A REUNION of the original members of the Manx Mines Research Group will take place in Laxey tonight 40 years after the group was created.
The founder, Peter Atherton, and a group of the original members will be joined by current members of the Laxey Mines Research Group which is still very active.
The Manx Mines Research Group (MMRG) was formed in the early 70s when a group of men from Laxey decided to conduct the first ever surveys into the Island’s various disused mines workings.
No one had entered some of the disused mines for close to 100 years and the research provided some valuable information which was handed to the Manx Museum, whose previous records on the mine workings was not very extensive.
The MMRG took numerous photographs of the internal machinery and pumps inside the mineshafts and visited mine workings across the Island, such as Bradda, Foxdale, Snaefell and Glen Rushen.
The group also visited less well known smaller mine workings such as in Glen Auldyn, Glen Maye, and Colby but the main focus of attention was in the Laxey region where the mines network was extensively surveyed.
The MMRG also established a close relationship with the Derbyshire Caving Club who became regular visitors to the Island. MMRG?members also visited the Derbyshire cavers and took part in caving expeditions - very different to their experiences underground in the Isle of Man.
Derbyshire Caving Club was also involved in the MMRG’s first ever descent of a 300ft mineshaft at Agneash in the mid 1970s when they brought winching equipment to the Island to lower men into the mine for the first time since it closed in the 1880s.
The discoveries below ground shed new light on the way the mine operated when huge quantities of silver and lead were dug out of the ground in the heyday of the Isle of Man’s mining years, when vast fortunes were made by the mine owners.
The reunion tonight is roughly 40 years after the Manx Mines Research Group was formed and a number of the original members will be in attendance including John Corlett, Dave Richards, Bob Holgate, Bill Dale, and Norman McKibbin.
They will also be joined by a number of people who joined the group in subsequent years and current members of the Laxey Mines Research Group. The meeting will be held at the Bridge Inn in Laxey. Collections of photographs from 40 years ago will also be on display.
