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Snailbeach Lead Mine

Underground Virtual Tour

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HISTORY

[click thumbnails to see larger version of picture]

DAY LEVEL

This is a short level connecting Lordshill Shaft to the surface and is ideal if you only want a brief underground experience. When the mine was being worked, lead ore was wound up the shaft in large iron buckets called kibbles to a staging where the level meets the shaft. Here it was transferred to trucks and pushed out to the crusher house on the opposite side of the track to the entrance. The Shropshire Mines Trust has re-laid rails in the level and visitors are pushed up the level on a specially made truck with seats.

The first half of the level is lined with stone arching but then it carries on in solid rock. Very soon after the entrance, there is a low part where a collapse was dug through and reinforced with modern metal supports. If you look carefully, you will see stalactites starting to grow from the roof.

At the end, the shaft is covered with a strong metal grille so you can stand on it and look up to daylight above. There are also displays of old and modern drilling equipment.

The way out always looks different, partly because you can see daylight at the end.

PERKINS LEVEL

This is a longer and more adventurous trip and it was where the last mining took place at Snailbeach for barite. The entrance section has been protected with metal supports but it soon gets into solid rock. On your left you will pass a board with tallies - parties use these to count the number of people in and out.

Look in the roof and you will see a ventilation shaft going up – now capped at the top.

The first section usually has standing water, which can be up to 1ft deep in places so wellies are the best footwear. Along the way you will pass the old railway lines, which have been taken up. The black stains on the walls and floor are from natural bitumen which leaks from the rock.

The first junction is where there used to be a stope (large underground space) going up to surface and down to the lower workings. This has been filled in with concrete for safety but a way through has been left using metal arching. The material from the infill is starting to leach out of the rock and now appears as beautiful white formations of gypsum.

Going straight on leads via two sections which have been supported for safety. Once past these, the natural passage is followed and you can look upwards to a stope

An internal gate protects the next section and you pass over a bridge. This crosses a deep drop to the lower workings where it is possible (if you have the right equipment!) to descend much deeper into the mine.

On the other side of the bridge is a small stope and a further bridge leads to a large chamber where bats hibernate in winter. This section is currently closed off to the public. One point of interest is a large pillar of solid barite left to support the roof

Returning to the first junction, the other way leads into a passage showing an obvious hanging wall. This then leads into a stope where an old chain ladder hangs down the wall. Looking back the way you came, you can see a wide vein of white barite.

In the roof is a large vein of barite, which has been badly stained by iron, hence why it was left. There is also a large pillar of barite left to keep the sides apart.

A passage leads beyond the stope to where three old and dangerous areas were filled in using plastic dams and concrete. The smooth concrete floor at this spot was where one of them leaked! You can see holes in the concrete floor drilled up by the power of dripping water.

The passage carries on as an exploratory level as the barite vein disappeared. It twists and winds as the miners tried to find more ore by hit or miss methods. You pass one spot where decomposing iron pyrites has left a pile of clay.

Eventually you reach the last heading where, in 1955, the miners decided to give up mining at Snailbeach forever. This is a very poignant place as you think of the situation where the miners came back after blasting, saw there was no barite and didn’t even bother to clear up the blasted rock. They must have walked out very disappointed men and bringing to a close mining that had taken place at Snailbeach for nearly 2000 years.

Retracing your steps to the main level, you make your way out of the mine with daylight beckoning you onwards!

Last revised: 2 November 2008