Location 225
Location #225. Lawrence Sand Tunnels.
Map 8

Address

Area

Shepherds Creek

Description

Location #225. Lawrence Sand Tunnels. Western side of Shepherds Creek, between Smith's and Jones Gullies.


Still Standing

Yes



Construction Details


Location Type

Mine


View Location on Map

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Interested Parties

The table below shows the groups of people that had an interest in this property, either as owners, residents, tenants or shareholders. Clicking on the 'Details' link will display a list of the individuals in the group along with any known historical information about them.

Group Date Description
1 c1900 Lawrence Sand Tunnels Details

Notes

The table below shows any historical notes about the location.

Note Date Short Description Note Text
2540 c1900 Location : Driven about 16m into the Terrace between Smith's Gully and Jones Gully on the western side of Shepherds Creek. Two adits approx 30m apart, about 5m above the Bannockburn Nevis Road, situated approx 160m south of the school road intersection.
2541 c1900 Quartz Silica Sand The quartz sand is from the Manuherikia group sediments. It is loose, fine, and fairly pure. There are sufficient impurities present in the form of fine-grained rather weathered mica, and probably clay, found as an extremely thin coating on some of the quartz grains. This rules out the sand as a raw material for optical glass or high quality glassware. However, it could still be used for ordinary glass manufacture, although a washing plant may be required to remove clay or iron stained horisons (?)
2542 c1900 General Note. It appears that the tunnels may have been driven by one of James Lawrence's sons in search of coal.
2543 c1918 General note. Alex Robertson (who was married to Annie Margaret Lawrence) worked the tunnels periodically until the 1950s. Samples were sent to Benhar for trials in the glazing of earthenware. Unfortunately the sand was found to be unsuitable for glazing. The main use of the sand was found to be for sand soap and for foundry moulding. The sand was mined by hand and bagged into flour sacks, transported to Cromwell raid head on Ted Lawrence's two ton Chev. truck. The sand was railed to Dunedin where the McLeods Soap Factory used it in the manufacture of sand soap.

Images

The table below shows a list of images related to the location. Click on 'View Image' to display more details about the image, and to view the image.

Image Id Source Date Short Description
796 Paul Crump - Bannockburn 2002 Lawrence's Sand Tunnel (two adits). View Image
797 Paul Crump - Bannockburn 2002 Bannockburn Coal Mine - location #226, and Lawrence's Sand Tunnel - location #225A View Image