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Pearl Mine

Pearl Mine, Sandford Hill.

NGR:ST 4283 5917
WGS84:51.32874, -2.82192
Length:215 m
Depth:31 m
Altitude:109 m
Tags:Mine
Registry:westmendip

A rectangular entrance shaft, 0.6m by 3m, drops nearly vertically down the bedding to a mined cross gallery at 15m and another at the bottom at a depth of 23m. The cross galleries undulate but follow the strike on either side of the shaft. One contains fine gours and nests of cave pearls, described by W. I. Stanton as being being 'the size of pigeon's eggs'.

Alternate Names: Sandford Pearl Mine, Sandford Hill Mine No.1, MNRC-7, SMCC-9 and SSSS-32-A

Notes: Bones were present in this cave - as indicated in ACG Log Book No.2, p.42 (1968), which states that members visited the mine to retrieve some skulls from the entrance shaft only to find that someone had beaten them to it. This and other evidence, albeit tenuous, has led some commentators to suggest that Pearl Mine, the lost Elephant Cave and Sandford Bone Fissure, may all be one and the same.The skulls mentioned were sheep dumped in the mine - The

WAACS logbook on MCRA reports the bottom of the shaft being "piled with

rotting animals (probably sheep)" in July 1962.

Surveys:
Pearl Mine, Sandford, Askins, M.R., 1950
Pearl Mine, Jenkins, D., 1959

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This entry was last updated: 2024-03-02 14:13:41

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