derbyshire caver - Derbyshire Caving Association.
Transcription
derbyshire caver - Derbyshire Caving Association.
The DERBYSHIRE CAVER No 137 Summer 2015 The Badgers’ hauling rig at Rowter Hole IN THIS ISSUE – · Mark Richardson on the Buttered Badgers’ Rowter Hole Project · Julian Drake on the first Hungerhill Swallet dig · Pete Knight on the Waterfall Hole Car Park and there’s more . . . . The newsletter of the DERBYSHIRE CAVING ASSOCIATION £2.00 THE DERBYSHIRE CAVER No 137 Summer 2015 Editor: Material for inclusion can be sent hand-written or via email. Mike Higgins 56 Robin Hood Crescent Edenthorpe Doncaster DN3 2JJ Please send contributions for the next issue as soon as they are ready. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor nor of the Derbyshire Caving Association. Email: [email protected] The website of the Derbyshire Caving Association is at: www.theDCA.org.uk CONTENTS: Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vale – Brian Webb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Waterfall Hole Car Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Buttered Badgers’ Rowter Hole Project. . . . . . . . . . Hungerhill Swallet – the 1986/87 dig . . . . . . . . . . . Ecton Mines Engine House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Air Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Starvehouse Mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Peak Cavern photographs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3 4 5 8 10 12 13 16 Cover diagram courtesy of Mark Richardson 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 Secretary at [email protected]. The newsletter of the DCA has been in publication for over fifty years and is of paramount value as a forum for cavers in the Peak District. The Editor welcomes contributions from all cavers, whether DCA members or not. News, articles, letters for publication, etc. should be posted or emailed to him at the above address, or give him a ring on 01302 882874. The Derbyshire Caver is posted free to DCA members; non-members may subscribe by sending a cheque for £9 (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 from the following outlets: Hitch'n'Hike, Bamford; The Old Smithy Teashop, Monyash; Peak District Mining Museum, Matlock Bath Editorial VALE BRIAN EDGAR WEBB I had hoped that this would be the first issue of The Derbyshire Caver since I became editor that did not include any obituaries, but alas it was not to be. My old friend and caving partner Brian Webb passed away at the end of May after a short illness and a brief appreciation of our friendship appears opposite. 27th December 1936 - 28th May 2015 Brian and I met through our membership of PDMHS more years ago than I can remember, but our friendship really started one day when, changing in Matlock Bath Station car park after a club trip, we got into a conversation about Slinter Wood. I hadn’t realised that Brian had been a leading light in the Eastwood Mining Group that carried out much work there in the early 90s before the Arkwright Society kicked them off after they bought the property. He mentioned that he intended to check on the condition of Number 5 Adit and I just had to ask if I could come along. No problem he said, and so it began. My request for some underground photographs submitted by readers, for which I appealed in the last two issue’s editorials and also posted requests on ukCaving.com and AditNow.co.uk, has at last born fruit and Clive Westlake has kindly stepped up and sent in some excellent photos of Peak Cavern which you can enjoy on the back cover. Hopefully some more readers will be moved to follow his example before the Autumn issue is published in order to avert the threat of some of my own photographs being printed rather than leave an empty space. One regular item missing from this edition is the list of DCRO call-outs – the explanation is strange but true; at the time of writing there have been none since last September! My aim in 2015 to return The Derbyshire Caver to the publication of 4 issues annually as it used to be up until a few years ago is so far on target – I’m halfway there! As I said previously, however, I can only do this with the active help of all you readers out there. Peak District-centred articles, long or short, on anything cave or mine related are always welcome – you can submit them in any format, by email or snailmail. I look forward to hearing from you! Deadline for the Autumn issue is the end of September. Brian in Boldpit Upper Adit (the camera would never work underground – it became a standing joke!) (Photo: Mike Higgins) We subsequently poked around in many mines in the Matlock/Cromford area, particularly in and around the Via Gellia, with the occasional trip to caves elsewhere in the Peak District by way of variety. We had a feeling that there must be mines in the Via between Slinter Wood and the western end of Middleton Wood and this led to our Middleton Flats project that occupied much of our time for around 4 years and was eventually published by PDMHS, happily in time for Brian to see the finished article earlier this year. Finally, DCA is STILL seeking a vice-chairman, so do please consider stepping forward to fill this important position. Brian’s funeral took place at Bramcote Crematorium. The packed chapel was testament to the respect in which he was held by all who knew him. Rest in peace youth. Mike Higgins Mike Higgins 3 WATERFALL HOLE CAR PARK The need for improvements to the small car parking area at Waterfall Hole was identified some time ago and it was agreed at the DCA Council Meeting on 28th February last that the work should go ahead. In April a membrane was spread out over the area and the following month twenty tons of gravel was delivered and subsequently raked out to form a suitable level surface. The membrane in position There is now room for as many as 6 vehicles if they are parked carefully. Work commences The gravel delivered All work was carried out by DCA volunteers those involved were: Simon Brooks, Pete Knight, Andy McHugh, Pete Mellors, Mark Noble, Adam Russell and Nick Williams. DCA’s Projects Officer demonstrates his skills with a mini-digger Work started on site in early March with clearance of the scrub and soon afterwards the area was sprayed with weedkiller. The finished parking area Life is now much easier for cavers visiting Waterfall Hole and Crock Pot. As the landowner is the National Trust no prior permission is needed but as the area is an SSSI permission must be obtained prior to any digging taking place. Pete Knight The cleared site 4 The Buttered Badger Rowter Hole Project In April 2013 the Buttered Badger Potholing Club moved their burrowing efforts away from the eastern dig in Rowter Hole and turned them to the task of working on the floor of the Abyss at the location of an old abandoned DCC dig. It was third hand that we heard the stories of diggers crouched at the bottom of the higgledy piggledy shaft being able to hear the sound of distant running water in the winter but it was enough to whet our appetite. That, coupled with the presence of large stemple sockets in the wall, was all it took for us to decide to give the Abyss dig a go. the clips, many of which were swivels. We had been advised not to succumb to the temptation of using swivel joints but to force ourselves to build a square shaft and use only 90’s (doubles) for the horizontal ribs and singles for joining vertical tubes to the ribs. The dimensions of the top were driven primarily by a desire to have lots have room to work in but also because we wanted to make sure we captured the stemple sockets within our shaft. We followed two vertical lines of sockets down the walls for part of the way but eventually the right hand line drifted off to just outside the walls of our shaft. As we approached the 10 metre point there was the unmistakeable feeling that the Abyss side of the shaft and not the entrance side was the loosest packed and the place we wanted to be. There were discussions of redigging a small shaft alongside our existing one to shuffle us across slightly into the loose packed boulders but we persevered. The digging was variable, at times we pulled loose packed rock out of the floor, capping huge boulders as we went. Other times we spent trip after trip chopping through compacted sand and sticky mud. Needless to say there was no draught emanating from the claggy floor but the right hand wall of the dig always remained loose packed and fairly clean and open. Carrying 6”x1” planks to the entrance shaft (photo: Rob Eavis) We had spent some time up in the Dales looking at other vertical digs down through boulders (Death’s Head was one of them) and had an idea of what we needed to do. To make good progress, the first thing we would need was some capping experience. The key was to force the shaft down through the boulders and not be tempted to deviate for the big rocks that would otherwise be a lot of effort to remove. The dig in the abyss was a massive learning curve for the team, we began by spending a long time looking at the old DCC dig and trying to work out what we could save and what needed to come out. In the end we made the decision to just get rid of the lot. I believe there is a single vertical scaffold pole left at the top up against the wall that stayed in place but that’s it. Much of the old scaffolding was in pretty poor shape, especially Luke Nugent and Mark Kerstin operating the hauling system (photo: Chris Haigh) 5 In order to remove spoil we rigged up a great hauling system, buckets were loaded at the bottom of the dig and attached to a 2:1 pulley system. They were hauled up the dig clipped into a pulley running on a tensioned line against the undercut wall to keep the bucket hanging in free space all the way up. At the top there was a large gin wheel bought from a scaffold yard. When the bucket reached the top it was transferred by counter weighting it to a half loaded Stop hanging from a double pulley on a second tensioned line which ran diagonally uphill into the Abyss. Once on this line, it was hauled from the top via a pulley and jammer non-return system up into the Abyss. a very unfriendly feeling undercut that was just off to the side of the shaft. If we had dug only a foot to the left the shaft would have missed this roof all together, if we had dug a foot to the right we would have hit it nice and square on and life would have been easier - but we didn’t mind! Mark Kerstin receiving an empty bucket at the dig face (Photo: Chris Haigh) Interestingly, on the back wall of the undercut there is still a stemple socket visible. Behind the pile of loose rock we had dug there is also a second socket at the same level as the first. The two sockets, about a metre apart are a good size and indicate that there are more of the old man’s activities somewhere directly below. The next few weeks were tricky, we left the stemple sockets behind in the undercut which we called Foster’s Faith and headed east into a narrow rift which we saw to be the easiest way to the now clear sound of fast flowing water. The hauling system with the spoil heap in the background (photo: Chris Haigh) This system could be moved to any point along the hauling line with the use of a Petzl Shunt. When the bucket arrived at the top, the stacker would release the handle of the stop and the bucket would lower to the ground on a short length of rope to be disposed of in the ever growing spoil heap. Poetry in motion! There was a great draught heading out of the cave and we found ourselves stood in a narrow, natural stream passage, Badger Rift. The most bizarre thing about the rift was the direction of the water. We were expecting it to be flowing from Hypothermia (east to west) but it ran in the opposite direction. We had discovered a new stream inlet emerging from boulders upstream of the breakthrough point. It was about 10 months from starting the dig when one night we found a tiny hole right at the edge of the shaft where there should have been solid wall. That evening we wormed our way into We followed the water to the east until it disappeared into the floor underneath a depressingly dangerous looking pile of boulders and loose slabs of rock. Bad Badger Choke as it 6 Chris Haigh in Foster’s Faith from the bottom of the shaft (photo: Mark Richardson) later became known stumped us for 9 trips. We initially found a way up and over it to the left and came face to face with another stream flowing towards us - very probably now proven to be Hypothermia (but not conclusively). Both streams fell into the choke and gave us our direction of travel. There were some very nervy digging sessions but eventually, with the aid of dozens of lengths of scaffold poles and lots of capping we found ourselves crawling extremely slowly and carefully through a dark gap in the choke and towards the sound of a waterfall in the blackness beyond. Mark Richardson carries capping gear out from the Orechasm pitch head (photo: Chris Haigh) The following few weeks saw numerous bolt climbing trips until we arrived at a point 96m higher than the Ice Cream Trail breakthrough point. The highest and furthest reaches of Rowter Hole are now a 2 hour plus hard trip from the surface by a team who know the route when it is all pre-rigged. The effort required to get there is rewarded with some beautiful flowstone formations and big, clean cave passage. There are several good prospects remaining in the new Rowter Hole extensions, all of them requiring a lot of effort but with potentially great rewards. Perhaps the easiest of them and the one with the potential to unlock some answers about the old man’s activities in Rowter is the upstream inlet below Foster’s Faith. The large stemple sockets in Foster’s Faith tell us the old man got that far but we don’t see any evidence in the 500+ metres of cave passage we found from Bad Badger Choke onwards. Why are those sockets there, where were they going and is there still some unexplored mine upstream of the Foster’s Faith Inlet waiting to be found? One day, the Badgers will be back to find out. Following the Bad Badger Choke breakthrough the subsequent exploration was a dream. The Two Left Wellies pitches are spacious and clean and follow the water down to a wide piece of passage. From here the water disappears into a sump, dived by Jim Lister to a muddy constriction about 6m in. An extremely interesting prospect. The dry way on was a tortuous narrow rift passage beautifully decorated with thick deposits of galena, translucent calcite flows and thick dog tooth calcite crystals. We named this The Ice cream Trail. The end of the trail required several capping trips to force a way through the final calcite constriction into the side of a 40 metre deep pitch, The Crystal Orechasm. The base of the Orechasm is the closest point to Peak, it is around 35 metres from the end of the final airbell of Whirlpool Rising. Mark Richardson 7 HUNGERHILL SWALLET – THE 1986/87 DIG In 1985, Doug Nash, on a visit to Hungerhill House near Eyam, was allowed to look at the shakehole lurking in the nearby clump of trees and he saw that it was ripe for exploration. John Beck and Bill Whitehouse rejoiced to find a stream flowing towards the rubbish-filled shakehole. Kevin Drakeley. Stuff flew out, timbers flew in, there was a breakthrough! This was what can be achieved when you assemble a Magnificent Seven. Please note that I am not the only person with a runaway imagination and delusions of grandeur. Muddy cavers need all the grandeur they can get and this was exemplified in the case of the coe. Incomprehensibly, I set myself to attacking the landfill with a spade and over the winter of 198687 I moved many tons of stuff to clear space for a shaft. The finding of the cave and its exploration was documented by John Beck in the Technical Speleological Group Journal no 13, 1988, and is retold in Iain Barker’s Classic Caves of the Peak District, 1997. Just as the mole digs its hole and as the bird builds its nest, so the caver builds his or her coe. It is a primal urge. I don’t remember how far we got in building a coe – one heap of stones resembles another – but we did sort of design one. What architectural style should we adopt? It had to be a rococo coe. Should there be a construction company? Of course – The Rococo Coe Co. What would we drink as we sat in the coe? Do I need to tell you? And which company would supply this beverage? The monotony of flinging dirt was alleviated by my finding in the mire several gigantic shoes, half-empty bottles of something resembling mayonnaise, and several spectacle cases with their contents intact. Not quite the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings but, like Sherlock Holmes or an archaeologist, I deduced that the precious artefacts must most certainly have belonged to a gigantic agricultural personage with occasional short-lived bursts of enthusiasm for whatever it was in those bottles and deteriorating eyesight. Other finds included, I seem to remember, an old car. There may have been rumours of a tractor in there. Memory is unreliable but I can convince myself that Bill Whitehouse played a starring role in such monotony-relieving wordplay, and even the (literally) down-to-earth Dr J S Beck could in his imagination transport himself from the grey realities of the Hungerhill Swallethole into the world of fantasy and myth created by Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings. As demonstrated by the fact that the dig’s flamethrower was named Smaug. In a cave that’s got scary things like the Stemple of Doom (best to make your will before going underneath it), the Tight Rift and Deep Space, a sense of humour, even absurdity, goes a long way to making caving look like a sensible activity. And there was a lot of humour in those far-off days in Hungerhill Swallet. So a space was made and a shaft was sunk. At some point timbers and old wooden doors appeared, and Tom Proctor, now interested in climbing downwards, converted them with impressive speed into shaft lining. Nine metres down, horizontal tunnelling came across a draught, prompting another shaft in a small chamber. The draught disappeared, the floor fell away, and a third shaft was begun. Spoil was becoming a problem. On the 8th November seven people arrived – John Beck, Al Eaves, Mark Noble, Tom Proctor, Tony Deveto, myself and Julian Drake 8 The world’s first and only rococo coe (courtesy of Julian Drake and Co) 9 ECTON MINE ENGINE HOUSE Standing high on Ecton Hill in the Manifold Valley is a small stone barn-like building. This modest structure is, however, of extreme significance in mining history as the world’s oldest surviving winding engine house. Recognising its importance, the National Trust acquired the engine house and the surrounding 21 acres of land in 2008 and between 2012 and 2014 they have carried out an extensive conservation project. In addition, archaeological excavation has taken place both internally and externally and the results have been written up by John Barnatt for publication by PDMHS in Mining History in due course. balance beam operated by the flow of water from the Manifold along Apes Tor Sough and discharging into the Deep Ecton Level where the outflow ran in a launder beneath the floor. The other problem faced by Flint was the need for an improved system of winding. By the late 1780s ore production was over 4,000 tons per year and this, together with all the waste rock generated, needed to be raised to the surface from what was then the deepest mine in Britain. This was done via the Deep Shaft by means of a large horse whim but the depth was now such that future removal could only be dealt with by steam power. The well-known mines at Ecton in the Manifold Valley have been worked for copper since the Bronze Age. In more modern times they were worked in a small way by the 3rd Duke of Devonshire in the 17th century (at the same time contravening the then monopoly on copper mining enjoyed by the Mineral and Battery Works) who subsequently leased the mines to various adventurers. In 1760, however, the 4th Duke decided to work the mines on his own account and this marked the commencement of a period of expansion with improvements in drainage and winding leading to considerable prosperity. In July 1787 Cornelius Flint, accompanied by James Newbold the mine millwright, visited Cornwall to view recently-installed Boulton and Watt steam whims. Presumably impressed, they went to Birmingham for discussions with Boulton and Watt and in January 1788 the company sent John Southern to Ecton to collect information on the mine’s requirements. By March of that year manufacture of the engine had started and in April the building of the engine house was commenced. At the end of November the engine had been delivered and erected and tested. Boulton and Watt’s design drawings for the engine survive and show a vertical piston, 48” x 16”, acting on a 15’ beam pivoted at its centre and connected to the flywheel and drive shaft, the latter passing through an opening in the wall and working the winding drum via a bevel gear. The engine was designed to work at 25 strokes per minute. The copper boiler was of the circular haystack type, 5’ 3” in diameter and 6’ 0½” high. The Duke appointed Robert Shore of Snitterton as his agent to supervise the running of the Ecton Mine. However, following the death of the 4th Duke an audit discovered discrepancies in the Ecton accounts and Shore was required to pay the sum of £1,090 to make up the shortfall. When fraud totalling £5,000 was found in 1779 Shore was dismissed and his place taken by Cornelius Flint of Great Longstone. The latter had been agent for the Hubberdale Mine at Flagg. By the middle of the 18th century the engine had fallen out of use and was dismantled and sold for scrap in 1855/56. The engine house stood empty until 1900 when it was converted for agricultural use. Flint’s first innovation at Ecton was to install a new pumping engine in 1783 to replace the system of barrel haulage by horses working a six hour shift. The engine was a bucket operated Mike Higgins 10 The east side of the engine house showing excavations (Photo: Mike Higgins) The engine house from the west with the capped Deep Shaft on the right (Photo: Mike Higgins) 11 MONITORING THE AIR in Peak District Caves and Mines link between temperature and CO2 levels in caves, and the readings in the database tend to back this up. However, the theory doesn't hold for all caves, because not every cave is affected in the same way - and some are not affected at all. So there are other factors, which may be more to do with the generation, rather than the propagation, of CO2. A short history: Although there had been sporadic instances of cavers suffering from breathlessness in caves, and a growing suspicion that some caves and mines were more prone to "bad air" than others, the late summer of 2009 gave rise to such a large number of incidents that people started to sit up and take note. CCPC bought a cheap disposable oxygen meter, and Ralph Johnson and various cavers started to use this to get readings of oxygen levels in caves where problems had been reported. DCA purchased two meters and some Draeger tubes, and Christine Wilson started a marathon ten month sampling session to try to understand the problem. Please note that, in the table below, figures are only given where they have been actually metered. When both CO2 and O2 meters have been used together, the sum of the percentages of both gases has always been very close to the surface reading for O2 and it would seem reasonable to assume that, when a CO2 meter is not available, any reduction in O2 will be accompanied by a similar increase in CO2. Figures from previous years can be made available if required. It was realised around this time that his wasn't just a Peak District issue as Cave Rescue teams from other areas were beginning to worry about the effects of "bad air" on their operations, and how best to deal with them, and, in 2011, BCRC, the national body for Cave Rescue, supplied all teams with gas monitors capable of monitoring several different gases. 2015 Monitoring: Gas monitoring in caves in the Peak District has continued since it started in 2009, and all recordings are kept in a database for use in research. Nowadays, DCA has the use of an oxygen meter and a carbon dioxide meter, and these are available for use by cavers who are interested in the topic, or who just need to be sure of the quality of the air they are breathing. However it is more usual that there will be a report that a venue has high levels of CO2, and I will then go and check to see what the readings are. So far this year I have sampled Robin's Shaft, Knotlow Cavern, Holme Bank Chert Mine and Slayley Sough. On these trips, only low levels of CO2 have been found, despite reports to the contrary from "unmetered" visits. Rick Lewthwaite using a cunning means of safely deploying the meter in Thunder Shaft! (Photo: Bill Whitehouse) This isn't such a surprise, as we are only now entering the warm summer period. The above-mentioned research by Christine Wilson led to a conclusion that there was a direct Cave Date Robins Shaft Robins Shaft Robins Shaft Robins Shaft Robins Shaft Robins Shaft Robins Shaft Knotlow Knotlow Knotlow Knotlow Knotlow Holme Bank Slaley Sough Slaley Sough Slaley Sough Slaley Sough Slaley Sough Slaley Sough 10/02/2015 11/02/2015 12/02/2015 13/02/2015 14/02/2015 15/02/2015 16/02/2015 17/02/2015 18/02/2015 19/02/2015 20/02/2015 21/02/2015 17/03/2015 21/03/2015 21/03/2015 21/03/2015 21/03/2015 21/03/2015 21/03/2015 Surface O2 20.90 20.90 20.90 Cave O2 20.90 20.30 20.10 20.20 20.10 20.00 20.30 20.90 20.90 20.90 20.90 20.90 20.90 20.90 CO2 0.04 0.43 0.44 0.43 0.40 0.42 0.40 0.03 0.19 0.20 0.19 0.28 0.04 0.07 0.07 0.09 0.07 0.10 Finally: I'd like to encourage the use of our meters by cavers generally, partly to help with the ongoing monitoring of our caves in the Peak District (we need the Location & Comments figures) and partly so that groups who go Surface into bad atmospheres can have some Rebelay 2 reassurance as to what they are dealing Rebelay 4 with. When you're struggling past the Rebelay 6 deviations on Beza, and panting for breath, Rebelay 7 it is very easy to think the worst, and Foot of Shaft believing the worst can have a very Lord's Chamber detrimental effect on your progress, and Surface certainly won't contribute to a good Foot of Entrance Shaft experience! Pearl Chamber Foot of Waterfall Chamber Top of Waterfall Chamber All Areas Surface Daylight Zone Just beyond daylight Junction of crosscut/main level Thunder Shaft Top Thunder Shaft Foot 12 Further information on the effects of CO2 on cavers can be found in an earlier article by Dan Murray and myself entitled "Bad Air in Peak District Caves" which was published in the winter of 2012 in issue 133 of The Derbyshire Caver. Alan Brentnall STARVEHOUSE MINE Starvehouse Mine lies at the far western end of Cop Rake, which runs east-west from Bradwell Moor to Oxlow Rake. The area is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, List Entry Number 1019043, and was scheduled on 20th June 2000. The reason for the scheduling is that Cop Rake (and the nearby Moss Rake included in the scheduling) presents a rare example of well-preserved rake workings exhibiting a variety of mining features. The position of the rake at the junction of three mineral liberties (Peak Forest, Castleton and Bradwell) is also of interest as a slightly different working pattern occurs in each. To my left (ie East) were two holes in the floor, one 8 ft or so beyond the other. These covered the full width of the stope so I could only look down the first of them. This descended 20 or 30 feet into a 6ft wide stope, and the second hole appeared to connect with this also. It looked spacious and interesting down there. I found a good site for a stemple belay and decided to return later with wood and tools. On the other side of the window (ie West) there was a 5 ft wall in the passage with clay and silt packed behind it. Over this wall led to a small hole about 4” or 5” in diameter. Beyond this hole a larger space could be seen. It would be easy to dig as it was fairly soft. Geologically the workings lie within the Bee Low limestones above the Lower Millers Dale lava. An interesting record of the solo exploration of the only open shaft at the mine by Geoff Workman has come to light, being an extract from his caving diary for 1960. Geoff was of course Chairman of the DCA in its early days and was also Newsletter Editor for a while, and is well-known for holding the record for spending time alone underground, 105 days in 1963 at Stump Cross Caverns. His diary extract is reproduced below. On this clay bed there was an old miner’s bucket. I did not have the means of recovering it on this trip as I had no rope with me, but I resolved to rescue it on the next occasion. No further exploration was possible without more tools and tackle, so I squeezed through the window again, and with some difficulty got back on the ladder to return to the surface. 30th June 1960 28th June 1960 Returning to Starvehouse Mine today, I first lowered down the shaft a handy length of timber for belays, a 45 ft ladder, rope and various tools. I decided to have a look at the Starvehouse Mine, but did not really expect to find very much. The small shaft was only about 45 ft deep so I lowered a 50 ft ladder down. 38 ft down I passed a window facing South into what appeared to be a small pocket. Continuing down past this I bottomed the shaft at 46 ft. There was a short heading to the East, but nothing of any significance. At the window I first worked with the pick to remove more stones and mud and so make the hole much easier. Having got a more reasonable access I now carried all the stuff through into the stope. The timber was next sawn to length and soon fitted in position with the ladder belayed to it. On the way up I looked into the window which was nearly blocked with stones and clay, and tried to clear it enough to crawl in. This was soon accomplished and I wriggled through. I landed in an interesting looking stope about a yard wide at floor level, and rising up about 9 ft where it was only a foot wide. In one or two places it rose higher to stone-blocked inlets. It was a 30 ft climb to the bottom with a heading to the West halfway down. At the bottom the stope was roughly 6 ft wide but ended to the East after a mere 10 yards. A 2 ft wide heading ran to the West also. The floor was clay and silt with odd bits of rocks and veinstuff and pieces of green toadstone. 13 The second hole in the floor of the upper passage could be seen and also a third hole at the far end. As no progress was possible from the bottom I climbed back up to the halfway level. This went for 7 or 8 yards and then came out halfway down another and rather horrible looking shaft. It looked much too dangerous to attack from this point, but there was a possibility of reaching it through the other small hole in the upper passage. dangerous-looking shaft, but before descending this I entered a large level which ran westwards. The level was about 2 ft wide and 12 ft high with a false floor of stemples halfway up where the “old man” had been stoping. 35 ft along it entered a roomy area 9 ft wide and 15 ft high at the highest point. A further shaft descended down from here and the passage also continued beyond the drop, returning to its width of 2 ft. In the roomy section were many large rocks, old stemples, bits of iron etc and a nice iron bar which was fitted up as a good belay for the pitch. I could not descend today as yet a further ladder would be required, but at least I knew that I did not need to fetch more timber. Beyond this shaft the passage continued for a further 25 ft before coming to a dead end. Back in the upper passage I removed the ladder to a safe place and then had a good look at the vein. It hades to the North and the hading wall is composed largely of slickensides, broken here and there as it is only thin and is underlain by a soft powdery rock. This appears to be a replacement effect on the limestone beyond the boundaries of the original fault walls. A sample of this material was taken and on assay proved to be about 75% calcite (not visibly crystalline) and about 25% crystalline barytes which is a prominent constituent of the vein at this point. The vein between the walls consisted of several bands of barytes, fluorspar, and calcite with traces of galena. An old bucket bottom was found wedged in the stope roof above the second hole in the floor. Returning now to the entrance of this passage, I got back on the ladder and continued descending. The way went past loose blocks and under overhanging piles of clay and silt, and so past the end of the passage explored from the first descent down the other stope. The end of the ladder was reached 35 ft below the little hole and I could see the bottom about 10 or 12 ft below me. Once again a further ladder would be required. The bottom appeared to be a gentle slope descending out of sight. On the return journey I recovered the old miner’s bucket with the help of the rope I had brought. Returning now to the small hole in the westerly direction I attacked this with the pick and soon had it large enough to squeeze through. On poking my head through the hole I perceived a steeply descending stope, four or five feet wide and with a large slope of caly and silt going downwards. Quite obviously the ladder was required so I retired again. 1st July 1960 The mine was re-descended this morning with a further 25 ft of ladder. This was soon attached to the end of the existing one in the “pipe” shaft, and a few moments later I was stood at the bottom. The bottom consisted essentially of a large mound of clay and silt and stones. To the East it descended to a small hole which appeared to lead into a further passage, but will require digging out. The piece of timber sawn off the end of the last belay was found to be just the right length to wedge in a handy position for this hole, for the ladder belay. Getting into the hole, feet first, was a bit tricky, but it was soon accomplished and in a moment I was standing on the mud slope beyond. Before descending I enlarged the hole somewhat to make the return easier and safer. To the West the mound descended into a 9 ft wide area with a natural curved roof suggesting a small caly-filled cavern. A fair quantity of bedded silt was observed here confirming the natural origin. In the extreme West end a three-quarterfilled tube was noticed descending at about 45°. This again needs digging, but is natural and could easily be dug with two persons. Down here the vein seemed very vague and indistinct, and This part of the mine somewhat resembled a steeply inclined pipe working and could be seen to continue upwards, although much narrower. 15 ft below the hole the width was 6 ft, and a fair number of old stemples were present. The ladder descended down an irregular and somewhat 14 seemed to have almost lost itself. A very rough calculation shows that this point is not more than 20 ft or so above the toadstone (lower lava), and the tube probably connects with the water course that forms the strong and interesting spring at the bottom of the scarp feature. The ladders were now hauled up and taken along the heading to the other shaft, which was bottomed at about 15 ft. A heading ran off the bottom for about 30 ft, after which it was blocked by a fall. Postscript: A large block of the vein wall has now collapsed, and completely blocked the small hole leading to the western section of the mine (including the natural bit). This will have to be removed before further work can be carried out. Starvehouse Mine from the east (Photo: Mike Higgins) Detailed examination reveals only one spot that is likely to be the shaft descended by Geoff, a shaft mound with a large boulder deposited in the centre. At the lower end of the boulder is a small hole just large enough to insert a hand and arm, and there can be felt what seems to be the rim of (possible) ginging with a void beyond. There is no trace of any other shafts having been open in modern times. Geoff Workman This extract from Geoff’s diary, as well as being of interest as a record of a solo exploration from 55 years ago, is also of significance as it identifies a possible dig in a natural passage intersected by the mine workings. There is very little accessible underground in this area and so I thought it worth paying Starvehouse Mine a visit to see if the shaft was still open (but I wasn’t too optimistic!). The probable shaft (Photo: Mike Higgins) I can only assume therefore that this is the shaft and that it is still open (otherwise why block it with a boulder?). Whether it would be worth going to the trouble of removing the boulder (for which permission from the landowner AND English Heritage must be sought) and checking out the possible dig is a matter for the reader to judge. Starvehouse Mine from the west (Photo: Mike Higgins) The site lies enclosed within an irregularly shaped belland yard some 175m x 50m. The western end slopes steeply downwards and there are a couple of springs there, presumably rising from the top of the lower lava bed. The vein is marked by a line of open cuts and there are a number of shaft hillocks running along each side. Mike Higgins 15 PHOTOGRAPHS OF PEAK CAVERN KINDLY CONTRIBUTED BY CLIVE WESTLAKE Master Cave Moss Chamber White River Series 16