Spectacular colours in this photograph of a long abandonned winch are exaggerated by bright gas discharge lighting.

NEW! Submerged slate wagons, Cwmorthin E floor.

The passage of time has had little effect on this fine example of the stonemasons work.

The passage of time, and rot, work together to consume this abandonned slate wagon.

NEW! Contrast of rock textures, Oakeley G floor.

There is very little underground at Dinorwic slate quarries, but this short section of tunnel attracted my interest for the complex patterns in the slate.

An abandoned relic of an industrial past.

NEW! The counterbalance 'Mochyn' (pig) on the 3/6 incline at Rhosydd.

Looking to daylight at Diffwys, the greens of moonlit grass reflect in the water.

Rather than vertical veins, the lead was often deposited if horizontal 'flats' in the lead mines on the North Pennines.

Combination doorways on the Rampgill Scaleburn Vein.

A long exposure in this half arched section of Bunton Level exaggerates the flow of water underfoot.

This slab wagon will haul no more.

An old ventilation fan lies abandoned, to breath no more.

A single slate wagon axel, showing the double flange and floating wheels that allowed wagons to negotiate uneven track.

The cage is slowly rusting, suspended above its shaft now flooded to the collar.

The underground waterheel, a spectacular Mid Wales relic.

Timber props, standing and collapsed at Benallt mine near Nantlle.

The stone arched passages of Nenthead have lasted hundreds of years.

Shattered glass, and shattered machinery beyond viewed through the window of a below ground office.

NEW! The fabled Timbered Tunnel of Death on Oakeley F floor.

NEW! Timbering in this partially flooded level of Mona Mine, Anglesey.

Magnificent Nenthead arching.

The more modern method of support.

The lift cages at Bwlchglas lead mine.

NEW! Massive pump rods descending hundreds of feet in this North Wales metal mine.

NEW! Ruined machinery from the Rhosydd 5/9 counterbalanced incline.

One of the many cranes to be found in Box stone mine.

The Cwmorthin floor 2 adit, the 'smoke flue', slate block arched for the first hundred yards or so.

NEW! Partially submerged on Cwmorthin E floor.

The famous Rampgill horse gin, once used for hauling material up from below.

An attempt to gain new ground in Cwmorthin saw floor 4 being reached, but in which vein?

Shale falls are now resulting in backed up water in many North Pennines mines.

A long abandonned truck on Cwmorthin D floor, Old Vein.

Oakeley H floor, dry at the time, and with halogen lighting making this rusted chain look like a golden stalactite.

A unique feature in Welsh slate, the slate and wooden 'cog' at Moel Fferna shown in stark contrast through black and white.

Nature is slowly reclaiming her ground in the abandoned mines of the North Pennines.

An explorer pauses on the modern ladder bridge installed over the second flooded chamber of the Croesor Rhosydd through trip, this bridge is lost now to a roof fall.

Never one to give up on an explore, Brian returns from a deeper section of a Welsh gold mine.

This large underground engine room in the North Pennines was for some reason painted black.

Drainrat pauses alongside the copper formation at Drws y Coed, a copper mine recorded as being worked by Cornish miners as far back as 1761.

Pausing part way across the second of the extant original bridges on the Croesor Rhosydd through trip, a traverse made much easier for latter day explorers by the installation of fixed safely lines.

Abseiling into dinghies to begin the Chamber of Horrors crossing on the Croesor Rhosydd through trip.

Starting the long descent from Cwmorthin floor A into a rarely seen section of the Back Vein on floors C and D.

NEW! The ruined Cwmorthin barracks with the Wrysgan tips in the background.

Rusted for eternity to the cable, the afternoon sun, and some Photoshop trickery, play on this long abandonned blondin at Dinorwic slate quarries.

Evening sunlight plays on decades of built up dust.

Time for a new set of tyres.

A row of saw tables, most still largely intact. Ventilation was a late addition to these tables, and the reward for many of the men who worked them, an early death from silicosis.

Never listen to anyone who says slate is grey; blue, purple, black, green, red even, but not grey.

NEW! Thousands of glistening water droplets on a tunnel roof.

Detail shot of part of an electrical generator at Dinorwic slate quarries.

Close up of the maker's inscription on this mighty piece of machinery at Dinorwic slate quarries.