Capels and detaching hook

An exhibit of capels (the cone-shaped shackle-like objects) at Pleasley Colliery mining museum. The tall object to the rear is a cage capel used for attaching the winding rope to the chains linking to the top of the cage. Below the capel is a detaching hook mechanism which was designed to detach the winding rope from the cage in the event of an over-wind. This prevented the cage being drawn up through the top of the shaft and into the pulleys. A cage arrestor device (not shown here) then caught the detached cage and prevented it falling back down the shaft.

The capel was attached to the steel winding rope by splaying out the various strands of the rope into the interior of the capel cone and filling up the space with molten white metal - an alloy of lead, antimony and tin.

Pleasley Colliery is situated just inside the Derbyshire border, about 5.5 km from the centre of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. It is now a mining museum which is steadily being developed.

www.pleasleypittrust.org.uk