Bickleigh Vale Phoenix Mine - July 09

[Bunkertastic]

Went for a look around with Aggravated Trespass at the weekend. Leighbeer Tunnel is rather ordinary. It's only claim to fame is that it was finished off by Brunel when the original engineer died in 1857. The railway tunnel is now part of the Plym Valley Trail.

One of the refuges in the walls of the tunnel has no back wall and carries on as another tunnel within a tunnel! This is the entrance to Bickleigh Vale Phoenix Mine. The mine was started in 1859, the same year that the South Devon & Tavistock Railway opened, which must have been a bit inconvenient.:crazy Little copper was found and it packed up in 1862.

The first part is wet, but it soon dries out as you get further in.

http://i716.photobucket.com/albums/ww167/Bunkertastic/Bickleigh%20Vale%20Phoenix%20Mine/LeighbeerTunnel1.jpg

LOOK! Turin shroud Jesus in the roof. Place will be full of pilgrims.

http://i716.photobucket.com/albums/ww167/Bunkertastic/Bickleigh%20Vale%20Phoenix%20Mine/LeighbeerTunnel2.jpg

http://i716.photobucket.com/albums/ww167/Bunkertastic/Bickleigh%20Vale%20Phoenix%20Mine/LeighbeerTunnel3.jpg

http://i716.photobucket.com/albums/ww167/Bunkertastic/Bickleigh%20Vale%20Phoenix%20Mine/LeighbeerTunnel4.jpg

Mr Trespass still believes in the superiority of Lacoste trainers over wellies! Look at him go, in a damp sort of way.

http://i716.photobucket.com/albums/ww167/Bunkertastic/Bickleigh%20Vale%20Phoenix%20Mine/BickleighValePhoenix1.jpg

http://i716.photobucket.com/albums/ww167/Bunkertastic/Bickleigh%20Vale%20Phoenix%20Mine/BickleighValePhoenix2.jpg

http://i716.photobucket.com/albums/ww167/Bunkertastic/Bickleigh%20Vale%20Phoenix%20Mine/BickleighValePhoenix3.jpg