Facit Stone Mine - Manchester / Rochdale - Oct 2012

[Danny Sutton]

Visited with Buddah (ucet), AndyJ (CPC), MY Lad (PITA)

with the recent barrage of trips we needed a rest, but as no one could bare to sit at home for 2 days on the run we decided a local, simple walk around trip was in order.

The location was chosen and a plan set in place! We had all been here before, Andy had never found the through trip, when me and Buddah visited, we encounter torrential rain on the walk up, soaking us and our camera equipment, meaning neither of us had and decent pictures.

we decided that my self, my lad and buddah would meet up with andy at the mine parking, i was meeting buddah the other side of manchester at my mums house, where we would share a car up to meet andy. the arranged time for us to meet was 9am, having been mooching with Buddah for as long as i have, i knew he would be late. when i was 15 mins from my mums, i got a text off buddah telling me he will be 5 mins, i still got to my mums a good 10 mins before him, meaning we were allready 15 mins late setting off to meet Andy.

After the usual, "need the shop" and "which way is it" we met up with andy a good 20 mins late, as always he was well impressed, but still not as impressed as he was the time we were 2 hours late.

After parking up and getting the wellies on, we set off on the 5 min walk to the hole, well it's more of a climb up a horrible hill, we were soon there and in we went. Within 2 mins of getting in the mine i remembered why we hadn't re-visited it sooner, the place is one loud noise off a total disaster, there is hanging death everywhere and the stuff on the floor is lose, so loose you feel like you may slip to your death with every step you take.

We started to navigate our way through the mine trying to work from a 2 year old memory, the place is a total nightmare if i'm honest, it is well known for been hard to navigate and there has been various cave rescues from here, the best been in 1989 when a group managed to end up stuck in there for 3 days after taking a wrong turn.

Our trip was quite uneventful, just involving a few slips and trips and only one wrong turn which took us on a 20min detour.
My advice to anyone who would like to visit, dont bother, there isnt much to see and the place is falling apart.

some pics

[Ian A]

Good report and great pics. Very similar to Scout Mine in Rossendale but looks a little larger  

[Danny Sutton]

Never been in Ian, I think andy and dave had a look in it a few weeks back, there is supposed to be one over that way somewhere that was converted into a WW2 airraid shelter in the early 40's complete with air lock to protect a gas attack

[Ian A]

I haven't heard about that ... Scout mine has nothing like it. I lived a few hundred yards away from it for several years. I don't know of any war stuff either but I was not active underground then (Pre 1992) Could be all sorts around there though  

[Doug Thompson]

Great pictures, what the hell is that skull. :unsure:  :unsure:  :unsure:

[Danny Sutton]

I think it's a horse skull

[Doug Thompson]

[quote="Mad-Dan" post=10232]I think it's a horse skull[/quote]

Definately not a horse. :S

[Danny Sutton]

No idea than Doug, it's been in there for years