MENDIP TIMES
Exploring Shipham’s Singing River Mine
HIDDEN in a private garden at Shipham is a ten metre shaft leading to Mendip’s longest mine, discounting Sandford Levvy and Pearl Mine With PHILIP on Western Mendip; HENDY two mines recently connected by digging and where exploration continues subject to Covid restrictions. Singing River Mine was dug for calamine in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the latter period it was financed by a chemist from Wells. Calamine, sphalerite or zinc carbonate, was a valuable ingredient in making brass and there were several brassworks in and around Bristol and Bath. The Shipham area produced around 70,000 tons of calamine over around 250 years. In the 1920s the mine was developed as a reservoir, but the water levels were too low to make it a viable proposition. Perhaps this is just as well, bearing in mind the Shipham cadmium scare in the late 1980s. The mine is 640m metres long and 25 metres deep, although most of it is mainly along one level, with networks of passages above. There were five shaft entrances, all now blocked except for one, which was found by members of the Axbridge Caving Group in 1971. This shaft is ginged (lined with stones, some of which are rather loose) and the descent takes explorers into a short horizontal passage. The upper part of the shaft is in Triassic marl, but the main body of the mine is in Dolomitic Conglomerate On my first visit we had difficulty finding the way into the main body of the mine, but a small hole at the top of a slope, at roof level, allowed a drop into a roomy passage and the mine proper. Nearby a short side passage leads to a small stream flowing noisily over pebbles; this gave the mine its present name. The main passage leads to a junction and the mine extends east and west for approximately the same distance in each direction. Although the single main passage runs from where water enters in the east to an impassable natural sink in the west, there is a maze of side passages and it is easy to become disorientated.
Chocolate Canal
Heading east, there is a series of interconnected passages, the East Series, to the left, but the main way on leads to a chamber, Stinking Gulf. Here there is sometimes a pool of water and a choked 22 metre shaft to the surface. Close to it is a narrow borehole, driven when the mine was intended as a reservoir. A wooden plank allows a precarious crawl over the water to reach the high and wide Great Hall. This is also often flooded and a three metre flooded shaft on the left awaits the unwary. Here the passage divides. To the left is East Drive, while to the right the passage leads under the choked 20 metre East Shaft, to a wet level where a stream enters on the left. Returning to the junction, the West Series is entered, via the Chocolate Canal. When first entered, this low passage was floored with copious amounts of glutinous chocolate-coloured mud, but this has now gone, thanks to the passage of cavers stirring it up to allow the stream to wash it away. One side of this passage was walled with unwanted stone deads, which avoided the task of taking the waste to the surface. The stream follows an impassable route, but a short passage on the right leads to Six Ways Chamber, with short extensions and a choked shaft in the roof. At the end of the chamber, a four metre drop re-enters the main passage. Just after another blocked shaft to the surface, the water becomes deeper, as a series of pools. Off from these are flooded
CAVING
passages, which when first seen, before the water becomes clouded with disturbed sediment, are an enchanting blue colour. This led to them being called the Blue Holes. Care must be taken to avoid falling into them. At the end of the passage, the stream finally disappears into a narrow slot. It is not known where the water reappears, although somewhere in the Winterhead area would seem likely. Although the Blue Holes were wellknown, they were not properly investigated until 1994, when members of the Cave Diving Group explored and surveyed them. The largest Blue Hole has a chamber eight metres long and a loose shaft which descends to a large choked passage. It is not apparent how the miners stopped this working from flooding while they were excavating it. In many ways Singing River Mine resembles a cave, with its maze of passages, all roughly at the same level. The ochre mines of the Sandford area, such as King Mine, were natural caves which filled with ochre probably during the Triassic period. The miners then picked out the ore back to the limestone, leaving a cave with walls covered in pick marks. Calamine, however, is a more solid ore, occurring in veins. The large passages of Singing River Mine are the result of the conglomerate being dug and blasted out to ease access and working. A visit combines the adventure of caving with the chance to explore some industrial archaeology.
Phil has been caving for more than 50 years and is a member of the Wessex Cave Club. He has been involved in producing several caving publications and until his retirement was a caving instructor at Cheddar. His main interest is digging for new caves
PAGE 62 • MENDIP TIMES • JULY 2021
(Photograph by Phil Hendy)
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