Browns Folly Stone Mine
History
Browns Folly Mine is an average sized Bath Stone quarry which was originally part of Monkton Farleigh Mine however when the War Department
converted part of the quarry in to an ammunitions store they separated part of the quarry which is the area now known as Browns Folly.
Browns Folly Mine is an SSSI (Special Site of Scientific Interest) because of its national importance for hibernating and roosting bats. Brown's Folly is a tower
situated near Bathford overlooking Bath. Beneath the folly in the nature reserve are the entrances to part of Brown's Folly Quarry. This stone mine is fairly big but not too
complicated. The southern section consists of several long main routes, the waste stone is stacked up along the sides of the passages. There are few roof falls in this
mine, probably due to good strong pillars at regular intervals.
The main adit into the quarry was blasted by the military probably to prevent access to the Monkton farleigh Ammunition depot connected to Browns Folly.
In the Southern section there exists some stables amongst other interesting features. Further into the hillside there is an area known as Clapham Junction, so called
because of the rails laid in the floor. This was the junction of several routes into the different headings of the mine. The existance of rails means that this was a relatively
recent and large mine.
The Explore
I think everything that has been said about Browns has already been said so I wont bother to restate any here, other than to say do your research about the place and
make sure you have a copy of the survey.
Nothing particularly interesting happened this trip, I wanted to try out the new load of carbide I'd acquired and a mate wanted to try out a new camera gizmo
he had so Browns was a nice easy choice. We spent about 5 hours in there and got round just about everything in the main mine. We did get waylaid by Brian for about
half an hour but finally managed to say our goodbyes and get back to business. The place was looking pretty good to be honest. Clapham is lovely again and the three
troughs which were quite badly vandalised have been repaired, cleaned up and the pink paint has almost been completely removed. After showing my mate a couple of cool
features I knew he hadn't seen before and adding a bit more to my mental survey of the place it was time to leave and head to the Quarrymans for a shandy.
Carbide is a fantastic light source to take photo's underground with but averaging 90 seconds an exposure it was a bit tedious. Anyway I think they came out
reasonably well .
The Pics
Clapham
Pit Prop Chamber
Square Well
Three Troughs
St. Pauls - Front Passage
Somewhere off Front Passage
Looking down Front Passage
Three Props
Entrance to Northern Section & Mine Cart
Looking back the other way
An old entrance
On the way out.
Thanks for looking
History
Browns Folly Mine is an average sized Bath Stone quarry which was originally part of Monkton Farleigh Mine however when the War Department
converted part of the quarry in to an ammunitions store they separated part of the quarry which is the area now known as Browns Folly.
Browns Folly Mine is an SSSI (Special Site of Scientific Interest) because of its national importance for hibernating and roosting bats. Brown's Folly is a tower
situated near Bathford overlooking Bath. Beneath the folly in the nature reserve are the entrances to part of Brown's Folly Quarry. This stone mine is fairly big but not too
complicated. The southern section consists of several long main routes, the waste stone is stacked up along the sides of the passages. There are few roof falls in this
mine, probably due to good strong pillars at regular intervals.
The main adit into the quarry was blasted by the military probably to prevent access to the Monkton farleigh Ammunition depot connected to Browns Folly.
In the Southern section there exists some stables amongst other interesting features. Further into the hillside there is an area known as Clapham Junction, so called
because of the rails laid in the floor. This was the junction of several routes into the different headings of the mine. The existance of rails means that this was a relatively
recent and large mine.
The Explore
I think everything that has been said about Browns has already been said so I wont bother to restate any here, other than to say do your research about the place and
make sure you have a copy of the survey.
Nothing particularly interesting happened this trip, I wanted to try out the new load of carbide I'd acquired and a mate wanted to try out a new camera gizmo
he had so Browns was a nice easy choice. We spent about 5 hours in there and got round just about everything in the main mine. We did get waylaid by Brian for about
half an hour but finally managed to say our goodbyes and get back to business. The place was looking pretty good to be honest. Clapham is lovely again and the three
troughs which were quite badly vandalised have been repaired, cleaned up and the pink paint has almost been completely removed. After showing my mate a couple of cool
features I knew he hadn't seen before and adding a bit more to my mental survey of the place it was time to leave and head to the Quarrymans for a shandy.
Carbide is a fantastic light source to take photo's underground with but averaging 90 seconds an exposure it was a bit tedious. Anyway I think they came out
reasonably well .
The Pics
Clapham
Pit Prop Chamber
Square Well
Three Troughs
St. Pauls - Front Passage
Somewhere off Front Passage
Looking down Front Passage
Three Props
Entrance to Northern Section & Mine Cart
Looking back the other way
An old entrance
On the way out.
Thanks for looking
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