CCPC

Newsletter No.25

September 1990

BERGER UPDATE

Please take carefull note of the Berger dates Ist - 10th JULY. The Ist July is
on the Monday of the second week of Potterd Holidays. This date was offered to
us 18 months ago and was the only one available for the yeay during this period.
Hopefully we will be able to get in a day or two early

Several members have asked "What will it cost?" as a rough guide

Return ferry, car + driver £110
Return ferry, 2 passengers £55
BCRA insurance, 3 members £75
Petrol (@ £2:00 per gallon) £100

£350 div. by 3 = £117 pp
Optional extras
AA sheet £40
Motorway tole, one way £15
£55 div. by 3-£ 18 pp

No decission has yet been taken on wether participants should ‘chip in’ towards
gear costs.

I£ you camp on the plateau there are no camping fees. Conditions are basic ie no
toilets but there is a spring for water. Food is about the same price as here
but tinned meet is hard to find so I suggest taking a few tins of meet, coffee,
tea, squash and powdered milk with you. A couple of days ‘emergency food’ will
mot go amiss in case you arrive on a bank holiday. Also, don't forget food for
underground.

Drinking in bars is expensive (about 8p for 1/3 pint) but red wine (which will
double up as paint stripper) is cheap, as is bottled beer - less than 50p a
litre. In 1983 we spent many a happy evening around the camp fire getting
totally sloshed for less than £2. °

OXLOW UPDATE

Good(ish) News! Mr Rowland has (sort of) resumed access to Oxlow Mine, Nettle
Pot, Maskhill Mine and Mountbatten Pot. As from the lst September, he will allow
"regulars" down (whatever that means!) so if you have a season ticket, bowel
dissorder or whatever else it is that makes you ‘regular’, Bob's your uncle.

No one has talked about cost directly, but it is thought that this may be as much
as £1. Ralph is planning to go for a ‘trial run', so he'll keep us posted.
BADGER SETTS

The High Peak Badger Group, which
protects badgers when their setts are
endangered or they are injured on
the road, has asked that any sightings
of badger setts be reported to them.
any sightings and a grid reference if
possible should be reported to Vic
Pearson on (0298) 78711. He adds that
people should avoid disturbing badgers
as 1) they are now protected by law
with very heavy fines for people
deliberately injuring them and 2) they
are vicious bastards.

LANCASTER HOLE: FIXED LADDERS

cNCC have advised that the fixed
ladders in various parts of the
Lancaster/ Easegill system are to be
removed on safety/ conservation
grounds. If anyone plans a trip,
check first with the CNCC as you may
have to adjust your tackle list.

P8 LADDER
DCA have thanked COPC for stabilizing

the ladder which bypasses the second
pitch.

THEIVES

‘Ralphs trailer’ (which really belongs
to Staffs County Council) was stolen
from Ron Becketts farm on 20th

August. Please keep your eyes open;
any information would be most
welcome, No doubt it has changed

colour by now - it's lid hasn't been
taken but it's size should give it
away.

HERNE HILL CAVE, MALTBY

The cave entrance is in the corner
of the car park behind the Gateway
Supermarket in Maltby and it now has a
door and padlock. Do NOT ask at the
Supermarket for access. The key is in
the hands of Mrs Alice Rogers, 7 Petal
Close, Maltby, Rotherham $66 7HJ.
Please telephone beforehand to check
when it is convenient to call on
(0709) 812035,

CONGRATULATIONS:

To CAROLE and GEORGE on the birth of a
son, GEORGE ASHLEY at the end of July.

eee ee eee ee eee ee eee eee eee eee eee eee ee

CAPTION COMPETITION NO S

Cream 0nd 4 {ZY
he photo)

RESULTS

All replies agreed that Iain
is a dirty git. Be carefull
what you touch down mines, all
that glitters is not gold!

Best replies were:

Iain "And here we have a fine
example E

Iain "When you forget your
Mars Bar, you've just got to
improvise -

Wendy " I told you that it was
a stupid idea,

Any further contributions
gratefully received
‘A DAY OUT IN DERBYSHIRE

I suppose my day began at midnight on Saturday 27th January.

I was in the pub

with Chris and Mark and Mark and I were keeping an eye on each others pints,

making sure

to be up early for a trip to Lancaster Hole on Sunday morning.
and having been so good all evening I went
I learned during Sunday that Mark had done

dropped me home around 12:45 am,
straight for a drink when I got home.

that we didn't consume too much Marstons Pedegree because we wanted

Chris and Mark

the same - so much for taking it easy in the pub!

Well 7 am dawned, the alarm burst into
life and I was about to drift back to
sleep having turned the dreadful noise
off when I remembered I was supposed
to give Mark a ring to make sure he
was up and getting ready to travel to
Yorkshire.

Having dragged myself as far as the
‘phone and establishing that Mark was
awake and raring to go, I decided that
the next thing I needed was coffee and
*Nurofen'. I then got myself dressed,
organised my gear and settled down to
wait for Mark.

Then came the call. 'Go back to bed,
there's too much snow in Yorkshire -
the trip is off!’ I didn't need
telling twice and was half ready for
going back to bed when Mark added that
there was a local trip to Knotlow
arranged by the Derbyshire Caving
Club. Well it was better than nothing
and as we didn't have to leave until
around ten - it appealed so I agreed
with Mark for him to collect me later
and went back to bed for a couple of
hours sleep during which I dreamt
about caving.

We arrived at Knotlow in a snowstorm
and started wondering what time the
pubs opened. We decided that as we
still had a while to wait, we would
have a go at the main 210' shaft. The
people we met up with there had
decided to do the climbing shaft. We
talked about doing an exchange trip.

We got changed in the barn and headed
for the top of the shaft. By this
time my hands were so numb - T knew
I'd be in for an interesting trip, I
couldn't feel my fingers so holding
the rope to control my speed down was
going to be fun!

I followed Mark down without too many
traumars but met him several feet from
the bottom, clipped on to the ladder -

a look below revealed that further
descent was impossible - unless you
fancied a swim. The chamber was
flooded by a good 9' of water.

As soon as I was safely clipped on to
the ladder - Mark set off back up to
the surface again. I followed as soon
as I could, singing at the top of my
voice in an effort to forget how cold
I was.

By the time we had both surfaced and
explained to the guys from the DCC why
an exchange trip wasn't possible and
changed we were both cold and hungry
so decided a pit stop at the Hobbit
was called for where we indulged in
brandy and butties and a warm against
a radiator.

It was on the way back that we got
talking about the cave Liam had been
excavating in Cressbrook Dale, which I
had been to once. We decided to take
a look. We drove to one end of
Cressbrook Dale - which happens to be
near a superb pub - The Three Stags
Heads. The area didn't look right for
Liam's cave - but the pub looked
inviting so we stopped for a swift
half while I tried to recollect where
to go looking next.

I wish that we'd skipped the Hobbit
and gone straight to the Three Stags
Heads. When we arrived a folk music
session was in progress and we took
our halves of No 3 and went to liste
and watch. It was a good job they
stopped serving not long after ve
arrived and the folk session wound up,
otherwise we would have ended up
having to get someone to pick us up
and drive us home

Elated with the good music we set off
along Cressbrook Dale by car, looking
for landmarks I would recognise from
my trip there with Liam
Eventually we found the right area,
parked the car and set off to look for
the track down to the cave. Only
problem here being that the river was
in flood (and quite spectacular) but
the cave was on the opposite bank
somewhere - I couldn't remember
exactly where although I knew it was
somewhere near. Eventually we decided
to cross the river and set out to look
for likely places. We thought about
walking across a tree trunk blown
across the river - but it was far too
slippery and the current in the river
being very fierce we decided not to
risk it. But there again, we were
determined to cross. We found a
relatively shallow area and with the
aid of a broken branch used as a
walking stick, we made our crossing.

The ‘well hard’ section (‘well arsed’
section - Ed) of the Crewe definitely
took over here - I mean wading across
@ stream which was a good 2 - 3’ deep
in shoes, socks and jeans was
maddness so we took them off and held
them above our heads. The water could
be described as bracing. I could think
of other ways to describe it but they
may not be printable. And of course
the only problem with making such an
horrendous journey in one direction is
that you have to repeat the excersise
to get back again and I couldn't
immediately recognise the exact area I
was looking for. With feet cold and
wet and the knowledge that we'd have
to cross back again there didn't seem
much point in putting shoes and socks
back on again so we walked 50 or so

yards over brambles, rocks, leaves,
twigs and shite (Liam, when were you
last here?) Eventually we found what

we were locking for.

There are three possible entrances to
the system Liam was interested in -
two of them were impossible to explore
as we needed lamps and they were in
the car -several hundred yards down
the road and on the other side of the
river. We tried to explore them with
Mark's fag lighter, but after some
time trying, we give it up as a bad
job. The third, which I explored back
last Summer whilst there with Liam had
a torrent of water gushing out. I
wouldn't have explored it today even
with a lamp and diving gear.

At this point, as it was dark and it
was trying to snow we thought we had
better head back to the car. The
journey back across the river was
torturous. Our feet were so numb that
we couldn't feel anything and were
never sure whether we were standing on
the river bed or about to sink into a

deep pool We'd left our walkin
sticks back fifty yards or so where we
had originally crossed and there were
no broken branches to make use of
here.

Well we made it back without a
ducking, managed to climb the steep
bank back to the road without slipping
back too many times and headed for the
car and home.

While sorting out our various items of
gear and having a brandy at home to
warm us we agreed this had been one of
our daftest, but most exhillerating
days caving together for quite a
while.

Gill

BIRCHWOOD BRIDGE

Mentioned in May 1989's Newsletter was the Macclesfield railway bridge which had
been converted by Liam and Mark to a climbing wall

Birchvood also has a dissused

rescue practice.

railway bridge which is suitable for SRT/self
The bridge, like Macc's is approx. 30 ft high and out of sight

of all houses with the nearby brickworks being the only feature (not on par with

the gasworks but it will have to do!)

Belay points at the top are

abundent

as there is a heavy twin railed steel

handrail which has survived the combined weight of myself and Nigel on the same
rope on several occasions (so it must be bloody strong!)
The best side to use is the right side
(Easterly I think) which sports two of
the most ‘bomb proof! rebelays ever
seen, kindly constructed by Coddy. On
the support pillar I am in the prosess

seems to me that we have as much right
to be there as they do, so if we don't
upset anyone by inflicting concusion
on the odd jogger there will be no
problems about using the bridge.

of placing spits to provide rebelays,

blind traverses etc. To get to Birchwood bridge, go to
Kidsgrove town centre and follow the
If you visit the bridge, you will signpost for Tunstall/Hanley. Carry

notice hangers on the higher up spits on straight through the traffic lights

have been left in situ. They have (police ‘station on right) and up the
purposely been left in by me so please bank. Half way up the bank is a left
leave them behind when you leave. turn with a 'Steetley Brick’

signpost. Follow this road to the end
The left hand side has a large gas which is 50‘ after the brickworks
main running across it which was badly turning. You are virtually parked at

ruptured the last time I was there.
This is why the right hand side is a
slightly more sociable option, but be

the top of the bridge.

PS It is not advisable to take the

careful with the fag ends - you have kids as they will be bored within ten
been warned! minutes (unless they are budding
taxidermists) and it's a real bitch

Access agreements are, do not abseil washing the trampled in dog crap from
onto passing horse riders underneath the rope what they have stood in
as this is a popular bridle path. It (Nigel will understand!) Lionel

CCPG XMAS DO 1990 (89)

For those who missed this highlight of the international social calender, the club
held its annual (Xmas) do on 17th March at the Rifleman, Kidsgrove. As usual, we
were a little late (like this article!) missing Christmas by about 3 months (or
were we 9 months early?) but whose counting? Lionel took on the enormous task of
organising so most of the credit goes to him - take care Lionel, you might get
landed with arranging the next one!

The photographic

competition was won by John Smith (who was the competition

organiser - and counter of votes!!) with a shot taken in Lower Long Churn.
Incedentally, he also took second place with Ralph trailing in third. Thanks to
all who took part - no doubt you stimulated all our budding David Baileys to get

out their Box Brownies in anticipation of next years event.

Mark Lovatt ably hosted the Wally of the Year Award introducing a variety of
entries for this prestegous competition which included Phils repeated attempts not
to do Nettle, two ‘vanishing key' attempts, one by John Shenton and a team entry
which included Keith (and son), Lionel and Nigel.

Ralph had two entries, one for loosing Swinsto (or was it Simpson's), a vital
length of rope and half the CCPC all on the same day and the second fo abseiling
off the end of a rope in P8 - mere trifle in the fall of Marks attempt at a
similar stunt on Main Shaft, Gapping Gill.

However, the highlight of this competition was provided by Kevin who nominated our
compare Mark with an hilarious description of a bedroom farce which took place on
the Llandudno weekend, the details of which are best censored. Evidently, Mark
seems to have little or no recollection of this incident - nor of the rest of the
weekend for that matter!!

In a last ditch attempt to clinch the trophy, Ralph left it at home but this
failed to impress the judges so the clapometer results were taken as final. Mark
was presented with the trophy. Ralph
‘THE OTHER CAVES OF DERBYSHIRE
(Tinker's Pit, Axe Edge Moor)

Buxton was never famous for being a coal mining town. The reason for this is
probably because it clashed with its image as a well-to-do spar and so the mining
activities were not talked about. The average miner earned in a year what the

average

‘nob! spent in a night. Nevertheless, coal was mined from at least 1600

and the last official mine closed in 1919 (I know one farmer who still
suruptitiously extracts the odd bucketfull for his own use). The main seams of
what is known as the Cheshire Coalfield spreads from the Roaches to Walley Bridge

and was mined as far West as Poynton.

The coal in this area is very poor quality and was not suitable for domestic use;
It's main use was for fueling lime kilns and the top level coal was refered to as

‘Big Smut".
very crumbly and brittle

Tinker's Pit is situated on Axe Edge
Moor, almost at the side of the Buxton
to Congleton road (A**t) about 100
yards past where the road leaves the
Macclesfield/Buxton turnpike. The
land belongs to the Chatsworth Estate,
so it is probably a waste of time to
ask for permission, There are
actually two adits next to each other,
both surrounded by rotted barbed wire
fences. The one which is closest to
the road is full of rubbish. As this
is not a popular picnic area, I
presume that the rubbish was imported
especially for the purpose of
discouraging exploration.

The second adit, about 50 yards East
of the first has at some time been
capped and was probably entered by a
very short shaft before this
collapsed. The action of a small
stream has undermined the cap which
now lies in the bottom of the
developing shake hole.

One afternoon I was returning from a
Derbyshire trip and had all my gear so
I thought I would just have a poke
about in the entrance.

The passage is an easy crawl
fluctuating in height from about five
feet to 18 inches. The nature of the
rock gives the impression that one
good fart would bring the roof down.
This made me quite nervous The
stream which enters the mouth of the
mine soon dissapears down a nasty
looking sump to the right but a
gallery continues to the left. There
are loads of side passages and the
layout is very rectangular indicating

The shales which overlie this coal are very tightly bedded and hence

‘Stall and Pillar! mining.

I followed the obvious(?) route into a
very strong draught for about 100 feet
before I came to a very loose section
where quite a lot of the roof had come
down. All. the changes in direction
had me completely dissorientated but
I got the impression that I was under
the road and the noises I heard may
have been traffic up above. at this
point, the old bottle went and I
retreated with the intention of
revisiting the workings with someone
else for company.

Friends from the Eldon later told me
that the stream had been dye tested
some years previously but the
resurgence could not be located. The
coal field is drained by at least four
soughs and the two which disscharge
into the River Goyt were not checked.

Another (The Dukes Sough) is rumoured
to be more than two miles long. In
dry weather, the water table is said
to be two hundred feet below the
surface

‘The Eldon also set off a smoke bomb to
see if the strong inward draft (it was
outwards when I was there!) could be
seen to surface. The smoke
dissapeared without trace!

I couldn't honestly recomend this
mine, it's a miserable place and
obviously floods to the roof
sometimes, it's unsound, may contain
methane gas and isn't even near a
decent pub. However, there may be
potential for any kamakazi cavers!

Mark L
RESCUE PRACTICE
Four Ways Shaft, Sunday Ist July 1990.

The rescue practice was a valuble learning exercise and some interesting points
came out of it. The main problem seemed to be a lack of familiarity with the
equipment.

The ‘Little Dragon’ is not fool-proof. Kev fooled it and it wouldn't work. 1
have made one work on the surface a few months ago, but couldn't remember how.

Instructions do come with the box but to me at least, they seem a little vague
and incomplete.

The Molefone wouldn't work. We suspect that this was due to the ariel being
plugged into the wrong socket. Ralph's junior walky-talky (just send ten Corn-
flake packet tops) was a lot more successful using a long wire as an inductor.

We strapped the victim into the harness

OK, but neglected to put him back in the & -
sled before hauling him up the shaft. & USEFUL TIPS FOR CAVERS No 5 ‘&
Fortunately, he reached the surface in & (Neil Conde) &
one piece. & &
& When derigging Lost Johns, it is &
It would seem that we would all benefit & best to tie the empty tackle &
from another ‘hands on' session with the & sack to the bottom of the rope &
gear. & before you prussik up. This &
& way, you don't have to rerig the &
Other things worth noting were:- & pitch to go back for the sack. &
& &
1) There is a new farmer at Knotlow
Farm. He doesn't seem too sympathetic a
towards cavers and actually came across 1
to tell us that he was thinking of 1 aby Houses. ns 1
welding the lid down on Fourways Shaft. 1 1
Don't upset him! 1 1
| OVERSUITS For sale.
2) The practice was transfered to I) Available most sizes witha #
Fourways Shaft from the 210' Shaft due to variety of fastenings.
there being a dead sheep in Waterfall 1 Green only. Around £12 I
Chamber. I partially descended the 210 | depending on design. Lionel
and the air was virtually unbreathable. 1 1
The situation was slightly better in i Lost, one “Wally of Wt
Fourways but the smell was carried | the Year" Award. Last 1
through by the coffin level. i seen in the Bleeding 1
i Wolf, early May. Mark
The water eventually finds it's way into i] 1
the River Lathkill, which boasts of being | WANTED, Articles for i
the ‘purest river-water in England’. I Newsletter. You've only Il
Ralph plans to inform the Water Authority I got yourself to blame if I
(1 hope they don't want the sheep you get sick of reading my 1
retreiving). | drivel all the time! Mark i
fl !
Lionel pointed out that "If one of them | ‘T' SHIRTS as above. White |
buggers hit you on'th back of'th neck, _|__£3.50, Coloured £3.80 Ralph I
yd' know abaat it!" We don't know if the W 1
sheep fell through the open lid or was |i DURACELL BATTERIES Suitable |i
thrown down by the farmer, but it was || for ‘Petzel' Headsets £2.20 I
suggested that some precaution should be il Ralph
taken in mineshafts to prevent w w
particularly stupid sheep from | SECOND HAND gear required. ||
divebombing cavers ae ll Phone (0625) 26946. fT

———————e
GREAT ORME: INTERIM VISIT
16th June 1990

Chris was in Conway for the weekend and I went along for the ride. On Friday
night I called in at the Wedgewood, Llandudno, to see if any of the GOES lads

were in.

Barry told me that another CCPC member had stayed a few weeks back, "A

lad with not much hair and a woman old enough to be his mother." I discretely

changed the subject.

The next day I ‘phoned Phil Smith.
"He's in bed, ring back about tea
time" said a female voice.

"But I want to go caving"

"OK, try again in about an hour"

Phil was as helpful as ever and with
superhuman effort, dragged himself
from his pit and put the kettle on.
After making several phone calls, he
rearranged a trip planned for
Wednesday so that I could join in.
Thanks Phil.

Phil took me to see the vast amount of
work which had been put in on the
surface around Ty Gwyn shaft, GOES,
at their own expense, had hired some
heavy plant and were removing all the
recent backfill from the prehistoric
workings. The site is much bigger
than anyone had guessed and is
threatening to undermine the road, It
is very reminiscent of Engine Vein
(Alderley Edge, also an ancient copper
mine). They are also archeologically
cataloging and excavating the site.

Their profesionalism and enthusiasm is
amazing; it's not suprising that their
presentations are so good! I was
treated to a guided tour of the site,
several cups of tea and a root around
in their ‘finds’ collection which
included bone knife handles, animal
bones, stone mauls and articles of
unknown use or age.

Early evening, I returned with Phil,
his brother Rob and another GOES
member to have a poke around Roman
Mine. The labarynth is entered via a
50' shaft. Phil belayed the rope to
the bottom of the shaft ("some bastard
might pull the rope up") and we set
off.

Roman mine is like an adventure
playground. It consists mostly of
walking and stooping passages and has
several chain ladders, free-climbable
shafts and plank walkways across open
shafts. It is very dry and much too

warm for an oversuit. Features of
note are a lot of very neatly stacked
deads, strange needle like growths,
some beautiful mineralisation and a
lot of mining artifacts.

Phil bolted a shaft for a planned
through trip and left me to have a
wander around. Most of the passages I
found turned out to be blind but I was
nervous about wandering too far as the
place is a three dimensional maze.

Later, I was taken to see some of the
most interesting of the artifacts
One of these was a pair of clogs.

Apparently, the superstitious minners
were very wary of upsetting the
‘knockers’, a kind of trogladite

leprachorn who inhabited the mines
If a miner found a particularly rich
seam, he would leave a gift for the
knockers for leading him to it. The
miners came across evidence of knocker
activity from time to time when they
broke into previously unknown workings
which had been dug without explosives
and sometimes contained animal bones
These clogs, which were not worn out,
had been left on a specially
constructed clay pedestall, apparently
for the knockers.

We watched Phil struggle up a wall of
deads to where a miners inscription
had been found on the ceiling but
decided not to follow him on acount of
it being dangerous(ly close to closing
time). During our exit from the mine,
Phil got us lost; only a minor lost
but enough to._—Cs preserve his
reputation.

Everywhere was shut by the time we
energed so we went straight to
Barry's. I got lost on the way (it's
contageous!) and went via Conway.

Thanks again to the Welsh lads and I
look forward to seeing them again soon.
Mark
GREAT ORME II : THE ULTIMATE DIRTY WEEKEND!

Just when you thought that you had got recovered from the last hangover, there's
a return trip being organised to break the last bar record.

Arrangements between myself and the GOES to see further workings of the Old and

New Mines (see 'The Great Orme Copper Mines’, Don Smith) such as the ‘Performer

Adit’ are now taking place.

Once again, it will provide a superb two days of scientific, archeological and

historic interest plus the great social aspect which anyone who attended on the

last visit will undoubtably agree with.

‘The datws areset for 21st 22nd & 23rd September1990. See Lionel for details.
SHUGBOROUGH

The date for this years BBQ is 29th September 1990.

STOP PRESS ‘stthbhbnbhbhbinihit

The dates for the Great Orme bash are now 14th, 15th & 16th

STOP PRESS shibaninbininnnbbnanbbsaint
BCRA

National Caving Conference
September 22nd - 23rd

ADMISSION

Individual members of BCRA Rate
Saturday and Sunday £6.00
Saturday only £3.50
Sunday only £3150

ALL others Rate
Saturday and Sunday £9.00
Saturday only £5.50
Sunday only £5.50

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