The Moseley Railway Trust has recently been loaned a few photos showing the Apedale buildings in their formal industrial guise. The first photo looks south; behind the classic car rally are the two buildings which form the core of the MRT workshops at Apedale. A modern photo from a similar viewpoint provides a comparison.
The site was riddled with small mines, known as Footrails locally. According to British Small Mines (South) published by the Industrial Railway Society, no less than seven drifts on the site were noted in the early 1980s. By 1995, under the auspices of the Aurora Mining Co, this has dropped to three drifts. Mining on site ceased in 1998. It is remarkably difficult to locate features from the old mines, since the site was largely cleared, and then levelled after the end of the mining era. Today, the exact location of some of the drifts is subject to some dubiety and speculation. It has been suggested that Lemmy, of Motorhead fame, worked as a miner at Apedale, but this has not been proven. Nonetheless, if you want to walk in such hallowed footsteps, get in touch here or come and have a dig at Apedale.
