Bagshawe Cavern

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Written by: Jon Pemberton

Published: 20 August 2023

Created: 20 August 2023

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Stapled to the top - 20/07/2023

Chris, Joe & JRP

Armed with a drill, camera and 3x SRT kits, pre beers were quickly supped over some onion rings before gaining access to Bagshawe which proved difficult. The long drag (literally) with a bag each felt a slog having not been down these parts for a while, I was grateful for my miners knee pads. The duck in the French Connection wasn't too bad, still being able to keep your face above the water but the passage looks larger than it is thus saturating your complete torso in passing, making any idle work/time bone chilling! We passed bags through the choke, once stood at the bottom of Madame Guillotine we kitted Joe up who'd never been to these parts (at all) to rig our abseil rope so we could safely/easily staple the far side of Madame Guillotine. 

Chris and Jim had made an Awesome start a couple of months prior using the existing, rigged rope which proved difficult. Once Joe had rigged a fresh, Chris headed up to the ledge which marked our starting point for tonight. I managed to persuade Chris to head up a gully to the right rather than straight up, although the rock potentially looked better, the line I persuaded him on carried loads more natural holds which'd make for less staples and less holes to be drilled! He started on his way whilst I watched his process. Basically... Drill two "big one" holes at roughly the approximate angle of the staple then, bash the staple in to place. Although technically there was more to it than that, which I soon found out. Chris pushed on to a height of 4 metres above the ledge then offered for me to have a "bash". 

Now feeling the cold I gladly accepted, laden with gear I made my way up to his end point. My first staple went in like a banana! With reassurance from the ground crew that it sounded "ok" I continued. The second felt like it went in better then it progressively got easier, with almost perfect positioning, whilst others felt like they didn't hit the end of the drill hole. Negotiating the fractured rock, gardening en route, we moved further right towards a gully leading to an aven which Ben Bentham climbed in the mid 90's. It's crazy that since we broke through back in 2010 I'd never properly seen up this aven, it definitely needs another look. At the gully we decided to head straight up rather than to touch the large boulder slope, as anything knocked down would eventually fill up the choke below and our route out. I used the staples as a ladder system for the final few metres as it was void of naturals. After q couple more I was stood at the top of the pitch! - Yay!

I placed one more staple on the way down as one of the moves felt very bold on the descent and it made sense to do this now so we could take most of the gear back out tonight. Back down on the floor I was greeted by a chilled Chris and a freezing Joe. We made a hasty retreat back through the duck, it didn't take long for everyone to warm up. We made surface at 11:45pm having definitely missed the pub so postie's were supped in the car park chased by some onion rings. 

The Eavis approves - 26/07/2023

Rob, Joe, JRP

We returned the following week armed with a little drill, some bolts, a camera and cap lamp belt with cows tails. Our mission: place some bolts to fix a traverse line (proper via ferrata style), using our abseil rope from the previous week. All the other locations which we have placed staples we'd never fixed a traverse line as it wasn't warranted, however this is the first project that's deemed worthy of one, being an 18m pitch with a potential fall of 20m! (Even we don't wanna die that bad...)

Quick pre-beers in the car park (in the pissing down rain) followed by a boss straight towards Madame G. It felt much easier this week having not dragged in heaps of kit. Rob climbed up the staples, safely backed up and was up in no time. He switched to descent mode and commenced placing bolts for the safety chord. 

During this time I managed to convince Joe on a grovel to the boulder choke at the end of Calais Crawl. I'd previously dug this to a large drippy void after we made the big breakthrough back in 2010 connecting the Full Moon Series to the Hollywood Bowl series thus enabling easier access to this highly prospected area in the Bradwell catchment. To get to the end you have to negotiate two ducks, the second one having little to no activity over the past 7 years required a little dig after sediment had been washed through during high water levels (and it's tight!) Once through both of us climbed up into the void which was pissing down with water, strange as the whole place seemed to be dry this evening. The choke looks super promising but requires scaff as it's looks awful!

We retreated back to the base of Madame Guillotine to find Rob just about finishing up. He placed one more bolt securing a horizontal traverse near the bottom. Joe and I belted up and made our way to the top. The first proper ascent using only a belt was AWESOME! It felt so cool to move so fast up this pitch, whereas before it'd require so much faff, dragging SRT kits and passing down gear to people below. This has been something I'd been dreaming of for 10 years and for it finally to become a reality was Awesome! 

Rob followed, shortly after and within minutes we were all at the top - Crazy times! We headed back out elated, not only was it a top achievement for Team Awesome, it made the trip fun! It now opens up some serious prospects in the Hollywood Bowl Series and sporting trips alike. Shortly with the removal of key access to the gated sections of Bagshawe (replaced by a Derbyshire key) hopefully we'll be seeing a lot more activity here.

Some well deserved post beers had in the anchor with copious amounts of snacklets.

Sump luck - 03/08/2023

Joe, Sam & JRP

Ready to snap some "arf" decent photos and with a rare appearance from Sammy Whiskers we met at Baggers for pre-beers and soggy chips. With hindsight and a code, getting Into the Coe was easy and we trudged along to the main drag and Full Moon Series at a reasonable lick, now unladen with bags.

This July has been super wet but we were surprised to see the duck at the lowest point of the French Connection was within centimetres from being sumped! This was worrying as when one crawls through the duck you disperse the water into this lower section meaning we'd definitely be free-diving back out. This could quite easily be done but tonight wasn't the time to experiment. Without the appropriate gear, exiting the sump in reverse would require a struggle up a slippery ramp which is bad enough in the dry. We put a pin in it and hope within a few weeks the sump will drop. 

We retreated and headed up through the first gate for a quick look, as Joe had never been. Pool Chamber was up (Obvs) but only just. On our way out we decided to show Joe the newly discovered Mulespinner Series and had a laugh free-climbing down the pitch which was spicy. After the grand tour we raced back up the stairs and supped post beers at the cars. Photos of Madame Guillotine would have to wait for a few more weeks. 

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Written by: Dave Cowley

Published: 30 May 2023

Created: 30 May 2023

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Dave Cowley , Bog

A quick trip this evening to establish if the water has stopped flowing in Mulespinner.

Alas it hasn’t so it looked like an early trip to the pub .I had to scratch an itch on the way out and made Dave wait whilst I poked away at the small window near the pitch full of hanging miners crap above .

The drain rods worked a treat and I managed to squeeze my ever growing stomach through and stand up .This gave me a view of open passage beyond which looked a very good size .

Dave had his phone so I climbed back down to grab it for photos as I wasn’t sure if Dave would get through yet or if I would bring the lot down blocking my way back.

The excitement grew, as the view opened up to large passage heading off as I climbed over the rim of the hanging dead’s and saw another tube going off from it .

it looked just like another passage near by (bugger) There’s a good reason for that. I had climbed through the floor of sideshow above . Dave at this point wanted an update so I decided to confess by shouting I’ve found a ladder meaning the one we installed to climb up

Dave shouted back is it a miners ladder at which point I realised he hadn’t cottened on it was ours.I couldn’t resist, so I started shouting I am going to check out the new passage and could he follow underneath as he must be close and I can hear him through a connection somewhere.

with my light off and trying to make my voice sound muffled I waited for Dave to get to the bottom of the ladder (not a miners one as it turned out) before shouting a very frightening BOO .

not a very successful trip but the most fun I have had in ages , sorry Dave .

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Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 08 March 2023

Created: 08 March 2023

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With a surprisingly small post-AGM hangover I rocked up at Bagshawe for a rare Sunday trip where I met a very keen Dylan and Sam. After missing last week’s jaunt to the end I was keen to see if my memory from ~8 years ago was true. Then myself and Jon had done a lightweight evening trip to the end in our pre-Team Awesome days and I still remember it being quite a long way…

We decided on one SRT kit between us which Sam agreed to carry in, whilst I carried our new trusted pick axe, courtesy of the DCA Digging Award, donated by Derbyshire Geotechnical Ltd. Dylan carried the innocence of youth and wore it well. Easy progress through the cave and whilst they were climbing Madame Guillotine I spent 10 minutes digging a trench to lower the duck in French Connection – I was careful not to lower it too much as that may lead to us getting sumped in at the bit it was draining into! LOL, that could have been embarrassing.

Once we were all up the 15m pitch in Madame Guillotine we all agreed it really is a reyt faff and having staples here would speed up this trip enormously. From here it’s a nice bit of cave to the dig, but it is a long hard slog. It must have taken us roughly 30 minutes to reach the dig and you can walk for maybe 5% of it! However I was pleasantly surprised to see that the dig was actually pretty comfortable, very easy digging, and reasonably sociable too. We took it in turns, having about an hour each at the face, whilst the team behind had the easy job of hauling and stacking the spoil. In that time we made a full body length of progress and whilst the view ahead is not very enticing, this is certainly a stonking passage heading into blank space that needs following. I also managed to build myself a proper throne at the middle position, complete with draught excluder and head rest. Lush. Plus the trusted pick axe turned out to be the perfect digging tool!

Once we’d all had a go we were getting pretty tired and very cold so headed out. Dylan made a claim that it’d take about 45 minutes. It was actually nearly 2 hours before we had all surfaced – it’s a long way! We then headed straight to the Anchor for pints, snacks, and a full on meal for Dylan! Honestly the trip was body breaking and it has taken many days for my knees and back to fully repair. Totally top trip though and will hopefully pave the way to Derbyshire’s next big find….!

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Written by: Chris Hibberts

Published: 01 March 2023

Created: 01 March 2023

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Trip Members: Sam P., Jon P., Dylan K., Chris H., 

Having been into Bagshaw the previous weekend on a family trip and explaining to my Partner and Daughter about the delights that lie past the locked gates, tonight was my opportunity to finally go and visit these spectacles of speleo-wonder.

As planned Jon, Sam, Dylan and I met in the car park at 6:15 only to find another group of cavers getting ready to do a trip into the Dungeon. We explained we were going into Madame Guillotine and beyond and were asked by their Leader if we would like any tips on where to go, which we politely declined. After polishing off Sam’s freshly cooked chips washed down with pre beers we got ready and decided to share SRT kits.

After heading down into the Coe the pleasant and familiar part of the trip to the start of the gates was over quickly and we were soon through into the stunningly decorated Taylor’s Way and on to Full Moon Passage. I could now understand the need to restrict access to these areas for preservation. Crawling passage then seemed to be the order of the evening broken up by some of the usual Bagshawe down dip bedding.

I was so glad I had knee pads at this point after what seemed like an eternity of crawling, we reached a short duck which led to the bottom of a scaff supported boulder choke. Jon went through first giving me guidance on what to avoid on the way through this bought us out into the bottom of Madame guillotine. Jon then proceeded to explain how this was previously found and that the route we took now offered a much drier passage. Sam also took the time to explain we would possibly see some CCC’s and their significance.

After the very educational pit stop Dylan and Sam made their way up Madame Guillotine followed by Jon and Myself. Jon, Dylan, Rob and Sam on a previous trip turned left and the top of the pitch through to Batham Gate and back to Hollywood Bowl, however this evening we were going right towards Frogs Legs and Cognac and on to the Bitter End. A short distance on we stopped to admire a small pile of CCC’s, and Dylan decided he was a little peckish and, finding a Daren drum full of goodies, opted for some Cola Bottles, not sure they were at their best.

More crawling then ensued through more great passage Dylan and Sam and Jon were up a head and I stopped for, what I would like to say was to admire my surroundings but was in fact to have a rest. I could see their lights in the distance in what looked like a bigger chamber much more appealing than where I was lay down. I crawled through and found the three of them in Ben’s Dig, one of the most well decorated chambers I’ve seen. The walls were stunning, and the roof had Hundreds if not thousands of Stall adorning it.

After discussions on the possibilities of making the Anchor, Dylan and Sam decided to continue along Ben’s Redoubt to assess the dig at the end and Jon and I decided to get some photos. First of which was a wall of carefully stacked Flowstone that had been removed in previous years to make a way on which Dylan and Sam had disappeared down.

Stacked Calcite Wall in Ben's dig, By Jon P

Chris Hibberts in Ben's Dig, By Jon P

Jon and I decided to head out with a stop for one more photo at which point Dylan and Sam caught us up. They explained at the face of the dig they could see on for some 5-6m which was dry, easy digging and worth pushing.

Chris Hibberts towards the end of Bagshawe, By Jon P

The trip out was as good as on the way in and a few more stops to catch my breath allowed time to admire the views. Dylan and Sam overtook us and were soon gone in a race to make the Anchor. We exited the gates and made our way back through the muddy puddles and were surprised to see lights in the distance. These turned out to be that of the group who had been into the dungeon a quick hello before the ascent of the steps and about 10 minutes later we were back at the surface. 

I can say this has by far been one of my favourite trips of the year, only let down by the absence of stories and witty banter of recent trips from one J. Thompson. I’m really looking forward to future trips to hopefully extend what is a great section of a cave I’ve visited many times but never knew existed.

Ben's Dig Bagshawe Cavern, By Jon P