I took some friends up to Wiltshire for a day in Box yesterday.
I've talked about the history quite a bit in previous reports so won't say much here but if you're interested the Folly Press book Bath Stone Quarries is great...
Overslept so a slightly later start than planned got us up to the Quarryman's Arms for a swift half at Midday. Stuff's changed a bit since my last visit so we were headed in through Jack's instead of the usual Backdoor, I'd not done much of the South section so although it's a longer walk this was fine by me.
We were kitted up and inside by 1, the south section is the oldest workings and navigation is quite hard so we were pretty much following the guide for this part. Although it's quite sparse of features there's some graffiti from the old miners which is great to see.
The south stank of weed and there were glowsticks everywhere, we soon found out why when a bunch of chavs turn up. 'Where's Cathedral?'. They are well out of their depth, it's over an hours walk away and they have no map so after a quick chat we send them back to sort their shit out. Later we passed a group who looked much better prepared.
Smashed it out a bit from here, through the rest of the south and b12, we didn't really stop until robots for lunch.
Someone had knocked down all the robots so we did what we could, building a few and a massive Isle of Wight.
Next up was Brewers and the red door, we kept our distance as there's no point in setting off an alarm to touch it. Hopefully one day i'll get in.
Quick stop at delta rectangle and we headed north to see some cranes.
We had a ferry to catch so pretty much ran from the north down to Cathedral for a photo stop then proceeded to get totally lost on our way to the exit and eventual made it to daylight and the Quarryman's for another pint.
About 7 hours in all to do the whole trip, it's a long day to cover the whole mine and doesn't leave much time to get off the beaten track, especially if there are a few of you with cameras ect. We did it however so with aching feet we drove back and made it home by midnight.
I've talked about the history quite a bit in previous reports so won't say much here but if you're interested the Folly Press book Bath Stone Quarries is great...
Overslept so a slightly later start than planned got us up to the Quarryman's Arms for a swift half at Midday. Stuff's changed a bit since my last visit so we were headed in through Jack's instead of the usual Backdoor, I'd not done much of the South section so although it's a longer walk this was fine by me.
We were kitted up and inside by 1, the south section is the oldest workings and navigation is quite hard so we were pretty much following the guide for this part. Although it's quite sparse of features there's some graffiti from the old miners which is great to see.
The south stank of weed and there were glowsticks everywhere, we soon found out why when a bunch of chavs turn up. 'Where's Cathedral?'. They are well out of their depth, it's over an hours walk away and they have no map so after a quick chat we send them back to sort their shit out. Later we passed a group who looked much better prepared.
Smashed it out a bit from here, through the rest of the south and b12, we didn't really stop until robots for lunch.
Someone had knocked down all the robots so we did what we could, building a few and a massive Isle of Wight.
Next up was Brewers and the red door, we kept our distance as there's no point in setting off an alarm to touch it. Hopefully one day i'll get in.
Quick stop at delta rectangle and we headed north to see some cranes.
We had a ferry to catch so pretty much ran from the north down to Cathedral for a photo stop then proceeded to get totally lost on our way to the exit and eventual made it to daylight and the Quarryman's for another pint.
About 7 hours in all to do the whole trip, it's a long day to cover the whole mine and doesn't leave much time to get off the beaten track, especially if there are a few of you with cameras ect. We did it however so with aching feet we drove back and made it home by midnight.
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Looks like all the graff has been removed from Cathedral
I'd slap them into next week if i caught them. Mindless vandalism is a cancer in exploring.
