@@MartinZero Don't you think that the stonework was too well built to be a simple storage area? I also noticed that the stone stairs showed little signs of wear so maybe they weren't used very much or if they were it was over a relatively short period of time. Intriguing to say the least. Fascinating video Martin, thanks.
The miners son 'sounded' the roof when they noticed the trickle of water. They used to tap the rock/coal and could tell from the resonance of the tapping whether the rock/coal was sound. They had to listen carefully. There is an old geordie miners song which says, ' rap the bank me bonnie lads, hear that coal face working. there's many a marrer(mate) missin' lads because he woldn't listen.'
@@geoffdecorator1701 I think they call it "sounding". You can do it with big machinery, hear internal noises by using a long screwdriver, tip on the equipment (gearbox case for example) and handle of screwdriver to your cheekboneor near your ear. Carefull - it can be bloody loud. You can hear different noises like bearing whine, grinding, tapping etc all can indicate different faults if you know what you are listening to. I've done it on diesel engine injectors to find the faulty one. In mines, a dull sound, instead of an echoing sound, as you progress through an area indicates the sound is being absorbed by movement in the rockface - basically, loose rock, so a "dull" area is a dangerous area. You can make regular checks by clapping as you walk along.
@@stationsixtyseven67 Wheel tapping works on the resonance principle - a good wheel will ring like a bell, but a wheel with a crack in it sounds dull. So it's just like tapping the roof of a mine drift (tunnel) to see if has cracks/voids in it by the dull sound it makes
I believe something like 150,000 men women and children have lost their lives down coal mines in this country !. The wife and I have been down the Big Pit in Wales a couple of times, which gave us a tiny hint of the horrible conditions of the miners. Take my hat off to all of them ....Good video again. Happy and healthy new year to all.
Victorians never gave old shafts much thought still collapsing in Stoke with 270 years of mining history. Try two ropes walk over from either side. Loved it when Fred Dibnah dug one in his back garden!!!
Yup they start with a ring the diameter of the shaft they want to sink and just dig it out and lay bricks around the ring and it sinks as the hole gets deeper. Simple yet ingenious!
Wow Martin that was just fantastic. The brickwork in that shaft was fabulous. Now those cellars had the most fantastic stonework. All in all I just loved that. Thanks so much for taking me along and please stay safe and take care
Hi Martin. You should use Para cord or Mower pull start cord instead of rope. They are both braided, not twisted like rope and so won't spin. You would be able to make the whole contraption much smaller. Happy New Year.
100 years from now some urban explorer will be posting a video on RU-vid's successor showing how he discovered an ancient lighting device at the bottom of the shaft! 🙂
Martin, there is a dead simple thing you can build for shots like the camera drop that will stop the camera spinning. I came up with it when I had to survey a 500 meter deep shaft since I needed to know that the collar was sound before lowering myself into it. I can send you a drawing for it if you wish. Anyhoos, I hope that there will be an upcoming series about the river Irk, I have an irk for Irk...
@@MartinZero As a side note have you ever approached any of the shop or office owners on or around Tib St to see if there is any cellar access to the Tib? Might be worth a shot.
I'm proud to be British when it comes to discovering these long forgotten gems. Great find the storage cellar the walls were so flush and arch ceiling were perfectly rounded off. The scenery is beautiful also. Yeah great find 👍
@@MartinZero And the risks they took even at a very young age. Including the railways which are truly remarkable to look at. I live in Rugby I go down the Great Central Railway quite often. The platform is in very good condition. And as you approach Onley the view is beautiful to look at. See for miles. Anyway take care 🚂
Love what you do Martin but if I can suggest.. You just need two ropes - maybe just a hand's breadth apart - instead of one and then your camera won't spin. You can also hand one rope to a mate on the other side of the shaft to pull the rig to the middle over the hole. Hope that makes sense. Atb. Gillian.
Maybe long poles with hooks on the ends might also help place it and pull it out . Keep innovating like they did with the structures you're exploring . Nice .
Hi Martin, enjoyed your videos of Manchester history. Being a Mancunian by birth it’s amazing how Manchester has changed since 1959 I have thoroughly enjoyed watching your exploring throughout the two lockdowns. Superb videos😁👍 please keep them coming
just a thought.... two or three ropes. 1 each side, also telescopic roach pole to hook the board over the hole., when back at the top, lower one rope and angle it thru the hole.
@@bernardfender5147 Me too, but I am not that confident regarding the spinning. Might work well for the first couple of feet. But I also might be wrong.
@@schubser3327 hiya, two ropes, actually something like paracord would be even better as it isn't wrapped, attached at two ends of COC BOT(!) should stop spinning for quite a bit I reckon, if you keep the ropes apart anyway
Enjoyable video 👍 loved the way you showed your respects to those poor souls who lost their lives. A number of years ago my partner went on a tour of a working mine Whitwick in Leicestershire just before it was shut down. It was something he will never forget and would never do again but has the utmost respect for those who have and those who do!
Martin and James fascinating once again with thanks to John. You and James have to go back and find out what's at the bottom of the shaft now you're armed with all the helpful tips of how to get COC Rover in and out.
Thanks Martin that was fantastic, those people that mined coal in those places were absolute heroes. What strange old places the little cellars were up in the moors, unbelievable really. Happy New Year. Take care and all the best. Stevie
You need some kind of long handled prong, hook or grabbing tool to get hold of Coc Cam once it's back up. Got to be called Coc Grabber haha. Great video BTW 👍
Try making a loop in another line several inches wide. Pass COCrover's line through it and walk the end of the looped line to the opposite side. You can then move it round a fair bit ;0)
@@totherarf easier to get a seat off an old swing, sit Danny on lower him down ( gently ) with a cable taped to head via old tennis swear band and pencil and sketch book.
Brilliant as always, it's terrifying to think that open shafts are left in that state, grateful you explained the dangers, most people wouldn't have a clue. Loved the tribute to the lost miners at the end. 👍
the slowly revolving descent into shaft reminds me of the Disney film 'The Black hole', I could hear the theme music playing in my mind as I was watching!
The entrance to that cellar reminded me of the old underground brickwork kilns in Welwyn Garden City. Mind you when I saw those, was probably 64 years ago. All buried under an industrial estate now.
Fantastic martin! The footage of the camera going down the shaft was amazing, it seemed never ending. Hope 2021 is a great year for team zero and your explorations. 🔴🟡🟢
Hi Martin. Sod's law, I wrote a long comment on this last night and it doesn't appear to have posted! I shall try again, but with something shorter. First off, for anyone thinking that they would like to try getting down yon hole, remember the gasses down there! They will kill you stone dead within minutes if any are present. The winter months are especially dangerous. I am guessing that the entire hillside is very wet and that Tunshill pit would have been no exception, but I think that I can explain why you encountered no water down there. Lower down the hill is Butterworth Hall, the hamlet that you mention in the video, and there was once a mine there. Not all mine water is polluted and the water from this pit is pumped to a reservoir by United Utilities. You can visit the site and clearly see the concrete shafts, complete with access trapdoors, over the shafts. I remember thinking that the shafts were very close together. That is why, I presume, Tunshill is dry. It made sense to use a lower mines as a plug hole for ones higher up a hill. With clever engineering you could drain several shafts and many 'levels' from one point. I still wouldn't like to be down there in a thunderstorm! Part of the site of the Butterworth Hall colliery has been taken over by an engineering firm. I can't remember the details because it was a few years ago that I visited, but I think that some of the colliery buildings are still there and in use. In the office reception they have some photographs, including one of the inside of the pumping house with the engine there. Between Butterworth and Tunshill there was a railway of sorts. You can see it on old OS maps and the course can be clearly traced on Google Earth. About a third up the hill there will coking ovens. If you want to explore more in the area, I think that the woods up against the west side of Ogden reservoir might be particularly interesting. There are numerous old shafts in the area, many of which are recorded as 'untreated', so I am guessing that they have the same minimal protection that you found at Tunshill. Unfortunately, no depth seems to have been recorded for many of the pits in the area, but they seem to have been about 3 metres in diameter.
Few things in life bring me more pleasure than seeing you carrying one of your custom made pieces of filming equipment to a location. Another great video Martin!
I was waiting to see if there was a beam of light up into night sky after the light fell off, Wonderful episode again. I now have a certain Dead or Alive track playing in my head. ;)
It bounced off the walls a lot though, which slows it down considerably It really kills the acceleration which is 0.5*9.8*seconds _squared (in metres) . The squared is the bit that gets affected by bouncing, keeping the speed lower than you might first think. 5 seconds freefall is 125 metres, so yeah 400 foot or so for pure freefall. With the bouncing I think maybe 50 metres approx, so 150ft or more. Might be less, especially if it bounced on a small ledge and killed the speed a lot. I've done this sort of thing down inside the leg of an offshore oil rig with a camera system doing an inspection, so I've spent far more time than a sane person would estimating bouncing speeds and stupid stuff like that. We couldn't find a long enough rope to measure the drop so we finished in the pub and just made the dimensions up for the report. (leg was filled with concrete as ballast and it had been partly blasted out and removed as rubble as it was scrapped, then the job was halted without any documentation)
Martin, you just keep producing quality. I cant put my finger on why, exactly, but its one of your best. It has to be something to do with inserting COC down the long shaft. A double-entendre worthy of any Carry On film.
Next time have another rope attached and take it around other side of the hole. This will help insert/extract it by centering over the hole with a second person handling the line over there. It will also help reduce spinning to a certain extent on the way down. Much better would be to install a pulley on the crawler.Mmake it into a long triangular frame shape - look at a car trailer nose - the long smooth triangle frame shape will help clear obstacles on the way up and make it more stable on the way down. Mount the pully at the top of the triangle, where the trailer hitch would be. You'll need at least a 3 or 4 inch pulley for best effect - smaller may snag. Make sure pulley is enclosed at either side (so you have to thread thread the rope around it by poking it through, making it impossible for the rope to come off the side and the crawler fall off) A smaller diameter pulley will just drive you crazy - trust me. This will reduce spinning further especially if it is a large pulley diameter. You could then tie far side rope off to a fencepost and lower/raise only from one side. You'd need twice the length of rope of course. Regarding the depth - hard to tell with the light bouncing of the walls on the way down but a freefall drop of 1 second would be 5 metres, 2 seconds would be about 20 metres, 3 seconds about 45 metres, 4 second about 80 metres, 5 seconds about 125 metres. Use the simplified formula 5 x (number of seconds, squared) eg: 8 seconds freefall drop, distance is 5 x 8x8 = 320metres So, my guess is somewhere between 20 and 60 metres for your shaft when the light fell. seemed to be 4 seconds but it was bouncing off the side which slows the accelaration down a lot (coz of the 'squared' bit in the equation, innit)
@@MartinZero also, just like the triangular shape of a trailer hitch will help prevent snagging, any protrusions (light brackets, camera brackets) would benefit from having a long smooth triangle shape at the rear of them to prevent snagging. I suspect the light was caught on the lip of the shaft and got knocked off. If you had a triangular frame (just a bit of 1x1 or 1x2" wood will do) bolted on the upper side of the crawler rising up to the lamp backet, it would have just slip up the triangle rail and not got caught. So rather than a simple flat, two-dimensional car trailer, think of a car trailer base with a horsebox mounted on it. What you want is an extra triangular rail from the hitch point (where the pulley is) to the top front of the pointy-tallest bit of the horsebox roof, so that, if you lowered a horsebox down a mineshaft, the roof of the horsebox wouldn't catch on the lip[ when you pull it back out. Any other protrusions need a similar triangular rail to help slide and not get caught. If you build this, test it by pulling it around the corners and angles of your house on the floor. If it snags on the door frames or walls, you need more triangular shapes to make it smooth to pull around the corners. Flippin eck, shapes are hard to describe in RU-vid comments haha.
Fascinating insights. A tribute to those that passed doing hard graft in horrific conditions. Thanks yet again for sharing, beats Eastenders hands down.
The more you delve into the past, the more you begin to doubt the official narrative. Extremely extravagant to build a huge celler just to store grain. Especially back in the 1500's. Not as if there was a lack of space. Also the building was designed with a cellar obviously not an afterthought. Excellent video thanks.
Just catching on some of your videos. They certainly were great builders way back then. The stonework looks as if it will last a few more hundred years! It is unbelievable the shaft was not capped off. You can imagine some idiot trying to get a better look and never seen again............. So glad you all were sensible to be cautious. Great video guys.
Hello Martin! I meant to contact you two weeks ago, just after you posting this. I have to admit that I have neglected to tune into your videos of late but two days after you aired this video I took the tram to East Didsbury. Long story short, I was killing time while waiting for Halfords to fit a tyre and lockdown being lockdown, there was nowt to do in Oldham so I decided to have a tram ride having never been on the Greater Manchester network before. I cocked up and bought an all day £4.90 ticket. I was only planning on going to Rochdale then back to Oldham but decided to "get my moneys worth" and ended up in Didsbury (then back again). En-route we passed Hartford Mill and you sprung back to mind. Further down the track, in town, we passed the various canals down there and your drone "experience" popped back into my head. Once home I tuned in again. It had been awhile yet there you was, flying another drone over an abyss. Quite bizarre how life pans out at times. You mentioned in your video about link tunnels to Haugh in Newhey. In 2009 I got involved in a voluntary project with Groundwork Oldham where we excavated the surface of Jubilee Colliery (also featured in one of you videos). During the work we had the pleasure of being introduced to a father and son who had been miners (as I recall, the father was in his late 80's or early 90's). They informed us that Jubilee Colliery was also linked to the mines at Haugh. Sadly we had to "make safe" the excavations that we had done (bloody Health & Safety Executive) but I am glad to see that it has all been opened up again for the general public to see. Whilst on the subject of inter-connected mine shafts; Royton (my hometown) and surrounding areas were also extensively mined in years gone by. Royton Colliery (where Royton Park is now) had to be shut down in 1903 due to a breach and subsequent flooding from the colliery on Oldham Edge but Royton Colliery was also connected with mines in The Scotch (half way between Royton and Chadderton), Hanging Chadder (top of Royton at The Summit) and those at Crompton, and I'm sure others besides. When you look at the old terraced property in the region, you can see wonky walls and crooked this, that and the other due to subsidence over the years. A bit of news that you might already have heard. I don't know if you access the Oldham Chronicle/Oldham Times in any way but apparently what remains of Hartford Mill is now going to be demolished within the next couple of weeks. The delay has been blamed on Covid-19. Hasn't EVERYTHING been blamed on that? Anyway, just so you know.
Valiant effort with COC rover :) , got some footage of the shaft and that wonderful stone work. Even the light boldly sacrificed itself for collecting data from the depths. Well done under the circumstances and materials at hand. That root cellar was just spectacular, the care in the stone work is haughtily beautiful. Drone shots really cinematic. Thank you for taking us there!
Martin & James. Hap Hap HAPPY NEW YEAR. Boy the stone work in those rooms kinda underground was awesome. I marvel at the fitting of each stone. Enjoyed. Thank You
Great vid Mart, those storage cellars were awesome! The brickwork was immaculate - the arches and the doorways - Wow! Amazing views at the end too! James is a fab part of these vids too! James new word - Ambiance, lol
I am always amazed at what is left lying around. Another great video. Thanks for the dedication to those miners who had lost their lives. James seems to have become a fully-fledged explorer now, he was so shy on that first one.
The footage from inside the shaft was stunning (and rather trippy). The workmanship must have been excellent for it to still be in such good condition. I shudder now, thinking that as a kid I used to play on the site of an old mine in Oldham. Terrifying to consider that all that stood between us and a gruesome end might have been some rotten planks beneath a layer of sod.
Thanks Martin lovely video, very sad about those young men dying down there what a way to go!, I was very impressed how well that shaft was built the brickwork looked still in very good condition PS James seems to be coming out of his shell he seems more relaxed with the camera
This was amazing - I loved it! The brick lining on that shaft is incredible. I do hope you’ll be treating this as a Scout/rekkie exercise and will go back and do it again, I’d love to know what is at the bottom! As you said, incredible those shafts are still there like that. A lot of the mining history was very aggressively being completely obliterated at one time - I hope for the guys who were trying to protect it that things have now changed. This is the heritage of our ancestors 💕
Happy New Year Martin and the team, great video very interesting as always. What would we do without you on a Sunday. The fish and chips looked delicious got my mouth watering.
Lovely Martin, the skills and know how of those days I believe outweigh what we know about overcoming structural obstacles nowadays.. Your excellent documentary keeps the record alive. Our ancestors of not that long ago would have enjoyed living a full life, not least the experience of the comradery and satisfaction of conjointly overcoming problems.
Where you are munching your chips is near a historically significant site. It is where the Manchester Palls brigades were stationed prior to being shipped out to the trenches in WW1. Hollinworth Lake was built to feed the canal at Summit (the highest lock in England) There is a visitors center there explaining it a bit. They even have the original sluice which was an innovative design! Glad you returned to the sunny side of the hill safe and sound!
Am I alone in thinking it criminally insane to leave a shaft as unprotected as this? No proper capping or even signage. Skippy must have reported thousands of kids lost down there over the years. Another great vid, Martin. Thanks as ever for all you do.
Great to see the return of COC Rover! Given that men have been digging stuff out of the ground for centuries it makes me wonder just how many capped mineshafts there are out there. Perhaps that picturesque-looking hollow in a wood has rotting boards and a 50-foot drop below it. Not that I'm paranoid or anything!
Right next to my estate this . I have found 4 shafts up there so far . They are soooooo deep . Thrown some rocks down some when I was young and they took ages to reach the bottom. The shafts are all over the reservoirs and lead up to the farms and over to hollingworth lake. Some shafts are on farmland so cant really be accessed.
Great video again, very informative, especially love the mines on the moors. A nice touch and respectful of you mentioning the gentlemen who died that day. I think there is that fascination and curiousity with deep dark holes that we are drawn towards. I hail from Darwen, lots of moorland and countryside and many mineshafts and old workings that scar the moors dotted round our tower (Jubilee Tower) would love to see what old mines and stories we have from them moors. As the rhyme goes..."From the hills so bleak and barren lies the town of dirty darren" (Darwen). All the best.
fantastic we went walking round here last year up past piethorne and lee reservoirs ...brilliant area we went right up to the top of the moors and the views are fantastic....didnt see the store rooms because you said you could walk right by them...really enjoyd this though Cheers martin...stay safe.... Frank & Lee.....Lancs Walks.....
Yet another great video to start the year thanks Martin and a very Happy New Year to you and the boys hope you had a good Christmas under the covet problem
