Located out towards Bakewell, Derbyshire, this is an excellent find and certainly a place that anyone wanting to see an exceptional mine should visit!
You can check out all our photos from this explore here on our Flickr.
Background:
Holme Bank was the last of two operational chert mines in Derbyshire the other being the Pretoria Mine, both at Bakewell. Chert is a form of fine-grained, flinty silica most commonly found in veins in the uppermost beds of a limestone sequence. Chert was worked into tools in prehistoric times, easily shaped by chipping off flakes to produce sharp edges. Early 19th-century extraction at Holme Bank was from quarries but commercial mining was in place by 1867, when the site was known as Bakewell Chert Mine. Later it was also referred to as Smith's Mine, after the owner. The workings consisted of an extensive system of passages with eight entrances. In recent years the few underground visitors to Holme Bank Mine have included cave divers, using the clear subterranean waters for training purposes.
The explore:
From looking online at map plans of the mine, it seems that there were at least six entrances to this mine at one point, however it now seems that several have been blocked off/closed. There is an entrance that requires a four digit code from the Derbyshire Caving Association in order to open a heavy gate. However, there are alternate entrances if one looks hard enough. One important point to note is that you should be extremely careful to stay away from Holme Hall, as there is apparently some conflict there with ownership of the mine land.
Into the underground we go:
Not disconcerting to see at all:
Nice to see the supports for the ceilings here:
A few old products about:
A dead end, time to turn around:
You can check out all our photos from this explore here on our Flickr.
Background:
Holme Bank was the last of two operational chert mines in Derbyshire the other being the Pretoria Mine, both at Bakewell. Chert is a form of fine-grained, flinty silica most commonly found in veins in the uppermost beds of a limestone sequence. Chert was worked into tools in prehistoric times, easily shaped by chipping off flakes to produce sharp edges. Early 19th-century extraction at Holme Bank was from quarries but commercial mining was in place by 1867, when the site was known as Bakewell Chert Mine. Later it was also referred to as Smith's Mine, after the owner. The workings consisted of an extensive system of passages with eight entrances. In recent years the few underground visitors to Holme Bank Mine have included cave divers, using the clear subterranean waters for training purposes.
The explore:
From looking online at map plans of the mine, it seems that there were at least six entrances to this mine at one point, however it now seems that several have been blocked off/closed. There is an entrance that requires a four digit code from the Derbyshire Caving Association in order to open a heavy gate. However, there are alternate entrances if one looks hard enough. One important point to note is that you should be extremely careful to stay away from Holme Hall, as there is apparently some conflict there with ownership of the mine land.
Into the underground we go:
Not disconcerting to see at all:
Nice to see the supports for the ceilings here:
A few old products about:
A dead end, time to turn around:
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