5th January 2002
People present - Duncan Jones and many others!

Well it's Saturday and I am sat at home watching the rain, I had planned on going to the Lakes for a walk but decided against it and opted to write this account instead.

It all started way back in April 1997 when myself and Iain Simpson were in the Yorkshire Dales for a few days of walking and mountain biking, it was on a bike ride near Clapham, whilst flying down Long Lane we noticed a gathering of people down in Clapdale. Curious as to what was down there we dug the map out and realised it was Ingleborough Show Cave, we knew we had plenty of time to spare so when we got back to Clapham we strolled up to the Cave and went in, nice.

It wasn't until a few weeks later when we were back in the Dales after having done White Scar Show cave did we do our first "wild" cave, we had gone for a walk and noticed close to the footpath was Dead Mans Caves, we thought with a name like that and being marked on the map it would be good. Stumbling around the field in the dark we eventually found it, all 10metres of it! Well, not impressed we tried again the following day with another walk this time going past a few caves - Jubilee, Victoria etc.

The day arrived and some quick exploring took place, we were just wearing our normal gear and using hand torches, Jubilee Cave, Wet Cave, Albert Cave, Victoria Cave and finally Attermire Cave were explored. In Attermire the easy passage suddenly drops to a crawl - we both said "no way am I crawling about in holes!" and left it that, until one month later we were back having purchased Northern Caves 2 realising the crawl was short and the cave was much longer, with easy walking passage beyond.

Armed with "The Bible" there was no stopping us, well, we explored a bit more anyway, our first stream cave - Gatekirk Cave followed and in 1998 we did Great Douk Cave with its lovely streamway, it was then I realised I was liking this too much! The final straw came when we went to the Bradford's winch meet at Gaping Gill, with waterproofs and head-torches we went down. Scraping our jaws off the floor as we looked round the impressive Main Chamber we soon found East Passage and Sand Caverns, wow, this is good I thought, I knew now I had to join a club to do proper caving.

My Mother was rather surprised as I announced one day I was off to do some caving in July 98, it was when I joined the Red Rose CPC, which was to become my home for three and a half years. I quickly found myself on ladders then being taken to Bull Pot (Kingsdale) for my first SRT trip - a week later I bought my own SRT kit, I was well and truly hooked.

The caves have come and gone, but Peak Cavern in November 98 was a classic, never again was it to be as good as this time. A reasonable sized party assembled and we made our way through Peak Caverns easy passages onto Colostomy Crawl, after the squalor of that place we soon got washed off in the fairly wet Speedwell Streamway. The bung hole soon came into view, we'd heard it long before! Looking at it and at each other nobody seemed keen to go first, but Slug made his way up it and we all followed - well six out of nine did. It was at the top of here that I got chatting to Pete Dale and Bruce Stone, two people who only lived a short distance away from me.

A few caves came and went in the next month, including the memorable Swinsto through trip, pulling frozen caving gear out of the car and getting into it was most unpleasant, the cold walk up wasn't much better. The warmth of the cave was welcomed that day and I also learnt a lesson about doing through trips- always take two ropes in two bags with you, this was pointed out to Iain as Tim threw one bag down the pitch with the rope still in it, thankfully the other bag was behind somewhere.

One cold day in January I finally met up with Pete and Bruce again who were planning a trip to Rumbling Hole, this trip was one of those almost epic trips. The six of us stood on the surface soon got cold as Pete set about rigging the entrance, after a while there was a cry from below - the rope was too short, great we thought, more standing around in the cold. We soon resorted to running round the outside of the hole in an attempt to keep warm. From this point things went well, the lower pitches were wet and some people turned round at this point, including myself and Ian Eeles. I soon found myself waiting at the entrance pitch whilst Ian made his ascent, at the rebelay he stopped for what seemed like ages - it turns out later he hadn't removed his cowstail and then prusiked up, something which I nearly did at the same place. With all of us getting cold, ideas were being suggested as to what we could do to help, but finally after a considerable amount of time Ian freed himself and we all shot up the pitch and ran back to the cars.

Numerous Caves followed and my experience grew, it wasn't until March 99 that things didn't quite go to plan. A planned exchange trip between Rift and Large started smoothly, myself and Iain easily found our way through and down Rift Pot into the impressive passages it wasn't until we reached the duck that things started to change. With no sign of Pete and the others and a miserable duck to go through which I presumed was the way on but wasn't sure, we both decided to turn back, on our way back we looked around the passages in the other direction and finally with still no sign of the other team we headed out. As I was de-rigging the pitch I saw a lights below - Sam and Bruce, I told them that we were heading out of Rift and they should go back out of Large. With that sorted we exited and waited, eventually a solitary light appeared - it was Pete wanting to know where Sam and Bruce were, he thought they were going out of Rift we thought they were going out Large. Oh dear, communication breakdown, never mind we thought they'll realised what's happened and go back out of Large Pot as that wasn't being de-rigged. Hours later and still no sign of the missing two and with limited light between us we called cave rescue, where upon they soon found Sam and Bruce waiting at the bottom of Rift - they didn't go back out of Large because they didn't like the duck - now you can see why I had decided not to go through in the first place!

Later in the year when the Bradford had the winch at Gaping Gill and had rigged all other entrances we decided to do a big exchange trip - taking in Flood, Bar, Dis and Stream. Flood was soon bottomed and we headed for Bar Pot, where upon Bruce decided he was desperate for the loo and with a slow person on the rope Bruce said stuff it I'm not waiting for that slow git and told us to line him up the ladder. Well, I've never to this day seen anyone move so quick on a ladder, but I guess when you gotta go you gotta go! Bruce claims he exited the cave did his business and came back in again to meet us, me and Pete still believe he was lying about that one, no-one can negotiate Bar Pot entrance that quickly.

We had a look in Dis next, our plan was working until we reached the Portcullis, Pete turned soft and didn't like the look of it, and even though he had just been through the duck he wasn't going through the Portcullis. In an attempt to encourage him through I went through it and Bruce came back through only to go straight back again, but alas we failed Pete was having none of it. We then made our exit and headed for Stream Passage Pot, where we made an easy pleasant descent and ascent without any difficulties whatsoever.

The above mentioned exchange was one of the last trips Bruce went on, after that he got himself involved with a woman, always a bad thing for your caving. From this point on I did a few trips with Iain Simpson but the vast majority were with Pete Dale, the reason being is that Iain isn't overly keen on big pitches or anything too awkward where as Pete is as daft as I am.

One of the highlights of 1999 came in August when I went back to Birks Fell Cave; the previous visit saw me getting to 40years corner before turning back due to high water and dodgy weather outside. This time the weather was perfect and with a reasonably strong team we set off, what can I say about this place, well it says in the guide book its one of the finest sporting holes in the north and it ain't wrong. Despite our good weather Shale Pitch proved to be wet, very wet in fact, good for cooling down on anyway, with seven hours spent on this trip it still ranks amongst one of best I've ever done.

In November me and Pete were in the Dales on a Friday looking for something small to do to keep us occupied, we ended up picking Nettle Pot at Dentdale. We parked up and after a quick look at the entrance got changed, quickly as it was feeling a bit chilly. We were soon underground and quickly reached the pitch, at the bottom a reasonable sized stream passage leads off eventually joining a slightly bigger streamway. At various points along the way we noticed flood debris in the roof but we just ignored it, after quite some time we noticed the roof getting lower and lower, we knew we must be nearing the end from what we had read in the book. After a short stretch of hands and knees we were flat out in the stream, suddenly we heard strange thudding noises, not knowing what they were we pushed on, the way ahead was looking grim but I had no choice I had to do it and charged forward through the water and through a small squeeze, whereupon I noticed something odd. Wood, the roof was wooden, well ok the wood was covering the concrete that formed the exit of the cave, including a side passage with a manhole in the roof, which was in the middle of a road, hence the strange thudding noises! A short section of perfectly round phreatic concrete lead us out into the cold night.

A few weeks later I planned an easy caving trip in Easegill for a few people from work, there was an even mixture of had caved and hadn't. Unfortunately we had picked a very busy day to do County Pot with numerous hold ups in the entrance series and first pitch, but once passed we were on our way. The going was easy and I took them via the fixed ladder at Trident down to the main stream and up into Stop Pot. It was here a lone figure appeared asking where we were going and when we said Wretched he asked if he could tag along as he was separated from his group and couldn't find the way out! My work mates were starting to get a bit tired heading out of Wretched but we all made it. After exiting Simon decided to explore the pool of water just outside, much to everyone else's amusement. The lost soul disappeared back to Bull Pot Farm, as we were heading over the Fell we noticed the blue flashing lights of cave rescue on its way to look for him.

Another day of indecision by myself and Pete eventually resulted in us heading off for Swan Dyke Pot, on arriving at the right area we proceeded in entering a concrete pipe that went under the road (little things amuse..) We soon found a reasonable entrance and uncovered it only to find it choked, confused by this we thought sod it and drove down the road to go and do Snatcher Pot. Snatcher is one of those small interesting places that isn't often visited, which is a shame as it's quite an entertaining little pot.

A cave I once saw in Descent called Wizard Chasm was always in the back of my mind as one to do and one day when we couldn't decide what to do I suddenly piped up with the suggestion of Wizards. Parking up we wandered in the rough direction of the cave as we had no idea as to where it actually was, surprisingly we found it very quickly and soon began clearling rocks and descending. At the first pitch was an in situ ladder, coated in mud, with no lifeline we descended into the impressive passages of Wizards, an hour or two later coated in mud and having seen plenty of fine formations including some blue formations we exited contented and raced to Settle for the by now celebratory chippy meal.

The first of July 2000 is one of those dates that will stick in my mind for quite some time, this was the date we did Marble Sink, rather foolishly I was up at 3am to go to work, after which I drove to the Dales to meet Pete and Erin to go caving. At first things didn't seem too bad, although it was lacking in the space department the going was good. After a few hours underground at the top of Split Pot my light started fading, I stopped as Pete and Erin continued and decided to cave on pilot bulb as I made my own way out. After a few rests the other two caught up with me having not got much further (tight squeeze stopped them), upwards we went and it wasn't until the top of the first pitch that I suddenly started to really struggle, hardly any light and low energy levels were making the exit very difficult. Large amounts of cursing and swearing saw me fighting my out of the cave. After a quick visit to the farm I shot off home, eventually getting home at 11pm, knackered and in need of food then sleep!

After the failed attempt at an exchange at Rift-Large, we were back having another go, this time me and Pete were going down Large Pot and Andy, Sam and Alan going down Rift. Large Pot was passed easily and the duck which is easier from the Large Pot side was soon passed and we had some comical attempts at trying to climb mud slopes. At one point Pete slipped, slid into me, knocked me over and we both slid back down the bottom of the slope laughing our heads off. Finally making our way to the pitch at Rift we realised the other team had chickened out on the exchange, but had left rope in place, so we exited and de-rigged Rift. For a second time I found myself with Pete doing a mid week caving trip to remove the rope from Large Pot after a failed exchange trip.

Other caving regions don't feature often as I spent most of my time in the Dales but a nice weekend away just before the start of the fuel crisis in September 2000 was had in the Forest Of Dean. The first trip of the weekend was Slaughter Stream Cave, our intention was to go along the Three Deserts to Flowstone Choke, but slight navigation error meant we ended up following Kiln Passage all the way to the end, which as it turns out was quite an enjoyable passage. After our mistake we set about finding the correct way on and then continued with the round trip and a visit to the main stream before making our exit. The second day was to Wigpool Iron Mine, which was basically lots of sloping passage down to the level then lots of sloping passage and route finding upwards, thoroughly enjoyable.

Probably the best exchange trip and I must admit one of the better caving trips I have done is Lost Johns - Boxhead exchange. Two teams of four went in their separate ways, having got to the bottom of Lost Johns we then climbed up into Lyle Caverns to try and find the connection, much wandering and we nearly gave up until I heard voices. They appeared out of a hole that Pete had missed twice and I had walked past without even noticing it. A description by Dave sounded grim, four hours to get out if we can find the way out was his words, but undeterred me and Pete took up the challenge with everyone else opting to exit via Lost Johns. Two hours later after some fun caving without too much route finding problems and a bit of prusiking we were back on the surface. As we headed back Andy appeared out of Lost Johns but it was another hour before the rest of the team emerged.

Things were going too well really, 2001 came and plans for caving trips all over were looking good, but disaster struck, foot and mouth disease hit Britain in a huge way. March saw every footpath off limits and with that caves as well. Undeterred by the draconian measures imposed I set about scouring the net for places to go, all was not lost, we came up with a totally new list of accessible places - Bagshawe Cavern, Peak Cavern, Ingleborough Cave, Nenthead Mines, Milwr Tunnel - all ok to do and avoided the restrictions. Our caving continued regardless, some good trips were had whilst restrictions were still in place, eventually things improved at the end of July as paths in the Dales started re-opening. Even at the time of writing this some restrictions are still in place, hopefully as 2002 progresses these will also be lifted and life can return to normal.

Milwr Tunnel was visited for a second time during the fmd fiasco, the first time was an easy trip around the Limestone Workings, this second trip was intended to be bigger with plenty of variety, and variety it had. We descended the 400ft of ladders and proceeded down Milwr Tunnel to the Powell's Lode branch about half way along we went up a steep incline into higher workings. Along the passages and down a couple of short pitches into Barclays Lode, we then had to climb up ladders to reach a maypole ladder climb down into Powell's Lode - a big impressive chamber with a very deep lake, well worth seeing.

Three days after Leck Fell opened we, that is myself, Pete Dale, Iain Simpson and Cath Thompson went to the Iron Kiln/Committee Pot/Notts2 call it what you like, arriving there we found the entrance had had a temporary concrete cap placed upon it. Not to be deterred by the capping we set about removing it and went ahead with our planned trip to the downstream sump and Green Tape Inlet. Well, the fuss that occurred because we went caving was amazing, it resulted in our suspension from the Red Rose - for going caving! Due to a five month suspension imposed we decided to leave the club and set up our own as we felt the Red Rose had let us down by being influenced by a daft digger. Because we had apparently tarnished the reputation of the Red Rose we decided Black Rose was appropriate, knowing a Black Rose Pothole Club had already existed we opted for Black Rose Caving Club - a name which has since been accepted by ex BRPC members, they were more than happy to see the name in use again and we may even be meeting some of them later in the year as they have a reunion dinner planned.

A trip to James Halls was organised going up into The White River Series, lots of abseiling down pitches then a not too wet Speedwell Streamway led us to Block Hall where we began the long prusik upwards to the Kingdom. The effort of getting up there is worth it, lovely white formations, it was one of the longest trips I've done at that time.

Its now a new year, foot and mouth is still causing some problems with access but the worst is over and the newly formed Black Rose is doing nicely with numerous classic trips planned and organised for the coming year. Despite the best efforts of certain diggers and members of my old club to cause trouble we still carry on caving regardless!!!

Duncan Jones

Footnote: On the 16th November 2002 whilst walking around Storrs we bumped into Colin Davis, the guy that capped Notts2 with concrete, he apologised for capping it with concrete and said he wasn't at all bothered by what had happened.. Just goes to show doesn't it...