Saw Captain Slows report on Broken Britain about this site and thought to myself "gotta get myself there"
Hood_mad and I parked in the little village just past the layby with the broken 5' pipes in it.
Walked down the path from the layby and entered the main site.
We got a bit spooked by the abundance of security cameras and I spotted a guy in the distance (inside the site) getting into his car.
We dove behind a couple of the bags of coal and he drove past us.
By this point, we were really spooked and thought about binning the explore.
But then we grew some Bo***cks and followed the direction of the car down across the river to the other site.
We had a quick shifty around, taking a couple of pictures and then we saw the guy again. We approached him and had a chat.
He told us the colliery side is shut, but that the washery side of the complex is still open, they import the coal from abroad as it's apparently cheaper than getting it out of the ground 100M away. (They can't get insurance - Health and safety looking after British businesses).
We got permission from the guy in the yellow shirt (Kevin) to have a walk round, we asked about security and he said there was none at all. We were over the moon.
On the bridge over to the washery
Kevin
Short Vid of inside the washery.
http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd290/jhfozzy/UE/Betws%20Colliery/?action=view&current=08052008031.flv
The unwashed coal store.
Little Bobcat.
Loading Shovel.
After we'd had a chat with the workers, we made our way over to the site of the colliery.
Light Tower.
Conveyor.
Belt.
Big washing container.
Inside the top hut to the left in the previous picture, containing the motor for the washer, there was a nice shiney plaque.
Another conveyor.
Start of the main conveyor, this is the way to the mineshaft. ****BEWARE - VERY RUSTY WALKWAY****.
Old Mondeo and BMW.
Collapsed office buildings.
Hollow Cathode lamp.
Loads of them!!!
Another high one.
Coal dust.
After doing a full loop round the building, we decided to go in.
Inside, I realised the major fault with my N95, the flash is very, very poor. It was ok if I was within 1M of the item or we could get a lamp on the area, useless otherwise.
DSLR on the christmas list then.
dark pics from now on.
We kept in line with the warnings and kept out hard hats on.
Hilti staples?
Left my mark.
Hood went one further. :x
Equipment dampers.
Spare belts right at the top of the building (4 flights of stairs up, about 100ft in pitch darkness)
Going back down.
Shot outside.
Some coal.
On our way to the next building.
Dust dampers.
On our way down.
Mmmm, nice.
Communications.
Notices.
Bags of coal.
This is my kind of place, loads of sparky kit, panels and panels of leccy stuff, heaven. 8) 8)
Main Comms panel.
Backup batteries galore.
More leccy kit.
Right at the top of the rotten walkway, across the bridge which is next the the main gate, we found the main mineshaft.
We only went about 20M in, the shaft walls and roof were in great condition, the ground was a bit slushy, and the air was a bit stale. We will be back, with BA kit though.
Looking back, out of the mine.
Above and to the right of the shaft was another building, containing the main switches and breakers for the whole site.
Two 400KVA transformers and a smaller 14.4KVA one were just to the far end of this
Moving back over the bridge, there's some more circuitry here.
Into the third building, acroos the bags of coal.
Some more stirrers.
Upstairs in this building.
Site electrical schematics.
More panels.
I hope you enjoy the pics.
J.
Hood_mad and I parked in the little village just past the layby with the broken 5' pipes in it.
Walked down the path from the layby and entered the main site.
We got a bit spooked by the abundance of security cameras and I spotted a guy in the distance (inside the site) getting into his car.
We dove behind a couple of the bags of coal and he drove past us.
By this point, we were really spooked and thought about binning the explore.
But then we grew some Bo***cks and followed the direction of the car down across the river to the other site.
We had a quick shifty around, taking a couple of pictures and then we saw the guy again. We approached him and had a chat.
He told us the colliery side is shut, but that the washery side of the complex is still open, they import the coal from abroad as it's apparently cheaper than getting it out of the ground 100M away. (They can't get insurance - Health and safety looking after British businesses).
We got permission from the guy in the yellow shirt (Kevin) to have a walk round, we asked about security and he said there was none at all. We were over the moon.
On the bridge over to the washery
Kevin
Short Vid of inside the washery.
http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd290/jhfozzy/UE/Betws%20Colliery/?action=view&current=08052008031.flv
The unwashed coal store.
Little Bobcat.
Loading Shovel.
After we'd had a chat with the workers, we made our way over to the site of the colliery.
Light Tower.
Conveyor.
Belt.
Big washing container.
Inside the top hut to the left in the previous picture, containing the motor for the washer, there was a nice shiney plaque.
Another conveyor.
Start of the main conveyor, this is the way to the mineshaft. ****BEWARE - VERY RUSTY WALKWAY****.
Old Mondeo and BMW.
Collapsed office buildings.
Hollow Cathode lamp.
Loads of them!!!
Another high one.
Coal dust.
After doing a full loop round the building, we decided to go in.
Inside, I realised the major fault with my N95, the flash is very, very poor. It was ok if I was within 1M of the item or we could get a lamp on the area, useless otherwise.
DSLR on the christmas list then.
dark pics from now on.We kept in line with the warnings and kept out hard hats on.
Hilti staples?
Left my mark.
Hood went one further. :x
Equipment dampers.
Spare belts right at the top of the building (4 flights of stairs up, about 100ft in pitch darkness)
Going back down.
Shot outside.
Some coal.
On our way to the next building.
Dust dampers.
On our way down.
Mmmm, nice.
Communications.
Notices.
Bags of coal.
This is my kind of place, loads of sparky kit, panels and panels of leccy stuff, heaven. 8) 8)
Main Comms panel.
Backup batteries galore.
More leccy kit.
Right at the top of the rotten walkway, across the bridge which is next the the main gate, we found the main mineshaft.
We only went about 20M in, the shaft walls and roof were in great condition, the ground was a bit slushy, and the air was a bit stale. We will be back, with BA kit though.
Looking back, out of the mine.
Above and to the right of the shaft was another building, containing the main switches and breakers for the whole site.
Two 400KVA transformers and a smaller 14.4KVA one were just to the far end of this
Moving back over the bridge, there's some more circuitry here.
Into the third building, acroos the bags of coal.
Some more stirrers.
Upstairs in this building.
Site electrical schematics.
More panels.
I hope you enjoy the pics.
J.
