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This was one of the first mines I explored many years ago. It was a great place to take beginners as until recently the polystyrene boulders still had most of their paint so looked very realistic, particularly as you were only expecting to see real rocks underground. You could with much effort and grunting pick one up then pass it to the unsuspecting person who didn't know about them with words like "just feel the weight of this". The mine was worked more recently than you might imagine and was probably the last in the dale.A lovely Gentle Giant of a man called Roger Ridgeway, who had been involved in the mines and quarries all his life doing everything from laboring through to being surveyor and chemist, took it over and decided to work it on his own. Much of what you saw in there was his handiwork. He was a real legend and impossibly strong. If you go in the Miners Arms in Eyam of an evening after lock down and ask about him they will tell you stories about his exploits all night. He was in there every night usually drinking several pints of Coke! There was (and probably still is) a big chest of lead ore which had not moved for years because of it's weight. When asked about it, a previous landlord who was shall we say not noted for his generosity, explained why it never moved and told the questioner that if anybody could lift it he would buy everybody in the pub a drink. Roger's ears pricked up, he shuffled to his feet, braced himself, hefted the chest of lead up, clumped across the room with it and banged it down on the bar causing the bar to collapse and everyone got a free drink. If you want to read about mining in Stoney dale there is a nice piece Roger wrote here Eyam Plague Village | Eyam Village in the Peak District | Mining. He was a real polymath, as well read and knowledgeable as he was strong. I miss the quiz nights in the Miners when Roger would correct the quiz master if he was wrong.
This was one of the first mines I explored many years ago. It was a great place to take beginners as until recently the polystyrene boulders still had most of their paint so looked very realistic, particularly as you were only expecting to see real rocks underground. You could with much effort and grunting pick one up then pass it to the unsuspecting person who didn't know about them with words like "just feel the weight of this". The mine was worked more recently than you might imagine and was probably the last in the dale.
A lovely Gentle Giant of a man called Roger Ridgeway, who had been involved in the mines and quarries all his life doing everything from laboring through to being surveyor and chemist, took it over and decided to work it on his own. Much of what you saw in there was his handiwork. He was a real legend and impossibly strong. If you go in the Miners Arms in Eyam of an evening after lock down and ask about him they will tell you stories about his exploits all night. He was in there every night usually drinking several pints of Coke! There was (and probably still is) a big chest of lead ore which had not moved for years because of it's weight. When asked about it, a previous landlord who was shall we say not noted for his generosity, explained why it never moved and told the questioner that if anybody could lift it he would buy everybody in the pub a drink. Roger's ears pricked up, he shuffled to his feet, braced himself, hefted the chest of lead up, clumped across the room with it and banged it down on the bar causing the bar to collapse and everyone got a free drink. If you want to read about mining in Stoney dale there is a nice piece Roger wrote here Eyam Plague Village | Eyam Village in the Peak District | Mining. He was a real polymath, as well read and knowledgeable as he was strong. I miss the quiz nights in the Miners when Roger would correct the quiz master if he was wrong.
