This site has had several recent reports, probably due to the lack of similar mines in the area and the relative ease of access of the area, including train from London. Examples such as Monk (https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/snape-wood-mine-wadhurst-feb-17.126644/) Doozer (https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/snape-wood-mine-wadhurst-15-4-2021.128156/) and Millsy2019 who also reported on the South mine (https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/snape-mine-the-2nd-half.131214/)
This was my first attempt at using a tripod with a phone, actually it was the cheapest selfie stick with 3 tiny folding feet. Looking at the pics afterwards I can see what a difference in quality it made for low light shots compared to my shaky hands. Unfortunatley after taking a pic of me squatting in the entrance (feeling nervous I wasn't wearing my helmet as it was being used to light the shot) the flimsy stick was sinking in mud and fell sideway. My phone fell into liquid sticky clay gloop. The remaining pics are hand held and poorer quality but I'm lucky to have any after the gloop immersion. I will keep the wobbly stick stand for light holder and invest in something more suitable for pics now I see the difference it makes, so please be forgiving on underground pics this time.
OK, the history... I think most of use have directly or indirectly piggy backed on the excellent article in Subterranea issue 21 which you can read (and download!) from here: https://archive.org/details/subterranea-21
Railway Development
In the early 1850s a railway line was built from Tunbridge Wells to Hastings which survived the Beeching Closures and has regular service today. There is challenging terrain involving cuttings and embankments, of note here, near Wadhurst as it passed above on the hillside a hamlet called Scrag Oak which required several embankments and 2 cuttings. A lot of navvies were needed as back them it was spades and wheelbarrows not machines and a pub was setup called "The Locomotive". Just from a quick look walking past I'd guess the building was older but the single story extension to the rear is probably part of the conversion to pub.
The Locomotive - now a house called "The Old Miners Arms"
During digging the cutting they discovered iron bearing material. On the hilltops sitting above the local "greys" limestone of the Purbeck group 170M? (https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?pub=PB) is sandstone from the Ashdown formation, younger at about 150M years old (https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?pub=ASD). Sandwiched between the limestone and sandstone is the thinnest strip of slightly irony clay known as the Wadhurst Clay Formation (https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?pub=WDC). This clay was to be exploited first by a mine just South of the railway followed by a mine to its North.
The South mine was reported on by Millsy2019, but this one tends to fill with water draining from the cutting and probably should be left to Summer water levels and needs waders. I was on a quick visit during Winter water levels (and only had wellies) so I left the South for a different trip. The South mine was first of the two. looking at the railway cutting and embankments I could see no evidence of a siding for the mine, which due to the difficult location would have required considerable earthwork, the same can be said of the North, there was no evidence that any siding could have ever existed, that would have required substantial work for wider cuttings and embankments which just aren't there.
Difficult Hilly Terrain for Railways
In 1850-1851 construction wound up, the railway opened that section on 1st September 1851 and "The locomotive" was renamed to "The Miners' Arms" to reflect the customers. The South mine operated during 1851 (perhaps?) and shut down some point in 1857 (or before?) the seams of iron bearing clay were thin and unreliable and so low in iron and high in silica that specialist means were needed to extract iron and had to be sent all the way to Staffordshire for processing. This mine have lost a lot of money. Perhaps to up the ante they doubled-down on the investment and opened the North mine in 1857 where the clays were thought to be better. This ran for about a year and also shut in 1858. Notably the descriptions at the time described parallel galleries and working the seams between, also there was.. supposedly... a siding to the railway for loading ore. Sounds like a pretty fraudulent description to me to extract cash from investors.
I took the afternoon off work (I was on a site about 45 mins drive away) and not having told the Mrs about my half day, it felt like bunking off school
I parked in Snape Woods car park and walked under the bridge and round the corner to Scrag Oak. The Old Miners Arms is still there. This really is a lovely rural area with old cottages and people who keep horses and shoot things, I felt a slightly conspicuous. I took the public footpath which runs uphill through the edge of the woods, surprisingly sticky mud, wellies needed and has a foot crossing on the railway. The trains are required to sound their horn due to the crossing, so you'll hear every train above ground, and feel/hear them moving when you are below ground too
Looking at the cutting there are no obvious clues that this was a mining area.
Even though I had a survey showing the location of the original adit, I could find no trace whatsoever. When Kent Underground Research Group ("KURG") backfilled it as part of their dig (2002?) they did a very good job smoothing it over. I did investigate the ditches and mounds but no sign.
The entrance starts with a sloping shaft made from sections of blue plastic barrels joined together with a steel ladder in it. Progress is slow as there is little room to bend your knees and move your body, it's a bit "cosy". At the bottom there is a small drop of say 3 foot, but since I couldn't see in the cosy pipe it was "interesting" and I had to lower down with arms while flapping feet about to feel what was going on, but it turned out no problem. In reverse this was a challenge as I had a rucksack pushed above me, getting my first foot on the ladder in the confined space while shoving a rucksack above me was doable for me but if anyone was fat and inflexible they'd probably struggle quite a while before they'd escape so not a trip for the obese. KURG's digging work in 2002 is excellent
Crouching in the entrance, just seconds before the phone/gloop disaster and some strongly language
As soon as you are in a few metres you can stand up in a long gallery. You can clearly hear the trains rumbling past
CONTINUED...
This was my first attempt at using a tripod with a phone, actually it was the cheapest selfie stick with 3 tiny folding feet. Looking at the pics afterwards I can see what a difference in quality it made for low light shots compared to my shaky hands. Unfortunatley after taking a pic of me squatting in the entrance (feeling nervous I wasn't wearing my helmet as it was being used to light the shot) the flimsy stick was sinking in mud and fell sideway. My phone fell into liquid sticky clay gloop. The remaining pics are hand held and poorer quality but I'm lucky to have any after the gloop immersion. I will keep the wobbly stick stand for light holder and invest in something more suitable for pics now I see the difference it makes, so please be forgiving on underground pics this time.
OK, the history... I think most of use have directly or indirectly piggy backed on the excellent article in Subterranea issue 21 which you can read (and download!) from here: https://archive.org/details/subterranea-21
Railway Development
In the early 1850s a railway line was built from Tunbridge Wells to Hastings which survived the Beeching Closures and has regular service today. There is challenging terrain involving cuttings and embankments, of note here, near Wadhurst as it passed above on the hillside a hamlet called Scrag Oak which required several embankments and 2 cuttings. A lot of navvies were needed as back them it was spades and wheelbarrows not machines and a pub was setup called "The Locomotive". Just from a quick look walking past I'd guess the building was older but the single story extension to the rear is probably part of the conversion to pub.
The Locomotive - now a house called "The Old Miners Arms"
During digging the cutting they discovered iron bearing material. On the hilltops sitting above the local "greys" limestone of the Purbeck group 170M? (https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?pub=PB) is sandstone from the Ashdown formation, younger at about 150M years old (https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?pub=ASD). Sandwiched between the limestone and sandstone is the thinnest strip of slightly irony clay known as the Wadhurst Clay Formation (https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?pub=WDC). This clay was to be exploited first by a mine just South of the railway followed by a mine to its North.
The South mine was reported on by Millsy2019, but this one tends to fill with water draining from the cutting and probably should be left to Summer water levels and needs waders. I was on a quick visit during Winter water levels (and only had wellies) so I left the South for a different trip. The South mine was first of the two. looking at the railway cutting and embankments I could see no evidence of a siding for the mine, which due to the difficult location would have required considerable earthwork, the same can be said of the North, there was no evidence that any siding could have ever existed, that would have required substantial work for wider cuttings and embankments which just aren't there.
Difficult Hilly Terrain for Railways
In 1850-1851 construction wound up, the railway opened that section on 1st September 1851 and "The locomotive" was renamed to "The Miners' Arms" to reflect the customers. The South mine operated during 1851 (perhaps?) and shut down some point in 1857 (or before?) the seams of iron bearing clay were thin and unreliable and so low in iron and high in silica that specialist means were needed to extract iron and had to be sent all the way to Staffordshire for processing. This mine have lost a lot of money. Perhaps to up the ante they doubled-down on the investment and opened the North mine in 1857 where the clays were thought to be better. This ran for about a year and also shut in 1858. Notably the descriptions at the time described parallel galleries and working the seams between, also there was.. supposedly... a siding to the railway for loading ore. Sounds like a pretty fraudulent description to me to extract cash from investors.
I took the afternoon off work (I was on a site about 45 mins drive away) and not having told the Mrs about my half day, it felt like bunking off school
I parked in Snape Woods car park and walked under the bridge and round the corner to Scrag Oak. The Old Miners Arms is still there. This really is a lovely rural area with old cottages and people who keep horses and shoot things, I felt a slightly conspicuous. I took the public footpath which runs uphill through the edge of the woods, surprisingly sticky mud, wellies needed and has a foot crossing on the railway. The trains are required to sound their horn due to the crossing, so you'll hear every train above ground, and feel/hear them moving when you are below ground too
Looking at the cutting there are no obvious clues that this was a mining area.
Even though I had a survey showing the location of the original adit, I could find no trace whatsoever. When Kent Underground Research Group ("KURG") backfilled it as part of their dig (2002?) they did a very good job smoothing it over. I did investigate the ditches and mounds but no sign.
The entrance starts with a sloping shaft made from sections of blue plastic barrels joined together with a steel ladder in it. Progress is slow as there is little room to bend your knees and move your body, it's a bit "cosy". At the bottom there is a small drop of say 3 foot, but since I couldn't see in the cosy pipe it was "interesting" and I had to lower down with arms while flapping feet about to feel what was going on, but it turned out no problem. In reverse this was a challenge as I had a rucksack pushed above me, getting my first foot on the ladder in the confined space while shoving a rucksack above me was doable for me but if anyone was fat and inflexible they'd probably struggle quite a while before they'd escape
so not a trip for the obese. KURG's digging work in 2002 is excellentCrouching in the entrance, just seconds before the phone/gloop disaster and some strongly language
As soon as you are in a few metres you can stand up in a long gallery. You can clearly hear the trains rumbling past
CONTINUED...
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so when does it change from bad to good?. Never quite worked this out in my head but that's a whole different debate
