Ashwood Dale Resurgence
One of Derbyshire's largest risings, situated right next to the A6 east of Buxton. Whilst the lower risings next to the river level flow all year round, the main rising dries up each summer and issues a very large, cold draught, enough to tempt most cave diggers.
There is only one natural surface sink known to flow here, which is Illy Willy Water in Chelmorton. However a dye test from a shakehole near Hindlow Quarry (4.2km away) was proven to flow here in under 29 hours, suggesting a mostly vadose route...!
First mention of digging the site was in 1964 by one of Eldon's founding fathers John Needham. Since then it has been dug (a little bit) by at least 2 other Eldon teams to its current length of about 8m.
Up step TA...
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Rob n Joe
Armed with a new cable, we cleared away last trip’s charge, then drank beer and waited for air to clear, and for Joe's ears to stop bleeding!
I then had the first shift, trying to remember to not breathe too deeply. The pill had done quite a bit, and capping and chiselling was now super productive. The buckets pull out nicely, enabling two people to dig this site really well.
Joe then had a shift. From outside the capping bangs sounds super loud, good job there’s no neighbours about.
I went in for a final shift and to capture some content. We probably made 500mm of new ground this trip alone, which is pretty mega IMO. Unfortunately we can still see ~2m of small stuff ahead, so there’s much more work to do before anything changes.
Beer and pork scratchings in the Queens Arms was brill.
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The only “work” I had planned for Tuesday was a morning trip down to East Canal. Thankfully Ben Marks was similarly free so we spent a short afternoon at ADR. He’d never been before and as it doesn't actually involve any wet, muddy, crappy caving I thought he might actually like it.
As standard he arrived 30 minutes late so after dicing with death on the A6 I was super keen to get trying out Eldon’s new bigboy drill. It’d been a few trips since I’ve been to the face and I was impressed with the progress made recently. The drill is indeed a goodun, with capping holes going in like butter and the chisel only function making good work on cracked rocks.
Ben then fancied a go and after only one cap he managed to bring down a big section of roof, making a lot of new ground. Noice.
Before we left I fancied a go at something a little bigger than caps, but after all the prep work unfortunately my multicore firing cable seems to be slightly worse for wear after spending a whole winter down LWS, so we were unable to set her alight! Need to return soon to clear that away and keep pushing forwards...
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I was expecting worse...
Flat out capping and dragging back for 10m, but instead I promised a sunny, sociable outing from the team (Team Awesome). I met Joe at the lay-by as it was just us two for this weeks sesh. I offered Joe a pre-beer and in return he kindly offered me the use of his caving kit for my shift. Joe then told me about the dark sides of the dig... First up was a jog down the busy A6!
Joe took the first shift at the end and told me to just sit down, shurrup and listen to tunes. I decided to listen to a podcast, mainly so I could hear his screams from the end! I sat on the uncomfortable, uninviting floor, constantly having to bat off flies and mosquito's who had similar plans for a Wednesday evening. Every few minutes the cool draught would turn into smoky cap fumes, shortly followed by 'PULL!'
After an hour of solitude with my podcast nearly finished, Joe surfaced, removed his suit and ordered me to kit up and do my shift. I headed to the end and had a quick survey of the area. Firstly I had to clear away all the small shrapnel from the floor as the tightness of the passage forced these small protrusions to poke in various uncomfortable positions; like my back, hip or groin. The first cap was annoying, mainly just sussing out where I needed to be and how I needed to squint in order to avoid dust from the drill hole going in my eyes and throat.
Beyond the first cap the ball started to roll and progress became quick. But all good things come to an end and I reached a fairly fractured section of roof that wouldn't budge. Caps did nothing, the bar got stuck multiple times, then the chisel bit got stuck and I got seriously fed up. My little Johnny kitten arms were starting to ache! A brief pause, I decided to just go balls out and cap the crap out of it until it worked. Three shot holes later and a large section of the roof narrowly missed hitting me cap lamp, landing on the slope just in front of my face.
To this point I'd piled a load of rocks all around me, as dragging and filling the tray was problematic at best! 5 or 6 kibbles later I shouted down to Joe asking him for a plan and immediately received a 'GET OUT!' My attempts to place the packed drill back in the kibble for a return trip to surface seemed futile in the tiny space provided. After some shouting, bag now in bucket, Joe pulled it back and I backed up and surfaced into darkness! It was gone 10pm and all that was left to do was run for our lives back up the A6 in the dark.
Great fun, would definitely go again...
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Another quick smash on ADR. This time we managed to drag Jim along too. Jim was very confused about what gear to wear and ultimately ended up completely loosing the plot and forgetting all his personal possessions. Chris had first shot and eventually resurfaced announcing that he’d got the bar stuck, and consequently it was my turn… I removed it with my sneaky pocket spanner and continued on the loose left hand side.
After about an hour it was just about possible to view into the space beyond. It looks incredibly low and will be tedious capping. It’s possible to see about 3m in front before the rising calcite floor begins to drop again out of view.
Jim was enjoying the sun and tunes on the surface and so politely declined to do any digging. We did however convince him to get and do some socials content, which mostly comprised filming the ceiling as he crawled back out again
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Chris, Luke, Joe and Rob
Ashwood Dale’s proximity to Luke’s house meant we were treated to a rare outing from him. We tried to cram three cars in the small layby, but with Rob due to join later on he’d have to find his own spot. Neither Luke nor Chris were particularly enthused by the horrendous walk up the A6, as we desperately tried to avoid being flattened by a lorry, but the comfortable and sociable dig entrance more than makes up for it.
I went first at the face and continued chiselling out blocks from the fractured roof, which seems to be a kind of thin hading bedding. I made about a foot of progress as we shuttled the kibbles back round the awkward corner about halfway down the cave. Three was the perfect number as it required one person to remain in the middle and negotiate it round the corner without it getting caught up.
Chris and Luke took over next and we all rotated so I could sit in the sun and drink beer and chat to Rob, who had now arrived. The boys made excellent progress and eventually emerged with some big blocks out of the corner so that the kibble could just about make it all the way through without the need for someone in the middle.
Luke took over next and I sat behind him backseat digging and providing little to no help. Unfortunately, possibly due to the relentless heavy chiselling, my drill began making a horrendous crunchy noise, which I don’t think it’s supposed to do. Weirdly, it sounded absolutely fine when drilling, and only made the noise when on hammer only. With capping being painfully ineffective in the shattered rock, we were forced to call it a night and head for our new favourite pub in Taddington, miles away from Luke’s house.
