Volunteers from Apedale recently visited The National Coal Mining museum at Caphouse Colliery at the invitation of Ian Wibberley, who as well as being involved at Caphouse. is one of our trustees. We were given a tour of the underground workings including a lot of areas that aren’t part of the standard tour. We entered via their drift, which is also their second exit in emergencies, and were also shown their excellent underground educational experience which is a relatively recent addition. We even had a tour of Santa’s grotto, although sadly the big man wasn’t there yet! The mining team made us feel very welcome, with plenty of banter and even the odd practical joke. After bacon buttie and a brew in their restaurant we were left to explore the surface attractions for the rest of the day.
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- left to right; J. Smith, Andrew Bennett, Dave Broughton, Graham Smith, John Wilmott, Dave Bowdley, and our Mine Tour Guide, Ian Wibberley.
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- Entrance to the National Coal Mining Museum
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- The screens (or Coal Preparation Plant if you are posh)
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- the Caphouse Drift
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- Hope Pit Winder
