THE I}ERtsYSHIR.E CAVER No.105 D fiLlr A GIANT'S EXTENSIONS FARNSLEY LANE CAVE ELDON DIGGING RESCUE REPORTS TONY GIBBS SPILLS ALL! fl.50 THE DERBYSHIRE CAVER Sprinq 2000 EDITOR: lain Barker 56 Thornbridge Crescent, Birley, Sheffield, 512 3AE. Tel: 0 1 1 4-2530 1 1 2 Mobile: 04 1 0689704 email: [email protected]. uk Copy date for the next issue is the end of June 2000. Material can be written, phoned or on disk ('word'format if poss). Subscription to this publication is €7 for four issues, see back page for details. The views expressed in ihis publication are not necessarily those of the editor or ihe Derbyshire Caving Association. Contact the DCA website at www.theDCA.org.uk CONTENTS Page , 1 EDITORIAL&REVIEVV " 2 LETTERS & DID YOU KNOW?I 3 NORTH SUMP RIFT EXTENSION 4 NORTH SUMP SURVEYS 5 TONY GIBBS SPEAKS! 6 TONY GIBBS SPEAKS SOME MORE! 7 TONY GIBBS SPEAKS EVEN MORE!!!! 8 A TRIP WITH ENGLISH NATURE 9 CAVING NEWS & DIARY 10 FARNSLEY LANE & ELDON DIGS 11 CAVING NEWS 12 RESCUE REPORTS 13 RESCUE REPORTS {BARIKER,S BOT Hi, lots of digging news this issue. lt seems that the Eldon have a new influx of blood and appropriately enough some of these new lads are working away down Eldon Hole. Good luck to'em; I dug the same spot about a decade back. There's a piece in here by Tony Gibbs, the Conservation and Access Officer of the DCA. lf you care anything at all about our caves, or ever wondered why Derbyshire caving is so hassle free for "Joe Cave/' this article will explain. Of all the DCA team this bloke probably has the most time consuming and hardest task which he handles with aplomb. You've probably never met him and you probably never will but next time you're down Lathkill Head, Devonshire Mine or any number of other sites, iust bear in mind that if it wasn't for Tony you wouldn't be allowed in there at all. *S@RRY ]THE WE HAD T@ DO [T _ PLEASE F@RGIVE US Eli'C, HrC- BOT Yes, we've put the price up. Sticking ten bob (sorry, fifty pence) on the price may seem a bit high but the cost of producing the Derbyshire Caver has gone up, the costs of posting it to DCA members has gone up, the petrol used delivering it to shops has gone up and for years & years the price of this publication has stayed the same. lt couldn,t continue for ever. Anyway - you're still getting all the Derbyshire caving news for less than the price of a small bottle of questionable foreign beerl R,EVOEW POTS'rY'FlN'us rhe Masson never cease t:T'If:3#3^il'::,:5?Hln ,n" o"r,n" or the British caving club is accelerating the Masson membership keeps expanding in direct contrast. I became a member just over a year ago and was very impressed with the and sheer number of members who tum out regularly on trips. This club is ightly knit and a lot of this can be laid at the door of the club committee who ensure that enthusiasm is maintained. \Mih usually two trips each week (thafs over 100 a year god's sake!) the members soon become very good cavers indeed_ One of the most important things the Masson do is publish (free to members) Masson News each month. This @ntains the forthcoming trips and articles about previous months caving events. And this is where pots'N' pints draws its material fom. The Masson have been in existence for twenty years now and this publication covers the last ten. lt's a big, chunky 44 document with a clear plastic cover and too pages for me to count. ln full colour with hundreds of articles and snippets, some which are mercilessly funny. For anyone ho wants to know how to run a successful caving club this is the way. lf you just want an insight into what is rapidly becoming one of Derbyshire's premier clubs buy a copy. ou can get it on CD for €3.50 Or on paper for f 10. sounds like a lot of money doesn't it? But bear in mind that a local print shop quoted per unbound copy! Contact ALAN KEEN. 16 SHETLAND WAY, COUNTESTHORPE, LEICESTER, LE8 sPU LETTEiRS TO T,i;lLE IEDI-IOFI Editor, Derbyshire Caver, 56 Thornbridge Crescent, Birley, Sheffield, S12 3AE Dear Sir or Madam, Diving in Devonshire Cavern, Matlock Bath (Derbyshire CaverNo. 102, (May 1999) pp11- 12). Lower sump dive, by David Webb. It was pleasing to rea,J of the Masson Caving Group's dive, but, there's little that's new under the ground. The sump and shaft-up at the bottom of Devonshire Cavern were (re)discovered by a small group of us either in late 1963 or in 1964. To be fair, some time previous, someone else had dug the backbreaker which is some 20-30 metres or so from the bottom of the system - to digress a little, at that time ii really was fearsome and remained so until a rescue of some poor soul who had dislocated his arm on the wrong side as a result of getting stuck and being pulled through by his partner - so both were on the wrong side! A few metres digging over an hour or two and we were through! At the bottom of the shaft we found a cocoa tin (Cadbury's) sealed with tape and containing a message (l siill have it somewhere). lt had been dropped down a partially blocked shaft under the front room of Guilderoy House during floor replacement (this section used to be Guildereye Mine - we have an 18"' century picture at the Mining Museum) asking any finder to notify them. We did. We had the usual vision of measureless caverns beyond the water filled passage of sump or at least free access to the Hodgkinson Hotel's cellars. A skinny dip proved insuffcient to proceed, so a week later we returned with what for us passed as diving gear. That was me in a pair of swimming trunks and 30 feet of hosepipe with me also attached to a hemp belay rope for dragging- back purposes. Nevertheless, we were able to ascertain the same result as David Webb reported. It seems likely that, because the sough which drains Devonshire is blocked at the Fountain Baths (now the Aquarium), raising the level some 40-45 feet, that this point below Guilderoy will be roughly that height above river - ce(ainly, in my experience, in dry years the water does not appear to fall to a lower level, as one would otherwise expect. Our gear was much easier to carry than the Masson Group's, but I really cannot recommend it. Lynn Willies. DND YOU KINOW? The Eldon Pothole Club once had Jimi Hendrix playing at one of their stompsl Or... ... Back in the mists of time Bob Dearman made out a will with a sum of money attached so that if he stiffed-it the Rolling Stones could be hired to play at his wake........in the quite understandable fear that he would have met an early demise at the hands of certain Eldon members who would prefer a free Stones gig over a live Dearman, Bob only recently revealed this anangement! !! ! |I NOR]TH ROffi SUMP EX]TENSI@N Stockport Caving Group North Rift is to be found in Giant's containers full) 0f water to empty Hole, just after the Eating House the sump and is reached by turning left out of the passageways which lead to the As we had suspected, the low point traverse to Geology Pot. lt consists of the sump was an archway, similar of a rift passage interspersed with to those encountered in North Rift. low archways terminating in a small Luckily there was no build-up of silt sump-pool. on the other side of the arch and we have dug out the sump floor to make Keith Bentham and John Cordingley the arch a passable squeeze investigated this site in the early seventies and reported the sump to (Enter the Winja). However this is be blocked by a silt-choke just rendered more awkward by the fact below the surface. They began to that the water still trickles into the blast away the rock-slope before the sump from the other side, and we sump, with the intention of digging have always kept someone baling away the silt blockage, but were on the North Rift side of the sump to diverted elsewhere by discoveries in ensure ihe party beyond the Maggin's Rift squeeze is not cut off. Stockport Caving Group, attracted At the moment the sump is about by the prospect of a (relatively) 2m deep and about 4m long (see easy dig first looked at this site in cross-section) but we would 1996. Baling the sump-pool quickly recommend that the sump should revealed the silt-choke to still be in not be dived as the squeeze is place but easily dug. Over the last rather tight. lt should certainly not, few years we continued to work the be f ree-d ived. site as the weather permitted, with the principal diggers, in alphabetical The passage beyond the sump is order being, Richard Aldham, Bill shown in the survey and is aboui Griffiths, Wayne Rickett and Steve 20m in length. It consists of a rift Turnbull.