The first thing we came across was a shammeling shaft. If you look closely, you will see the figure of a man (waxwork) eight foot up inside this shaft. This was as high as a man standing below him could throw a shovel full of ore, so he could throw it up another eight feet. Backbreaking work, and think of all the rubble falling back down on the person at the bottom. They would do this all day long, too. Having climbed down into the depths of the mine down a shaft like this one.
Here we saw how they would follow a narrowing load in hopes of finding a another wider section. You can imagine working in such a narrow space.
Also they left parts of the lode in tact, joining one side to the other to stabilize the walls,you can just make out one of those bridges in this picture.
In addition to being hand shoveled up from one level to another, there was also a system of iron buckets called kibbles being pulled up by horses hauling on rope around a wooden drum at the the surface. This is called a horse whim.
To the left is an example of a kibble. It doesn't seem to hold all much, but remember how heavy that ore was and a man had to lift it into order to get it onto the horse whim.
To the right is the evidence of years of mining. A granite wall worn smooth by all the kibble dragging up this shaft to the surface.
Taking photographs underground turned out not to be the most successful of operations, but there are a few more sights and sounds (yes, a bit of atmostphere) I want to share with you. Since blogger is slow on the picture posting, I am going to get back to writing now, and will leave a few more pictures and words for next time.
Until then, Happy Rambles