The WMS ladder shaft to the deep adit is currently 'no go' due to rotted timbers. Wilkinsons and other adits on the hill are unaffected.

 The intention is to refurbish the shaft with larch timbering and fit a trapdoor at the top to stop the air flow which is causing this problem as well as encouraging the growth of white fungus.

 As soon as this work is complete I will advise.

---

In July 2005 a group of friends from Welsh Mines Society and myself were successful in reaching the Talybont Deep Adit after finishing a vertical dig of about 75 feet deep in the bottom of a shaft. The current descent is by means of concrete/made up steps and fixed ladders, following 60 and 25 foot abseils. The entrance to the deep adit was buried in 1948 and now lies beneath a private garden. It was originally driven from the centre of the village in 1839 by the Flintshire Smelting Company of Eyton and Williamson, and cuts both of the two main mineral lodes crossing the Altycrib Hill. At the end of the drive a winze was sunk by a later company that was pumped by a power train running through the adit. The angle bob and adjacent horse whim chamber, complete with remains of the whim, are there to be seen today.

This whim is of the standard timber construction unlike the Vieille Montagne whim in the Scaleburn Mine at Nenthead, it does however have some ironwork in the form of a sort of collar for the horse.

A second dig is currently in progress in an attempt to reach other workings.

The history of this mine is of considerable interest, having the involvement of many notable characters including the ubiquitous Francis brothers, Sir Hugh Myddelton, Thomas Bushell, the notorious swindler Joseph Fell, and many others. My researches to date have discovered many previously unknown twists and turns.

I am currently writing a book about the history of the mine set against the project to gain access to the lost workings. It will take a completely new approach telling the whole story of the mine from Bronze Age up to and including the modern explorers.

It will also include full computer simulations of mining scenes in the mid nineteenth century which will appear as if a colour photograph taken on a modern camera. The area of the mine against the foreground of the Black Lion Inn, as it was in 1872, and a later scene in 1888.

The current project is the driving of a timbered roadway through falls to gain more new ground to the west. At the time of writing this we have gone 120 feet.

It is difficult to say at this time what the likelihood of success is. The going is very difficult due to the distance that rubble has to be moved. I am very fortunate in having the help of Paul Smyth who helps me in the winter months. Its a thankless task that is all the more thankless due to the fact that is may well turn out to be all for nothing, while at the same time the working conditions are terrible.