Retired Old ■■■■:
I’ve just been watching a documentary about the old Mam Tor road. As I didn’t arrive in this part of the world until after it was closed I wondered if any of you could tell me if there was any indication of just how dangerous it was becoming?
It was a steep old road , Earls cement fodens went up in crawler , and the Bedford s type needed a burst of cold start to make it round the hairpin . Periodically the road slipped , it wasn’t called the shivering mountain for nothing , and many thousand tons of quarry waste was tipped to try to stabilise it , but eventually the road slip was so bad that the road was abandoned . The whole hillside is comprised of shale and there is still movement from time to time .
Retired Old ■■■■:
I’ve just been watching a documentary about the old Mam Tor road. As I didn’t arrive in this part of the world until after it was closed I wondered if any of you could tell me if there was any indication of just how dangerous it was becoming?
It was a steep old road , Earls cement fodens went up in crawler , and the Bedford s type needed a burst of cold start to make it round the hairpin . Periodically the road slipped , it wasn’t called the shivering mountain for nothing , and many thousand tons of quarry waste was tipped to try to stabilise it , but eventually the road slip was so bad that the road was abandoned . The whole hillside is comprised of shale and there is still movement from time to time .
I used it quite regular late 60s/early 70s,Castleton could be a handful with an 8-legger,especially int Summer.
You could also avoid Ministry man at Flouch by using Mam Tor and Hathersage to Sheffield…
Retired Old ■■■■:
I’ve just been watching a documentary about the old Mam Tor road. As I didn’t arrive in this part of the world until after it was closed I wondered if any of you could tell me if there was any indication of just how dangerous it was becoming?
It was a steep old road , Earls cement fodens went up in crawler , and the Bedford s type needed a burst of cold start to make it round the hairpin . Periodically the road slipped , it wasn’t called the shivering mountain for nothing , and many thousand tons of quarry waste was tipped to try to stabilise it , but eventually the road slip was so bad that the road was abandoned . The whole hillside is comprised of shale and there is still movement from time to time .
I used it quite regular late 60s/early 70s,Castleton could be a handful with an 8-legger,especially int Summer.
You could also avoid Ministry man at Flouch by using Mam Tor and Hathersage to Sheffield…
I’ll bet that was a slow job Chris , dragging up out of Hathersage up to the Surprise View if you were loaded . Dave
Retired Old ■■■■:
I’ve just been watching a documentary about the old Mam Tor road. As I didn’t arrive in this part of the world until after it was closed I wondered if any of you could tell me if there was any indication of just how dangerous it was becoming?
It was a steep old road , Earls cement fodens went up in crawler , and the Bedford s type needed a burst of cold start to make it round the hairpin . Periodically the road slipped , it wasn’t called the shivering mountain for nothing , and many thousand tons of quarry waste was tipped to try to stabilise it , but eventually the road slip was so bad that the road was abandoned . The whole hillside is comprised of shale and there is still movement from time to time .
I used it quite regular late 60s/early 70s,Castleton could be a handful with an 8-legger,especially int Summer.
You could also avoid Ministry man at Flouch by using Mam Tor and Hathersage to Sheffield…
I’ll bet that was a slow job Chris , dragging up out of Hathersage up to the Surprise View if you were loaded . Dave
I think I only came back Mam Tor loaded twice Dave,once from Stanlow and tother time from Eastham. Aye,and you didn’t want to get stopped before that narrow bit in Hathersage either. Ha ha,the old AEC Mk3 and MK5 Mammoth Majors of A E Evans distributing a bit of black smoke didn’t make you very popular with the Sheffield gentry living int Hope Valley. I only used it when running “flexible”.
Our lads at Ballidon used to go down it in the 70’s when running clinker from Waterhouses to Hope but I was still fitting at that time and replacing the propshafts they dropped off at The Mermaid on the way!
i used Mam tor in 1973 /4. i delivered brewers grains from Bass on Chester road ( Manchester) to the first farm as you passed the blue john mines.
i was mad a as bag of frogs but i respected that hill…(not a bank they have money). i had a 6 wheeler Albion tipper full to the brim… when i come down
the road was slipping, there were large cracks along the middle of the road. the council kept running bitumen into the cracks. some cracks was 30 ft long
3 inches wide and maybe 8 inches deep… it was well scary but what a long way round to go Tideswell and down through Bradwell… i can’t remember if
there was a weight limit as it was access for me…i only went down about 4 times i think…
John
Many thanks for the replies, lads. I had often wondered what it was like, then that 20 minutes on tv awakened my interest. And special thanks for the photos, John- it looks like a dodgy job with an 8-wheeler with 6-wheel brakes!
Retired Old ■■■■:
Many thanks for the replies, lads. I had often wondered what it was like, then that 20 minutes on tv awakened my interest. And special thanks for the photos, John- it looks like a dodgy job with an 8-wheeler with 6-wheel brakes!
Via gellia will be closed this year probably September for 8 weeks so I’ve heard for the wall to be done on chapel hill down by walkers at cromford, I think it would be a good idea to temporarily lift the weight limits on Brassington and monyash to ease traffic carsington pastures ?
Retired Old ■■■■:
Many thanks for the replies, lads. I had often wondered what it was like, then that 20 minutes on tv awakened my interest. And special thanks for the photos, John- it looks like a dodgy job with an 8-wheeler with 6-wheel brakes!
Here’s a few more ROF.
Many thanks, Chris, but you shouldn’t have bothered coming all this way just to take photos for me! I’ve booked you a luxury cabin for the return journey by way of thanks.
Pressure from Mike Harding, the folk singer. He liked walking in the area and thought the quarry an eysore. Probably more to it than that but he didn’t help the situation. Same thing happened with Milltown quarry, an incomer to Ashover (who I understand actually worked for Agg Industries) complained about the blasting etc and ■■■■…it was all gone with forty years worth of fluorspar still in the quarry!
Retired Old ■■■■:
Many thanks for the replies, lads. I had often wondered what it was like, then that 20 minutes on tv awakened my interest. And special thanks for the photos, John- it looks like a dodgy job with an 8-wheeler with 6-wheel brakes!
Here’s a few more ROF.
Watch out for .Abandoned Engineering. Free view. Ch 19. Yesterday
Last episode features closed roads. Mam Tor is one of them. It will be repeated.
Pressure from Mike Harding, the folk singer. He liked walking in the area and thought the quarry an eysore. Probably more to it than that but he didn’t help the situation. Same thing happened with Milltown quarry, an incomer to Ashover (who I understand actually worked for Agg Industries) complained about the blasting etc and ■■■■…it was all gone with forty years worth of fluorspar still in the quarry!
Pete.
Correct Pete. Here’s a film in which the stills of the lorries feature. The portion of the film that shows Eldon Hill and Topley Pike is in the final five minutes.
