Ha! I Bet That Fooled You
For yes indeed, "Urbex" does have a Latin ring to it. However, it's a portmanteau word that condenses "Urban" and "Exploration", so yah booh sucks to you. "Rustica" is indeed Latin for "Rural" and Conrad used it because it's appropriate.
For Lo! we are following once again in the (muddy) footsteps of Martin Zero, a man who braves the cold, dark, wet, smelly, dirty and claustrophobic confines of industrial archaeology so we don't have to. Props to him and his son, James, because Your Humble Coward wouldn't engage in these activities for a sack of gold and a pension. Art!
Miners circa 1880
I think we'll split the topic into two sections, one above ground and the other under, as otherwise the whole blog will be on this item alone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r8uhnlH7Ik
That's the link to Martin's video, if you have 34 minutes to spare.
One reason he and the <ahem> Northern Monkeys were out in the hills of rural Lancashire is for the very good reason that there are lots of industrial remnants still laying about, quietly mouldering away, whereas the mining industry's presence in Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell has been almost completely demolished and built over. Art!
As the colliery was back before 1900. The pump house is still there, as is the shaft noted on the map above, which Martin states was eventually used as a general sump for water pumped out of the mines. He even got a shot of this. Art!
Original pump pipe in corner, nice new United Utilities pipe at centre. The team then ambled over to what remained of Gambleside Colliery itself, taking care not to give the location away or how, exactly, they got there. It's not an easy location to reach and must have been even harder in the days before personal automobiles, but you went where the coal was. Art!
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| As was |
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| As is |
There is a sound reason for being coy about precisely where the team were filming: safety. At almost dead centre of the map you can see the legend "Shaft", and that array of nettles delineates where the shaft either was or is. Good practice was to 'cap' or seal off disused shafts, which may have been done here; it's hard to say because of the nettle-blanket. One of the Northern Monkeys confidently stated that there was a bottom about eight feet down, which might be a cap that sagged and sank, or it might merely be a thin barrier of roots and earth. DO NOT TEST! if you find the site, as a fall of over 100 feet is usually fatal. Art!
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| Journey to the centre of the earthy |
Again, no hint of where this entrance to an underground tramline sits in the hills because, again: safety. The team enter wearing boots, boilersuits, hard hats, torches and a gas meter (better to have and not need than need and not have). This was also a dry period with little to no rain and thus carried far less risk of sudden flooding*.
I say, crikey, Dick Van Dykey! These people carry out such activity for fun? Truly it takes all sorts. Only potholing could be more terrifying as a hobby.
Motley! Fancy a visit to Whitescar Caves?
Per Ardua Ad Astra
Yeah, yeah, so I'm using the <hack spit> zombie language. It seemed apt. For we are casting off the grubby bounds of earth (and Earth) and looking to the heavens again - or, in less flighty language, here's some more from the BBC's pages on the theme "Under The Stars". Art!
Another from Srinivasa Prasath, this time definitely in India, as he captions this picture of trekkers around a campfire in the Himalayas. I think this is the first of these images not to include the Milky Way; instead we have a time-exposure of stars overhead. And the freezing trekkers.
Meanwhile, Back In Court ...
LATE BREAKING NEWS! The prosecution has uncovered a possible conspiracy between the defendant Sparrow and a previously un-named third party. Read on for more detail -
"Who'll be chief mourner?
I, said the Dove,
I mourn for my love,
I'll be chief mourner."
Oho! And where were you on the night of the murder? Establishing a nice cosy alibi, I'll bet, so that your stooge Sparrow took the rap for the killing. Or did you blackmail him? Sordid compromising photographs? Bounced cheque? Fiddling company expenses? Truly, Your Honour, there is a thin line between love and hate. Please treat Dove as a hostile witness.
The camera never lies
I, said the kite,
If it's not through the night,
I'll carry the coffin."
Yes yes yes, all this enthusiasm about the funeral arrangements is wonderful, it shows a true sense of community, well done to all the volunteers BUT CAN WE GET ON WITH THE TRIAL? Now - hang on, who allowed a bull into court?
"Contra Mortui Viventes!"
My my, we do seem to be using Latin a lot today, don't we? In case you've forgotten, "Mortui Viventes" is probably the closest approximation in Latin to "Zombie" and that above is perhaps what the Roman legions would have shouted when in combat with the undead hordes**.
'Pshaw!' I hear you demur. 'Primitive hand-weapons against a mighty zombie horde - they don't stand a chance!'
Conrad begs to differ. Art!
This is one of the Auxiliaries attached to a legion, in this case a slinger. Their shot was frequently cast out of lead, with hilarious Latin mottoes engraved on them ("Heus!"***) and if one of these hit an unarmoured head (as with a zombie) then said head and the body it was attached to would cease to take an interest in anything ever again. They would act as skirmisher troops in advance of the legion's heavy infantry, or in support on the flanks. If they ran out of lead shot against the zombie horde, why, they'd just pick up the nearest stones and use those. Thus effectively infinite ammunition supply.
Believe me, we have only begun to scratch the surface of this topic.
Finally -
I should have taken a photo, so you'll just have to take this on trust. As you should surely know, Conrad likes both peanut butter and Marmite, and Marmite-flavoured peanut butter more than both together. Thing is, it's pretty pricy at around £2.50 per jar, nor can you scrape it sparingly on toast; it goes on thick and thus gets used up quick.
So! when I saw a jar going for £1.50 I whipped it off the shelves. Upon getting it home I realised why the discount; it had been sat on the shelf for so long the butter had completely separated from the oil, so it had been sitting unloved and untouched for months. Obviously less demand for Marmite-flavoured peanut butter in Rochdale than anticipated.
It's taken two days of digging up the butter and mixing the oils back in again with an extremely robust metal spoon BUT I HAVE PREVAILED!
Maybe a photo tomorrow.
* Note the use of "less" not "no"
** I know it never really happened, but Dog Buns! a man can dream
*** "Ouch!"
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