Mining History Research & Exploration
An Introduction...


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  These pages are a small taste of the mining research & exploration which I've experienced predominantly in the UK but also in other countries.  The majority of my activities have tended to be in Wales, (where I reside), with  research focusing on metal mining in the south of the country.
  You'll find a few pages covering specific mines, which will be added to from time to time, in addition to various oddments of information & documents which I've acquired, and have been able to make available to others.
  I also set up (in 1999) and have since maintained the webpages for the Welsh Mines Society.

  If you're just getting started in the field of mining research and want to know more about that hole in the ground, or that pile of stones on top of it, but not too sure where to start ?  Then check out the following :

  The first two articles are recommended reading for those just starting out on the research trail, although even those who are seasoned crusaders in this area may still learn a couple of things...

  Mining Historian or Industrial Archaeologist ?  A few thoughts...
  - Historian : Conducts archival research, to collate data, and republish in a more accessible form. 
  - Archaeologist : Finds and records items in the field.  The action of entering a mine and taking a photograph is archaeology at its simplest.
  For many years I'd never given it a thought, having simply felt that you can't sensibly do one without the other, so did both !  It was only when in the company of the late Gwynfor Pierce Jones, in the Nantlle slate quarries, when he stated, after picking up a piece of coke, and explaining why it was there, (a producer gas engine had been installed there), that he felt he was more of an archaeologist than a historian.
  The extremes are the sports caver, and the academic.  Folk with an interest in mines range between these two extremes - some fully touch both bases, others occupy a slot of narrower width between the two.
  What is of course most apparent is that by working together, so much more can be achieved than functioning as one or the other in isolation...

  For my page on underground exploration, click here

Mike Munro


Disclaimer
Whilst every care is taken in researching and presenting the information contained within these pages,
I can accept no responsibility whatsoever for any consequences resulting from its application and use.

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© Mike Munro
This page last updated 25th Aug 2020