Administered by:
I'm at Nenthead Mines, doing some repair to the river walls. In the centre of the photo you can see an area near Smallcleugh where the wall has fallen in to the river.
I might make a bit of a thread as I've got other, closer photos.
A big disappointment today was finding broken windows in a mine shop. Now, two volunteers are having to repair the windows instead of doing other vital work. #Volunteer #mining #NPennines
A closer view of the area to be repaired. It can be seen that a large amount of lead mine waste has been washed out by the river. Although the level is low, when it rains this can rise by several feet very quickly. This waste causes heavy metal pollution as far as the river Tyne.
Because the water is channeled between stone walls, the stream can be very powerful when in flood and can pull stones from the wall, causing collapse, as here. #Volunteer #mining #NPennines
You can see stones on edge and a lot of gravel and small stones that need to be removed. Ideally, down to bedrock to build on but not sure where bedrock is. I'll keep on digging.
I dug and levered out stones until I found a level but it's still gravel. I was getting cold with being in the water. I'll have to dig deeper another time to find a base to build on.
Several walkers went by and one man with a camera enquired after my health (sanity?) "are you OK down there?" I assured him I was. I later saw him taking photos of this deranged bloke standing in a river in Nenthead in February.
Looking down the river Nent from where I was working today. There are serious bulges in the walls and stones missing. Needs a major rebuild before collapse but there are other demands on my time and not enough volunteers.
Just visible are rotting timbers sticking out at water level. The river bed here was fully timber lined. This had dual purpose of sending maximum amount of water to washing floor further down and protecting mine levels very near to surface under here. #mining #NPennines
@Ivor it's been nippy on the other side of Killhope here in Cowshill. I don't envy you this job on a day like today! Keep up the good work, hope you have a thermos of something warm to keep you going.
If the lead mine is abandoned, why is it useful to keep the wall repaired? From your photos, the area looks to be unused by humans.
I would assume, in heavy rain events relieving the pressure downriver by letting the river run its course up here without walling it in would be beneficial to biodiversity and to humans.
@anlomedad good questions. A couple of reasons are: first, the entire site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM) and, as such, should be maintained at least in its present condition.
Second, this was a lead mine and the walls hold back large amounts of waste from entering the river. There is already a high level of heavy metal pollution in the water here, so very little lives in the water. There are planned mine water remediation schemes, so anything to stop more waste going in must help.
Very interesting. Thank you!