one in the pouring rain and one in Glorious sunshine but both visits were Big fun.
some History
Oakeley is reputed to be the largest underground slate mine in the world, and it’s not hard to believe. The daddy of the Blaenau mines has a long and complex history, originally starting out as a number of smaller mines eventually merging into one enormous complex. It’s not called Oakeley today. It’s known as Ffestiniog Quarry and owned by McApline, who are presently untopping it on a massive scale and as a result most of the original underground mine has been destroyed. Much of what’s not been destroyed by the untopping is now either collapsed, under water, or cut off from access. Despite this, there is still enough left to get completely lost in for days.
Not so long ago Oakeley opened a small section up for tourists, known as Glodfa Ganol. It closed down in (I believe) the late 1980’s and has lain disused ever since. This tourist section plus other workings around it can still be visited to this day by mine explorers, though it is strongly not recommended due to the constant quarrying explosions above causing continuous roof-falls. They are not safe workings to explore.
I took some video which is a bit of a montage from both trips, also some good footage of Deviants Carbide lamp
http://youtu.be/QLZlvnc4dHc
firstly the staircase that we passed in Cwmorthin on our way to the show mine..me,Xan, Deviant and Walsh at the top of the stairs
Inside the show mine, the fences surround a chamber
A cart set up for the tourist
some large supports holding up the roof above the passage
In the mine there were lots of dummies in various states of disemblement that were used in the displays, this one had been squashed by a collapse, the outer part of the mine really was a death trap.
Over here!
this one was otherwise engaged
Outside the mine entrance, this is were the tourists would come in, the processing plant is in the distance
Even weirder...the pain of creation, these things had really suffered
Newspaper dated 1932
le fag packet
Lit with deviants carbide lantern
El grupo shot Ojay, me, walsh and Ninjaboy.
Thanks for looking