NAMHO Conference 2026, 19th to 21st June

A number of Club members made the trip to Swaledale for the NAMHO Conference. It was based at the Church of St Andrew, Grinton, where the lectures and social events took place, with camping in fields just over the river Swale. Dave Carlisle was due to give the opening talk on the Friday night, but unfortunately he was unwell and not able to get to the conference. So Peter Ryder stepped up and entertained everyone with his song about the famous cave explorer Norbert Casteret - with mixed responses from the audience during the chorus!

A novelty (certainly for the caterers) was that the evening meals on Friday and Saturday were served in the graveyard of the church, luckily the evenings were warm and relatively midge free.

A variety of underground trips were on offer to delegates (some of which were run several times). These included trips into Faggergill, the most extensive mine in the Swaledale ore field with nearly 10 miles of horse level; and Devis Hole Lead Mine, begun in the early 1820s but hit natural passages creating an interesting maze system. (Previous Club trips there have proved to be interesting!)

Burtersett Stone mine, looked after by Yoredale Cave & Mine Society, was interesting for the variety of mining techniques used, plus some fine examples of ‘moon milk’.

For a couple of Club members our main aim was to venture into Sir Francis Level. This is a legendary wet Swaledale trip of over 1km of waist to neck deep water to reach the unique hydraulic engine chamber. The level was started in 1864 and struck the Friarfold Vein in 1877. A shaft was sunk to test the vein at depth and this shaft was equipped for winding and pumping with hydraulic engines in 1879, which still remain in place today. Some previous Club trips to the level have been defeated by bad air, on this occasion despite the oxygen level dropping fairly low about two-thirds of the way in, it rose again once the engine room was reached to a barmy 16%.

The engine chamber is in a remarkable state of preservation with a winding engine and water-pressure pump, designed by Henry Davy. However, one of the timbers supporting the sheave wheels has a serious crack in it and appears to have caused the pump chains to sag.

engine chamber towards the shaft that held the water pipes bringing water to the engines. The oxygen levels there were much better than those encountered on the way in.

NAMHO delegates on subsequent trips over the weekend noted that the oxygen level didn’t drop as low as it did on the first day.

Surface Trips

A number of surface trips were on offer during the conference, among them was an opportunity to visit the 17th Century water powered mills at Marrick Smelt Mill. The landowner rarely grants permission to access the two mills, associated peat stores and buildings so this was a good chance to see them.

The tour started at the reservoirs at the top of the site then moved downhill to the ore and peat stores and High Mill.
This operated from about 1660 to 1861, it has two ore hearths that were blown by bellows powered by a 21ft. (6.4m) diameter waterwheel. Low Mill, also had two ore hearths and was re-built in 1830 by Jaques & Co, and then renovated in 1862 by the Hurst Mining Company who installed a second-hand c.6m diameter waterwheel to power the bellows. A slag hearth was set-up on the north side of Low Mill and flues on west side lead up the hillside to High Mill which was used as a chimney.

Evening Entertainment

Saturday evening was the main social event in the church at Grinton with a number of 'activities' taking place at the same time. These included a photo quiz, and a very cryptic mining themed quiz with some very obscure questions being read out at the same time as the photo quiz images where being shown on the projection screen!

The 'teams' of delegates were also split into groups of 4 or more and asked to build the tallest tower that they could to support an egg. The materials for the tower consisted of some drinking straws, a paper plate, 'blu-tac' and a small plastic bag.

Undaunted, the SCMC crack construction team of Vicky Robinson, Alan Robinson and Paul Thorne set-to and built the tallest and most stable construction of the evening. They were so successful that they had finished 10 or more minutes ahead of the deadline and most importantly their egg stayed firmly in place during that time. The erections of other contenders were either too small or failed to stay up unaided. However, it was noticed that another team looked as if they had built a taller tower. (shock, gasp, horror!) So an extension was quickly added to the 'Boiled-Egg Khalifa' raising it to the lofty winning height of 46”. Even with the new extension the tower was remarkably stable, unlike the competitions.

Thanks to ...

All the organisers, trip leaders, lecturers and traders for making this years' conference a success.

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