Groverake Mine - Rake Level

Well its been a long time since I did a reoport on here, so long I hardly know any memebers on here now! Did a trip to Groverake recently, that wonderful lead mine in Weardale, County Durham which was later mined for fluorspar by Blanchland Fluor Mines Ltd during the second world war and then by British Steel.

We explored the Rake level, an old level which was re-driven by British Steel to reach the upper levels of spar.

There is a fall about 15 feet in from the entrance whcih is just about squeezable if you aint a big lad. Then follows waist deep water for about 10 minutes walking before hitting the dry bits. Lots of great modern artefacts are to be seen including a lvely gantry where a hauler was situated for pulling tubs up the drift. There is also a 120 ft ladder down to lower workings but we didnt have the rope gear this day and withoput a lifeline and SRT kit it would have been stupid to try it.

Anyway, heres a few snaps. Its worth a trip as most folk know the surface features such as the wonderful headgear but the Rake level is pretty much ignored for some unknown reason. Cheers!








Classic old 1970s flask!!



Passing Loop for loco's:



Gantry for hauler pulling tubs up drift:



Looking towards gantry:






Hauler signals:



Loco crossing point



Good old "flexiduct" ventilation bagging:




Cheers for looking

Good shots fella

MD said:

Good shots fella

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Thanks mister. Not happy with them though. Not the best day for photography. Will return soon with the ropes gear to do the level below this one.

Nice I meant to ask you if on the road from slaley to stanhope there's an old mine as I'm sure I seen minish surface structures

Interesting looking Mine, nice pic's

Excellent pics my friend. We wanted to have a look in here when we visited last year, but had the little one with us, so said we'd go back another time. Seeing these pics now, I definitely want to go back.

Cheers matey.

Sal

ps, there's still loads of us oldies still here.

Fascinating to see what is down there, and great shots too, thanks.

Well done on that report. Never been in mine but the photo's make me feel dank and cold looking at them. Great photo's though.

What do you use for lighting? Wonderful photos.

Good stuff. It's good to see the site getting a proper explore

Krypton said:

Nice I meant to ask you if on the road from slaley to stanhope there's an old mine as I'm sure I seen minish surface structures

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Plenty around Blanchland, Townfield, etc. But I have a feeling you could be referring to THIS?

lost said:

What do you use for lighting? Wonderful photos.

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Oon this trip we only used two £10 Tesco LED torches and an Ultrafire (cheapo cree LED). Thanks for the nice words folks

Great stuff there mate very atmospheric photo's and you still wouldn't get me down there

Great to see you back m'dear. Love the mine and lovely pics. Cheers for posting.

Great pics. Inspiring me further to do a mine.

We (me and my Urbex mate) are over here quite often as blanchland (moor) has a couple of good green lanes that we follow in our 4x4s (our other hobby).

I've been to GR so many times it's become boring but the shots you've posted show an aspect that I've never seen before - my mate is up for exploring the adits but I don't do well with enclosed spaces (especially ones underground, and especially ones where the roof has the ability to collapse in and entomb you, honestly I don't know if I'll ever get into a mine to get shots like you've got.

The bit with the waist deep water / mud - is that down the entrance with the huge hydraulic ram thing for opening the gates? Or was it along the entrance that has the date engraved stone set into the wall behind the headstock? To my untrained eye the entrance that sloped downwards was blocked after a 90/100 feet by a collapse, which you can see the indentation in the land above it. There's also the questionable ladders going down into the shaft that's been sunk. to the east of the headstock (you know the one that's securely covered by that bit of rotton chipboard...)

Cool pics mate thanks for sharing those, my mate

the|td4 said:

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The bit with the waist deep water / mud - is that down the entrance with the huge hydraulic ram thing for opening the gates? Or was it along the entrance that has the date engraved stone set into the wall behind the headstock? To my untrained eye the entrance that sloped downwards was blocked after a 90/100 feet by a collapse, which you can see the indentation in the land above it. There's also the questionable ladders going down into the shaft that's been sunk. to the east of the headstock (you know the one that's securely covered by that bit of rotton chipboard...)

Cool pics mate thanks for sharing those, my mate

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Hi mate... this explore was via the old Rake Level which is the one with the datestone. The adit with the hydraulic gate is the more modern Firestone incline. That is flooded out but the lower levels can be reached via a ladderway in the Rake Level.

As for the shaft outside which is boarded that you mentioned, that only goes a hundred or so feet and is flooded.