Does anyone know the full story behind a private drift mine, that was situated in the hamlet of Cliviger, between Todmorden & Burnley.
It was back in the mid 80's, & was almost at the roadside, where the road out of Todmorden climbed up the valley side, before it crossed the railway, from the left to the right hand side of the valley. This was the point where the old "Copy" pit had been (an old *flat rope* pit).
The drift mouth had been driven into the hillside, 40 or 50 yards to the left of the main railway tunnel and, as I used to drive past on a daily basis, there was usually some activity as well as vehicles, smoke from the cabin chimney, etc.
I had always taken an interest in this venture, which proved to be a very short (& no doubt expensive) one.
One day the scene around the pit & railway tunnel mouth changed completely. Several Rail track vehicles, as well as a lot of rail workers. There were clearly no trains running (none ran for many weeks/months).
The story I got from a friend, who's uncle had a farm close by, was that the mine owners had believed they were at a safe enough distance from the rail tunnel to begin using explosives, but, the first time they did they caused a section of the tunnel to collapse. I don't know the accuracy of this but it was obvious that the working had broken into the rail tunnel.
By the time trains started running again, I no longer made this journey & never got the full story. Did anyone hear of this?