Snowdown Colliery, Kent, October 2007

[Maniac]

Had a look around this place in October 2007. Most of the buildings are intact, but as the site's been empty for 20years, nature has taken over very effectively in a lot of places.

Little bit of history:
Snowdown was the deepest colliery in Kent reaching well over 3,000 ft (915 metres). It was also the hottest and most humid pit in Kent and was given the name 'Dante's Inferno' by the miners. Regarded by many as the worst pit to work at in Britain, most Snowdown miners worked naked because clothes became too uncomfortable. The miners could consume around 24 pints (14 lires) of water in an 8-hour shift. There were frequent cases of heat stroke.
(Information from http://www.dover.gov.uk/kentcoal/exhibition/snowdown.asp)

Buring the 1980s/90's when the channel tunnel was constructed, Snowdown colliery was used to dump a lot of the spoil from the tunnel borings. It's location right next to the mainline railway, and vast amount of land attached to the colliery made it an ideal location.

The current plans for the colliery are for redevelopment, but there's conflicting information out there as to what it will eventually become. To date nothing appears to be happening on site. I believe some of the buildings are listed structures, so hopefully they will remain.

I'm not sure what each building is/was, so I'll just post up the pics!

There were a few items remaining in the office block

Found one of the capped shafts, each one had a pillar beside it with two plaques, and two identical plaques set into the ground as well.

I found the second shaft on a return visit, but didn't have my camera. Never have found the 3rd one which is the deepest one.

More photos Here

Maniac.

 

[Foxylady]

That's a really interesting site. Some very nice buildings there and I like the rusty pulley and the plants growing inside. Excellent history info...enjoyed your report.

 

[Maniac]

That's a really interesting site. Some very nice buildings there and I like the rusty pulley and the plants growing inside. Excellent history info...enjoyed your report.

Why thankyou foxylady. I don't think my photos show the place off to its best, the buildings are lovely, even though they were only built as industrial buildings there are some really nice details on some of them. I spent several hours there wondering round in and out of the different buildings, shame there's not more left, but then what do you expect after 20 years of dereliction I suppose.

 

[Shepy]

Shaft number 2 was the deepest Maniac, there is a thread on 28DL that shows the winding house etc for 3 which might give you a bit of an idea about where the cap is, hopefully should help you find it:

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=16022

~Shepy

 

[Maniac]

Shaft number 2 was the deepest Maniac, there is a thread on 28DL that shows the winding house etc for 3 which might give you a bit of an idea about where the cap is, hopefully should help you find it:

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=16022

~Shepy

Cheers Shepy, I always thought the deepest shaft was number 3 for some reason, although admittedly there's not a lot in it lol. I know roughly the area it's in, but some areas of the site are very overgrown making it difficult to find anything easily! May take a wonder back up there later this year, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Maniac

 

[Shepy]

Well according to that report i linked, there is another of the obelisks right next to it, so that shouldnt be too difficult to find.

One thing that should help is people tend to post photos in the order they are taken, so i would presume that if you get yourself here:

Should find the shaft fairly close:

~Shepy

 

[Cerberus]

Wow I was just trying to remember what this place was called the other day, there was a report on 28DL maybe from Dweeb about a year ago. There's a couple of good period pics on google I think of what it was like in the 80s. Great report!

 

[Maniac]

There's a lot of photos on the net from snowdown colliery, it was one of the last working pits in Kent, the last one being Betteshanger which closed in 1989. I don't normally like posting photos that arn't my own, but these are on the dover.gov.uk website;

One of the sadest pics I've found was this one showing the pit head gear being demolished.

And one of my favourites is this one showing miners in the lamproom at snowdown waiting to go down with the 'target board' in the background.

 

[Sabtr]

Excellent report. I love old machinery mixed in with nature. Wish I lived closer! It must have been a really bad place to work.

 

[miner]

Snowdown History

There is a mistake in the artical describing the use of Snowdown to dump Channel Tunnel waste, the traffic was in fact in reverse, Stone from the Colliery Tip was taken by train to build up the terminal at Cheriton. Snowdown tip was in fact 50/60 Ft higher and filled all the flat area in the middle.
Miner

 

[smiffy]

Great stuff............but I'm a bit confused. (but it's not hard for that to happen actually mind you!)
Whats going on with the shafts then???????
Number 1 is 83 metres deep = approx 270 feet
but Number 3 is 915 metres deep =approx 2975 feet
Thats a hell of a difference?
Didn't all the shafts go to Pit Bottom then???? and if they didn't there must have been some serious dippling (slopes) underground connecting the districts up with each other???
Perhaps someone can shed light on it......I'm always interested in old collieries though so many thanks for putting this up.........and does anyone know what the water was like at that sorta depth? did they have problems with it in Snowden Colliery?? Many cheers in advance

 

[MOYLIE]

With regards to snowdown being used as a dumping place for spoil from the channel tunnel this is not true.
Infact quite the reverse happened mine shale (slag) was removed from the site by rail and transported to a rail head at Ashford kent then loaded into lorries and then used as fill at the channel tunnel terminal site near Folkestone.
At the time i was employede by BRITISH RAIL as a shunter for these trains at Snowdown unfortunately i was a lot younger then and had not got the interest in derelict site like i have now and it did not even cross my mind to take any photos as the site was pretty much intact as the NCB had only recently closed the site .
I can tell you that it was most certainly a spooky place on a wind swept night shift when i was the only person left on site to lock up for the night.
One thing always sticks in my mind that is the wheels at the top of the winding gear turning in the wind after the ropes had been cut like a ghostly miner trying to get 1 more shift at his pit.
I myself have managed to get behind the fence and take a few photos and i will post them shortly.
If you would like to ask any questions i will attempt to answer them.

 

[MOYLIE]

Number 3 shaft snowdown

I think number 3 shaft is/was located behind the new winding house built during the pit modernisation.
Basically if you look from the road running past the it is on the left hand side and if my memory serves me right it is marked by an obelisk.
Up to a few weeks ago this area was extremly overgrown but there is some works going on to tidy the site and a new security fence has been placed around the site and there is now a security guard on sit so with a bit of luck more of the site should become visible from the road .
I did try and speak to him to let me into the site for a wonder around to take some more photos but he was a bit of a jobs worth and said no.
I have heard rumors that most of the building have been listed so will be safe from any future development of the site.