Browns Folly Mine, Wiltshire - May 2009

[bobob]

Spent a romantic weekend in Wiltshire, what a great county! We were lucky enough to meet up with Root who took us around Swann and then Browns. Hats off to him for his work in the mines, they've saved lots of history down there. Bumped into a few others which was a nice surprise, but odd all the same to hear 'Hello?' coming from the distance deep underground! Managed to leave my boiler suit, knee pads and tripod on the kitchen side which was a good start but thanks to careful crawling I remained reasonably unscathed from the day. Didn't take a camera into Swann so here's a few from Browns...

Clapham Junction:

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn70/bobobroc/Browns%20Folly%20Mine%20no%20borders/5de5e1e4.jpg

Gutter carved out of the rock leading to 3 troughs on the right:

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn70/bobobroc/Browns%20Folly%20Mine%20no%20borders/56e39afe.jpg

St Paul's:

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn70/bobobroc/Browns%20Folly%20Mine%20no%20borders/253f3042.jpg

One of the old portals into MF:

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn70/bobobroc/Browns%20Folly%20Mine%20no%20borders/863d5b59.jpg

Leaving one of the loading bays:

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn70/bobobroc/Browns%20Folly%20Mine%20no%20borders/315611cd.jpg

Trolley just melting into the floor:

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn70/bobobroc/Browns%20Folly%20Mine%20no%20borders/b013c1f6.jpg

More troughs:

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn70/bobobroc/Browns%20Folly%20Mine%20no%20borders/b2029e3c.jpg

Stable, the horses only had 2 trips per year out of the mines and I heard yesterday that the last pit pony had only just died at the age of about 40:

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn70/bobobroc/Browns%20Folly%20Mine%20no%20borders/bebfa7af.jpg

Really effective and reassuring props :crazy

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn70/bobobroc/Browns%20Folly%20Mine%20no%20borders/c219e367.jpg

Graffiti from 1882 (the bit at the bottom reads 'whoever believeth in the son of god hath everlasting life'):

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn70/bobobroc/Browns%20Folly%20Mine%20no%20borders/cfcfca18.jpg

We popped out here for a wee and a ciggie but carried on for lots more before exiting into the glorious Wiltshire rain :thumb

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn70/bobobroc/Browns%20Folly%20Mine%20no%20borders/e5ea5ce5.jpg

Big thanks to Root :cool:

[Budice]

Hellooooo! Good to meet you both too, yeah, shove 'em up, show us how to really do it! :thumb
Don't know about showing you how to do it mate lol, just a couple of my efforts.
Looking out over the loading bay

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p198/Budice_photos/Browns%20etc/BrownsLoadingbayMay0901.jpg

Looking into Devils Chamber

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p198/Budice_photos/Browns%20etc/BrownsDevilsChamberMay0902.jpg

Another view of Devils Chamber and the death throne

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p198/Budice_photos/Browns%20etc/BrownsDevilsChamberMay0901.jpg