I start this post with a photograph of my first car, a Mini, I used to dash round the Lake District in this little beast in the 1980s, I have very few photos of my beloved little car but the ones I do have are taken a Hodge Close - another of my old haunts.
Having visited Cathedral Quarry I decided to shoehorn a quick visit to Hodge Close before my return home, being at the other side of the old Tilberthwaite mining area, a short distant from Coniston.
Hodge Close is a disused green slate quarry which closed just before World War II, a massive hole in the ground now frequented by rock climbers with its "Wicked Willie" and divers who explore its flooded depths of the main pool and the many flooded mine shafts and tunnels - the latter having claimed the lives of a growing number of divers.
The archway on the right used to have a piece of railway track dangling for a few metres above the water, sadly now destroyed by a rock fall.
Moving away from the top of the quarry (its a long way down and slate chippings cinematically fall as you nervously stand on the edge) a short walk up the track brings you to the top of the dry side of the quarry and a steep walk down into the bowels of quarry carefully manouvering the boulders and slippery slate scree.
As I drove home I cursed the day I sold my little Mini, as you do.....
Having visited Cathedral Quarry I decided to shoehorn a quick visit to Hodge Close before my return home, being at the other side of the old Tilberthwaite mining area, a short distant from Coniston.
Hodge Close is a disused green slate quarry which closed just before World War II, a massive hole in the ground now frequented by rock climbers with its "Wicked Willie" and divers who explore its flooded depths of the main pool and the many flooded mine shafts and tunnels - the latter having claimed the lives of a growing number of divers.
The archway on the right used to have a piece of railway track dangling for a few metres above the water, sadly now destroyed by a rock fall.
Moving away from the top of the quarry (its a long way down and slate chippings cinematically fall as you nervously stand on the edge) a short walk up the track brings you to the top of the dry side of the quarry and a steep walk down into the bowels of quarry carefully manouvering the boulders and slippery slate scree.
As I drove home I cursed the day I sold my little Mini, as you do.....
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