Monthly Notes

ROCK & FOUNTAIN: or Ogof Craig nr Ffynnon, if you prefer the Welsh.  Just beyond the pitch down into the Promised Land, the diggers have pushed up a pitch above the rift for 40 feet, along for 20 feet, up a further 50 feet and finally into 200 feet of phreatic passage ending at a dry sump. (phone up Jeff Hill if you want to know what a dry sump is!)  Not much, perhaps, compared with the present length of Rock and Fountain, but it does show that the system's potential for growth is still being pushed, even if new passage is now that much harder to find.

OLD ING - RED MOSS: Apologies. The dive/link-up was not made by John Cordingley, as reported in the last B.B., but by Paul Atkinson, backed up (or backed out) by none other than Mendip Jim Abbott, et al, during a B.P.C. trip.

NIDD HEADS: The connection of New Goyden Pot with the Goyden Pot - Manchester Hole system was briefly reported in B.B. Number 400, page 7. Since then Julian Griffiths and Rob Shackleton have been at work in the rising at Nidd Heads.  Only a few weeks ago they found a route through the underwater boulders and emerged in large underwater passage that is clearly the main route towards the Goyden system.  They have lain 900 feet of line altogether.  They are working at a depth of about 50 feet.  They have a further 5200 feet to go before reaching the line in New Goyden, which terminates 750 feet into the sump at a depth of 45 feet.

PIPPIKIN POT: Beyond the choke in the Pippikin streamway below the Hall of the Ten, the streamway continues briefly to drop down a further pitch and a climb into Waterfall Chamber.  To the left is the sumped route to Link Pot, while to the right is the main downstream sump of Pippikin.  The original Belfry Boy, Dave Yeandle, dived this downstream sump for 200 feet, going no further in order to conserve air for a dive in the upstream sumps.  Now Geoff Yeadon has dived the Pippikin downstream sump and has laid 600 feet of line.  The sump continues.

Northern Cave Club members have bolted up one wall of the Hall of the Damned to a short horizontal passage and further upward pitches.  Radio-location from the end showed this point to be 40 feet up in mid-air, but this figure was corrected, understandably.  The point is now reckoned to be only 5 feet beneath a particular shake hole on the moor.  A new entrance to Pippikin here would improve access for digging no end.

DUB COTE-CAVE: This resurgence cave appears to be the original route for water that now rises mainly from the capped Drackenbottom Risings.  Dub Cote only issues a small stream except in time of flood.  Geoff Crossley and Jim Abbott believe they have now found an even earlier route for the water, now abandoned.  Returning from a dive to Dub Cote 3, Mendip Jim noticed a hole in the roof, just before they dived back through sump 2.  He disappeared into this for over half an hour, leaving a rather worried Geoff, all kitted up, in the sump pool.  Jim found himself in an old, fossil, trunk passage.  Subsequent explorations have shown this to be 747 feet long, with a further 150 feet of side passages.   At the end one route leads to 30 foot and 50 foot avens, but another branch, the apparent way on, is silted up.  Above this infill there appears to be large, rounded, gritstone cobbles, such as are quite common in the abandoned stream passages of some northern caves.  Above the cobbles seems to be a 30 foot high chamber or passage.  Only further digging can now reveal whether this passage leads towards Brackenbottom, or Douk Gill, or perhaps into the Penyghent master system.

The appears to be another large passage above sump 3, but is going to need bolts to gain access.

KINGS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, REUNION: What has this to do with caving, you may well ask.  Answer - nothing. However, O.C.L. decided to go along and meet his contemporaries there but, in his own words, "They were a lot of old cronies there and I was extremely glad to get back to Mendip and normal people!”  Sorry, Oliver.  Overheard you at the Dinner.

DINNER 1982: Yes, I know it is long way off, but, it has been suggested that we go back to the Cave Man next year, and have a Disco in the Grotto Bar downstairs for those who would like it.  Let's have your views.

 

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