The members of the Derbyshire Caving Club – a group that explores caves, discovered a range of artifacts in an aged cobalt mine in Cheshire, England. The artifacts include clay pipes, leather shoes and strange inscriptions written in soot.
Cobalt mining was an essential element for lucrative trading in England in the 19th century. The mine, situated near a village called Alderley Edge, near Manchester, and owned by Sir John Thomas Stanley since the 1800s, was a prime source for mining a blue pigment used on pottery and glass. With cobalt becoming easier to import, the mine was deserted in 1810.
The explorers of Derbyshire Caving Club have inspected the mine since the 1970s under the National Trust, a UK-based conservation charity. Examining the mine was like opening a time capsule as the cave explorers stumbled across objects left by previously visited explorers.
Ed Coghlan, a member of Derbyshire Caving Club said from National Trust, “to find a mine in pristine condition, together with such personal objects and inscriptions is rare. It is a compelling window into the past and to the last day when the mine workers stopped their activities.”
Finding objects like shoes, pipes, and a bowl buried in a wall was considered dubious by Coghlan. He expressed, “the miners were told without much warning to collect their tools and move on.” The cave explorers went on to find a rare tool called windlass, an apparatus used to lift and shift heavy materials.
Among the many things found in the mine, was the scripted initials “WS” along with the date “August 20, 1810” written below it.
“Our research so far has not identified who this could be. Was it just an individual wanting to say, ‘I was here,’ or from a visit by a mine manager or estate owner or could it have been to indicate the last day this mine was in use?”, Coghlan reacted on finding the mysterious inscription.
This wasn’t the only inscription written on the walls of the mine, they found other words and numbers engraved into the mine’s walls.
Coghlan continues to state, “we found other more basic initials and numbers in what we believe were the ‘cribs’ or rest areas, as if someone had been learning and practicing their writing.”
The team of explorers used laser scanners that projected laser beams calculating the distance travelled in the Alderley Edge mine. This produced a virtual 3D image of the mine. In addition, the explores used remotely operated vehicles to examine the underwater portions of the mine.
Jamie Lund, an archaeologist at National Trust confirmed, “the objects found in the mine have been photographed and catalogued and left where they were found, to remain in the underground conditions which have preserved them.”
The archaeologist further expressed himself, “it leaves the mine as a time capsule, protecting a place that was once a hive of activity for future generations to explore and enjoy.”
