Site Records

Site Name: Emmer Green (Hanover) South Chalk Mine

Jct. Peppard Road & Kiln Lane
Emmer Green
Reading, Berks
OS Grid Ref: SU722769

Sub Brit site visit 2nd November 2003

DESCRIPTION OF SOUTH (HANOVER) MINE (PEARMAN'S MINE No. 2)

Access is via a fixed steel ladder (c. 16m) in a narrow (1 m) shaft in which an older brick lining is visible as well as a modern corrugated steel lining. This is unlikely to have been an original working shaft, as too narrow, and not well placed for that purpose within the mine. There appear to be some five or six metres of clay overlying the mined chalk. The mine tunnels are generally of the order of five metres high and up to three or four metres wide, although rather higher (perhaps 9 metres) at one point, the deepest in the mine. Floor levels vary by several metres, and original floor is not visible throughout much of the mine. One or two galleries have recognisable low-level miners' 'benches' at their ends, although these are often obscured by small chalk debris. The nature and disposition of mine spoil is noted below. The roof support pillars are irregular in shape and size, although to some extent they reflect the jointing pattern.

Material mined
The blocky chalk is in beds of about 0.3 m thickness and upwards, with very prominent layers of flint nodules every 0.4 to 1 m. Such little fallen chalk as was seen included blocks up to 0.3 or 0.4 metres, so could have yielded blocks large enough to have been used as a building stone (as at St. Agnes.) Chalk as lime kiln feedstock for manufacturing quicklime would have to have been of sufficient size (0.1 to 0.2 m) to allow efficient circulation of kiln flames and gases. All other chalk, and chalk smaller than this, would have been quite suitable for agricultural use direct on the fields, and for grinding and mixing with the brick clays for brickmaking.

Jointing and faulting
There are very prominent joints in several places, with what seemed to be at least two distinct orientations. Only at two locations was any vertical displacement noted, in neither case more than about 0.3 metres. Some joint planes have been used to form pillar sides, which obviously saved work in mining, but which raises the question of ceiling stability. Only at one point, however, has one of the very small faults precipitated sufficient chalk from the ceiling to penetrate into the Lower London Tertiary beds above.

Mining spoil
There are prominent layers of flint nodules every 0.4 to 1 metre in the mine walls. Interestingly, very little flint has been left in the mine. One small heap of small broken flints was noted, but most have evidently been taken out, and were probably sold for and used in local buildings, and as roadstone.

Large volumes of small chalk remain on the mine floors. These waste chalk dumps are in part piled up right across mine galleries evidently no longer required for access. In other areas, they are more regularly disposed along one side of a passage, with an access pathway retained alongside.

Transportation and removal to surface
The lined shaft re-discovered in 1977 and currently used for access is clearly only a ventilation shaft. Ormonde (2003) reported what were taken to be cart tracks on parts of the mine floor, possibly implying horse-drawn carts and an adit entrance, although I did not notice such tracks (nor any very extensive length of level floor.) In view of the local topography, a brick-lined vertical haulage shaft (now lost behind a fall) seems the more likely form of main entrance for the mine.

Finds, graffiti, and toolmarks
What has been interpreted as a candle-holder remains in the mine - a small tabular piece of chalk about 6 cm across with a central hole. Some artefacts including a part of a clay tobacco pipe (potentially useful as absolute dating evidence) are said to have been found and removed by members of the University of Reading Caving Club. Smoke or soot marks on walls and ceilings are notably not at all prominent (an interesting contrast with the Pinner chalk mine.) Two main sorts of tool marks were seen - the most numerous apparently made with relatively sharp-ended picks, and fewer of a broader nature.

The oldest date seen was 1776, associated with the initials IP (with and without a crossed I.) A concentration of pencilled graffiti including a list of names dated 20th April 1836 appears to reflect an event of some significance, which might have been the last day of operation of the mine. Names and initials noted include M. Valpy, HB, IS, and E. Shuter. There is a Valpy Street in Reading, named after Dr. Richard Valpy, who was headmaster at Reading School 1781 to 1830 (described as 'a mighty flogger!') In another place was seen C.S. Feb. 3rd 1844 and C. Beavis Mar. 16 1844.

Roof failure
One area near the entry shaft has been walled off, having been found to contain clay and brick debris which has evidently entered a part of the mine which has suffered a crown hole collapse.

At one point a small roof fall, probably initiated by a very small fault (flint bands in the chalk can be seen to have been displaced vertically by about 0.25m) has led to the formation of an upwardly migrating void which now exposes about 1.5 to 2 metres of the Lower London Tertiary beds overlying the chalk. The upper surface of the chalk is irregular and penetrated by boreholes or burrows (it is not clear which) made by former marine animals. These holes are filled with glauconitic green sandy material from the bed above. Immediately overlying the chalk is the Bullhead Bed, a thin layer of unworn but green-coated flints, followed, in turn, by about 0.3 metres of glauconitic sandy (and perhaps clayey) material containing shells and shell fragments, and then grey plastic clay.

There are a few isolated scatters of large chalk blocks which probably fell from the mine ceilings, but overall the accessible parts of this mine appear to be remarkably stable. Unsupported areas of ceiling alongside the major joint planes used as pillar sides should be monitored. Changes at surface, such as extended road and pavement surfaces or new buildings, which might concentrate rainfall into particular locations (especially if those locations coincide with joint planes) might have implications for the mine stability. However, as no solution pipes are to be seen, it appears that the clay cover here adequately protects the accessible mine from water incursion. The mine is generally very dry, with no obvious evidence of water seeping in through the ceiling or standing on the floors.

Ormonde recorded the disappearance of a hut near Brickwall House, near the junction of Kiln Road and Peppard Road, in 1890. This may well have been the original main shaft (inadequately capped) opening up, and is perhaps represented underground by the walled-off collapse.

Other collapses of the surface noted by Ormonde were all quite distant from the brickfield site (at Southdown Road in 1951, about 0.8 km to the south west, Camp Wood to the north a few years later (when a pond and four trees were swallowed up), and gardens at Grove Hill in the 1980s (1.4 km to the south-west.) These may have resulted from natural solution holes on the chalk outcrop unprotected by a Reading Clay cover. Whitaker, et al. (1872) noted a swallow-hole 'in the valley running up to Emmir Green.'

Site investigation and stabilisation works
Following the rediscovery of the mine in 1977, a new lining was installed in the shaft, and the workings inspected and surveyed by Wimpey.

Investigations revealed the mine to extend below Peppard Road and property beyond it. One exploratory site investigation borehole (c. 0.1 m diameter) was noted. This has been filled with expanded foam, and appears not to be allowing water to leak into the mine, and seems therefore not to be prejudicial to the mine stability. Extensive areas of the mine ceiling, and mines walls at the foot of the entrance shaft, have been shotcreted (some information about this work has been published (Anon, 1991)) The area affected by the suspected crown hole collapse has been walled off behind cement-filled sandbags.

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