I’ve compiled this report over a couple of solo missions into Pinner Quarry. The first one no one knew where I was, something I grew increasingly aware of the more I ventured into the right hand side . The second attempt I let TLR know where I was going in case I did not make it out, which was the sensible thing to do.
Pinner quarry is quarry where the drift is mined underground. They used to produce Haslingden flags, building stone, setts and engine beds. It’s main period of use was between 1841 and in 1923. However, there may have been a couple of years use in 1985 / 1986 with five miners.
It is mostly a hillside quarry, with the working face to the north. Any spoil was tipped behind. It has a total of eight entrances on the south side, most of which are blocked off. This explore covers the east side as far west as the new small-bore rifle range that runs down the middle.
My Descent
The first thing that hit me when I went into Pinner, having been in Scout Mine the week before, was the height of the ceiling. It is much, much lower by comparison. It is also much more complex straight off the bat, or so it would seem. The first adit on the left is completely collapsed, something I only properly appreciated on my second visit. And maybe that was for the best.
I took the next adit to the left and followed it along, stooping as I went to get through everly decreasing passageways. They must have been very short miners. Nothing to do with the roof having collapsed...
I found my first hanging stone around this section. These things are dotted all about in here.
I don't know why there are hanging stones, but I guess they must be for people to gather their bearings, which is to be fair what I would use them for later when I got lost.
Light painted the stone only in the darkness...
On the first visit I kept following this around. But on the second I kept left and discovered "P32", which is near to the infamous crane. At least that's what I think. There are two routes that I could see that might lead to it, which I took on my second trip. They are both into caved in sections and access to the areas beyond are through tight passages that require walking on hands and knees. The one around to the left (which has it's own hanging stone) meets with some pipes. I did not go through there in case I could not get out again. The other goes up this impressive cascade of fallen stone.
I wish I had used me for scale in this shot, but it's a bit tricky to light paint something this size with me in it on a solo mission. Those slabs of rock are significant in size though. I climbed up into the hole and there are rooms beyond, but those would require crawling and squirming into areas I wasn't sure I could get out of, so I left it for a solo mission.
I still had a poke about on my second visit to see what I could see and I found a deeper area more to the centre. I think this helps put into perspective the extent of some of the general state of collapse in here.
This is a great high section and you can see the workings where the stone has been mined out. This is more or less adjacent to the photo above with the hanging stone. You can see where the pillar would have been, which is now covered by what once was the ceiling. At least that's the impression to my inexperienced eye!
There are some flakes that are due to fall at some stage too - you can see them coming away from the ceiling.
On my original trip I followed the left hand path around to the right, missing out the photo above and passing the cascade of rock on my left. On this path, the ceiling and floor drew closer together the more I travelled on, to the point I was stooping / crawling past precarious looking pillars of piled stones and rotten wood.
There was a piece of string heading this way so I took comfort in that and let the string be my guide. As far as guides go, this string was pretty good. Didn't charge a penny and he led me deeper into the mine to the first part that felt like a proper passage. A nice stone wall lined area that has previously been home to tracks, because you could see where the sleepers once were.
My string guide clearly knew where he was going, so we carried on. Off to the right and left were plenty of mined out areas with some of the least convincing roof supports you've ever seen. Seriously. It's a rotten log perched on a stone with a branch on top.
I really like the dry walls that line these passages ways.
Along this path was one of my favorite sections and I decided to take a selfie. In terms of scale, it's a nice passage to walk along and free of any spoil.
Well mostly. I like these supports. At least they are not pretending to do something useful.
Unlike these skinny chaps, who seem to think they're really helping by balancing on one leg.
This passage eventually leads around to the exit next to the rifle range. But a decent adit leads off from that into the centre, which if I had taken the right adit when I got in the mine I would have found straight away. It have some primitive cave art.
Large open section, which you can reach by going right immediately or by following the track around from the left.
On my first visit I'd been underground for a couple of hours and was probably ready to go, but I still wanted to find the crane and decided to explore the right hand side in case it was there. It was quite well caved in in various places and (of course) the crane was not there.
This was an older cave in, which was clear enough from the worn tracks that wove over the fallen stone. Again, some less than convincing stonework is used to support the major wooden beam.
Through that gap was a lot more fallen ceiling, which I realised when I reach the beam on the other side.
Also on the right, another fallen section of ceiling. This looked fairly recent. There were more passageways and some more fallen rock. Probably a fair bit more to explore.
But for that trip, I was ready to go and left by the exit next to the rifle range. Happily they weren't shooting by I did make sure they weren't supposed to be before I went
I did get lost in the mine on my first visit, when I left my string guide to search some of the middle areas for the fucking crane. But I soon found myself again and I do not think this mine is really big enough to get properly lost in. There are some places I'd like to visit inside it, like the fucking crane, but I think I'll save those for when I have more company than a piece of string.
Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy the report.
Cheers, EOA
Pinner quarry is quarry where the drift is mined underground. They used to produce Haslingden flags, building stone, setts and engine beds. It’s main period of use was between 1841 and in 1923. However, there may have been a couple of years use in 1985 / 1986 with five miners.
It is mostly a hillside quarry, with the working face to the north. Any spoil was tipped behind. It has a total of eight entrances on the south side, most of which are blocked off. This explore covers the east side as far west as the new small-bore rifle range that runs down the middle.
My Descent
The first thing that hit me when I went into Pinner, having been in Scout Mine the week before, was the height of the ceiling. It is much, much lower by comparison. It is also much more complex straight off the bat, or so it would seem. The first adit on the left is completely collapsed, something I only properly appreciated on my second visit. And maybe that was for the best.
I took the next adit to the left and followed it along, stooping as I went to get through everly decreasing passageways. They must have been very short miners. Nothing to do with the roof having collapsed...
I found my first hanging stone around this section. These things are dotted all about in here.
I don't know why there are hanging stones, but I guess they must be for people to gather their bearings, which is to be fair what I would use them for later when I got lost.
Light painted the stone only in the darkness...
On the first visit I kept following this around. But on the second I kept left and discovered "P32", which is near to the infamous crane. At least that's what I think. There are two routes that I could see that might lead to it, which I took on my second trip. They are both into caved in sections and access to the areas beyond are through tight passages that require walking on hands and knees. The one around to the left (which has it's own hanging stone) meets with some pipes. I did not go through there in case I could not get out again. The other goes up this impressive cascade of fallen stone.
I wish I had used me for scale in this shot, but it's a bit tricky to light paint something this size with me in it on a solo mission. Those slabs of rock are significant in size though. I climbed up into the hole and there are rooms beyond, but those would require crawling and squirming into areas I wasn't sure I could get out of, so I left it for a solo mission.
I still had a poke about on my second visit to see what I could see and I found a deeper area more to the centre. I think this helps put into perspective the extent of some of the general state of collapse in here.
This is a great high section and you can see the workings where the stone has been mined out. This is more or less adjacent to the photo above with the hanging stone. You can see where the pillar would have been, which is now covered by what once was the ceiling. At least that's the impression to my inexperienced eye!
There are some flakes that are due to fall at some stage too - you can see them coming away from the ceiling.
On my original trip I followed the left hand path around to the right, missing out the photo above and passing the cascade of rock on my left. On this path, the ceiling and floor drew closer together the more I travelled on, to the point I was stooping / crawling past precarious looking pillars of piled stones and rotten wood.
There was a piece of string heading this way so I took comfort in that and let the string be my guide. As far as guides go, this string was pretty good. Didn't charge a penny and he led me deeper into the mine to the first part that felt like a proper passage. A nice stone wall lined area that has previously been home to tracks, because you could see where the sleepers once were.
My string guide clearly knew where he was going, so we carried on. Off to the right and left were plenty of mined out areas with some of the least convincing roof supports you've ever seen. Seriously. It's a rotten log perched on a stone with a branch on top.
I really like the dry walls that line these passages ways.
Along this path was one of my favorite sections and I decided to take a selfie. In terms of scale, it's a nice passage to walk along and free of any spoil.
Well mostly. I like these supports. At least they are not pretending to do something useful.
Unlike these skinny chaps, who seem to think they're really helping by balancing on one leg.
This passage eventually leads around to the exit next to the rifle range. But a decent adit leads off from that into the centre, which if I had taken the right adit when I got in the mine I would have found straight away. It have some primitive cave art.
Large open section, which you can reach by going right immediately or by following the track around from the left.
On my first visit I'd been underground for a couple of hours and was probably ready to go, but I still wanted to find the crane and decided to explore the right hand side in case it was there. It was quite well caved in in various places and (of course) the crane was not there.
This was an older cave in, which was clear enough from the worn tracks that wove over the fallen stone. Again, some less than convincing stonework is used to support the major wooden beam.
Through that gap was a lot more fallen ceiling, which I realised when I reach the beam on the other side.
Also on the right, another fallen section of ceiling. This looked fairly recent. There were more passageways and some more fallen rock. Probably a fair bit more to explore.
But for that trip, I was ready to go and left by the exit next to the rifle range. Happily they weren't shooting by I did make sure they weren't supposed to be before I went
I did get lost in the mine on my first visit, when I left my string guide to search some of the middle areas for the fucking crane. But I soon found myself again and I do not think this mine is really big enough to get properly lost in. There are some places I'd like to visit inside it, like the fucking crane, but I think I'll save those for when I have more company than a piece of string.
Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy the report.
Cheers, EOA
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Nice pics 
