Underground Geevor Mine. The non offical trip.

[@duncan.scobie]

Fascinating thank you . Always blows my mind to think what is beneath ones feet. Went down Geevor when I was on school trip to Carnyorth. Went down 1100 ft , fown the angled shaft. Even went to a drilling face as it was being drilled . The noise was incredible. Imagine a group of 11 Yr olds being allowed to do that now?! Was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had .

[@RichieRees77]

I remember going down there when the museum first opened, had loads of pumps trains, and the old stables. Shame it wasn't cost effective to keep the pumps and head gear operational.

[@tobyoutterside5763]

Back in the 90's when it shut the owners continued to pump water out for 10 years at a cost of roughly 25 thousand pounds a week

[@timwright8785]

Another great 👍 video ben was talking to old bloke down Sennen few months ago he worked at geevor for 40 years had been down to 2100 feet and said there's absolutely loads of machinery and equipment still down there

[@BenoCam]

Yeah I bet. Such a shame it will never be seen again.

[@NicSkerten]

Fascinating trip Ben. Knew a few of the people who worked at Geevor when I was a teenager. back in the late 60s. So sad to see that they have allowed so much of the workings to flood. As a heritage site they really should have had more investment to maintain access to more of the workings. It's been ages since I've been there - used to spend a lot of time rummaging through the spoil tips around Geevor, Botallack and Levant back in the 60s when nobody gave a bugger about people collecting. Great shame it's not accessible any more.

[@KernowekTim]

Righton Ben. Nice to tune in again. An old mate, Ray Stone, lived up Truro Hill opposite Dickie Dunstan's 'shop' back-a-long, down Penryn. Ray was a bit of a loner, lived with his Gran, loved keeping tropical fish (1960's/early '70's). He ended up, being one of the very finest miners ever to have gone below ground at Geevor, before Thatcher dumped on us . Funny how mining can make firm men of even the quietest least 'in your face' men. Ray must've been born to be a great miner..Your Dad will remember Dickie Dunstan's black-smith 'shop'. Cheers for the trip. Take care. Chons da!

[@digdilem]

Very interesting, thanks. I did the tourist tour of the shallow workings a few years ago, but always wondered about what was down the 'real mine'. Now I know a little of it.

[@BenoCam]

I think they like the pretend this bit doesn’t exist. They tell everyone it’s underwater 🙈

[@onchnc3546]

Great video. My Mums cousin worked there, Rodney Trevorrow. Lived in Carnyorth Terrace.

[@WidleyWesident]

I’ve always worked for companies that really take health and safety seriously. They have always protected me against some of the most mild and also some pretty shocking and unique hazards that exist in the UK and abroad but seeing the Cornish mines, I’m always amazed by how dire the conditions and hazards that people took on when below ground. Even more so, that they worked in these conditions for years. Well done to them.

[@AManCalledBiggles]

I can't even begin to understand what it must've been like working in mines like these! When I think of commercial mining I think 6-12 ft wide/tall tunnels whereas I'm seeing spaces barely big enough to stand straight! I appreciate the unique views you bring us mere mortals ✌️

[@alanjones4622]

The tunnels we walked along from the inclined shaft under the sea were quite spacious, maybe 10 to 12 feet wide, I did not have a tape measure with me to check. Certainly no squeezing or having to duck. The tunnels had to be wide enough to get haulage equipment through to remove spoil and ore. The narrow passages shown on this video were not those in the main working part of the mine. If you go back to one minute and 59 seconds into the video there is a picture of the sub-incline shaft which goes off from the bottom of the victory shaft and out under the sea. As you can see the working area is very spacious, after all it had to accommodate the man riding train hauled by a cable and tubs for hauling up material, both side by side.

[@Pie-qg1rl]

My grandad used to work there from 18 until it closed, I'm a 13 year old girl now, and every time we visit cornwall (I'm cornish) he gets us in for free and he gives us a free tour, I would love to try get in there as theres only one you can freely go in.

[@therealbacon3384]

Awesome video as always Ben! I’ll have to find the photos that my great nan showed me when she visited the mine, I remember her saying that she could hear the waves crashing above her, I believe her husband at the time worked there and took her for a “date” down there lol

[@BenoCam]

Haha that’s brilliant. How romantic ! Must have done the trick though !

[@louisesouthgate5231]

Absolutely fascinating..... used to visir there when it was still working ..... so glad to have experienced that. Did go down so far . ... cant really remember, but did have the opportunity to visit the workings under the sea.... regret turning that down.... my parents went though. Such a pity they dont pump it out and maintain it.

[@BenoCam]

Glad you enjoyed. Sadly that’s all now deep underwater and will unlikely ever be seen again 😞

[@markwarner2257]

I went down about 6 months after Geevor had closed due to the world tin price falling. It was still being pumped and maintained at the time and the maintenance guys were taking people down in small groups, hoping that the price would recover to above above 6000 (pounds or dollars) per ton and make it worth mining again. They were telling me that many of the miners had gone to work in the channel tunnel at the time. We went down Victory shaft to various levels, seeing how they pumped sea water up to reservoir chambers in stages up to the drainage level. We saw the pump rooms and and some of the workings around 1000ft down . and then down the incline plane to about 2000 / 2100 ft down, I think even then there was a limit to how far down we could go due to the level of water in the lowest levels. It really was a fascinating day. Even the tour of the surface processing plant and a small museum at the time was really good.. I was so sad to go back a few years after this and find that the scrap men had been in and much of the surface processing buildings had gone with the ball mills and ore tables. Even the relatively new building near the gate that had the small museum had been demolished. It was sad to see. We did the then surface level tour but its wasn't a patch on how the mine was at the time of its closure.

[@BenoCam]

Cheers Mark. I bet you didn’t realise at the time what a rare window of time that was ! I can’t see it ever being pumped out again now. Maybe other places but not here.

[@markwarner2257]

@@BenoCam No I didn't realise, this must have been quite a short period of time. I had a certificate somewhere that details the levels we got down too signed by the guys who took us down I think.

[@TrustyGreyHound2]

Tin is at 24.000 pounds a ton at the moment

[@rogerfurneaux1529]

@@TrustyGreyHound2 That's why South Crofty is on track to re-open. There is a huge demand for tin from electronics, all of which has to be soldered, and now without lead. So maybe one day, with new pumps and cheaper power from wind turbines, who knows?

[@reginaldryan1811]

Inflation is how that occurs i believe ​@@TrustyGreyHound2

[@jamiewood4280]

Crackin job Ben. You and Vin get wet so we don't have to. Don't think there's any workings down here in Lanson, but if there is would love to have you here.

[@BenoCam]

Cheers Jamie

[@ianwood6814]

My late father in law was one one of the last men to (drive) the winder on the Victory shaft.

[@rickhowell3847]

Aha! Those steel beams notched in across the roof of the adit. We started to do the very same over at Allen's shaft (Botallack) which used Wheal Hazard adit. Covered over with corrugated iron sheets and backfilled over with bags of rubble. 1985 or thereabouts.

[@MarcLudford]

Its so exciting to visit 😊😊😊

[@dn.sw.explorer]

Cracking job Ben, Nice video.

[@BillSikes.]

Of all the accents found throughout Great Britain, i find the Cornish the most pleasant and easy on the ear

[@ali621000]

Brilliant Ben thanks for going down there I have visited Geevor a few times even earlier this year it’s amazing to see so much interesting machinery but wish we could still go down victory shaft I have seen an old tore videos of people visiting down to the 15 level and sub incline shaft looks so interesting such a shame they had to turn the pumps off with out you going down we wouldn’t see any of it 👍🏻 levant video is great too like that mine now to see what’s under there brilliant. Cheers

[@alanjones4622]

I went down the mine via the main shaft hoist in September 1989 and have a certificate to record the visit. We then went down the inclined shaft under the sea and along some of the tunnels. I think the mining engineer who led the tour was South African. Apart from some water on the tunnel floor it was quite dry. The temperature at the depth we went down to was quite warm, no jumpers required. The tunnels being working spaces were quite wide and not at all claustrophobic. As well as Cassiterite, the tin ore being mined, the engineer pointed out all the other traces of other heavy metals in a thin seam such as copper and uranium. The mud on the floor was red from all the iron oxide as well. All the areas we walked along are now deep under water. At the time the trips were used to finance running of the pumps to keep the mine dewatered in the hope that tin prices might rise in the future, but they never did and so the whole underground operation shut down. At the time for £7.50 I bought a hardback book in the visitor center which told the mine´s history. A good investment, obviously the book is long out of print and the current selling price of a copy is around 20 times that, though I would not part with my book.

[@BenoCam]

Ha Cheers Alan. Hope you enjoyed the video. Would love to have seen it before it was all flooded such a shame knowing its all still down there and will never be seen again. So very little you can see now and what you can get too they have locked it back up again now 😞 Still there is plenty of other interesting mines in the area which we can still look at 🙂

[@alanjones4622]

@@BenoCam I wish digital cameras were available in those days, not even so much as a camera phone then. Today I would have taken loads of pictures all over the site and the tunnels. A tour of the surface processing sheds was included too, we saw the vanning tables where the crushed ore was separated out to get the cassiterite for sending away for smelting. It was a large complex site on the surface. I remember some of the workers at the bottom of the shaft smoking, something miners could definitely not do down a coal mine. The cage went down the shaft at a fair old rate of knots and we got to meet the guy in charge of the winding operation. Nothing fancy and tarted up for the visitors, mining in it´s raw state, knobs and all.

[@Trylobyte]

Really interesting trip -amazing how much stuff had been left down there

[@sulray]

Thanks for sharing visited there 4 years ago, Very interesting Place. Distant relative worked on steam there in mid 1800s

[@seeul8rwaynekerr]

Thankyou for this Ben and Vinzo. I got to see only the mamby pamby parts when we visited the mine earlier this year. I'd have killed for a decent tour like this. Apparently the staff still get to ride the cage down once a year to these workings. So thankyou!!!

[@BenoCam]

Ha cheers. They must have stopped that now as those main wooden gates at the bottom have been permanently shut with bits of wood screwed across from the outside, so if you went down by cage now you wouldn’t be able to get out of the basket !

[@seeul8rwaynekerr]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qqS9lZR5eMyWfJY Here's the staff going down those staple ladders immediately alongside the main shaft. I saw the video a few weeks ago about you getting to the bottom of weathered shaft too. Again I took a tour and got shouted at for even approaching the grilled off cap and head frame. If it's grilled off and locked surely there is no danger to the public?

[@BenoCam]

@@seeul8rwaynekerr ah that makes sense. I thought you meant they took the cage down. Suprised they are allowed to use the ladders mind. I didn’t fancy climbing them !!

[@rabbitleader2307]

Really informative. Thank-you for taking the time and the effort to do this.

[@TheNorthernTsar]

Not just a “great pity” these Geevor workings are closed forever… but a “crying shame”, as well. Thankfully you two guys got to document some of what is now lost: the flooded access adit, old-modern pumps & Victory Shaft. When you were in the steep, narrow stope spotting the Ore-cart top (bin)… I’ll bet it’s carriage was spilled down one of those holes you were walking past?! I’ll bet, also, it made a clanging ruckus until it hit the Water-table and then made a great splash! lol

[@BenoCam]

Thank you. It’s a shame they don’t feel the same. They have in the past messaged me and asked me to remove and videos of us exploring mines in that area as they felt it encourages other underground, which if anything I think it does the opposite! They left it unlocked for several years but sadly it has a lock on again now.

[@StartledPancake]

Fanatstic insight into how hard is was to work in these places, although they probably knew not to wear wellies which made things a bit easier.

[@royfellows5468]

Hi again Ben, I went everywhere shown in the video back when the mine was working. I would have to check my records to give an exact year. I remember well dams that had recently been built in a futile attempt to buy some time as the mine slowly flooded. I have photos of all the massive pumps etc, now under water. I think I uploaded them to aditnow which is currently down, but will be back some time. I was offered a trip into Levant but it would have meant staying on and I had a business to run, so had to decline the offer. One of the biggest regrets of my life, some things money cant buy, worth remembering. Any old Geevor miners on here may remember me, I was always with a little chatty blonde lady and big on photography

[@BenoCam]

Cheers Roy always good to hear from you. Your name is often brought up when I speak to old miners and people who explored mines years ago who all remember you. Yes it was a pretty special time in history which I don’t think will ever be repeated. Sadly even in the last 10 years you can see these mines slowly start to degrade and collapse. There will be a time soon when many of these are not possible to explore sadly.

[@BenoCam]

As ever if you can think of any mines I haven’t covered yet that would make great videos feel free to suggest some. Botallack has always been on my list but I’m struggling to get some good underground footage there as so much of it is now no longer accessible. Wish I had filmed it 10 years ago when the adit on the beach was open.

[@steveetches6013]

I always love visiting the above ground side of Botallack. I assume you can get far down the incline shaft near the Crowns before you hit sea level. Is the beach access closed due to a collapse? One of the shafts that I found intriguing after a visit to Trewellard meadery was Higher Bal. there was a deep shaft you could stare straight down. Wondered if anyone abseiled down and if there were any adits off it?

[@royfellows5468]

@@steveetches6013 Hi there. I have it on good authority that the incline shaft is blocked, as is the Wheal Edward incline I confirm by personal exploration. The " beach adit" I assume you mean Whea Hazard, was assible with a rope and lead to Allens Shaft which it crossed by a bridge to a collapse. I understabnd that this was dug but collapsed later. There was, and probably still is, an upper adit which was well and truly open, again leading to Allens Shaft. All this is old info and may well be out of date. I have it on reasonably good authority that High Bal Shaft is a waste of time and is blocked some distance down., again, old info. Blockages can move. I used to visit Wheal Edward until the entry to the top adit collapsed, then I dug it out and as i left it there was sort of trench I had to cut. I dont know what the current state of it is but if its accessible the belay rail section inside I brought down from Wales! I also managed to get to Cargodna Adit which was interesting as it was sort of double drive one above the other. To reach the shaft I remember having to crawl under a boulder. The shaft had bits of old ladder etc in it. Be an interesting Video for Ben I dont do much down there these days, been buisy in Wales. A big question is the whereabouts of the Wheal Owles adit, there is certainly no sign of it and I did quite a bit of poking about down there. There is the remains of a cliff path, difficult to locate at the top.

[@Wharferine]

In 1990 just when it changed to a museum you could get to the top of the incline. Remember it well

[@lyndonbaldwin]

Amazing. Did that trip in 2010, down on 3rd level. Rebirth is fun! x

[@kernowbysvyken5600]

i think he should do cooks kitchen or crofty next maybe dolcoath also at 10:20 is that a winze

[@BenoCam]

I have tried to stay well away from Crofty. Way too much going on out there at the moment. Dolcoath is an interesting one but I don’t think there is much you can get in.. all deep and flooded. Don’t worry I have a few others lined up !

[@kernowbysvyken5600]

@@BenoCam I be heard cooks kitchen is accessable though

[@xboxcrazee]

Theres quite a long video on youtube somewhere doing a full tour not long after it shut. It shown a pump room with several pumps all still inplace and a plaque I think the queen visited. Shown the slope down and at that point sea water was gradually coming up the slope…

[@IsabellaBurke]

Another amazing video! Went to Geevor this year (to the museum!), Incredible visit, museum was so interesting, that we nearly missed the trip into the mine workings itself! 🤣... Looking at this, it is a shame that they haven't kept the lower workings open, as the top bit (which is accessible) is quite short and no where near as interesting as the this section! I am wondering how they managed to keep the water out of the lower sections, given that it extends so deeply and so far into the sea 🤔... Thank you once again for taking the time to share it with us mere land mortals🙏

[@KernowekTim]

Continual pumping kept the lower working levels 'dry', Isabella. Old miners remembered hearing the big boulders moving on the sea-bed during heavy weather when they occupied the dirt closer to the sea-bed. The sea has broken through into Levant sections before now. Vast amounts of concrete were pumped into the fissures until the flooding abated and the levels were pumped 'dry' again. Once the ore is exhausted, levels are allowed to flood under controlled pumping. Electricity is the most expensive facet of mining, as pumps, ventilation, lighting, loco charging bays and work-shops underground et cetera, pull alot of electric, not to mention the winding gear and above ground electrical requirements of a modern mine. If levels are non-profit making, why keep them pumped..that is false economy in an often fragile economic cenvironment. I hope this helps.👍

[@IsabellaBurke]

@@KernowekTim yes! thank you 😃 looking at the sheer extent of those original workings it looks like it was one hell of an engineering operation to keep the water out... almost looked impossible I suppose? One breach and you are pretty screwed. It's just absolutely fascinating... Thank you to the community for educating us non-mining folk!

[@KernowekTim]

@@IsabellaBurke I shudder to imagine the pollution levels today, if we still relied on coal/coke fuelled steam pumps to pump out deep levels on such wet ground. Once water 'gets it's head' there is no stopping it. Thanks to electricity eh.

[@filtonkingswood]

Great film. You need longer wellies. IMHO a mine museum isn't much cop unless you can access deeper workings although there must be plenty of interest up top for most. I get the reasons they aren't at Geevor as the costs would be prohibitive. I would suggest that they have your film on a loop up top for visitors to see. Interesting that you made reference to Radon gas.

[@BenoCam]

Haha. I think health and safety would probably have a say in putting visitors down that far, I don’t know. They manage it in wales … Google a place called “the big pit” done a really good job of making a coal mine into a musuem/trip. Geevor could learn a think or two.

[@shorey66]

You can still go down Poldark I believe but it's much older and not nearly as deep

[@leemartin5878]

Hi love watching you’re videos 2 Questions do you ever encounter noxious gases and have you been in any mines in godolphin

[@BenoCam]

Cheers. Nope and nope ! Gas monitor is a wise idea if it’s a new mine or has bad ventilation.

[@leemartin5878]

@@BenoCam thanks for the reply hopefully one day you might explore a godolphin mine 😊stay safe 👍

[@kateeberhardt1801]

Hi Ben, I hope you see this! Love your videos and it's really made me want to try out caving. I live in Perranporth and know you've done a few videos here. What would be the best way to start trying it out? I'd want to go with pros of course! Thanks a lot, Kate

[@BenoCam]

Ha yeah no problem. Happy to show you around cligga head one evening or weekend if you fancy it ? That’s the one right by perran Porth airfield so close by to you. Don’t need any ropes. If your on Facebook I have a page there, search Ben o cam productions and chuck me a message on there. 🙂

[@TomDufall]

Are there any locations in the UK that offer deep-level tours? I have considered joining my local caving group to find out more but I'm not interested in tight caves and keep myself pretty busy already. Being in Devon, I imagine that's not great for mines either.

[@BenoCam]

There was that Big Pit in wales that looked pretty good… not sure on others though. As soon as it’s an official tour I lose interest 🤣

[@swanseamale47]

Didn't the Levant mine have a serious accident? I seem to remember another mine flooding after the sea got in and killing a number of miners. Dodgy game tunneling.

[@BenoCam]

Yes the beam engine broke and killed a lot of people. Done another seperate video on that. There’s also another mine near botallack called wheal owles that flooded and also killed a lot of people. Think they broke into older flooded workings

[@justjohn368]

Nice one 👍

[@ItsMe-io5bl]

That big green deposit left by the water running down the shaft on the way in. Is that not arsenic?

[@BenoCam]

It could have some in it. It’s a mixture of different things including copper residue I think, formed from water dripping down from above through the mineral deposits and then when the oxygen gets to it it forms these colours.

[@ItsMe-io5bl]

@@BenoCam Youre probably right about it being a mixture of things, but that dark green shade i havnt seen with copper before, copper tends to be more blue/pale green/turquoise, or not as dark as that in the video. Looked more like the green the victorians loved and painted everything with, poisoning half the population in the process, oops

[@deanmc178]

geevor is amazing ,, ive been under ground there ,, and its sad that its flooding ,nobody can pump it out now ,,

[@garydavo07]

4.59. Not scaffold tubes. Old diamond drill rods

[@buffplums]

I wonder how many levels there were above if you climbed up Victory shaft xxx

[@BenoCam]

Didn’t see any !

[@lindathomas5500]

Note the pair of gloves left behind 6:14

[@maureencronin6926]

❤️❤️

[@hunt4redoctober628]

I have some cassiterite specimens from Geevor, sent to me when it was still open.

[@eglwysfawr4076]

Subbed Wales ✌️

[@Kernowbop]

4:52 😂

[@BenoCam]

I had to cut it short there as the plank twisted and I said the F word 🤣

[@pinkerton8212]

That’s awesome 👌🏻

[@alansdorsetfossils4028]

Hi Ben l am a member of the Southampton Mineral and Fossil Society. We get permissions to collect on various spoil heaps but would be very interested in an underground visit again with the prospect of collecting. We have indemnity insurance but not sure if it covers underground visits but there are perhaps 3 or 4 of us that would be interested in an underground trip. Is there any possibility??

[@BenoCam]

From what I understand they allow visiting rights to the St Just Mine Research Group. They are a local group of mine explorers. This place has been unlocked for ages but now they have put a lock back on it so there’s no public access at the moment. The st just group may be your best option although the people I knew that were in it have now left so I don’t even have any contact details I’m afraid. The whole site on the top is part of the musuem and free to roam. Also the coast path goes through a lot of it. You may have more success walking the coast path and checking the many old spoil heaps that litter that part of the coastline from the old mines.

[@chrisb9360]

Brilliant. So for may own understanding, you entered through a drainage tunnel at sea/beach level, went to the main shaft under that tower shown at the start? Water would have been pumped from all the lower tunnels (where men worked) and brought to that level and sent out to sea? All ore etc would have been brought up through that main shaft? It blows my mind that they tunneled out under the seabed. I assume there's no sub-seabed tunnels which are flood-free and avaibale to explore.

[@BenoCam]

I can’t say where we entered for legal reasons . But yes, ore got sent up the shaft and water was pumped to the deep adit level where it flowed out to sea. Yes there was a huge amount below water table which is all now flooded. They say the workings under the sea also went upwards, until the miners could hear the sea above 😮There is very very little else to see other than what is shown in this video. The musuem is well worth a trip if you are ever down that way.

[@chrisb9360]

@@BenoCam incredible. Thank you for the reply Ben. I was down that way (from Glasgow) last summer. Hope to be down again soon.

[@geoffpeters4151]

My Grandad Worked Giew And my Dad worked Geevor

[@wideyxyz2271]

🥰

[@jonathansmythe6273]

cracking.

[@kernow..exp.]

Magic m8

[@gregedmand9939]

I have to ask: who would have the job of rescuing a modern "explorer", who had an accident on one of these journeys into closed mine works? It doesn't take rocket science to recognize the great risks you are taking to satisfy your curiosity. Crawling back through some of the extremely tight spots you wiggle through would be nearly impossible with a broken arm or leg. No matter how skilled and self-sufficient you may believe you are, accidents can and do happen in such places. Especially ones with collapsing rock falls, rotten timber foot bridges and CO2 build up. One or two companions on the journey with you, would be hard pressed to carry an injured mate back out. Someone would have to be called in to assist, unless you are happy to take these risks with yourself and are content to accept whatever fate delivers. Is there some unwritten pact between those who do this, to come to each other's rescue?

[@buffplums]

Hello Ben O lol 😂

[@usmustdie4peace405]

Your videos are way to short! You visiting all those interesting places and just give us like 10min videos! Sure you could have more follower when your videos were longer

[@BenoCam]

I can make them longer, I just always assumed people would get bored and not get to the end 😂