Florence Iron Ore Mine, Egremont - August 08

[sinnerman]

Florence Iron Ore mine was first opened in 1900 after two years work sinking it's Shaft to a depth of 305ft. The mine was the last deep iron ore mine in western europe and has only recently closed. For many years the mine was supported by the tourist industry in the form of a heritage centre offering mine tours while three full time miners continued to mine iron ore on an ad hoc basis. The mine also benifited from Nuclear power industry. Until 2006 BNFL pumped 400 tonnes of water an hour from the warren of tunnels to cool the reactors at its plant at Sellafield. But the water is no longer required and BNFL stopped paying the £100,000 a year pumping bill and the tunnels began to flood at a rate of a meter a day. Plans were suggested to convert florence into a secure underground storage facility for neclear waste but these have fallen through. Attempts to use alternative energy scources such as wind power to keep the pumps running failed and now the Mine is abandoned it has been sold on to a property developer for housing and is awaiting clearence.

I visited on route to the Darkplaces Big Bash after hearing it was abandoned the week before. Although all the buildings are still secured there is a lovely little headgear i wanted to climb. The mine yard is also full of dumped equipment including three intact oldham charging racks. I had a good look around and a little venture down the mine adit not much to see now the workings have flooded though. Just as i was about to climb the headgear a little chap poped round the corners and i was expecting the usualy f*@K off so i made like a harmless photographer. He only wanted me to move my car a little so he could get a trailer out of the mine yard and the left me to it. So as soon as he was gone up i went, loved the yellow sheaves its probebrbly the safest headgear ive been up yet but there are a few dodgy steps on the way up.

































10 headgears done 82 to go.

[sinnerman]

yeah its an oldham lamp charging rack

[sinnerman]

unless youfind someone who can work the winding engine , the mines pretty much flooded nowthough was letting in water at about 5 meters a day once pumping stopped.

[mickeylove]

cool report some good shots , are you gonna try to do all the 82 remaining sites on your list

[sinnerman]

I'll try to get as many done as iI can obviously the working mines and aome preserved ones might not be possible. I hope to photograph them all at the very least visited another that day i couldnt get up was lead to beleve that the musieum its in had closed down but once i got there it was very open but a fantastic volunteer let me have a look arround at some un restored bits and let me have a quick go on the winding engine here's a pic of it from the ground.

[KingElvis]

Nice shots mate and some great information, a good read.....thanks