Welsh’s Green Swallet [NGR ST 5506 4771] is something for the connoisseur. A couple of short drops lead to low crawling-size passages with an ample supply of mud, much like caving in liquid cement, there are some tight squeezes to negotiate along the way too. It is, however, probably the longest known cave in the world in Blue Lias Limestone and there are some fine selenite crystals to be seen. First dug by persons unknown in the 1930s and by Wessex Cave Club in 1961. A new phase of excavation began in 1979, continuing to 1989 when the first breakthrough was made. During October 1992, there was a period of sustained effort by myself, Graham ‘Jake’ Johnson, Rich Blake and Tony ‘J’Rat’ Jarratt, occasionally aided by others, to ‘push’ the current end of the cave. Eventually, there was a tantalising glimpse into ‘black’ space beyond, it looked good and we were excited. From my personal logbooks: 28/10/1992 with Jake and J’Rat Last night’s bang cleared some stuff, one quite large boulder. I still couldn’t squeeze through, but did get a better look and it does look good, nice strong draught and what looks to be, hands and knees size passage going away, can only see 8 – 10 feet. Jake was in raptures when he came back from drilling and charging. We also shifted all the spoil back to the aven. J’Rat, also cordoned off some fine selenite crystals. Another 1.5 hours trip. 29/10/1992 with Jake and Murray Knapp Blitz-Krieg strikes again! After some hammering, chiselling and barring, I finally managed to squeeze through into new passage, 15ft. x 15ft. x 3ft, high. Waited for Jake and Murray to pass through and then exploring brand new cave. After the squeeze, you enter a bedding plane and then, a T Junction, the right-hand leg closes-down after 15ft., to the left, hands and knees crawling, up to 6ft. wide and very well decorated, leading for about 40ft. to another T Junction. The left-hand side leads for about 40ft.of crawling, with stal and selenite, to a blind chamber, 10ft. x 5ft. x 3ft., with a dripping crack and nice float calcite on the edge of a pool. The right-hand leg [of the T Junction] goes for about 40ft.to a left turn and then, 15ft. to boulder break-down, some shoring and a bit of work here will lead to another breakthrough next trip. This small passage has the largest selenite crystals I’ve ever seen and some very nice stal and rusticles. The entry squeeze is going to be left awkward because the whole area contains some very delicate formations. It also makes all the work worthwhile. 30/10/1992 with Jake, J’Rat and Rich Back for more discoveries! Didn’t take too long to get to the break-down, this time we had some short scaffold poles for a bit of shoring-up. Jake soon removed, what appeared to be a chock-stone, and then squeezed through into more spacious open passage. The way-on continued for about 60ft. until reaching more, big block break-down, Rich managed to get in a further 15ft. to a dig, very squalid as well, so that’s about it for a while. The new section doesn’t have any stal but, it does have some large selenite crystals. Following the breakthrough, several surveying trips were made with Trevor Hughes, the new extension survey length was 76 metres, we had guesstimated it as 230ft.(70m), so we were quite close. While we were at it, the entire cave was surveyed. “…18th November, again on a Wednesday evening. Vince, Jake and myself surveyed 97m of passage that evening. The Compost Corner legs were most remembered - Vince managed, most successfully, to ensure that for virtually every survey station, to read the compass, I had to bung my somewhat hirsute chin into the mud, revenge I suppose for making him do all the outward trip backwards.” (Hughes, 1998). References Simmonds, V.J. Personal logbook 1990 to 1992 Gray, A., Taviner, R. and Witcombe, R. 2015. Mendip Underground: A Cavers Guide (5th Edition). Mendip Cave Registry & Archive Hughes, T. 1998. Welsh’s Green Swallet – the Survey (Or The Mud-Pile Strikes Back) in Belfry Bulletin, 495 p22-25. February 1998 ...
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Team: Gian Ameri, Stuart Bennett, Derek Cousins, Duncan Hornby, Kevin Munn, Pam Munn, Phill Thomas, Morgan Specht, Helen Stewart, Claire Vivian, Jo White, Tarquin Wilton-Jones

Dates: 14th -15th October 2017

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Saturday

Staying at the TSG in Castleton is extremely convenient. Not only are you within walking distance of the great Peak Cavern, but you are also incredibly close to a large number of pubs and eating out options. The downside is the lack of parking. But the feel of being literally right in the centre of the town is great!

Saturday began with rough plans being made of trips into Peak Cavern.

Last minute preparations.

Almost Ready, getting changed at the TSG “chapel”.

We decided on 2 groups, one which would go and have a look at the fantastic Main Streamway and Lake Passage including Buxton Water, Far and Ink sumps and the other team would do a slightly longer trip including the main stream, the Galena Circuit and a visit to Moss Chamber. Some of us had been to Peak before, but none had visited Moss Chamber or done the Galena round trip.

The two teams at the entrance of Peak Cavern.

The two teams at the Treasury Passage junction.

A little further on is Surprise View, a simple fixed ladder leading down to the Main Stream way, at this point the groups went their separate ways and only bumped into each other once.

The photos below are a mixture of each group's adventures taken by various people.

Claire in the Tube (photo by Morgan).

Duncan at the Lake Sump with a multitude of steel beams, scaffolding bars, and divers tanks! (photo by Morgan).

Tarquin puzzling over the many water pipes in the Main Stream inlet passage.

One group visited Moss Chamber, an hours diversion off the Upper Gallery passage, mostly hands and knees crawling, a squeeze through an eye hole and a final refreshing dunk in water right at the end. This chamber is famous for where an accident lead to the body of Neil Moss, being cemented into a too tight rift that he had become trapped in. Despite the sombre feel to this location it also has some of the nicest flowstone formations in the system.

Claire in Moss chamber.

Different angle (by Morgan).

Derek at the Far Sump.

Derek in the Main Stream way.

Helen in ‘The Tube’.

Duncan passing under the low arch at the Muddy Ducks (on the way out).

We all had to be out before 4:30pm as the show cave was running some sort of spooky tour in the evening. The show cave had some rather amusing ghosts and ghouls in odd locations...

Claire admiring a formation in the ceiling...

In the evening Jo White and Stuart Bennett joined us for some pub grub, on the Sunday Jo went to a BCRA meeting and Stuart joined the P8 trip.

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Sunday

Due to time constraints the group split into two teams: one for P8, the other for Giant’s Hole.

P8

Derek had previously visited P8 some years ago and had enough equipment to descend P8 on ladders. Neither Claire, Duncan, Helen or Stuart had visited P8 before and with limited time we opted for P8. The entrance is a sinkhole taking a small stream and we were soaked from the moment we entered!

The team at the entrance of P8.

P8 has a Yorkshire pot feel to it as we followed the stream to the first pitch. With the ladder rigged we got a proper soaking as we descended! The second pitch was much nicer as the ladder was out of the waterfall.

Helen descending the second pitch and this was the dry one!

Stuart showed off by finding an alternative route down which he free climbed and avoided any soaking!

We then explored downstream and reached a sump after a flat out crawl in a pebble bed. Derek thought there was more to the system so we had not found the other sump which is as far as non-divers can go. Unfortunately time was against us so we decided to exit the system.

So there is definitely more to see and if tackled as an SRT trip I suspect much drier! The topo guide that was lying around at the TSG hut indicates there are several alternative high level routes that can be followed to avoid a soaking.


Giant’s Hole- The Round Trip: Tarquin, Gian, and Morgan

All photos in this section by Morgan

We found the description of the guide book more than a little tricky to decipher. So we sought advice from several TSG members and this was the sketch of the round trip in Giants they came up with!

The sketch for Giants Hole.

What an easy start to the trip, less than 10 minutes drive from TSG and a five minute walk to the entrance. £5 per person though!

Gian and Tarquin at the entrance of Giants Hole.

There are some spectacular spaces in Giant’s- this is Tarquin looking up into Boss Aven.

The first obstacle is Garlands Pot a 9m pitch which leads immediately into the 400m long Crab walk a very a meandering and constricted rift.

Gian on his first ladder descent using his harness - which he rightly points out is far safer than wearing a belt.

Morgan with rock on both sides. It gets even tighter at the Vice, a restriction in the Crab Walk.

Occasionally the Crab Walk opens up - Gian patiently posed for me in this “S” bend.

The Round Trip offers a good variety of sporting challenges. There are a few tricky climbs in the upper series.

After the Poached Egg junction you eventually arrive at the Giants windpipe. For those who like crawling on your stomach, through water, this is your place to be! The sign is a bit intimidating but it's alright. There is a 20 foot wet section. When we went through the water was not too high, if you get your head on the right angle you can still breath with a wet cheek and chin!

Entrance to Giants Windpipe.

After the pipe you can traverse above the Crab Walk. We chose to go beyond the fixed abseil ring (as there was no rope), go through a thrutchy calcite squeeze, and over some wider section of rift passage, eventually descending back to the lower route just before reaching Garland’s.

Gian pictured carefully moving along the top of the rift.

We climbed back up the ladder at Garland’s Pot, packed up and started to exit the cave. Tarquin climbed up to explore the “Old Upper Cave” on the way out. I decided not to join him as it did require negotiating more tight meandering passages while ascending. He thought it was well worth it.

All in all a fantastic trip. Sporting, wet, clean (unlike Peak Cavern!) and took a bit less than 4 hours! ...
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With Matt, Nick, Tav, Jake and Brockers. Matt, Nick and Tav set about clearing the bags and rocks stacked in the entrance. Jake went ahead to start digging, Paul went to the top of the slope to load the skip with the bags and rocks left there on Thursday ...
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A walker (f, 51) slipped on the wet cobbly track, and sustained a fracture to her lower right leg. The team were called to assist, but as the weather conditions were poor, and the casualties party had little to shelter her with, they moved her down to the office of the Ingleborough Show Cave. Team members provided casualty care and conveyed the casualty down to our Depot in Clapham, ...
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With Jonathon, Jake, Nick and Brockers. Nick digging, Jake clearing, Brockers on top of the slope and Jonathon was on the haul, shuttle and stack. I was in Tuck Shop, capping rocks and bagging-up the gravel and finer sediments. Two digging, ...
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A CRO member driving back down towards Clapham, to collect more members to assist with incident no 80, got out of the Land Rover to open the gate near Ingleborough Cave and heard/saw a quad bike bouncing and rolling down the steep hill towards the track, behind him. He reported this on the radio, then went to investigate. He found  the driver (m, 49), unconscious at first ...
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A school-girl (10) on an outdoor education residential visit was reported to have fainted, while walking to the side of and well below the Ingleborough to Little Ingleborough path. When she was persuaded to stand up again, she fainted again. A CRO team drove to the bottom of Trow Gill, then walked 2 km up to her party and brought her down to Gaping Gill, by stretcher ...
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With Tav, Jake, Nick, Jonathon and Brockers. Jonathon digging, assisted by Nick, Tav went into the 'Lower' Series to dig through the connection from that side, Jake was at the top of the slope, sending down loaded skips to me, on the haul and shuttle ...
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Team members spent much of the day in West Kingsdale, on practice incidents, alongside cave divers and active cavers (non-team members, willing to assist on any protracted cave rescue). Towards the end of the exercise, but with two groups still underground, a call was received from Yorkshire Ambulance Service, to which available CRO members responded. A walker (f, 56) had taken a fall on the steps that lead into the… ...
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With Jake, Nick, Brockers, Jonathon and Tav. Brockers at the forefront doing the excavation, Nick clearing away the filled bags and shifting the rocks from Tuck Shop, Tav on the slope unloading the skip and transferring the load to Jake on the haul. ...
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Here we come ab'in' down a pot.We get the funniest looks, well ever such a lot.Hey Hey We're The Dudley,And people say we're not quite sound,But we're too busy caving to put anybody down.(Theme from) The Dudley ...
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North Yorkshire Police asked for assistance in recovering a body from the base of Malham Cove. The deceased was carried across a very fast-flowing beck, then driven down to the village where she was handed over to the undertaker. Meanwhile, a small group of team members went to the top of the Cove to check the edge for any personal possessions or evidence. FATAL Volunteer hours: 50 ...
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A walker (f 57) slipped and fell on the riverside path south of Stainforth Force, fracturing her left leg. CRO assisted Yorkshire Ambulance Service and air ambulance paramedics to extract her from the location for transfer to hospital. Volunteer hours: 23 ...
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11th October 2017: Attended a meeting of the Somerset Geology Group (SGG) hosted at the Earth Science Centre, Stoke St. Michael. The meeting discussed future plans and structure of the SGG followed by an open meeting to outline survey forms and procedure ...
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Solo. Down to Tuck Shop to break-up some of the boulders there, using a combination of capping and tapping [with the sledge hammer]. One drill-bit succumbed to the task and was discarded. Created a decent pile of rock to be removed sometime. ...
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With Jake, Jonathon, Nick, Brockers and 'Duncy Sumpy' Price. While Jake, Nick and Duncy set about clearing Thursday's backlog of bags and rock from the entrance, Jonathon, Brockers and me headed-off to the dig. I was digging, somehow drawn to making the connection ...
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A Three Peaks walker (f, 32) slipped on the muddy path between the Old Ing and Nether Lodge tracks, fracturing an ankle. A companion rang the Police and while the call was being transferred from Lancashire Constabulary to North Yorkshire Police, a member of RAF Leeming MRT chanced by. He called CRO, direct, then stayed to help. After pain relief and immobilisation, the casualty was carried to a road ambulance ...
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With Jake, Jonathon and Nick. Jake was digging, I was behind, clearing the bag and rock to Jonathon, on the slope, also managed to clear a few loads of rock from the Tuck Shop. Nick was on the haul and shuttle, stacking the spoil at the bottom of the ...
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