Saturday - 14th July 2001
People present - Pete Dale, Duncan Jones

After searching the web for places to visit we came across a report by Jack Nadin of the Burnley Caving Club. Reading his report he rambled on about some very interesting Victorian stone mines near Crawshawbooth in Rossendale, Lancashire. So without further hesitation I contacted him for more information about them and arranged a trip. Strange as it may seem there seemed to be a distinct lack of interest for some reason (Typical!!)

The day arrived all too quickly, so I drove around to Duncan's loaded the car with copious amounts of ropes and krab's, then set off to find them. Forty-five minutes later we had arrived at Crawshawbooth and after a few laps of the village we found the road up to the mines. (Luckily jack had emailed us precise directions) parking the car in a rather dodgy area I proceeded to immobilise my car by removing various parts of the engine (Very dodgy area). Once that was done we then got changed but not into caving gear.

Since it was a hot day and there was no water in the mines we just put our over suits on. Negotiating the animal proof gate (string tied across two posts) we followed a worn path to the cliff face avoiding the nettles and brambles along the way. At last a dark hole appeared at the base of the cliff and beckoned us to venture inside. After having a good look round and coming out of different entrances numerous times we just couldn't find the crane that was supposedly in here but being Red Rose we weren't for giving up and back in we went, 30 minutes later success we'd found it. We then spent quarter of an hour or so playing with it (Steady I meant the crane!!!) when we were satisfied and had enough we headed for the exit but not without examining an old Pepsi can (Late 80's) which was amongst some rubbish dumped there.

Out in the open again we cut our way through the undergrowth back to the car, which luckily for us was still there. We took our over suits off, put the car back together and sped off home to go and do some Tomb Raiding.

Well what can I say about these old mines, well? Nothing! Oh yeah, its got a nice crane!