This huge chamber was once lined with timbers which have long since collapsed allowing hundreds of tons of deads stacked by the 'old man', to fall into the shaft below.

The pump rods were disconnected in the 1950's to recover bronze bearings for scrap and allowed to fall into the shaft doing untold damage. The top section of the pump rod can be seen lying at the bottom of the picture and has since been removed with other machinery.

 Major work has been taking place in this shaft over the years when in 1987, a roof collapse which ran to surface was plugged by mining company T.L. Mining. Further work has involved stabilizaton of the shaft by building two new concrete walls in line with the old shaft and back filling with hundreds of tons of grout to hold the hanging wall back.

    BACK         NEXT                 Home page