Gold Mines

29th December 

'On the 5th day of Christmas my true Love sent to me - Five Gold Rings! 🎶 '

And funny enough I'm in gold mining country. 

I'm also reading Silas Marner, close to the beginning, when he is counting his gold with relish every night 🌙. 

I discovered that the Woodstock pub, Re-named Royal Mail Hotel, has been there since 1870 built by a Londoner

The pub would have served a growing mining community, as Gold was first found in Woodstock in 1865 and then later in Upper Woodstock on 8th May 1882 - the name being later changed to Rimu - due to some missing post.

New name & an unfortunate incident:

The gold mining completely changed the landscape of the area. At first terraces and tunnels were dug into the hillside, but later the easiest way was to 'sluice' out the gold with powerful jets of water to wash away the hillside in order to extract the gold.

These stories are both funny & scary

This later....from the 1920s

As the gold dwindled the town remained

....but later they took to 'dredging' for a while to get the very last gold

It was interesting to visit the old mining site. The road was diverted to stop vehicles falling off the edge of the hillside 

An old tunnel

It was also nice to see they still use this place for meetings etc

I then drove to Ross, which was also an established gold town, and had a nice little historical centre. You could even pan for gold if you wanted.....they say there's still a little left maybe......a few flakes in the river bed.....

The mining cottage:

.....there were stories about a series of barbers in the town - one who was so 'bored' with life there, he poisoned himself with his own hair treatments..... !?

In the museum:

The largest nugget found!