[Edus1]

Well after some plans for a digging weekend fell through me and the mrs decided a weekend of mine exploration was in order so we packed and set off ooop north.

Arrived friday night and got set up at the campsite ready for an early start on the Saturday.

Saturday morning saw us heading into Small Cleugh on the fun trip to Barons Sump. This is situated in a remote part of Longcleugh vein and involves some rather "interesting" Crawls

Bit of history -

Small Cleugh mine was begun in 1787 when the London Lead Company gained the lease for working the Smallcleugh Cross Vein. This was found to be an extreemly rich vein and in 1806 the 21 year lease was renewed. The longcleugh vein was an much earlier discovery, initially being leased from the Greenwich Hospital in 1737 and the veing was found to be 1650 feet of oreshoot. The level from the London Lead Companies workings was connected through to the cross vein allowing for easy transportation out of either the Smallcleugh portal of the Middlecleugh horse level. Teh most lucrative period was a lease held from 1819 - 1840 producing around 1400 Bings of ore (including both lead and zinc.

Much more history can be found in R.A. Fairbairn's - The Mines of Alston Moor (British Mining No. 47

Barons Sump is a huge block lined chamber and is extreemly impressive with a nice round block shaft in the middle. The chamber itself looks like it was the beginning of a hydraulic engine installation which never got completed and it may have something to do with the price drop in lead causing the London Lead Company to stop operations in 1882.

Any way on with the pics

On the way through to Barons Sump we came accross one of the largest flats i have ever seen.







We then moved on to the Sump itself











After a mooch about we then decided it was pub time so we headed out and got cleaned up.