FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[colin robinson]

And talking of scans of old photos, this unusually coloured fluorite is from Pike Law, Teesdale. It is almost 6cm on the long edge and was one of a number recovered after a landslip exposed a clay-filled cavity containing much broken fluorite. All the fluorite crystals were detached from the matrix and mostly pristine. Sadly a few weeks later the ground moved again bringing down limestone blocks the size of cars so no more fluorite.

[colin robinson]

Pike Law has always been close to my heart as it was where my collecting really started. I'd collected before that but in 1966 my mate Fuzz passed his driving test and the world was our oyster. I saw 'old mines' marked on the Ordnance Survey map and off we went. Fifty years later I found this fluorite plate not 2m from the road where a drainage ditch had cut through one of the old dumps.

[Tobi]

Another Blackdene galena:

[Jesse Fisher]

Another galena and fluorite from the Blackdene Mine. This one is from a large cavity found in 1973. The specimens are characterized by sharp, lustrous, twinned purple fluorite crystals, usually less than 1 cm in size, often associated with cube-octahedral galena crystals on a quartz-rich matrix.

I was told an interesting story about this find by one of the miners who was there at the time. Evidently, the cavity was quite large, and yielded a lot of specimens. A group of the miners who were interested in collecting specimens would use old explosives boxes to pack specimens and would load them onto a locomotive to drive out at the end of each shift. So as not to be too obvious about what they were doing, there was a general agreement that everyone would limit themselves to one box per shift. One miner, a fellow by the name of Bobby Reid was evidently interested in getting all he could, and acquired a fair amount of material from the pocket. He also was, evidently, a somewhat difficult person to come to a deal with, and one perspective buyer decided to try and go around him and make a deal with the mine management for specimens. This just served to alert the management to what was going on with collecting in the mine, and they made the miners blow the remaining cavity. This find is sometimes referred to as "Bobby Reid's pocket."

[Jordi Fabre]

A monster! ;-)

[Tobi]

[Jesse Fisher]

The Burtree Pasture Mine was one of the largest lead-producing mines in Weardale during the 19th century. Despite that, few documented specimens seem to have survived from that time. An attempt to reopen the mine for fluorspar was made in the late 1970s, but was not a financial success. A few pieces such as this one came out at that time.

[Jesse Fisher]

Fluorite twins from the Frazer's Hush Mine, Rookhopeburn, Weardale.

[Tobi]

[Jesse Fisher]

The Killhope Mine, located in the upper (western) part of Weardale was an active lead mine during the 19th century. The main adit (or horse level) is known as the Park Level. In recent years the site has been rebuilt and is now operated as a mining history museum. Prominent on the site is one of the only surviving waterwheels, which were once a commonly used source of power at mines about the Dale. Specimens identified from the mine are relatively rare. This one was formerly in the Arthur Scoble and David Green collections. I have seen others in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London.

[Jesse Fisher]

Two cross veins in the Rogerley system are exposed in an extension of the Rogerley quarry, NW of the main mine site. The larger of the two has been named the "Sutcliffe Vein" in honor of Lindsay Greenbank's partner and co-discoverer of the Rogerley, Mick Sutcliffe. During the early to mid 1970s the two collected a number of specimens from flats adjoining the vein, which was at the time referred to by Lindsay as the "Rogerley #2 vein." Purple is more common at this location than at the Rogerley proper, and some of the best have a purple core covered by a green rind.

In the fall of 2017 Ian Bruce (Crystal Classics) developed the vein as an open cast and named his workings the "Diana Marie Mine." A good number of specimens were recovered and were available at the Munich and Tucson shows.

[colin robinson]

Fluorite from Rogerley no. 2 (Sutcliffe) vein. Main crystal about 12mm. Self collected.

[colin robinson]

Fluorite from Middlegrove vein, Killhope mine. Glassy crystals to 8-9mm. Recovered from a vein outcrop.

[Jesse Fisher]

A bit of nostalgia - specimen was recovered in May 1999 from the first workings at the Black Sheep Pocket.

[Tobi]

Perfect, Jesse :-)