Cussey Pot

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Written by: Jon Pemberton

Published: 20 August 2021

Created: 20 August 2021

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Rob Eavis, Dylan Kocher, Jon Pemberton

We managed to snag Dylan back from the U.S.A for a once in a lifetime trip - Cussey Pot.

In all seriousness this was to be a O.I.A.L.T. sort of trip as we eventually decided we'd make the first through trip from Cliffestile to Cussey Pot. After a year's absence from the game we gave Dylan a quick refresh on SRT on the walk over to the cave before he commenced his 80m abseil with some free-hanging rebelays. Not to worry as he managed it with awesomeness! We made our way through the cave taking it steady for Dylan to take in the sights before finally heading into Cussey and Loper Lust. We managed to barely pick up any mud which made the trip sail by with ease and within a couple of hours we were out on the surface having traversed our way below Eyam.

Awesome trip with Awesome company and a first to boot. Dylan would definitely be TA material if he'd stop pissing about in the US and return to Derbyshire.

Dylan descending Cliffstile, by RobE

Dylan climbing up Inglorious Bastards in Cussey, by RobE

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Written by: Jeff Wade

Published: 11 August 2021

Created: 11 August 2021

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Part 1 - Pussey to class style (Tuesday 10th August 2021)
(Rob M, Helen F, Jeff W)

As we had done relatively few tourist trips it only seemed right after request from Rob and Helen to take them into Cussey to see our new discoveries. After some discussions with the rest of the group it was deemed that a through trip from Cussey and out of Cliffstile would be the easiest route, however as we would find out this would not be the case. The trip started well and off we went, Helen, Rob and I down through Cussey soon reaching Inglorious Bastards and then on through the connection crawl and into doom beneath. Off on down we went into the lower parts of Cussey to eventually go and explore Diceman recently discovered the other week prior, which is an impressive rift and at its end clearly the bottom of Rocky Horror. From here we headed on down the sough to take the way out of Cliffstile.

Unfortunately our best laid plans of knowing that Cliffstile was the first obvious climb up out of the sough level, we could not find the ropes and we all searched around in every chamber that we came across. Eventually we had expended all possibilities heading downstream until we finally found the Rose Cottage ladder going up. This was disheartening because it meant that everything we had checked must’ve had at some point the Cliffstile entrance and exit ropes going up.

At this point we only had one option to go back upstream which wasn’t a great proposition now having walked for the best part of half an hour in chest deep water in just our furrys. Once again we checked the open spaces above the sough level for the ropes going up. Once again we couldn’t find the Cliffstile rope. We now knew we had a good two hours of caving to get out via the way we came in. At this point the person shall remain nameless who suggested that we do Cussey to Cliffstile, whereas originally we were advised Cliffstile to Cussey probably because of this very reason and the difficulty of finding the way out without having done this route previously, or at least many years ago.

So back up the sough we went and slowly made our way out of Cussey. Thankfully Rob had set a callout for the morning which meant we had ample time to go back out even with it being a less than encouraging prospect.

On reaching coconut airways Rob turned to me and said "I’m amazed you’ve all managed to spend an entire year in here". Rob is quite right on this front, as Cussey Pot isn’t a cave that gives its nature to easy caving, it is physical, muddy and also deserves a certain amount of respect for the looseness in places and difficulty in climbing some parts, it’s got character shall we say. Eventually we reached the surface it was something like 2 am in the morning, well beyond our original plan and we had definitely missed the pub. At this point we set ourselves a goal that we would go back via the Cliffstile entrance so that we were sure where it landed in the sough. We were pleased to be out with sweets and drinks in hand. All in all it was a good seven hours underground for a week day evening trip, which was a bit much even for us.

Part Deux - Class style bounce (Thursday 19th August 2021)
(Rob M, Helen F, Jeff W)

After the previous failed trip to find Cliffstile, this time we would head back via the Cliffstile entrance to go in and out the same way with a plan to go and have a look at the boil up sump. Rob was particularly keen to go and check this out due to its prospects as a potential dive. Myself and Helen were keen to go along for the tourist trip, and I think I had been there many years ago, but I'd forgotten as it had been quite some time.

Heading down Cliffstile, it’s an impressive shaft ginged very well at the top and generally clean with some areas of stacked deads where care is required to pass. On arriving at the bottom Rob was into the next chamber, Rob turned to me and said "Jeff I know where we are and it was the one that you checked on the previous trip". However Rob agreed that it wasn’t obvious to find the way up as it was under a shelf and to get to the rope up to Cliffstile was a vertical slot up which was not obvious from the first chamber. Obviously I was quite frustrated by this as I’ve literally been five or six metres away from the bottom of the ropes.

Once back at the bottom of the shaft, Helen, Rob and I all headed up the sough to go to the boil up. It was an interesting trip to see this part mined and natural level which none of us had really been to before. In getting closer to the boil up it was clear that this passage took a lot of water in certain conditions and this natural source of energy had been exploited by the miners in the past based on the piping in place. Trying to make sense of the survey which was quite basic, as is often the case for mined passages, we were pretty sure we had found the boil up and this gave a starting point for Rob for his future potential dives. On the way back heading away from the boil up and prior to the final brick walled dam, a small natural passage at low level headed off looking like a sink for when the boil up is in flood. I headed down this tube to have a look which contorted itself left and right, a little bit larger than body size, which went for the best part of 20 metres without much effort. As I was on my own I left it there as it was quite constricted at the end, so I did not want to push it too hard, with the prospect to come back and complete it another time.

Speaking to Rob Eavis once back on surface he had been into this 10 years prior, but it was still yet to be surveyed so this remained on the list to complete.

The way back to Cliffstile and the short trip out was refreshing for the team after the previous arduous one. It was nice to reach the surface and not feel completely destroyed after such a tourist trip, this gave us confidence again in our navigation to say the least. Rob M after this récé trip is now keen to head back and complete a dive so it’s likely we will be returning soon.

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Written by: Jon Pemberton

Published: 08 August 2021

Created: 08 August 2021

Hits: 2433

As we stood in the car park, half naked, finishing off our beers, I said to Rob, “Why did you tell them 9pm?” I was keen on his keenness but this was totally unattainable. 

Let me get to the point… We were heading back to Sooty to push the boulder choke we’d found on the previous trip. The upward trending choke looked to be an easy dig with only a few boulders blocking the way on and a tantalising view beyond into blackness! We had discussed during the week and the final plan was Dave B, Rob and I were going to head to Sooty whilst Jeff and Luke were topping up a bit later and heading down Rocky Horror with hopes of a possible connection. 

Our plan was carry little gear and head on for glory. Our kit list was; one SRT kit minus the abseiling gear and cows tails as we were putting a short ladder on the Sooty pitch, surveying gear, smoke bombs, a lighter, a spare lighter, a small crowbar, a lump hammer and remembering to pick up a long pokey bar from the big chamber below Sooty. This made the whole trip a lot easier and Rob was thankful for not having to drag a drill through Loper Lust for once! We reached the big chamber below Sooty in record pace and were all pretty hot, especially Dave having pre-empted him on wearing a thermal top as it’d get cold pretty quick at the choke with the mega draught howling through.  

I prusiked up the pitch and placed the ladder on the lowest possible hang due to its shortness and lack of spreader. We laughed for a short while before Dave tried it first, it held so Rob headed up with his long pokey bar sticking out of his wellie (like something out of Bad Caving tips). Now Dave was heading into new territory I pushed down the Sooty choke first and shouted for him to come down whilst I made an effort to dig out the floor at the bottom as it was a nightmare climbing back out last time. Rob followed and we were now ready to cross the swamp. We cobbed in a few more boulders hoping to make some sort of causeway, I used one of the T’owd Man’s timbers to create a hand support which pushed straight into the abyss the mud being at least a metre deep and ended up being a good footing which was soon lost in the gloop. Rob pushed the pokey stick in to try and reach the floor but it went 4ft down with no signs of stopping. We carefully crossed non-the less and Rob headed into the choke to see what he could do whilst Dave and I continued to build the causeway. 

Within minutes Rob had dropped a few boulders and a football sized lump of Galena which now sits permanently at the base of the choke. After removing a few more rocks Rob went quiet and finally confessed that a rock had hit him in the face. I went up to check and dug out a small muddy section at the top to enable a slightly roomier space. When I got to Rob his nose was cut open on the bridge right where his goggles sit. The contrast of the mud and blood was a spectacular sight, he said he was fine and I continued to dig the mud before he went for a second round with the rocks above. Hitting rocks from below with a 4ft bar strains the arms somewhat so it wasn’t long before Dave was called up into the choke and made quick progress of enlarging the upper section, removing some large boulders in the process whilst being careful not to peel away too much of the back wall. The time was now 9pm. 

Rob after battling the choke

A very heavy rock full of midget gems

This was what I was on about with Rob during the pre-beers. He’d agreed to set the smoke bombs off before we left at 9pm. There was no chance in hell we’d be through the choke having explored, surveyed and ready to leave at 9pm – Heck we’d not even made it through the choke! Dave now said the choke looked big enough to pass. Rob took to the reigns once again and pushed through the poised, undercut boulders and immediately started whooping and swearing with excitement. “It’s bigger than I thought!” Dave was next up and helped by moving a large boulder from the entrance squeeze, I hastily followed.  

***9:15pm*** 

We were now stood at the Eastern end of a 12m high by 20m long chamber - The Diceman. The roof was lined with some humongous boulders delicately poised on what looked like nothing revealing a view up to the rift stretching off above and a potential lead. The walls were clean washed and the whole place was natural with your typical Stoney shell bed features and no evidence of T’owd Man except for a couple of rotten timbers in sockets suggesting it’s probably quite old workings up here. We headed west towards our objective (an artistic connection with Rocky Horror.) The floor began to rise here in thick gloop and finally we reached a huge choked rift at the western end which felt very Rocky Horror esq. We had lost the draught somewhere in the chamber and after a short muddy climb at the western end I reached a gap between boulders that the draught was howling through! I climbed back down now 9:45pm and we started to survey back out.  

Dave entering The Diceman

We lit the smoke bombs for Jeff and Luke, the smoke heading straight up to my little draughty hole confirming the draught and after inspecting the bolt climb through the poised boulders carried on with our task of surveying back out to the base of the climbing shaft in Sooty via two boulder chokes which Rob made easy work of. By the time we’d completed our mission it was now after 10pm, finally reaching surface gone 11:30pm to see Jeff and Luke cowering from the rain inside Luke’s van. The warm temperature and rainy conditions on surface reminded us of Hidden Valley in Mulu, it felt tropical. We started chatting with the guys who after finding out when the smoke bombs were lit confirmed they’d seen smoke almost immediately around the Movie Room/Rocky Horror area (but not down the pitch) around 10pm, which proves its proximity. IT now started to lash it down on the surface so with Jeff and Luke now gone we huddled under Dave’s boot lid supping a well-earned post beer and pondered over future prospects. 

Jon climbing the choke at the Western end

The survey shows the two to be roughly 20m away horizontally from the section Rob had dug into the previous week in Rocky Horror whilst also being at the same height. For ease of the evening trip we’ve decided to re-inspect the area around Rocky Horror before we head back to the other side. 

The artistic connection will have to wait a little while longer… 

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Written by: Rob Eavis

Published: 31 July 2021

Created: 31 July 2021

Hits: 1713

Work and garden commitments meant we were down to 2 (TAP) and as Jon missed out on the easy trip last week I figured we go back there again to show him the dig. Quick pre-beers in the Eyam Dogging Society’s carpark and off we went. The cleanliness and ease of the trip surprised Jon; it really does feel like a different cave to the other way.

At the dig I went first, capping a few big rocks, and then let Big Guns Pembo shift it all out. Working at the bottom as pretty awkward, your legs are totally in the way so you end up doing a weird passing of the rocks up between your legs and then a push up in the air for the person above to reach and remove. I once tried reaching down head first and indeed managed to collect a rock but then failed totally to get my body or the rock out of the hole; a very ungraceful time for me.

The top of our dig for the day, by JonP

We could see down a small rift but there was two annoying rocks just jamming the space and stopping us dropping spoil down, which would be much easier. We swapped again and I removed the big rock by capping it and then the littler one by kicking it down. After a bit of tidying and kicking stuff down I ended up waist deep in this tight rift, facing the left hand wall. Behind my legs there was space that I could kick back into and it felt like it might be big enough to get into. I came back up, turned around, then went back in, having to breathe out slightly to get myself down the rift. Once in the undercut a slope down continued away and I gingerly kicked stuff down and slid through into a bigger space beyond, nearly big enough to stand up in. Here I’d reached the opposing wall of the rift and the roof was made up entirely of large, water-worn boulders. To the left (after checking my handy wrist watch compass setting I can confirm this was South East) I pulled a thin mud wall down to reveal another slope down heading off, this time with solid(ish) rock making up the roof and walls. I shouted up to Jon and he was keen for me to continue without him.

I headed in head first, trundling a few small rocks away to make space. A larger one blocked the way so I pushed it a little way forwards then was able to head over the top of it. Unfortunately I did this poorly, managing to make it roll forwards as I did, eventually trapping my legs between it and the roof above. I tried but was unable to push it back up the slope or to the sides, nor could I reach my kneepads to try push them around the boulder. What an idiot. Eventually I ended up digging a bit of a trench under my groin (with my hands, obviously) then successfully risked pushing forwards down the slope and dropping the boulder into this hole sufficiently to free my legs! Phew.

After about 7m I got to a small chamber, again only just tall enough to crawl in. There was a muddy collapse to the left and a clean one in front. Both looked like miners collapse and would need tools to make any progress. I had a careful look around and found a few pick marks in the roof along a lead vein, proving my thought that we had indeed made it through the choke and back into old mine. Just such a shame that there was no open way on, nor any draught. This area is about the right height to line up with the levels at the top of the climbing shaft in Sooty, although that is still +30m away horizontally and was a pretty conclusive end, so the prospects are unfortunately not great.

I went back to Jon and we made our way out, checking out all the other holes in the choke on the way. We’ve obviously missed the draughting way on somewhere, although it has to be said none of it draughts as strong as Nomenca, and certainly not Sooty, so there’s definitely more going on.

We made it out in time for the pub, a rare occurrence for TA these days. However it was shut so we enjoyed a quick can before heading home.