The DERBYSHIRE CAVER No 151 Spring 2019 Dave Shearsmith ascending the ladder in the Bottomless Pit, Speedwell Cavern IN THIS ISSUE – The Ecton Mine adit restoration project by Simon Brooks The Longcliffe Mine shaft‐top grille epic hauling trip by Phil Wolstenholme David Jackson Obituary by Charley Cooley Changing more lightbulbs in Speedwell Cavern by Mark McAuley ‘Newish’ caves in the Wormhill area by Simon Brooks Highlighting damage done to gated mines and the access implications by Pete Knight Published by the £2.00 DERBYSHIRE CAVING ASSOCIATION £2.00 THE DERBYSHIRE CAVER No 151 Spring 2019 Editor: Material for inclusion can be sent hand‐written or via email. Phil Wolstenholme Please send contributions for the next issue as soon as they are ready. Flat 4, 173‐175 London Road Highfield The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Sheffield editor nor of the Derbyshire Caving Association. S2 4LH Email: [email protected] The website of the Derbyshire Caving Association is at: www.theDCA.org.uk CONTENTS: Editorial . 3 DCRO call outs . 3 Refurbishment of the Ecton Mine Adit . 4 The Longcliffe Mine Shaft‐top Epic . 6 David Jackson obituary . 10 How Many Cavers Does It Take to Change a Lightbulb? Part 2 . 12 Underground Conservation Forum/Peak District Diving . 13 A Few ‘Newish’ Caves in the Wormhill Area . 14 Gates and Mines: Something We Have to Accept and Embrace . 15 New Longcliffe artwork by Dominika Wrøblewska . 16 Cover photograph by Grace Chu THE DCA ‐ WHAT WE DO AND HOW TO JOIN US DOING IT The aim of Derbyshire Caving Association (DCA) is to protect the caves and promote good caving practice within the Peak District and surrounding areas. Membership is open to all clubs, individuals and outdoor activity providers with an interest in caves and caving or mine exploration. Check out the DCA website for further information (www.theDCA.org.uk). Membership enquiries should be made to the Membership Secretary at [email protected]. The magazine of the DCA has been in publication for over fifty‐five years and provides a forum for cavers in the Peak District. The Editor welcomes contributions from all cavers, whether DCA members or not. News, articles, photographs, letters for publication, etc, should be posted or emailed to him at the above address, or give him a ring on 0114 255 9976. The Derbyshire Caver is available free of charge as a PDF for download from the DCA website. Those cavers requiring a printed copy may subscribe, by sending a cheque for £10.00 (payable to DCA) for four issues, to the Secretary or Treasurer. Some back issues are also available for sale. Quarter‐page adverts are £5 per insertion. Current issues of The Derbyshire Caver are available to purchase from The Old Smithy Teashop, Monyash, and the Peak District Mining Museum, Matlock Bath. Editorial DCRO Call Outs Welcome to issue 151 of The Derbyshire Caver. SATURDAY 13/10/2018 ‐ Blue John Cavern. Whilst we had This is my first issue as editor, replacing Mike a large contingent of Team members deployed on a training exercise in the nearby Peak Cavern a real shout Higgins who has done a fantastic job over the last came in before a comms network had been set‐up using five years keeping the flag flying, and I hope to our specialist underground radios, making a large part of maintain his high standards over the coming the team hard to contact! Luckily, we already have a joint issues. tasking system in place with our Mountain Rescue Colleagues and it was a joint call out with Edale Mountain Rescue Team and Buxton Mountain Rescue Team assisting This issue is very much about conservation and East Midlands ambulance service, so we had sufficient restoration – particularly as many Peak District personnel available on the surface. The Blue John show mining sites are reaching their collapse state cave visitor who had broken her ankle was brought back up after 200‐300 years, as old timber and rickety the 250+ steps of the cavern and taken to hospital – we stonework finally succumbs to gravity. This has wish her a speedy recovery. necessitated much practical work by DCA TUESDAY 29/01/2019 ‐ Carlswark Cavern. DCRO was volunteers, clubs and independent cavers over called out to assist a caver who had dislocated his shoulder the last few years, working in conjunction with whilst caving in Stoney Middleton. The team were assisted landowners and/or regulatory authorities, to by medics from EMAS who administered pain relief and repair, maintain or make safe numerous old mine relocated the shoulder. DCRO volunteers were then able to haul the casualty and all those still underground back to the entrances in order to protect the public and snowy surface. Thanks to EMAS for the assistance – and livestock; and in many cases maintain or provide apologises we returned them much muddier than when access to those interested in venturing they started! Also, thanks to the Vicar of Eyam who called underground. The Ecton Mine adit (page 4) and by and provided hot drinks and biscuits! We wish the the Longcliffe Mine shaft (page 6) are prime casualty a speedy recovery! examples of how cooperation between the SUNDAY 24/02/2019 ‐ Giants Hole. Having spent the day interested parties can achieve great results, on a training exercise near Cromford the team were called out by Derbyshire Police just as they were packing up. Litter and fly‐tipping, as well as misuse of some Concerns had been raised for three men seen entering sites by off‐road vehicles continue to be a Giants hole, Castleton. One team member set off for the cave to investigate whilst the some of the others took the problem in certain areas; news has also recently team vehicle back to base and repacked it ready for a been received of more electrical household possible shout. The team member at Giants found the waste (a fridge and a microwave) being dumped cavers in good physical condition – not cold or tired – but at Owl Hole; whilst this instance has been it was felt they would benefit from some assistance to reported and is being dealt with, we would ask all climb the pitch. A full team call‐out was avoided as those still at base attended with the DCRO Vehicle. A small team cavers to keep an eye out for inappropriate use went into Giants, rigged a ladder and lifetime to assist the of cave and mine sites for fly‐tipping or other men up the pitch. All then came out under their own vandalism. Mine access at some officially‐gated steam. sites is also becoming a problem, highlighted on page 15. SATURDAY 09/03/2019 ‐ Alderley Edge. The team were called out today by Cheshire Police to support a surface search by Cheshire Search and Rescue by checking all the Christine Wilson has recently resigned as mines at Alderley Edge, Cheshire. In all, we visited well over Conservation Officer (page 13), and we are also 30 mines, shafts, adits and other entrance. DCRO is looking for an Access Officer, so if anyone thinks fortunate to have several members of Derbyshire Caving they may have a talent in these areas, please get Club (DCC) amongst our members. DCC maintain and secure access to the Alderley Edge mines on behalf of the in touch. And please send in any submissions, landowners (mostly National Trust) and their in‐depth written or images, so that we can highlight the knowledge and pre‐planning was key to the smooth best of caving in the Peak District. running of this incident response. Phil Wolstenholme. Information courtesy of DCRO 3 Refurbishment of the Ecton Mine Alongside the demise of the creamery the outermost 10m of the adit had fallen into a very poor state of Adit. repair, with sections near‐collapsed; shoring appeared to be the only thing keeping the adit roof in place, and with an alarming bulging in part of the adit Worked since the Bronze Age, Ecton Mine in wall some 6 to 7m in from the entrance. In 2018 the Staffordshire was one of the foremost mines in the Ecton Mine Trust had managed to secure funding to British Isles being exploited by the Duke of renovate the first 10m of the adit, and Derbyshire Devonshire in the 18th Century, when an estimated Geotechnical Ltd. (a small Derbyshire‐based rope‐ 100,000 tons of copper ore was extracted, earning access geotechnical construction company, of which the Duke a small fortune. It is now a scheduled Orpheus member Simon Brooks is managing director) monument, has the designation of an Underground won the contract to undertake the repairs. SSSI and is under the care of the Ecton Mine Educational Trust (www.ectonmine.org). One of the principal access points into the mine complex is the Ecton Mine Adit which at its outflow lay under the remains of a former creamery. The creamery ceased operating in the 1950s but then found a new life in the 1970s and early 1980s as the Peak District Hut for the Birmingham Cave and Crag Club. Presided over by John Coyle, it was well used by many cavers as a base for exploration in the Manifold Area. In the late 1980s this use ceased and in the 1990s the roof tiles were taken, and the building fell into a state of disrepair, with only the old ‘hut‐ fees safe’ built into the old chimney breast remaining as testament to its former caving hut life. Pete Roe directing reco nstruction of the first section of the adit.