Mines, mining and quarrying

This is a view of Maltby colliery in South Yorkshire in 1981. The two existing shafts are visible in the background, with a drilling rig situated on the site of the newly approved No.3 shaft to be sunk to the Parkgate seam at a depth of over 900 metres. A fully cored borehole was drilled in order to provide information about the ground conditions (rock strength, fracturing, water flows, etc) prior to letting the contract and commencement of shaft sinking. Today (in 2008), this view would be obscured by the massive No.3 Shaft winding tower, visible for miles around. At the start of 2008, Maltby Colliery is one of the few operational deep mines still remaining in the UK. It is owned and operated by the Hargreaves Group. 2020 update: It's all gone now, of course :-(

The southern end of Stanage Edge, the longest of the Eastern Edges, in the Peak District National Park, Derbyshire. Stanage Edge is comprised of Rivelin Grit (aka Chatsworth Grit), Namurian age, Upper Carboniferous. The coarse-grained gritstone was deposited in a series of delta distributary channels. The gritstone is normally strongly cross-bedded, and intraformational erosion surfaces are common. The Edge has been worked for millstones in several places and examples such as these can be found in many places, lying where they were abandoned when the demand for imported French stones rose in the latter part of the 19th century.

The southern end of Stanage Edge, the longest of the Eastern Edges, in the Peak District National Park, Derbyshire. Stanage Edge is comprised of Rivelin Grit (aka Chatsworth Grit), Namurian age, Upper Carboniferous. The coarse-grained gritstone was deposited in a series of delta distributary channels. The gritstone is normally strongly cross-bedded, and intraformational erosion surfaces are common. The Edge has been worked for millstones in several places and examples such as these can be found in many places, lying where they were abandoned when the demand for imported French stones rose in the latter part of the 19th century.

The southern end of Stanage Edge, the longest of the Eastern Edges, in the Peak District National Park, Derbyshire. Stanage Edge is comprised of Rivelin Grit (aka Chatsworth Grit), Namurian age, Upper Carboniferous. The coarse-grained gritstone was deposited in a series of delta distributary channels. The gritstone is normally strongly cross-bedded, and intraformational erosion surfaces are common. The Edge has been worked for millstones in several places and examples such as these can be found in many places, lying where they were abandoned when the demand for imported French stones rose in the latter part of the 19th century.

Sunset on this late autumn day, over Sir William Hill with its radio mast, and, a little way to the left on the skyline, the chimney at the Ladywash Mine (lead, fluorite) is also visible. This is in the Peak District National Park - the skyline is in Derbyshire, the camera location was in South Yorkshire. Taken from the Mother Cap Stone near Millstone Edge.

Originally uploaded for the GWUK group. This is on Mynydd y Gwair - an extensive moorland commons between Swansea and Ammanford in the South Wales coalfield. The camera location is on Mynydd Garn Fach and is looking north-westerly. The photo shows a Foraky rotary drilling rig on a borehole known as 'Ceunant Borehole' (named after nearby Ceunant Farm just out of view to the left). This was drilled to prove the Red Vein coal seam in October-November 1982 as part of a series of boreholes to prove additional coal reserves for Betws Mine, about 5 km to the north, near Ammanford.

This is the Hope Valley in the Peak District basking in the evening sunshine, viewed from near Great Tor on Bamford Edge. Abney Moor and Shatton are on the left, with the deep cleft of Overdale in shadow. Bradwell village is in the broad valley just right of centre. On the extreme right is the Earle's Quarry at t' back o' Pindale, which supplies limestone for the Hope Lafarge cement works (mercifully just out of shot).

The leading edge of a band of thundery showers approaches Brown Edge Quarry near Ringinglow, Sheffield, coming up from the south. Five minutes later the storm was upon us, with very heavy rain and several claps of thunder.

View east over Sheffield. The leading edge of a band of thundery showers approaches Brown Edge Quarry near Ringinglow, coming up from the south. Five minutes later the storm was upon us, with very heavy rain and several claps of thunder.

By 1993, the reworking of Dirtlow Rake for fluorite and barytes had just about reached its maximum depth. This photo shows the vein itself exposed in the SW part of the quarry, probably close to the former Hollandtwine lead mine. My wife standing in the bottom of the excavation indicates the scale (see note). Of note are the horizontal slickensides ('scratch marks') on the side of the vein. This is at the boundary with the host rock and vein and provides good evidence of relative horizontal movement; and demonstrates that this vein at least was emplaced along a fault line which had mostly horizontal displacement - a strike-slip or wrench fault, a bit like a miniature San Andreas fault. In all probability, most of the WSW-ENE trending mineral veins in this part of the Peak District have a similar origin. Taken with a Zenit E camera; scanned from a Kodacolor print.

This photo shows part of the modern open quarrying for fluorite and barytes along the line of Dirtlow Rake near Castleton, on the site of the former Hollandtwine Mine. This is a rather special place. On the far north-west wall, the quarrying has cut a perfect cross section through a cave system. There are vertical vein cavities with horizontal fluting. These lead down to a meandering horizontal passage about 20 m below the original ground level. This passage must have been a phreatic tube at one time - entirely below the water table. The scalloping seen in the supplementary photos is a typical solution feature seen in these sort of tubes. Finally, there is a lot of fine yellow-ochrous loose sediment infilling some of the swallets and partially choking up the phreatic tube. I think this is a loess deposit - a fine wind-blown dust originating from rock 'flour' ground up by ice-age glaciers. In the last glacial period (the Devensian) the Peak District was largely free of ice, although it was under cold, permafrost conditions. Strong winds around the periphery of the ice sheets blew all the dust around which accumulated in pre-existing hollows and fissures on the formerly glaciated surface. So, this quarry has enabled us to see karst (solution) and periglacial features that would normally only be accesible to cavers. I would hope that some of this quarry face would be preserved, but my understanding is that the whole lot will be backfilled and grassed over, so we will end up with a tidy, bland, green grassy area which tells us nothing at all. :-( But I suppose it will keep the planning authorites happy.

This photo shows part of the modern open quarrying for fluorite and barytes along the line of Dirtlow Rake near Castleton, on the site of the former Hollandtwine Mine. This is a rather special place. On the far north-west wall, the quarrying has cut a perfect cross section through a cave system. There are vertical vein cavities with horizontal fluting. These lead down to a meandering horizontal passage about 20 m below the original ground level. This passage must have been a phreatic tube at one time - entirely below the water table. The scalloping seen in the supplementary photos is a typical solution feature seen in these sort of tubes. Finally, there is a lot of fine yellow-ochrous loose sediment infilling some of the swallets and partially choking up the phreatic tube. I think this is a loess deposit - a fine wind-blown dust originating from rock 'flour' ground up by ice-age glaciers. In the last glacial period (the Devensian) the Peak District was largely free of ice, although it was under cold, permafrost conditions. Strong winds around the periphery of the ice sheets blew all the dust around which accumulated in pre-existing hollows and fissures on the formerly glaciated surface. So, this quarry has enabled us to see karst (solution) and periglacial features that would normally only be accesible to cavers. I would hope that some of this quarry face would be preserved, but my understanding is that the whole lot will be backfilled and grassed over, so we will end up with a tidy, bland, green grassy area which tells us nothing at all. :-( But I suppose it will keep the planning authorites happy.

This photo shows part of the modern open quarrying for fluorite and barytes along the line of Dirtlow Rake near Castleton, on the site of the former Hollandtwine Mine. This is a rather special place. On the far north-west wall, the quarrying has cut a perfect cross section through a cave system. There are vein cavities with horizontal fluting. These lead down to a meandering horizontal passage about 20 m below the original ground level. This passage must have been a phreatic tube at one time - entirely below the water table. The scalloping seen in this photo is a typical solution feature seen in these sort of tubes. Finally, there is a lot of fine yellow-ochrous loose sediment infilling some of the swallets and partially choking up the phreatic tube. This infill can be seen in the lower part of the photo. I think this is a loess deposit - a fine wind-blown dust originating from rock 'flour' ground up by ice-age glaciers. In the last glacial period (the Devensian) the Peak District was largely free of ice, although it was under cold, permafrost conditions. Strong winds around the periphery of the ice sheets blew all the dust around which accumulated in pre-existing hollows and fissures on the formerly glaciated surface. So, this quarry has enabled us to see karst (solution) and periglacial features that would normally only be accesible to cavers. I would hope that some of this quarry face would be preserved, but my understanding is that the whole lot will be backfilled and grassed over, so we will end up with a tidy, bland, green grassy area which tells us nothing at all. :-( But I suppose it will keep the planning authorites happy.

This photo shows part of the modern open quarrying for fluorite and barytes along the line of Dirtlow Rake near Castleton, on the site of the former Hollandtwine Mine. This is a rather special place. On the far north-west wall, the quarrying has cut a perfect cross section through a cave system. There are vertical vein cavities with horizontal fluting. The photo shows a portion of one of these. The vein cavities are associated with a meandering horizontal passage about 20 m below the original ground level. This passage must have been a phreatic tube at one time - entirely below the water table. The scalloping seen in the supplementary photos is a typical solution feature seen in these sort of tubes. This quarry has enabled us to see karst (solution) and periglacial features that would normally only be accesible to cavers. I would hope that some of this quarry face would be preserved, but my understanding is that the whole lot will be backfilled and grassed over, so we will end up with a tidy, bland, green grassy area which tells us nothing at all. :-( But I suppose it will keep the planning authorites happy.

This photo shows part of the modern open quarrying for fluorite and barytes along the line of Dirtlow Rake near Castleton, on the site of the former Hollandtwine Mine. This is a rather special place. On the far north-west wall, the quarrying has cut a perfect cross section through a cave system. There are vertical vein cavities with horizontal fluting. These lead down to a meandering horizontal passage about 20 m below the original ground level. This passage must have been a phreatic tube at one time - entirely below the water table. The scalloping seen in the supplementary photos is a typical solution feature seen in these sort of tubes. Finally, there is a lot of fine yellow-ochrous loose sediment infilling some of the swallets and partially choking up the phreatic tube. I think this is a loess deposit - a fine wind-blown dust originating from rock 'flour' ground up by ice-age glaciers. In the last glacial period (the Devensian) the Peak District was largely free of ice, although it was under cold, permafrost conditions. Strong winds around the periphery of the ice sheets blew all the dust around which accumulated in pre-existing hollows and fissures on the formerly glaciated surface. So, this quarry has enabled us to see karst (solution) and periglacial features that would normally only be accesible to cavers. I would hope that some of this quarry face would be preserved, but my understanding is that the whole lot will be backfilled and grassed over, so we will end up with a tidy, bland, green grassy area which tells us nothing at all. :-( But I suppose it will keep the planning authorites happy. Best viewed large....

High above the western side of Sheffield, near Ringinglow, and just inside the Peak District National Park, is an extensive area of abandoned quarries where the Rough Rock (an extensive and persistant sandstone at the top of the 'Millstone Grit') was formerly worked, possibly for roofing flags. On this particular sunny day, I was struck by the patterns of light and dark made by the bright green bilberry and dark brown/green heather which have grown prolifically over the heaps of sandstone debris. The Ox Stones are just visible on the skyline. Best viewed large.

Scanned from Kodachrome 64 transparency film. Taken with a Zenit 'E' camera in March 1994. Uploaded for the Guesswhere UK Group. This is Ffos Las opencast site near Trimsaran in the Gwendraeth Valley, Carmarthenshire (Dyfed, as it was then) in 1994. The site was huge and very deep (nearly 200m at its maximum, I think), and was of considerable geological note for its exposure of a major Hercynian thrust system (the Llannon-Trimsaran Disturbance) which caused multiple thrusts, folds, repeated sequences and incompetent deformation structures in the relatively weak Coal Measures shale/coal/seatearth sequences. The same structural disturbances previously caused severe mining problems at deep mines nearby - notably Cynheidre, where I worked as a geologist. After Ffos Las finished production in 1997, it was restored and the site is now in the process of being developed as a major racecourse complex. The centre part of the photo shows folded and thrusted roof sandstones (mid-grey) overlying the Big Vein coal seam (appears very dark grey-black) and associated shales (dark grey).

This nice stone footbridge/packhorse bridge is over the Burbage Brook just to the east of Carl Wark in the Peak District National Park. We are still in South Yorkshire at this location, not Derbyshire. The quarries in the distance are on the southern extension of Burbage Edge, where there has been extensive extraction of the Chatsworth Grit (Namurian) for millstones - see elsewhere on my photostream. This is within the Sheffield city boundary.