Links_rover
March 28th, 2010, 17:31
The explore...
My self, MADMAX, Iron monkey (all who had visited befor) plus Geedubya, ricklus, Tims, Silent Ninja, Dog meet at Mc'Ds for breakfast before heading off to the mine. We were pleased to find a new entrance point which was much more accessible than the previous one. We moved into the mine travelling about 1.5 miles and decending 3 levels to around 80m below the entrance point. We used Glow sticks to mark our route, and this would be advisable to anyone else wishing to move any distance from the entrances as the column and room structure is almost impossible to navigate. After around 4 hours we re-surfaced.
The History (C.O. MADMAX)
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when Hopton-wood limestone was first extracted on the site now occupied by Middleton Mine. Certainly by the 1900's there was a well established dimension stone operation at the site. It was a surface operation and was cut where the Hopton-wood outcrops on the eastern flank of Middleton Moor in the middle of the village of Middleton-by-Wirksworth.
Dimension stone operations continued until the 1950's when due to the rapid development of concrete technology the demand for natural stone products fell. Derbyshire Stone, the then operators and owners of the site, had pre-empted this fall in demand by developing a small processing plant to crush the limestone to supply the steel and sugar industry.
Towards the end of the decade the situation with the surface operations reached a point where it became increasingly uneconomic to keep stripping the overburden (which was increasing in depth as a quarry cut into the moor) to gain access to the high purity Hopton-wood beds. The Company was reluctant to lose the customer base it had built up with the processed products, so the decision to commence underground operations was taken.
The company at that time were operating a lead mine in Matlock and moved two of the personnel to Middleton. Work on a drift access was started on February the 4th 1959 and to date approximately 16 million tonnes of high grade limestone have been extracted for the underground workings.
At present Middleton Mine consists of 35 kilometres of workings covering an area of 1400 metres west to east and 800 m north to south. Middleton Mine is divided into five main production areas by normal faults.
In 1968 Derbyshire Stone was absorbed into the Tarmac Group who ultimately put the mine up for sale towards the end of 1990 along with two other units located in Derbyshire which formed it's Industrial Product Division The three Units were purchased by Croxton and Garry Limited who were owned equally by Pluess-Staufer and Blue Circle at the time of the purchase. Pluess-Staufer are now the sole owners of Omya Croxton and Garry.
THE PICS...
1. Fans...
http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp42/links_rover/DSC_0244copy.jpg
2. Scale...
http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp42/links_rover/DSC_0573.jpg
3. A group pic...
http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp42/links_rover/DSC_0555copy.jpg
4. ME...
http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp42/links_rover/DSC_0585-1.jpg
5. Looking down into a plant area?
http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp42/links_rover/DSC_0566.jpg
6. Lights sticks, light painting...
http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp42/links_rover/DSC_0587.jpg
My self, MADMAX, Iron monkey (all who had visited befor) plus Geedubya, ricklus, Tims, Silent Ninja, Dog meet at Mc'Ds for breakfast before heading off to the mine. We were pleased to find a new entrance point which was much more accessible than the previous one. We moved into the mine travelling about 1.5 miles and decending 3 levels to around 80m below the entrance point. We used Glow sticks to mark our route, and this would be advisable to anyone else wishing to move any distance from the entrances as the column and room structure is almost impossible to navigate. After around 4 hours we re-surfaced.
The History (C.O. MADMAX)
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when Hopton-wood limestone was first extracted on the site now occupied by Middleton Mine. Certainly by the 1900's there was a well established dimension stone operation at the site. It was a surface operation and was cut where the Hopton-wood outcrops on the eastern flank of Middleton Moor in the middle of the village of Middleton-by-Wirksworth.
Dimension stone operations continued until the 1950's when due to the rapid development of concrete technology the demand for natural stone products fell. Derbyshire Stone, the then operators and owners of the site, had pre-empted this fall in demand by developing a small processing plant to crush the limestone to supply the steel and sugar industry.
Towards the end of the decade the situation with the surface operations reached a point where it became increasingly uneconomic to keep stripping the overburden (which was increasing in depth as a quarry cut into the moor) to gain access to the high purity Hopton-wood beds. The Company was reluctant to lose the customer base it had built up with the processed products, so the decision to commence underground operations was taken.
The company at that time were operating a lead mine in Matlock and moved two of the personnel to Middleton. Work on a drift access was started on February the 4th 1959 and to date approximately 16 million tonnes of high grade limestone have been extracted for the underground workings.
At present Middleton Mine consists of 35 kilometres of workings covering an area of 1400 metres west to east and 800 m north to south. Middleton Mine is divided into five main production areas by normal faults.
In 1968 Derbyshire Stone was absorbed into the Tarmac Group who ultimately put the mine up for sale towards the end of 1990 along with two other units located in Derbyshire which formed it's Industrial Product Division The three Units were purchased by Croxton and Garry Limited who were owned equally by Pluess-Staufer and Blue Circle at the time of the purchase. Pluess-Staufer are now the sole owners of Omya Croxton and Garry.
THE PICS...
1. Fans...
http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp42/links_rover/DSC_0244copy.jpg
2. Scale...
http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp42/links_rover/DSC_0573.jpg
3. A group pic...
http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp42/links_rover/DSC_0555copy.jpg
4. ME...
http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp42/links_rover/DSC_0585-1.jpg
5. Looking down into a plant area?
http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp42/links_rover/DSC_0566.jpg
6. Lights sticks, light painting...
http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp42/links_rover/DSC_0587.jpg