Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | The Modern Antiquarian Forum

VenerableBottyBurp

675 posts

Re: Hang on Hang on !

Jun 01, 2005, 20:26

There is no known burial Jo-anne, and there have been one top to bottom shaft 1776-7 (this started the problem), then a tunnel in 1849, and they cut side galleys in and around the centre that in plan view looks like an asphix key shape, and another tunnel was cut in 1968 joining the older tunnel.

The problem is that it wasn't known that the shaft was never properly backfilled because no record was made at the time and EH and their state ancestors have never kept any records in over 120 years, so a pattern of material dropping down the shaft wasn't noticed and was continually topped up by maintenance crews who throught the damage caused by rabbits. This material in the shaft eventually collapsed because the 1968 tunnel was refilled by spoil being blown back in (a standard mining technique at the time) and this left voids as it wasn't truly compacted. Roof falls above these voids finally combined with rain from above and material collapsed down the shaft in 2000. A further major collapse occurred because EH ignored advice to use a tarpaulin cover and went for a metal cover suspended on scaffold poles, this collected water and as they had fitted no means of guttering it deposited the water down the shaft, the metal cover inevitably attracted ice loading that made the structure multiply its own weight by Ks, thus it collapsed into the hole sending more precious archaeology into oblivion.

This is only part of the story of course.

Sorry, I have to go for my tea so haven't re-read this.

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Re: Hang on Hang on ! (Jo-anne)

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Re: Hang on Hang on ! (Jo-anne)

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