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Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

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Report by Jon Pemberton

Cavers: Jon Pemberton (EPC), Sam 'Dervish' Pemberton (EPC), James 'Jams' Wood (EPC).

After postponing this trip from the 25^th of December we eventually got around to descending the shaft thirteen days later on a freezing Tuesday eve. Midway through December I had contacted John Beck who had kindly sent me a written article by Bill Whitehouse and survey (J.S.Beck, N.J.D.Butcher) from when the “Fireset Shaft” had been excavated in 1982.

We had decided to drop the shaft on SRT, unknown of when the last person had been down there and how stable it would be on ladders. (The 50ft deep shaft consists of two solid walls leaving the other two stacked ginged to the bottom.) Dervish and I had found the capped entrance on the 25^th December on a surface exploration of the area. The entrance lies in a hollow directly across from Flower Pot, above the lay-by on the opposite side of the road. We had to clear four inches of leaves and scree but upon opening the lid a howling draught emitted from the shaft and it was bloody warm for Christmas day!

After heating up above the shaft on the Tuesday evening Jams rigged using a metre long scaff bar backed up to a nearby tree. Our 19m rope only just reached the bottom of the finely re-stacked shaft (EEG). Jams descend first followed by myself then Dervish with the classic, “HEADS UP!” Followed by, “it weren’t me!?” – Yeah right!

A short side-step at the bottom of the Shaft lands you with a 4m climb into a stope (careful not to touch the Stacked on your right.) Left leads over rubble for 10m to a dig in the floor deemed too tight. Right drops underneath the stacked deads and gives access to a very narrow level with soot coated walls, which has been driven by the old method of firesetting i.e. without the use of explosives (one of the very few examples where evidence of this method still exist in Derbyshire.) the level ascends for a tight few metres towards the end of the level ending in a crawl underneath stacked deads to a cross rift with an internal 20ft deep shaft. A climb down using rotting stemples leads you to the final dig with very restricted stacking space. The climb down passes three backfilled firesetting levels. The draught is meant to continue through the bottom of the shaft in a choke although we managed to lose it today in the final cross rift.

We all managed to ascend the entrance shaft without knocking the scaff bar down on top of us. Overall the trip only took us about and hour but it’s very interesting to us anyway with the final dig being only 50ft away and10ft higher than clog passage in the Dynamite series, beyond Porth Crawl. The continuation could possibly connect the two although the Fireset Shaft consists of many stacked deads and could easily move with little temptation. Although trying to push up the very narrow fireset level with SRT gear on is a pretty bad idea especially if you're “Dervish” size.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 5603

Report by Jon Pemberton
Cavers: Jon Pemberton (EPC), James Wood (EPC).

“Only small amounts of work have been undertaken in Ivy Green cave mainly by SUSS members during the sixties and early seventies. The cave received little attention until 19^th May 1974 when Mark Noble, Kevin Wild and Brian Commander undertook a recce trip, returning the following weekend to dig through a tight squeeze extending the cave to its current length of 225m. Work was then abandoned, although the cave appeared to continue beyond the heavily calcited cross rift although if digging persevered, the cave would probably connect to the high level second remnant complex of the Carlswark Dynamite series.” 'Classic Caves of the Peak District’ – Ian Barker.

Us being intrigued by the Stoney system (especially the Carlswark Dynamite Series) after a quick chat with Mark Noble up in The Miners Arms in Eyam, we decided Ivy Green was well overdue a trip. We reached the big lay-by opposite Lovers Leap at just gone 7:00pm. It was pouring down with rain so we hastily kitted up and legged it to the entrance. After about 18 attempts! we managed to hook a rung of the ladder over a limestone ‘nubbin’. A quick traverse followed into the cave entrance.

The main passage is pretty big for the first 20-30 metres or so then turns into a hands and knees crawl. A quick climb over a roof fall and you reach a walking sized passage which continues for about 7-10 metres to a flat-out crawl followed by the first squeeze. Now this really does remind me of a passage at the bottom of Fall’s Chamber in the Dynamite Series, which requires a push up over flowstone and back down the other side…though you really have to push your arse through including James (Beaver – the skinniest caver about.)

After the squeeze you continue through another flat-out passage until you reach a cross rift. From here you continue through the second constriction (flat-out) through a puddle of static water. After getting wet you follow your nose through a small chamber until you reach another flat-out which leads to the final squeeze to the calcited choke. (A huge stal boss and loads of flowstone.)

The passage beyond the second squeeze is highly decorated in a Stoney kind of way so be careful and if you wish to see the final choke and you’re in a group beware no more than one person can turn around in the end!

After reaching the end we stop-motioned our way back to the entrance passage where James waited while I went for a quick gander down the second passage leading off to the right that is said to draught towards the mine level underneath. After a few minutes I scurried back and we scaled back down the ladder and ran to the river to wash our kit off where I lost an elbow pad and got caught in a drain. Out by 9.15pm. – Fun times had by all!

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 5349

Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Dave Gledhill (EPC), Sam Pemberton (EPC), Pete Pollard (EPC), Faye Hartley

Four of us met at the Inglesport cafe in the morning for the usual debate about what we were going to do. The options were Boggarts Roaring Holes, the Marilyn entrance to Gaping Gill, Long Churn - Alum or a bit of a tour of Kingsdale. Asking around a few people in the cafe no-one seemed to know much about Marilyn but we'd got a vague idea that it didn't flood badly so went for that. Parked in Clapham where we met Faye who's friends hadn't turned up and walked to Bar Pot. Marilyn is nearby and the lid is certainly an impressive piece of metal fabrication. We rigged the top and headed down the entrance pitch - a simple short hang down to a ledge. The next pitch is a bit constricted (similar to The Narrows in Nettle Pot) but short and goes past a couple of rebelays/deviations to land at the start of a short crawl. At the end of the crawl is the head of Niagara pitch. This has a slightly loose top but is fine with care. Niagara pitch dropped us in above pitch three of Disapointment Pot and we followed the stream down past the final three pitches. From the bottom of Disapointment Pot we followed the water down to Hensler's Master Cave. Without exactly meaning to we followed the water downstream and through a very unusual coffin-shaped passage to arrive at the foot of the ladder that leads to the Far Country. Our directions now sent us back to where we had arrived in the Master Cave and slightly upstream to find the passage leading to Hensler's High Aven. From here we entered Mud Hensler's Passage with its two easy ducks and on to Mud Hall. I'd not been to Mud Hall before and it's an impressive sight. A load of lights were coming towards us on the far side of Mud Hall which helped to give scale to the place. We followed the traverse lines around to the the far side of Mud Hall and followed the route on to the bottom of Main Chamber with it's impressive waterfall. Pete enjoyed a run through the water before we continued on to traverse underneath the big pitch in Bar Pot. From here some interesting wet crawling along New Henslers Passage leads back to Hensler's Master Cave and the bottom of Disapointment Pot. The de-rigging was all straightforward and we exited at about 18:00. No rain in the evening so the walk down through Trow Gill was quite pleasant.

A very varied trip and an excellent way to see a large part of the Gaping Gill system.