Photos of Stainsby's Shaft breakthrough by Biff

Sat/Sun 06/07/ Sep 2008. The turn out for digging was the best yet with 13 diggers on Saturday and 8 Sunday. A concrete lintel was cast in place and 101 drums/rock bags brought out Saturday and over a 100 Sunday

At a depth of about 30m we broke through to a small chamber with a stream coming through it, with stemples in place on the floor, and a stemple slot cut into the wall

The stemple slot was made by the miners by hand drilling three holes close together in a horizontal line and then the rock above was chiselled out, that's good evidence of method they used

The good news is that its all clean washed and we can see down another four metres, the bad news is that it is horribly loose

We are about 4 to 5 metres lower than the bottom of the digging shaft, making the total depth about 29 - 30 metres; we need to survey now as the position of this breakthrough must be south of the main shaft but only by a few metres

The most likely source of the stream must be Blackmoor Swallet, as it had been raining a lot but we could be wrong?

We will enlarge the way into the water chamber (so we can make a quick getaway) scaffolding as we go and then we will build a scaffold cage in the chamber to dig down through the clean washed rocks using them with mortar to line the passage above keeping the mud at bay. Once we are below the stream we can divert the water out of our way or divert it to clean more mud away

Biff Frith

01 BreakThroughPoint
The breakthrough point. Bill seated perhaps 6' from the bottom of the ladder in our dug out shaft.

The breakthrough point. Bill seated perhaps 6' from the bottom of the ladder in our dug out shaft.
02 FallenRectangularBeam
Two fallen beams with Biff's size 10 boot for scale

Two fallen beams with Biff's size 10 boot for scale
03 FallenBeamFallingWaterBehind
Same rectangular beams - landscape

Same rectangular beams - landscape
04 Waterfall
Falling water. We heard this on descending the shaft on Saturday morning - we had never heard it before. Volume consistent with Blackmoor Swallet. To be dye traced to here from surface and from here to Upper Flood. The water comes in from sizeable overhead voids

Falling water. We heard this on descending the shaft on Saturday morning - we had never heard it before. Volume consistent with Blackmoor Swallet. To be dye traced to here from surface and from here to Upper Flood. The water comes in from sizeable overhead voids
05 RoofSupportBaulk
Roof support beam ! Crab near vertical

Roof support beam ! Crab near vertical
06 RoofSupportBaulk2
Roof support - another view. No more reassuring than the first!

Roof support - another view. No more reassuring than the first!
07 DownWhereTheWaterGoes
Where the water goes against the rift wall. View on is some 10-12 feet.

Where the water goes against the rift wall. View on is some 10-12 feet.
08 RiftWall
Another view down the rift wall away from the water.

Another view down the rift wall away from the water.
09 StempleHollowAndRift
Stemple hollow and view down rift

Stemple hollow and view down rift
10 StempleHollow
Stemple hollow showing construction from 3 drilled holes

Stemple hollow showing construction from 3 drilled holes
11 PlankAndRoundCrossPiece
Fragment of once vertical plank and retaining pole

Fragment of once vertical plank and retaining pole
12 RIMG0112
Some of Saturday's diggers - more were still exiting the dig. L-R: Alun, Nikki, Thomas, Bill, Bob, Biff and Yvonne

Some of Saturday's diggers - more were still exiting the dig. L-R: Alun, Nikki, Thomas, Bill, Bob, Biff and Yvonne