Mouldridge Mine - Pete Dell

Five of us turned out last Tuesday night. We made our way into the mine, trying not to get wet whilst going through the entrance lakes (or as it might be more accurate to say, puddles!) making our way to the Dressing Machinery Chamber.

From there we curved down to the left, following the pipework and exploring the unlit area. We ventured up into a small, compact chamber with a large, ominous hole. Following Steve the team traveled through this hole in the floor...

And then suddenly, Adam had disappeared! A lighting malfunction. One minute he was there, the next he had vanished. This event made the overwhelming darkness of the mine strike me again. A darkness that all encompassing is easy to forget when being lit by torches. Thank God for modern day technology! Once all torches were well and truly lit up once more, we made our way back to the chamber. There, we followed the main passage down, down past the winze on our left, and down even more to the coffin level. Down to the end of the mine.

After spending a short while in the depths of the mine, we started back turning left up towards the banana slide and then making our way up the right side to the top chamber. We regrouped there, then back down the other side. After this we proceeded back to the main passage and then up to the right. Along the way, we made sure to explore everything in our path. We noticed a few holes in the ground, where upon closer inspection we found one of Adams legs hanging through!

Deciding to call it a day, we began the search for the shaft up to the surface, eventually finding it and a long abandoned bat. This bat seemed to stay with us for a while following our progress through the system. Closer to the entrance adit there were another two holes in the roof leading to the upper part of the mine. Slowly but surely our team advanced back towards the entrance, taking in the rest of mine on the journey. A total of two hours underground and a great evening’s entertainment.