My actress auntie Cynthia Michaelas took me to the caves when I was tiny and we still lived up there. She was in coronation Street and last of the summer wine before and during my lifetime amongst other productions. She also worked in the theatre, local and national ones, at Styall Mill and Quarry Bank Mill and possibly Tatton Park as a period costume living history tour guide when she was resting from the professional industry. Lived in Stockport when she died. Proper awesomeness! She was an amazing faerie godmother to me during my childhood sports and arts training and performance days when we left Lancashire for Dorset. Thanks for bringing me these awesome memories! I am so homesick. You're a great historical film documentary artist! Everything you show the world is exactly why I'm so grateful to have been born a Mancunian! It's in our blood and the water... Proper legendary magic here dude!

When mine or tunnel exploring in America (United States), in order to keep from getting confused (lost), we use what we call the :"Right Hand Rule" where you always travel along the right side wall, eventually making a complete exploration and returning to where you started. If you decide to quit before you have finished the entire area or want to go back to the beginning, then you turn around 180 degrees and start using a 'Left Hand Rule' where you keep going left, which in reality is just reversing your track along the exact same path that you came in on. We had to incorporate these rules because many of our mine and cave systems literally run for miles with countless side passages.

For those interested in mines like this but old gold mines in Nevada, look at "Abandoned & Forgotten Places". the similarities are uncanny. Another great explore Martin.

Great to see you cracking on at 20.00 The a mazing places you find are just brilliant

Great video friend hope you get better soon and mostly please keep the great videos coming 👍

Really interesting caves... I've been waiting for you to go and explore them. But! Why oh WHY do people have to ruin places by littering?!!

I’ll never be able to visit England probably. Thank you for these videos for those of us who can’t. I’m state side. I also know the River from the song “Ferry Cross the Mersey”.

I used to work in the quarry at Whitworth and there were tales if mikes of caves under the hillside and people getting lost in them for weeks

At 8:40 you can see where someone had cut a few small trees down to stumps to open up the views and for light. Where is the top of that shaft go ??? Always enjoy the "Brew" music, don't steer the tea around--go back and fourth with the spoon, be proper.... LOL "OH", look the gates open, "priceless" Is the image at 23:38 to 23:41 upside-down or is it just me ? Looks like you all had a great day at both locations. Thanks for all you do for us viewers. Stay safe, Stay strong.....

Glad you got out safe. May I encourage you to throw a ball of yarn into your backpack for future trips to use as a guide to get out safe. Thank you and take care.

So interesting. Felt a bit nervous too with the mine. But another fantastic vlog and explore. Well done to you all. No comments made about your tea James so it must be getting better especially If using the proper milk. Thank you again.

I guess by the long-lived nature of caves, they will be used in many different ways over the years. Glad your voice is getting better.

The pebbles look glacial. Here we see this all through the Niagara Escarpment, glacier polished pebbles encased in sand.

Thomas Barnard (1849-1931) made clay pipes in Stockport for over 70 years and had his workshop in “a cave in the bank of the Mersey at Brinksway” (Lancashire Evening Post 4 Sept 1931). That workshop would have needed shelving or racking systems...

Thank you Martin for nice video see you next and I hope you feel better soon

2 cool explores! Both with some great history! The second looking like a maze that could take days to get out if you got lost!

Those caves are fascinating Martin. More questions than answers! Lols. There are some preserved Cave dwellings down Staffordshire way, but I think these Stockport caves must have been more Industrial.......and get a belt on to keep those Keks up lad! ;-)

Excellent Excellent video dude I never knew about Maggie's cave. Well presented as usual. 👌🇬🇧

Great video as per usual . Get well soon Martin , and stay safe .

There is a great deal more to Maggie's Caves thank what you showed.

When they finish with a drift they will sometimes backfill and close it off with gobbing or waste rock.

Nothing like a good brew.

😁😀👍 You said y'all. 👍😀😁😎. Love it brother. I'm in Texas so it's great hearing you say Y'all. 5 thumbs up. 👍👍👍👍👍

Your videos get better every time I watch, just think of the poor workers working down the mine with candles, it must have been a miserable life, I guess even children working down the mine

What a fascinating place, thanks for showing it to us Martin.

Another smashed video!! every explore we always feel like we are right by your side.

Just loved those caves what those walls could tell. I’m so pleased you went in. The mine was odd. I would not have gone In There, two minutes and I would be lost. A train video would be great. Thanks so much for taking me along. Please stay safe and take care

Another great video. But rather you and James than me. Interesting to find out about the "singing posts" but sadly for some miners it was the last sound they ever heard!

Thanks Martin that was brilliant. Take care and all the best. Stevie

Thanks for the shout out martin. Another cracking vid. I really enjoyed the coal works vid u done. I might have to visit myself.

Great video as always Martin. You were brave to go into that stone mine, but I'm glad that you did because now I don't have to.

Love this one thanks ✌️

Interesting as always. 👍

Great job of combining the two different videos. Too many unanswered questions about Maggies caves. Would love to know more. And you are quite right that the mine looks the same everywhere you look. I would only want to go into something like that if I had a guide. Otherwise it is too easy to get lost. Feel better and keep on making these great videos!

Super little film , great that you kept reminding the kids that it was dangerous with plenty of Hazzards :()

Cheeky little smile there, Martin! - - Setts and coobles are different. Cobbles are round (river?) stones tight-packed so they can't roll, but water can drain away, while Setts are stones cut square, giving a nearly flat surface, but water can sit on it, making it slippery.

Brilliant video again guys stay safe xx

In good company there Martin DM does some great vlogumentry’s. Great video 👍🏻

Crickey, that piece of wood that appeared to prop up the ceiling...I thought whoa....cracking trip Martin...the next one I suggested has some good external features and dronable footage...

Another great find Martin. Phew I was getting anxious just watching it the thought of getting lost in there stuff of nightmares

thank you Martin

Very cool caves. Love seeing those hints of old industrial use. I see all sorts of evidence like that now, because of your videos, and my family and friends just think I'm weird 😂😂

Great vlog on two very different places, Martin.

Lovely video this Martin as per usual...much needed on a Monday evening! I thought that little story about the Navvies living in those caves was interesting, I love owt to do with these men, the men that really built the infrastructure back in the day! A real shame you couldn't get to see that crane/winch either! Someone will watch this vid, who knows where it is and get in touch with you I'm sure! Keep up the great work! Cheers...

Martin the wood tracks might have had wooden lengths with a metal stripps on it, the reason the side shafts are full of stone is because they call that back filling so they can keep the tailings down aka waste Rock, also helps to keep the roof up, nice videos, get well soon!

Great stuff. There are also quarries further up the valley towards Bacup / Stacksteads. Lots of Old Railway stuff up that way too. I only know this as I lived up there a few years ago for a while. Cheers.👍👍

Technically when stone is mined, it's called an underground quarry. Ooh, danger of death is my favourite welcome sign! ;) You should come up here, we can show you the vast lead mines up here, upto 300 years old, stone arched, huge stopes and flats :) Tomorrow's video is a prime example. No grid pattern to hours, they twist and weave as they follow the lead veins.

Very Interesting Martin. In Kinver in Staffordshire there are cave houses that you can visit. Lived in until quite recently ish.

Great video yet again pal. When exploring cave systems I take glow stick, leave them at each junction to show you path. Obviously pick them up on your way out, but im sure you would

Another two intresting things, loved to see the crane remains

I have been down The Caves. Fascinating. Never heard of a Stone Mine. Great content, Martin. Camera work as faultless as ever.🇯🇪

Those caves were great Martin. I used to be a caver but I am now in a wheelchair so can't do it now. So I watch what you get upto with jealously. Take care.

String is used by cave divers to find your way back out of a system because obviously losing your way in a flooded cave with limited air is fatal. You usually add string to the main one by tying offshoots to it so coming back out if you turned right going in you turn left going out, also I think the different coloured arrows are by different people and are just for the same reason so when you come back you know which way is to the exit, its less fatal if you lose your way in normal cave systems. Most carry spare everything and chocolate and water for emergencies and ALWAYS inform someone where you are going and to alert the authorities if you don't contact them within a certain time that you are safe and have returned ok.

When you said the place is giving you a bad vibe you were standing next to some impressive cracks in the supporting pillars. That was probably one of the sketchiest things I have seen you do. Keep up the good work.

Cool caves

Two cracking little videos Martin. Those mines werte scarey on so many levels: claustrophobic; sketchy roof supports; same-ness, leading to getting lost and the outside chance of some pratt padlocking the gate.😁

Always a great vid when James features

When you get back to the entrance and it's been padlocked behind you...

Thanks for the video Martin and friends. The first caves reminded me of hobbits interesting mix of a place through the years. The mine was amazing it could keep going for miles, especially if you got lost!!😎🐓🐓🐓🇬🇧

Tea tips with James. Lol. I see the tides still out though. Nice video. Cheers

Cool video! I'm bingeing your channel in the hopes I come across a parys mountain video. It's such an amazing place. If you've not been there you really should go!

Thanks for these vid's Martin. I agree, the stone mine had a spooky feel about it. I noticed the string and thought you guys might have run it off, but obviously not. Anyway, interesting and very watchable. Thanks!

Apparently the lower parts of the caves were later excavations used as air raid shelters later sealed off from the public in 1948

Great vid Martin I think that thereaded tube is part of a tool the tube contained a screwdriver. a spike and an awl and a square recess to hold the tool when the handles where screwed together, I think i've got one somwhere it belonged to my farther in law. There are large stone mines near Rainford.

Interesting - I like exploring caves aswell!!! 🙂🚂🚂🚂

So glad you've got together on this with daft monkey and his dad, they are really great like you !

Really Hoped you would of gotten a Ferry' to cross the Mersey 😏 great video 👍 the amount of history in this country is amazing 👊🏻 ✌🏼 hope you're on the mend after yer cold! 👍👊🏻✌🏼🤠

the mason's marks (12:55) may have been to indicate which mason made them for the purposes of wages. no marks-no pay. sometimes markings are to indicate where in a structure a piece was made for.

A first class "bad vibe" well done 👏

For all the explorers out there, dont go above those little walls into the adits behind them. Im not sure if it translates well or if theyre called different in the UK but in Germany we call these manwalls or manstopwalls. The adit usually gets closed off with those walls for two reasons, the first is the adit is too unsafe/dangerous to use any longer, or there has been rockfall, or it caved in, so to stop miners from walking in there accidentally, you close them off. The second reason is, when the adit is "dry", you finished the workings there cause there isnt much more of what you were mining there, than you pull all the equipment out of the adit/area and just block it off, to signal that its empty and not used anymore. But as the first reason, its equally dangerous, cause nobody will maintain the wooden beams any longer that hold up the ceiling, sometimes when they pull out of the adit they would even remove the wooden beams, cause wood was expensive too back than. Also nobody checks any longer if the adits are safe or dangerous, the erea where you are working in, gets regularly checked, but those old adits havent been checked for long times, so you even if the main adit was still active and safe, the side adits could be left alone for years or decades and be very dangerous even for the miners that worked there, so you always made sure you block them off so no miner can enter them.

Legend has it the stone from this area was used as the flagging in Trafalgar Square.

Good video that I think I've seen Maggie's cave in daft monkeys video I think you was in it,that pinar mine looked unsafe glad you & James got out your voice sounds like mine from watching the England game last night my voice is croaky glad you gonna do another Manchester video carnt wait 👍

Goodday Martin yep bring on a lost train line i look forward to your videos it looks like Sydney may be in for a long lock down .stay safe

Hi Martin, there were some awesome parts to that cave system. The name for that type of mining is called room & pillar mining. A very interesting adventure, Thank you for sharing, much love. xx 💖

For the caves you need to either map it as you go or find someone who knows some of it for a guided tour.. deffo put me on edge watching you guys in there looks super dangerous. Reminds me of the Paris catacombs but a english version.. great vid and look forward to the next 1.

Should take some of those big colored sidewalk chalk sticks with you. You can mark your paths, and because it's chalk, you know it won't permantly deface the mine, cave or tunnels you're exploring.

Superb combination.

Brilliant.

The arrows are meant to point to the exit. I love watching abandoned mine videos from the US and Canada, now Martin is showing British mine videos 😄👷🏻

Wouldn't have liked to be in there trying to find my way out. Get well soon Martin. Would love a Manchester video very soon.

I was most relieved when I saw that the exit/entrance door to the mine was still open. You should NOT go into a mine like that without somebody with specialist knowledge. I recall about 20 years ago going into a similar mine at Facit, near Whitworth, Rochdale, with Alan Davies of the Lancashire Mining Museum. There strings on the floor, like you had, but in places there were rocks (i.e.) rockfalls on top of the string. I was very pleased to get out of there!

Brilliant, as always. Now I get an idea of what an anthill looks like. Yeah, that mine wasn't nice. Reminded me of a great, but nasty, short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, called 'The New Catacomb'. Well worth reading.

"DEFINITELY been a bit of a track here POSSIBLY.!🤣

Brilliant..

You need to get one of those 3D cave scanners, Martin. Add it to your wish list!

24:56 "You could probably go down there for days and get completely lost...." We've all had one or two moments like that Martin 😄💖

Some killer videos lately chief, ta very much.

Hello from Australia 🦘 just my thought the caves we're a early pottery kiln for either pottery or bricks, just looks like old brick works.

The very best way to navigate a mine is the right hand rule. That being you always ,at an intersection,turn right. And keep doing so at every intersection. You will end up back where you began. The exception being if one of the tunnels leads out a second portal. No need of string or arrows.

When you have a cold, hot drinks need a shot of whiskey in them. That was what my Mom did for us. Get well soon. Another interesting video. Good Luck, Rick

Near Bath, there are miles and miles of under ground stone quarries from which Bath itself was built,

Fascinating stuff again Martin. Are you thinking of covering the final stretch of the Medlock when we're allowed a little more freedom? I still have the old surveyor's/engineer's map showing the confluence of the Medlock and Irwell if that would be of interest. We discussed an image of the map that I sent before lockdown but you'd be welcome to borrow the original if it's of interest.

Hi Martin been to Pinner mines several times Its the worst mine for getting lost in and only found the crane on the 3rd attempt.

Get that Fenix fired up Martin.

According to an article in the Manc. Evening News, the caves were once used as a brothel. Then in your video you mentioned "shoving your GoPRO down a hidden cave" and "a huge shaft"!!

Interesting places Maggies caves looked good like you said why all the arches in the side wall. As for the stone mine looked like an underground maze you wouldn't want to get lost the trouble with those arrows they may lead to an exit that is now either blocked up or a locked gate and then trying to find out from further in a new ball on string comes to mind.

"somebody POSSIBLY lived there".???. I'd say somebody DEFINITELY lived there.!! Of course they did. It's not been carved out by kids for a den has it🙄 One part looks like it's been a workplace, and the other, definitely a little home. Maybe whatever was worked there, needed guarding of a nighttime. LOVE THE VIDS KEEP'EM COMING RICH(UK) 🥰🥰🥰.

is the wasp poster a nod to 'bee here now'?

There are similar caves all over nottingham, that date back to saxon times, a lot are connected under the centre, some used to be homes, others for industrial purposes, If you look up hollowstone road nottingham, you will see a similar looking system on both sides of the road, these were used for malting.

Yay Martin !