Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 5167

Report by Jon Pemberton
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Toni Murphy (EPC), Mark Harrison (EPC), Jon & Sam Pemberton (EPC), Jim Lister (EPC) plus special guest appearance from Guy 1 (no idea), Girl 1 (Bridget Hall) & Girl 2 (Jane Rigby)

An evening trip which was meant to involve actually going down Eyam Dale House Cave but ended up a bit south of the entrance in a completely different delph!? After parking and kitting up in the car park for the retirement home we promptly went in search of the manhole cover supposedly “within the grounds of the retirement home.” After 10 minutes of searching with no luck we went on our instinct down the path at the side of the car park heading parallel with the road. Bridget rigged the first pitch while we all gathered at the entrance of the cave. With nine people packed at the entrance of the cave getting numerous battle wounds from nettles, the five Eldon (minus Jim) decided that Eyam Dale House Cave could wait a few more weeks so to save time we walked on down to Cucklet Delph for the Nickergrove Mine through trip.

We went through the adit entrance and headed straight for the 15m shaft to the lower levels. Jules rigged while Toni waited at the pitch head for Sam and me to ab down. When we were all safely in the lower level, we took off our SRT gear and secured it to the bottom of the rope so instead of mucking it up through the rest of the crawls we could pull it straight up on completion of the through trip, (Cue Mark). After a few awkward crawls, climbs and scrambles we eventually reached the Didsbury Shaft entrance and after a few metres of vertical free climbing we were successfully above the surface. Jules kindly offered to flee back into the adit entrance to de-rig.

With the above antics over we still had an hour left until we were to meet up with Team-2, (the Eyam Dale House cavers) in the retirement home car park. We agreed that to fill this gap a Carlswalk Eyam Dale Shaft to Gin entrance through trip would be appropriate. Jules quickly rigged the 11m shaft with the help from my Carlswalk knowledge (Laughter from all!!) When we were all at the bottom of the shaft again we took of our SRT gear, (all except for Toni, see de-rigging Shaft entrance) and made our way to Noughts and Crosses Chamber to gain access to the main Eyam Passage. We made a brief stop for Jules as he wanted to poke his nose down through the rift in Oyster chamber to spot the through trip to the resurgence. We then scaled on out of the Gin entrance. When we eventually made it back to Eyam Dale Shaft the task was now to de-rig. Jules was 100% correct in knowing that the SRT kits and tackle bags attached to the rope would snag on the way back up. Luckily Toni had kept her SRT gear on so that we could safely retrieve the gear. We met up with team-2 bang on 10:30pm, (timing or what?)

Overall although we didn’t manage to get even a foot in Eyam Dale House Cave, we still had an eventful night of caving with two through trips.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 9579

Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Jim Alder (Orpheus), Niki Adlam-Styles (PDMHS), Mat (PDMHS), Andy Tickle, Andy's mate Shaun.

Derbyshire's not exactly full of quality through trips and this was one that I'd fancied doing for a while. After spending a day gorge-scrambling in wet clothes on the northern flanks of Kinder the last thing I wanted to do was rush over to Matlock to put same wet clothes on again but that's what bad planning does for you! We had arranged to meet at the parking for Jug Holes which was fine until I found that the road that leads from the centre of Matlock up to Jug Holes had been blocked off. With an idea that this might have something to do with the new Sainsburys and a vague thought that a new road had appeared there which headed in approximately the right direction I drove around to Sainsburys and found the road that eventually led to Jug Holes. Here Jim, Mat, Niki, Andy and Andy's mate Shaun were already kitted up and ready to go having already done some car-shuffling. We made our way on foot towards Masson Hill Quarry and just before reaching the quarry headed off into woods. The shaft top is not obvious at all and is partially hidden under a limestone boulder. The shaft was rigged from a large thread and in-situ scaffold bar and we descended to arrive in a chamber at the bottom. SRT kits were tied to the bottom of the rope ready to be pulled up later. From here the route goes down hill and after a very short distance an in-sit handline is reached. There is loads of very impressive mineralisation here which continues in places throughout the route. The route goes down the handline and past an obvious white wall of stacked deads covered in calcite. Continuing north-east along the obvious route leads to some animal bones at the bottom of a shaft that looks to be blocked above. A short section of crawling here leads to the main stope where the climbing starts. From here climb up on clay-covered holds to a point high in the stope. The way on from here isn't obvious but there's a hole going up on the far side of the stope. Chimney up through the hole (exposed) to arrive eventually in a good-sized chamber with a rock bridge, small cairn and an excellent thread belay at the back. A well-worn traverse high in the roof of the stope needs care and eventually the route starts to descend until finally some vertical chimneying leads to a slot at the bottom of the stope. Pop down through this to arrive at a T-junction where left is silted up. The route continues as an obvious stope through some larger areas where there are loads of minerals including very impressive dog-tooth crystals. The obvious route leads to the impressive 'Overseer Chamber' with ancient graffiti. Straight across through the 'Overseer Chamber' following the water leads to a crawl with water flowing down it. The route descends with a clay bank on the RHS. At the bottom of the bank is a triangular hole where the water disappears. A kibble and small shovel allow you to dig the hole open if it's become blocked with gravel. It's best tackled on your back as there's water in the bottom but is very short. The route continues as a hands and knees crawl as far as the second squeeze. This one is a bit more roomy and similarly short. From here the route goes into Old Jant Mine and it's really just a case of following the obvious route. At a T-junction a minor detour left leads to an original jigging box. More gravelly crawls lead to the dam at the start of Youd's Level. Here it's a load of stooping and hands and knees crawling until eventually we arrived at the ladder which leads up to the lid at the Artists Corner car park. After a trip back up to Jug Holes to de-rig we headed to the Kings Head at Winster.

Abseiling, climbing, ancient graffiti, a couple of squeezes, loads of minerals and some tricky route-finding all make this an excellent evening trip with lots of interest en route.

Details

Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 12 April 2013

Hits: 4807

Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Jules Barrett (EPC), Sam Townsend (EPC), Dave Cowley (EPC), John Barnatt, Terry Worthington, Jon Humble, Paul Mortimer, Andy Tickle, Niki Adlam-Styles, Pete Bush and others

This trip for John Barnatt's Thursday group had been planned some time ago and would be one of the first organised groups to visit Bagshawe for some time. Since we expected too many cars for the car park the group had arranged to park in the village and share cars from there. I had heard from Bob D during the week that the area of ground next to the Cavern had been flattened but it wasn't until I arrived at 7:00 p.m. that it was obvious that our parking problems were solved. The car park is now huge and there's probably room for about 15 cars! John and group arrived and we changed and headed underground. They picked up many of the mine features that we're familiar with such as the Slickensides near the bottom of the entrance stope but also found some that we might not have noticed. We went through to the newly cleared mined section at the bottom of the steps and Terry pointed out a stemple high up in the roof that I'd not noticed before. From here we headed through the passage to Calypso's Cave. A group went to have a look in Calypso's Cave and we had a good look at the pick marks on the way in. When you look it's obvious that the pick has been swung from the inside out so it looks as though a small passage has been worked back towards the entrance at some stage either by lead miners or during the development of the showcave.

We headed upstream past the Cave of Worms and up to the Hippodrome where we stopped for Jon to take some photographs. There aren't that many good photographs of Bagshawe around so was nice to get someone in there who knows his way around a digital SLR! Continued on through the wet bit and into the Upper Stream Passage to have a look at the streamway before heading back to the Hippodrome. From here the group split with some coming straight back to the Dungeon with me whilst others went to explore down the Glory Hole passage. We arrived back at the Dungeon and rigged it for SRT and ladder. Just as people were abseiling down the pitch Sam and Dave arrived and Sam headed off into the Lower Series with the first group. Dave and I followed behind. We had a good look around the Lower Series before exiting back up the ladder and out.

An excellent trip and great to get a different perspective from various PDMHS members on a cave/mine that we know very well.