Grinshill Copper Mine

Last weekend I was able to go on an exploration of the old copper mine underneath Grinshill, north of Shrewsbury. I'm not sure I would have volunteered if I'd known what was involved; including climbing down a very long ladder through a manhole, traversing above a yawning gulf, and crawling 50 yards along a tunnel. It was a good thing to have done, as distinct from a good thing to be doing.

The photos are by Mike Robins.
That's me in the blue jacket and pale pink trousers.

It's definitely not me disappearing through the hole at the top of the rope!

The experience was quite different from going down a coalmine. It wasn't damp, but very dry, with a coating of fine dust everywhere. There were no dangerous gases, so the miners worked with candles rather than Davy lamps. There were several levels deep below us, which had been worked from entries lower down the hill. In the walls, we saw patterns of brownish-red, indicating the presence of iron deposits, but hardly any signs of the greenish colour of copper.
    The mine was closed in the early 1960s.