I’ve explored over 100 mines – this is what I’ve discovered

A mine explorer who has visited greater than 100 deserted websites throughout the UK for enjoyable has revealed a few of his finds.

They embrace an underground blacksmith’s workshop, ‘a great deal of dynamite’ and harmful ‘false flooring’.

Peter Pink, 38, a care employee from Middlesbrough, has spent the previous seven years exploring mines in England and Wales which were closed for many years – however warned that the stakes are excessive.

Peter, who lives in Guisborough, North Yorkshire, at all times carries a fuel monitor to examine how a lot oxygen is within the air and provides his spouse Emma, 32, a ‘name out time’ in order that if he doesn’t resurface, she is going to alert the emergency companies.

Peter has discovered quite a lot of historic objects through the years, together with a blacksmith’s workshop with a forge, anvil and hammer, in addition to previous sticks of dynamite and graffiti courting again to the 1800s. 

He posts photos and movies of his adventures on YouTube and TikTookay below the title Mine Explorer UK, a few of which have clocked greater than 5 million views.

‘I’ve discovered a great deal of previous dynamite,’ Peter mentioned.

‘They go like a squashed banana and the one factor preserving them collectively is the label.’

Some of the dynamite sticks Peter has discovered had been branded Nobels, after the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, who invented the explosive within the 1860s and used his fortune to ascertain the Nobel Prize establishment. 

Peter’s ardour for exploring deserted mines began in 2017 after he stumbled upon a small gap in Loftus, North Yorkshire, and posted an image on-line, which obtained ‘a great deal of consideration’.

‘It went from that small gap to deserted practice tunnels after which I found the mines and I’ve by no means gone wherever else,’ he mentioned.

But exploring these deserted tunnel programs, a few of that are 30 miles lengthy, can show deadly as oxygen ranges within the air can change abruptly.

Oxygen normally makes up round 21 per cent of the air we breathe in at floor stage, however within the mines that stage can dip as little as 12 per cent, whenever you begin to lose consciousness.

‘You can die inside minutes,’ Peter mentioned. 

‘When you might be underground it might probably simply begin dropping.

‘You cannot breathe or stroll, not correctly anyway – it appears like somebody is sitting in your chest.

‘You’re staggering throughout, you possibly can’t assume correctly and begin slurring your phrases after which for those who keep there lengthy sufficient, you may move out.’

Peter at all times carries a four-gas monitor – these detect oxygen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide and methane – and refuses to discover coal mines, the place different dangerous gases generally known as damps might be discovered.

‘It normally occurs the place there are rotten timbers,’ he mentioned.

‘Makes me snort as a result of exterior, the place we at the moment are, you want bushes to breathe, however in a mine they’re attempting to kill you.’

Peter mentioned false flooring, used to cowl up vertical shafts, also can show to be lethal.

‘Over time the platform will get coated in stones, so you’ll assume it is a part of the stone flooring with out figuring out that beneath you there’s most likely a 100ft [30m] drop of nothing,’ he mentioned.

‘I stepped on one as soon as however fortunately I did not go during as a result of it was flooded beneath.’ 

In March final 12 months, Peter helped emergency companies to find the physique of fellow mine explorer Adam Perkins.

The 24-year-old had final been seen at 8pm on Monday, March 20, 2023, when Peter discovered his rucksack in a bit of Ayton Monument Mine the place he mentioned oxygen ranges had been beneath 15 per cent – recognized to the mining group because the ‘wheel of loss of life’.

‘A pal had despatched me a put up about this lacking boy from Sheffield who was a mine explorer,’ he mentioned.

‘I knew the mine rather well so once I received dwelling from work, I put my gear on and went out with a pal.

‘I went down one of many most important drifts and the oxygen was getting too low – the final time I checked it was 12 per cent.

‘I noticed this bag on the ground with footprints main off into the space, the place you do not go.

‘I regarded inside and there was a field of stuff that had his title on it.

‘So I ran out and phoned the emergency companies.’

Adam’s physique was found additional down the mine from the rucksack Peter had discovered on Friday, March 24, 2023.

In case of emergency, Peter at all times shares his location together with his spouse, Emma, and agrees a ‘name out time’.

‘I’ll inform her for those who do not hear from me by six o’clock or one thing, then telephone the emergency companies,’ mentioned Peter.

‘And I give her a map of the place I’m going so she is aware of precisely the place I’m always.’

Peter, who’s a eager photographer, has a strict coverage of leaving the mines untouched and solely ever takes away garbage.

‘You simply go away footprints and do not take something,’ mentioned Peter.

‘I’ve cleaned up a pair the place there have been beer cans and stuff like that.

‘I do not perceive why individuals would drink in a mine.’

For the previous three years, he has been exploring an intensive drift mine, which implies it goes into the hill relatively than down a shaft.

‘Basically it is like being inside a beehive,’ he mentioned.

It is extraordinarily harmful for anybody with out coaching to enter an deserted mine. To discover out extra about Peter’s mine explorations go to: youtube.com/c/mineexploreruk and tiktok.com/@ukmineexplorer