History

Drygill was one of the first mineral localities I really ever went to.

I'd seen some bright orange crystals from Caldbeck - a place called Drygill. I wanted some. Badly. Dick Barstow intervened. He'd started a dig and had some contacts. Grant lived at the farm at the foot of the fell, and we soon struck up a friendship that resulted in me almost living on the farm. Our first visit to Drygill was on the old Massey Ferguson tractor - the collecting gear stacked in the sheep carrier on the back. It soon became apparent that this was a major locality. More digs were organised, and I became Campylite King - boxes of the stuff piled up at home - almost every week I'd be up there digging away - sometimes on my own for days at a time. My mum came up to one dig - it was a fine summer's day and she sat in the opencut picking away at rocks. She came over with a little piece of quartz with a lovely blue mamillary coating on it. Grant grabbed it and his face split into a laugh - 'Hey - Guys... look.... it really DOES come from here - Plum Bog Ummite ...' My mum was a hero...

This was the first plumbogummite specimen found in recent times, and it confirmed that the mine really had produced good material. I still have it, in pride of place, sandwiched between trays full of specimens we mined in later years, together with the lovely material that Ralph Sutcliffe found lower down in the bottom stope. Have a look further down these pages to see some of my specimens...

Grant and I went up there one day to dig - we left the old tractor at the top of the shaft and climbed down to find the main stope full of half wrapped specimens and tools everywhere. We looked all over the place and couldnt find anyone - so assumed whoever it was had gone. We pulled the tool and specimens up to surface and put them in the tractor. After a day of collecting we headed down to the farm - and showed Harry Waller - Grants dad.  He pounced on the tools "Bloody people - never asked my permission to be up there - I'll have them hammers and crowbars..! "  He stowed them in one of the barns. Next day we went back up, and were surprised to find Lindsay Greenbanks and Ralph Sutcliffe stomping around on the top of the opencut - and promptly started shouting at us... It turned out that they were digging a tunnel at the bottom of the beck, trying to access the workings at the lower end, and had left their kit in the stope the day before. We decided it was a case of finders keepers, and left them to argue their case with Harry at the farm.. Suffice to say that Lindsay and Ralph were sent packing by Harry, and I suspect that's probably why Lindsay would never speak to either of us after that !

In those days most of the best campylite was in the floor of the main stope by one of the pillars. A lot of collectors just blindly went down and hammered the walls, resulting in much of the best campylite being buried in the floor of the stope, where no doubt it still remains. There was a bit piller forming part of the shaft, and many of my best bits came from this. Dick Barstow worked an area further down, where an internal shaft dropped down to the bottom level that Ralph was digging. It was a bit of a death trap and I dont know anyone that actually went down that shaft. Dick dropped his estwing hammer down it one day and cursed loudly and roundly. It was many years later that I found it again, digging in the rubble from the shaft, in the lower level. Just at the top of that shaft is a short level that exits to the surface. Dick and I pushed an iron rail out to daylight, and if you know where to dig, you can still find the end of that rail. It marks one of at least 5 entrances to the Drygill workings that I personally know of. A recent Mineralogical Record article on the mine was written unfortunately by folk with much less knowledge of the place, and its a pity that it fell short when it came to recent history of collecting. 

Drygill is a sad place these days - opencuts overgrown, entrances and stopes collapsed and almost obliterated - what a sad end for such a glorious locality that is so world famous. Another few years and you'll never know there was a mine there - probably just what the national parks people want.

Plumbo photo by Jeff Scovil..  This is the bit my mum found all those years ago.