The Facit Stone Mine, also known as the Facit Quarry or Facit Gritstone Quarry, is located near the village of Shawforth, Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It is a disused quarry that was once an active site for the extraction of sandstone flags. Rather external extraction, a series of tunnels were excavated, eventually creating a complex tunnel system..so over the decades, you could imagine how far they could go.
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| Entrance to the main tunnel |
Gritstone is a coarse-grained sedimentary rock that is commonly used as a building and construction material. The Facit Stone Mine was one of several quarries in the area that supplied gritstone for local construction projects.This was used for Facit Mine taps into the Haslingden series of sandstone deposits, a quite hard rock, which was used for paving flags, machine beds, construction and later hardcore and aggregate for motorway construction .
The quarry likely operated during the period when sand stone flags were in high demand, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the region experienced significant industrial and urban development. The pillar and stall workings create a disorientating ‘maze’ on a grand scale, and several incidents of lost groups and rescues are documented.One example, in the early 1980s, 3 men ventured into the caves, they were lost for 48 hours. They gave an account on how, being so desperate, they had to burn pound notes as torches to try and get out. It was one of the friends from the local pub who heard about the men of going out to venture into the tunnels. As family members heard about this, they contacted the local police outlining they had been missing. Eventually they were found by cave rescue specialists and the fire service...
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