Exploring North Bradda Mine

Exploring North Bradda Mine, Isle of Man, with members of the Laxey Mines Research Group.

Transcript

00:00 My name's Pete Geddes of the Laxey Mines Research Group. There are about 23 of us and we are a

00:09 semi-professional operative outfit now. Primarily it's to promote the mining history of the Isle

00:15 of Man. We've done quite big civil engineering projects for the government and we continue to

00:19 do so making the mines safe by sealing entrances and capping shafts. But it's a very serious

00:26 undertaking and we are very professional about what we do.

00:30 So all these, like to all these things above our head, these are all original timbers from the,

00:35 they may look like they've been put here by us but they're not, those are original to the mine.

00:40 There's around about 120 mines on the island, some from small stock trials up to major workings such

00:50 as Foxtail. In North Braddagh, again above sea level and considerably deeper below sea level,

00:57 the North Braddagh Mining Company worked for copper and lead from probably about 1840 right

01:04 up to the turn of the century. When we first went in Braddagh in the 80s we realised there's a great

01:13 risk and danger in there because the workings as we would follow it through and we had the

01:19 proper helmets and cap lamps and everything. But we found it was riddled with deep internal

01:25 shafts going down to water and that was a bit of a concern so we've had to make it as safe as it

01:30 would have been back in the mining days. The real purpose is documenting the mining history. So we

01:37 do a lot of underground surveying with both optical instruments and magnetic instruments.

01:42 We draw up the mine workings, we try and piece together exactly how it worked and in order to

01:49 do this we have to find these areas that we've never been into before. So that's the incentive,

01:55 it's the excitement in that adventure on finding new passages that have never been seen since the

02:02 mine closed. People say why do you do it? The only thing I can come up with is the darkness

02:12 beckons. There is the serenity of it, the peacefulness, the tranquility of it. You're

02:19 own people when you're down there, you're not being burdened by anything else, your mind is

02:24 free and rid of everyday life that's several hundred feet up above you. The guys get on with

02:31 their work, they run like a well-oiled mechanism and then they have a bit of a morning break and

02:37 lunchtime and they'll go out and sit on a little picnic lawn and have a chat and that's exactly

02:43 what the miners would have done.

02:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]