Snail beach Lead mine Shropshire 16/08/08

Duration: 21.00-04.30

Members: 11

Weather: Wet & Windy

This was possibly the farthest distance that SPRG had travelled for vigil so far, so expectations were high. Who else would be spending their Saturday nights in wellie's hardhats and miners lamps but us eh? We arrived fairly early to meet with Adrian and his team who would be on hand with us through the night for health and safety purposes. Clint D, Liz, Clint S and Angie had previously visited the location about a few months prior and were certainly taken back by the splendour of the location. The area was famous for lead and barite mining for centuries, and only ceased in the early fifties. Today the ruins of the workers offices and turbine rooms can still be seen, such areas as the blacksmith shed have been restored for the purpose of the visitors, and what is now the visitors centre used to be a two floored rest area for the workers to sleep over at weekends as many years ago most of the miners would have had to have walked many miles just to get to work. Most of them would only see their families for one day at a time.

Whilst the group were settling in and enjoying the views Adrian took Angie, Liz, Clint S, Ben and Clint D up to a house on the site, in fact there are many residential areas up in the hills surrounding the mine. This house belonged to a lady of whom we are going to keep anonymous out of respect. The lady wanted to tell the guys about an experience she had had when she first moved into the house. she explained that she was clearing an old shed and taking it down on her front patio, when she looked up toward to her house and noticed a high hedge that wasn't originally there and a lady aged in her early to mid 30's, with roughly bunched up hair and a flowing dress navigating a path about ten feet away from her, when she went to move a little closer she noticed the hedge and the lady had disappeared, she has only experienced this once more but it had her convinced. Angie informed the lady she was probably seeing a "recording" of the past that is quite often reported when people redecorate or make radical changes in a home or building. The apparition of the lady didn't seem to notice the lady working in her garden, so this would be typical of what can be a very common sighting amongst people these days. So before we began we had heard a convincing story from a resident who was adamant of what she had experienced, we went up to her house. It was a lovely house, Angie wasn't told prior to going in but felt as if someone of some imortance would have lived there, Angie then pointed out to a certain area of the hose where this person would have stood at a tiny window and handed out wages, or some form of reward. It later confirmed by Adrian that the old mine manager lived there some time ago in the 1800's and would have the workers come up to his his to collect the wages. Spot on Angie. At this time the rain started to really give it some, sadly this seemed to carry on all night!

Due to torrential rain and wind we decided it wouldn't be worth risking our equipment in such conditions, and we were very limited to where we could set up anyhow. Before we got underway, Clint D, Angie, Liz and Lorraine S joined hands in the blacksmith shed as the room seemed to take on a very odd feel, a few noises had been heard and Clint D and Lorraine started to pick up on faces and names of people who perhaps had worked in that very shed at some stage in the past. Thomas, Mary and George were some of the names Angie had picked up. A family was then picked up on, late 1800's to early 1900's and a small girl who seemed to have some sort of facial disfigurement again picked up at exactly the same time by Lorraine and Clint D. Angie then seemed to sway and her head moved in a very odd fashion indeed, all of a sudden she jumped and the guys in the circle ran to her aid in case she fell. Luckily she was ok and laughed it off. After calming down she explained that she could feel the emotions of this girl that Lorraine and Clint D had picked up on, and was beginning to transfigurate, however we hadn't properly opened up with a prayer or protected ourselves so she closed it off. With that excitement out of the way we decided to get going for real.

We decided that it was best to stay in areas that were sheltered due to the horrific weather. Clint D, Ben, April and Adel covered the loco shed, an area where some of the mine carriages were stored and could easily be pushed or pulled to relevant areas around the compound. Angie, Lorraine, Clint S and Ed went back into the blacksmith shed, and Liz, Garry and Emma got their miners lamps and helmets at the ready and entered the day level area of the mine. This level can be accessed on ground level and has the added fun of getting to the end of it whilst sitting on a mine cart whilst being pushed to a safe area where you can stand. At the end is a tall chimney which juts out into the hill, but of course now it was dark they just had to make do with their headlamps. The group in the loco shed only noticed a few minor knocks and clicks but the weather was trying to be taken into account for that, however one particular noise made the group huddle that little bit closer together, this noise didn't seem to have an explanation behind it and could only be described as a type of noise like movement or shuffling. The rain and wind made things quite difficult for the guys in the blacksmith shed, again the same info seemed to be picked up as earlier on. The day level group were just trying to stay warm at this point and didn't really note anything untoward.

After drying off and a hot drink or two it was time to attack the séance, it was decided that we would form a large ring around the shaft area where the minors would be lowered down around 225 yards and then have to climb a series of ladders before getting to work. it was decided to hold the séance here as there had been a horrific accident recorded here 1895 where seven miners were tragically killed when the winch that lowered them into the mine snapped and they plummeted down the shaft and were crushed in their cage. Interestingly two of the three names Angie had picked up earlier : Thomas and George. Were two names listed on a memorial in the visitor centre for the miners who perished in the accident, interesting. We gathered around the mine shaft, which now of course has been blocked in for safety. The rain for now had ceased at least. Angie, Liz and Lorraine began to feel nauseous and then emotional, Clint D kept getting the image of flowers. We decided that out of respect we would end the séance a bit earlier and let these souls rest. It must have been horrific, you just cant begin to imagine.

It was time for a rest and a chat with Adrian who was very informative throughout the night and only to pleased to help us with whatever we needed. During this time Ed and Liz had noticed what seemed like a tall shadow move form one side of the room to the next very quickly, odd as no one else was in this particular corner. After a break it was time for the big one! Perkins level, this mine entrance was about a ten minute walk up a tiny road quite a site it must have been to the surrounding houses, close to fifteen people all with helmets and headlamps walking up the road, almost a flashback to a bygone era. This entrance had to be navigated single file and crouched as there was tunnel around four feet high, then you could stand up after about thirty yards or so, ankle deep in water we were taken to an area that would have been heavily mined, it was here that things had been experienced. We remained quite and began to call out, it was about fifteen minutes in when April asked who was standing next to Clint S, we had turned our lamps off and could only see the very little lights the video cameras were giving off. Of course no one else was standing next to Clint, that was in our group. April then sensed it again, this time it made her move and grab the arm of one of the group members. She had been startled and with that, we decided to move on out. The weather had taken a turn again so we decided that anyone else could conduct mini vigils, and the drivers would need their sleep as we had a very long drive ahead of us all. A smaller group venture back into Perkins level and commented in the morning that they had experienced stones being thrown and the feeling of people walking right behind them. Despite the weather, we were really looked after and we did experience one or two things that still have us talking today, perhaps a return to this wonderful location wouldn't be out of the question in the future.

We at SPRG would like to thank Adrian and his team for their fantastic hospitality and for the free guide book, thank you for being patient with us we really appreciate it. Please check out their website here which is packed full of information and a timetable of events, so get planning for a visit next year, its well worth the drive!

Finally thank you to the miners and workers who were kind enough to come forward and kind enough not to frighten us, we send out the utmost respect and love to you all. Until next time.

SPRG 2008