Yrcj 1999; 12(11)

Foreword by the President As I write, I have enjoyed five excellent meets since assuming the Presidency. My thanks to all concerned. This year's Glen Etive meet was so popular that I have changed my mind and we will have a 25th Inbhir Fhaolain meet next year, but in March! Unfortunately, we have recently lost several valued members to the grim reaper. The obituaries appear elsewhere in this issue, but I want to pay a personal tribute to the late Bill Woodward. Bill was a genuine, and hard, all-rounder who, especially in the sixties and seventies spent a lot of time with the YRC and with individual members, including myself, both at home and in far flung places. His attitude to life was very laid-back and the words of the old song could almost have been written about Bill... "I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler, I'm a long way from home, and ifyou don't like me then leave me alone. I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink: when I'm dry and if 'moonshine' don't kill me I'll live 'til I die." ©l999 Yorkshire Ramblers' Club Secretary - Gordon Humphreys, Old Hall Cottage, Yealand Conyers, Carnforth, Lancashire LA5 9SJ Editor - Michael Smith, 80 Towngate Road, Worrall, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S35 OAR The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the YR.C nor its Officers. The YRC Bulletin Summer 1999 NGR SD705769 Catamite Hole, Surveyed by: G.Salmon, East Kingsdale B.Bensley and ARenton Length: 440m Depth: 49m Ged Campion © 1996 YRC BCRA Grade 3 Work on Catamite Hole started p4 approximately three years ago, in 1996, following preliminary investigations of the t area between Crescent Pot and King Pot N where there was significant drainage but virtually no known cave passage. The entrance to Catamite Hole is in a small shake hole where a stream flows in wet weather. A narrow entrance with a large wedged gritstone boulder drops 6m onto boulders in a rift. The rift descends to a 3m climb and boulder floor at the bottom, marking the extent ofthe previous exploration. However, an encouraging draught blowing lOm between the boulders seemed a good enough reason to extend the cave here. Over the next couple of months considerable work went into sinking a 4m shaft through loose material. Progress became increasingly encouraging as the noise of a stream bubbling beneath could be clearly heard in wet weather. On a cold December day when the Dales were plastered with fresh snow and the slopes of Braida Garth were avalanching, a breakthrough was made. The removal of wedged boulders at the foot of the shaft revealed a short crawl which opened on to a 4m pitch descending into a fault chamber full of boulders. The chamber sloped away to the head of a further pitch dropping down a vertical boulder and mud consolidated wall. At the bottom the passage appeared blocked but a perfectly formed 2m brown cylindrical shaft, later to be christened the chocolate speedway, seemed to offer some hope ofpenetrating the choke below. Returning the following weekend with lifting tackle three large boulders were removed and a gaping space revealed, we slid down an .~ontinues ,;~.. 10m unstable boulder slope into an impressive continues I' \ stream chamber. 35m Sword ofDamocles The YRC Bulletin 3 Summer 1999 Considerably encouraged we ventured low bedding, round a corner and upstream where pristine, delicate promptly disappeared into a slot. straws were in abundance. An inlet Work at the end of the cave has joined the mainstream before it was continued but the site is particularly necessary to crawl to avoid breaking dismal though the draught continues any formations. After 20m crawling to be encouraging. and a, squeeze over a false floor- we climbed up into a small aven to the With the discovery of the East head of a 3m pitch. Below the passage Kingsdale Master Cave to the north bifurcated both leads becoming too and developments in Dale Barn to the narrow after 35m and IOm south, much potential would seem to respectively. exist around the Lords Top area. M. Cascoyne in 1973 postulated that The downstream end of the cave owing to the limited surface run-offon however was disappointing - the East Kingsdale few sizeable caves passage after only a few metres were accessible. Much drainage diminished to a low bedding where the consists of slow seepage from bogs stream flowed tantalisingly on. The and glacial till resulting in narrow and next few weekends were spent often impenetrable cave passages clearing rocks and silt out of the developing, for example Broken crawl. Hard work in cold wet Finger Pot and the entrance series to conditions. The bedding was so low in Crescent Pot. Nevertheless, where places it was difficult to see what was these narrow vadose fissures meet being excavated. At last, however, the faults or major joints - the results can passage height increased marginally be spectacular, for example Growling allowing just enough room to edge Hole and Spectacle Pot. through and clear the obstruction from the other side. After crawling in the Catamite Hole bears a close stream around a few bends we resemblance to Crescent Pot and may encountered an .inlet carrying a well form one ofits main tributaries sizeable flow. though dye testing has as yet proved inconclusive. The upstream section of Downstream a further constriction Catamite goes some way to explaining halted progress - a small rock pillar the drainage of the surrounding area. blocking the passage. This was Short Cave, Little Demon Pot and removed the following weekend to Thunder Thighs Hole would appear to reveal yet another constriction in the be feeder streams. To date 400m of stream, the Penny Slot where the passage have been discovered to a passage assumed a particularly depth of40m hydrophobic character. Once through this, the passage The team consisted of Ged Campion, enlarged in classic keyhole profile, Bruce Bensley, Graham Salmon, some sections reminiscent of Crescent Shaun Penny, Eddy Edkins and Pot. After 3m the stream returned to Alistair Renton. low bedding and an oxbow tube had to be unblocked to give access to more crawling on the other side. An A version of this article appeared in awkward squeeze gave way to a 5m Caves & Caving, Summer 1998 pitch and standing room The stream however flowed miserably on into a TIle YRC Bulletin 4 Summer 1999 Robert M. Brench, Tailors", and is embellished with a photograph of the Alum Pot Alum Pot, and the plantation. Inside, the photographs Fifty Shilling Tailors: follow the progress of "Mr. X." from the surface to the terminal sump. The 1935 photographs are unremarkable; but the text is the typical hyperbole of the S.A. Craven advertising business: The fourth decade ofthis century was Alum Pot on the Yorkshire Moors, not a prosperous time for most people 297 feet deep & England's most in England; and if extra money could spectacular pot-hole is to be the scene be earned on the side, so much for the ofthe greatest & most daring test ever better. One such aspiring carried out by any Tailor. Mr. .x; entrepreneur was the late Robert M. seen in the right foreground wearing Brench of 36 Barrowby Avenue, a STOCK 50/- suit, is to make the Austhorpe, Leeds, a founder member complete descent through all the of the Leeds Cave Club which passages. What will be the result; flourished from 1930 until 19391. will the suit stand the terrific Leeds at that time was the centre of gruelling it will receive? We think so! the ready-to-wear clothing industry. ... How will this stock suit stand the One of the retailers was Prices, strain? ... Tailors, Ltd. of Cardigan Crescent, Mr. X. is then shewn descending a Kirkstall Road, Leeds 4. It traded ladder. under the name, "The Fifty Shilling Tailors", because it sold suits for 156 wooden rungs before he can rest; £2/10/0, or £2.50 in modem currency. all rubbing against his suit while the rough rock ledges seen at the top Brench thought that a suitable have bumped & battered him & advertising gimmick, and test of the covered one side ofhim with slime & fifty shilling suit, would be to wear it mud. This mighty rock crevice has to the bottom of Alum Pot and back, claimed our man - he can stand the dry clean it afterwards, and publicise strain but will our suit? We shall the predictable minimal damage. see... Accordingly he took his camera into Mr. X. has now landed on the Ledge, Alum Pot and took a series of about 130 feet from the surface. photographs of cavers in the standard dress ofthe day. He then prepared an Immediately on the right the ladder album of 18 ofthese photographs and follows on over the next 70feet ofthis added the advertising copy. awful gulf. In the corner can be seen the waterfall, now split up into spray The album is 177mm high x 280mm in its long descent. It damps the wide with six pages, and front & back clothes but not the spirits of those on covers. The front cover is entitled, the Ledge. Our suit seems to have 11Alum Pot & The Fifty Shilling lost its 'Showroom Finish' but we can hardly see it now for mud & water. We are hoping it will pull through 1 Craven S.A. (1976) "The Leeds allright. Cave Club 1930 - 1939" J. Craven Pothole Club 2. 217 - 220. The YRC Bulletin 5 Summer 1999 would be available on request at any branch of the Fifty Shilling Tailors.

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