# Coniston, Cumbria, July 2009



## Evilgenius (Jul 19, 2009)

I was lucky enough to be invited to a wedding in Cumbria so I grabbed the chance to get a few extra days up there to fit in a bit of a explore of Coniston and the old copper, lead and slate mines.

The landscape was amazing and with mountains in excess of 800 meters above sea level the hike was challenging but well worth the effort.



The history bit:

_The mining of copper in the Coniston complex started towards the end of the 16th century, and German miners Carried out the earliest ‘large scale’ mining activities. 
In the early 17th century coffin levels were driven to provide access and drainage to the bottom of the 
Workings. These early levels would have been driven by hand, using metal tools and wedges. Fire would also be employed to heat the rock, which would then fracture after rapid cooling with water. 
The next major period of development started in the late 1750’s with the formation of the Macclesfield Copper Company by the industrialist Charles Roe. Work continued on the veins that the German’s had left behind and the workings were deepened to over 110m. 

The Coniston fells were mined for Copper in the middle of the 19th century. The veins of copper hidden 
thousands of feet below the fells surfaces contained a copper ore by the name of Chalcopyrite, a mix of 
Copper, Iron and Sulphate. As the veins were so deep down the miners worked extremely hard in horrendous conditions, often using huge unstable wooden ladders to reach there workplaces. Getting the ore from those huge heights up to the tramways was one hell of a task. 

By the mid 19th century the Coniston mines were reaching their peak period, and some of the deepest workings were approaching 270m.The mines went into decline in the late 19th century and were then abandoned. The tough machinery and buildings lie in derelict today but are an amazing feature of this landscape and hold a thousand stories and gave birth to a beautiful village and gave hundreds of men and there families a living, Coniston owes its existence to the copper mines._


We done about a 7 mile hike in toll, it does not sound much but when climbing its a different story, here are a few of the things that we found along the way. 

Entrance to one of the many mines dotted around











Not the safest of places to be!






A slope shaft that went down 45 degrees as far as the torch would go.






Looking further down the mine, I was going to venture on but faulse floors and rotted wood so maybe not!










Looking up, note the not so safe ladder from long ago.






Looking back out of the mine








After the mine we pressed on to find more relics of the old workings

The main engine room building 































The explore got cut short due to bad weather moving in very fast, I dont mind getting a little lost or quite lost but not hideously lost half way up a mountain!

Maybe again next year.


Thanks for looking

Daz


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## Urban Mole (Jul 19, 2009)

Nice pictures matey, good to see.
Pity there isnt anything local to me like this 



Dazaf said:


>



This pic shows how old it all is, nothings British now, not even the residents


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## clebby (Jul 19, 2009)

Urban Mole said:


> This pic shows how old it all is, nothings British now, not even the residents



Ok, that's enough of that. Keep your opinions to yourself.


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## Evilgenius (Jul 19, 2009)

```
Nice pictures matey, good to see.
Pity there isnt anything local to me like this
```

Well made the most of my time there, had to after a 6 hour drive from the south!


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## BigLoada (Jul 19, 2009)

Its a great mine with some incredible stopes. You got some cool pics there man, nice one. Did you do any of the traverses or was it on the one level where you went?


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## Evilgenius (Jul 19, 2009)

Thanks, first time light painting in one or two shots, still not great though. 

I only stuck to the one level as there was one wet slope shaft, the dodgy fausle floor way, up that ladder of death or crawl through a nasty fell! Your choice! Didnt have the kit either.

Theres plenty more about the area but didnt have time mate. Maybe again next year.


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## Mole Man (Jul 20, 2009)

Very nice pictures there Dazaf, must get there for a look some time as I do get up to the lakes now and again.
Thanks for the post.


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## crickleymal (Jul 20, 2009)

Some nice shots there. I'll be up that way myself in a week so I must keep my eyes peeled.


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## klempner69 (Jul 20, 2009)

Great shots there Daz.....and Clebby,he is entitled to his opinions as are you ok.


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## Floyd (Jul 21, 2009)

Nice photo's Daz, yeah your right nothing is made here anymore.


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## Sabtr (Jul 21, 2009)

For some reason this has only presented itself to me now. 

Anyhoos, this looks like great place to visit (well for me anyway!). Indeed it is on my to-do list.
The old machinery is great. Notice how old (proper) metal simply rusts a little and stays that way. Nowadays the rubbish they make stuff out of basically self destructs without even seeing water...

I can't blame you for only going in so far - those false floors are bad. It is interesting to see how different this mine is to the ones I frequent.

Thanks for posting.


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## Evilgenius (Jul 21, 2009)

Thanks again for all the comments people.

If you head up towards the youth hostel then follow the path its up that way, wish i had more time up there as looking at the os maps there are quite a few mines i missed but just didnt have the time for them all, if anyone does make a trip please post pics!


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