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Report - - Graham's Grovel (Brown's Folly Mine), Wiltshire - September 2014 | Mines and Quarries | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Graham's Grovel (Brown's Folly Mine), Wiltshire - September 2014

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Bertie Bollockbrains

There is no pain
Regular User
Graham's Grovel is seldom reported in these forums, so I decided to give an update.

Graham's Grovel is an exhausting 200ft belly crawl over deads that starts in Brown's Folly mine and ends in a large adit tunnel that until relatively recently was a way into District 20 of the Monkton Farleigh munitions site.

History: Brown's Folly Mine was originally part of the larger Monkton Farleigh Quarry. It was cut off from the main quarry when the War Department converted Monkton Farleigh for ammunition storage. From behind the Monkton Farleigh district 20 fan chamber an old stone quarry adit runs off into the old workings of Brown's Folly Mine. This tunnel was sealed off in June 1940, but in 1989 the owners of Monkton Farleigh at the time broke into it to photograph it. They had to break through a 4' thick concrete wall to get into the tunnel. For most of its length it is clear, but the last two hundred feet or so is packed full of backfill, and it took nearly two years to dig through into the extensive old workings of Brown's beyond.

The Trip: The crawl in from Brown's is a 200ft belly crawl which took us 25 minutes of pain, sweat and cursing.
01-EntranceCrawl_zps18b89748.jpg


Eventually it opens up into a high square cut adit
06_zps686763ce.jpg


The tunnel shrinks halfway along at a brick archway with lovely stalactite detail
09_zps93daea20.jpg


12_zps57da19f6.jpg


14_zps674c263c.jpg


A water pipe and cables run the length of the adit:
21-WaterPipe_zps74fa1428.jpg


22-Cable_zpsff00395f.jpg


The adit reaches the sealed end with no possible further progress. A badly spelt sign warns of the consequences:
19-DeadEnd_zps0ab07255.jpg


Thanks
 
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Ojay

Admin
Staff member
Admin
haha no way has that sign showed up again :D

10 points if you didn't use knee pads :p:

Did you bump into BWIAN
 

Bertie Bollockbrains

There is no pain
Regular User
haha no way has that sign showed up again :D

10 points if you didn't use knee pads :p:

Did you bump into BWIAN

Well I hope this infamous Brain character wasn't around and perving from behind a rock - you already know what my wife was wearing for this trip! (see a photo forum thread)
 

Trevithick

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I remember opening that link up very well, the thing was we weren't expecting the large adit as it traverses the 20 dist haulage and (in theory) it should have been blocked during construction. You can imagine our surprise when that tunnel opened up in front of us.
 

mike86

28DL Member
28DL Member
This was like toucher. I am a big chap and was not easy. But worth it in the end!!
 

mw0sec

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Nice to see this - I have to admit throwing the towel in - no knee protectors at the time!
 
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