Carrock Wolfram mine is the only site in the UK outside of Devon and Cornwall where the mineral wolframite is found. Although wolframite only occurs in small amounts in the rock of Carrock Fell there was still enough to establish the mine as one of only two mines in the country where wolframite was the sole ore produced. Wolfram is one of the prime minerals used in the production of Tungsten one of the toughest metals which also has the highest melting point of any metal. The mine was located in Grainsgill where three wolframite baring quartz veins are exposed in the steam bed of Grainsgill beck. Mining on the site dates back to the 1854 when the lead ore Galena was extracted, at the time the wolframite was dismissed as worthless but by the turn of the twentieth centaury wolfram mining was beginning to become a very worthwhile venture.

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During the early 1900's the demand for tungsten was to sky rocket, Added to steel the strength of tungsten produced an extremely hard and strong alloy first used in the production of machine tools and construction beams. The wolframite required in the production of tungsten was a rare mineral and as the price of tungsten increased the quartz veins at Carrock offered a new opportunity to the mines owners. Work began on developing a new adit to access what would become the Harding vein, The demand for tungsten came to dominate the mines working life as the extraction of the relatively small quantities of wolframite was only economic when tungsten prices were high. Despite the new developments at the mine by 1904 it was in serious financial trouble, The German company of William Henry Boss and Frederick Boehm bought into the failing mine, after which the majority of the mine's wolfram was exported to the continent.

The world wide demand for wolfram was about to explode, In 1905 the Hungarian company Tungsram (a name derived from an amalgam of tungsten and wolfram) produced the first electric light bulbs to use tungsten as a filament, the higher melting point of tungsten meant the light bulbs lasted a lot longer than their predecessors and the tungsten filament light bulb became the standard for decades to come. The following year 1906 the launch of HMS Dreadnought sparked an arms race between Britain and Germany with each country competing to build ever larger battleships all protected with tungsten steel armour plate. The battleship race was one of the causes leading to the outbreak of the first world war, which would seriously effect the mine's future.

The mine's German ownership lead to the liquidation of the mining company, but the new strategic importance of wolframite in the production of armour plate and in armour piercing shells meant that Carrock did not stand idle for long. The mine was reopened in 1913 by the government subsidised Carrock Mining Syndicate, during the course of the war a total of 14,000 tons of ore were mined of which 10,116 tons were milled on site to produce almost 100 tons of 16% tungsten concentrate for use in the armaments industry. When the first world war ended government support was withdrawn which coincided with the collapse of the world tungsten market as governments disposed of their strategic stockpiles. By the end of 1918 production at Carrock had ended and its work force was reduced from 100 to 25 who were involved with washing the last of a zinc blend and dismantling the surface mill buildings until the end of 1919.

There was renewed interest in reopening the mine during the second world war as the countries supply of tungsten was threatened. In 1943 the Royal Canadian Engineers drove a new adit which became known as the Canadian cross cut to improve access to the low level workings, But no ore was extracted. There was similar interest during the Korean War in the 1950's but once again Carrock did not reenter production. The mineral lease over the mine changed hands on a few occasions but it remained idle until 1977 when the use of tungsten in Cathode Ray Tubes lead to souring world prices, the mine reopened as the Carrock Fell Tungsten Mine and was producing 16,000 tons annually until the market collapsed once again in 1981 leading to its closure. It's owners placed Carrock on a care and maintenance business for a few years hoping for an up turn in tungsten prices but they surrendered their lease in 1988. Shortly after the surface mill was demolished and Grainsgill was landscaped to restore the original contours of the land leaving very few traces of the mine on the surface.

My visit to Carrock came twenty years after it was abandoned for the last time, We entered the mine through the small opening which was once the adit to the Canadian crosscut. Once inside the mine it became clear that it is beginning to flood though the water is only a few inches deep throughout the mine, during the its long life the mine was never pumped so this level of standing water was probably present during its working days. Walking along the Canadian crosscut there were very few timber supports, the country rock of Carrock fell is stable melanocratic gabbro, so the stopes and passageways are self supporting only requiring timbers where the access levels pass through the overlying layer of boulder clay.

The Canadian cross cut led on to a crossroads where it intersects the main workings which follow the Harding vein, the first of three mineral veins the mine exploited. We first turned towards the Harding south workings after a short distance a small makeshift sign warned us of the presence of gas, however during the whole trip the gas detector only picked up one small area of low oxygen levels. So we carried on until reaching the sludge dam, the southern workings on the harding vein have been backfilled with sludge. The dam was placed across the main southern passage to prevent it from flooding the remainder of the working mine. After retracing our steps to the cross roads we continued on towards the Harding north workings, not far from the cross roads compressed air pipes which once powered the miners drills float on the surface of the standing water. Just beyond the air hoses the passageway crossed a small lead vein where a small working extended off the right side of the passage. Three small quartz veins were exposed within the working, It is the quartz veins within the mine that contain the deposits of wolframite. As we headed along the passage way we reached the first of the ore hoppers which lined the length of the workings. The ore was extracted from stopes following the Harding vein on the upper levels of the mine and passed down a series of ore passes to these hoppers on the main adit level, where tubs were filled for hauling the ore out of the mine.

After passing the first series of hoppers we reached a small cavern supported by a single large pillar of rock. Just off the cavern a red painted steel door protects the reserve explosive station where the charges needed for blasting would have been stored. Moving on we soon came across a rock fall which appeared to block the passage way but after carefully climbing across it we were back on the passageway level, the water was deeper here dammed in by the rock fall it swamped our welly boots. Not far from the rock fall we came to a ladder leading up into a manway to the stope above us. The ladders passed through two landing levels alongside one of the ore passes until it emerged into the vast open stope. From here a long iron rung ladder attached to the stope walls lead up at least 100 feet to the upper level of the mine. I was happy enough just to stick my head out into the stope and didn't feel the need to test the ladders strength.

Back down on the main passage way we reached the junction with the Emerson vein crosscut another makeshift sign warned of gas and it was here that the gas monitor warned of low oxygen levels so we left the Emerson vein unexplored. We returned to the main passage way and continued on past a long series of ore hoppers until reaching another junction which lead us to the Waterfall vein. Here the water level dropped until the remains of the mines rail system emerged from the water. Back out on the main Harding vein passage we were once again followed a long row of hoppers until we reached the end of the workings and had to retrace our steps back to the junction with the Canadian crosscut. From here we headed north along the passage leading to the Smith vein, the workings of the Smith vein were identical to those of the Harding vein we had already followed, the main passage way took us along the length of the vein below the working stopes passing by a number of hoppers. Having investigated the mine's lower level we returned to the surface by squeezed out through the canadian crosscut adit surprising a family picnicking by the remains of the mill buildings.