Notts Pot

A quick trip to Yorkshire for some post Christmas caving, to work off all the Christmas puddings.
I had a little look at Notts pot a few weeks ago and rigged down to the lower stream way. A few messages later and myself, Jonny and Chris had come up with a plan.
Chris wanted to do a dive from the bottom of Notts pot so we rigged it on his ropes and helped deliver some cylinders to the sump at the bottom, and left it rigged for a future dive.

A short walk getting blown sideways across leck fell. The wind was measured in Hektor(the dog) ear flaps, it was precisely 10 flaps a minute. We soon found the entrance. A short descent saw us into the entrance crawl and down the little climb. Another short pitch put us into three ways chamber. Where we decided to take the centre route.

Rigging this off the bolts in the ceiling we dropped down to the next pitch, that starts with a large natural stone pillar, to start your traverse line. A descent to the lower stream way, being wary to drop on the right side of the hole to avoid a sumped duck.

This is where the fun started, we were looking for the bolts and on spotting one we climbed up, an exposed rift on looking back we had missed a few of the bolts that were hidden by the ledges, the y hang for the pitch dropped us through a small slot then into a larger chamber this was fine on the way down…

The last of the pitches was rigged by Jonny a nice descent in a circular chamber, with a small waterfall drumming away. Then finally a small pitch to the final sump.

We departed with the dive bottles after looking at the fine Yorkshire tea. And started on our journey upwards. Stopping off at the balcony on the way back up the big pitch, a careful walk around the edge to have a look at the Ireby fell sump.

We continued our journey on up, until we reached the small slot at the top of the pitch head. This involved some groaning and some swearing from Jonny. Who then waited to watch/laugh at me struggle my way through. Chris took the easier option which we had both missed a slightly larger spot a little bit further back.

We then encountered a bit of tight rigging, I don’t know who put that in… a bit more slack in future would make this a lot easier to ascend. I’m sure Jonny described it as a piano string.

An excellent trip with lots of laughter. A trip I would definitely go back and do again and maybe even leave a bit more slack next time …

George Tolley, Jonny Bellman, Chris Curry.
Trip Report & Photos: George Tolley

Alderley Edge Mine

What’s wanted for a Christmas Caving trip? Something not too serious, ideally well decorated and most importantly: it cannot be excessively wet and muddy. The Alderley Edge Mines fitted the bill perfectly!

After battling unsuccessfully with the parking app (and sending George on a diversion to find enough change to pay for all of our cars) we met up with Ollie and a few other members of the Cheshire Branch of Derbyshire Caving Club who were our leaders for the day. They gave us a quick tour of the Mine Museum where we learnt that the mines below Alderley Edge are the oldest metal-mining sites in England. Disconcertingly we also discovered that it holds the record for most number of deaths. Lorelle and Wayne, who had foolish agreed to accompany George again, were looking slightly paler at this point! (Throughout our tour Ollie would stop and tell a tragic tale of someone who had come to a sticky in Alderley).

It was a quick walk up to the Engine Vein. Even outside the mine there is a hint in the colours of the rock as to the blue-green copper lurking below. The original entrance has been blocked up and sealed with concrete slabs making for an unusual ceiling in the high chambers. Near here we were shown a Roman altar (possibly an offering to compensate the god Vulcan for raiding his unground treasures). The Engine Vein lived up to it’s reputation as incredibly beautiful. There are many sections of wonderful bluey-green formations where the copper veins have oxidised in dripping cascades. Absolutely stunning.

To get across to Wood Mine, instead of coming back to the surface, there was a much more fun alternative: a flooded connection. Most of this was only knee deep but there was at least one very deep shaft hidden in the water so we crossed in a jumbled flotilla of old canoes and two bathtubs. Piloting a bathtub is as challenging as it sounds, particularly when there are no oars – the idea was to push off using the walls. Imagine floating pinball crossed with dodgems.

We had a pootle around Wood Mine, admiring the Halloween decorations and playing around in some more floating bathtubs. On our way out we found several frogs and a whole family of newts who had probably been washed into the mine during the recent heavy rains. A rescue operation proceeded and all the casualties were safely released near a pond on the surface.

Next we had a look in West Mine: a very impressive, cavernous mine – much more like a cave in character. Here there were some more turquoise, toothpaste-esque formations. There was even a section that smelt as minty fresh as it looked (although this was apparently a curious form of iron, not copper).

Even more intriguing were the fungi in this mine. There was one large chamber where the remains of a strange purple fungus carpeted the rockfalls and walls. Apparently when this section of the mine was first discovered the floor was also covered in these purple growths, however most of this has now been disturbed.

On the way out (with a second batch of rescued amphibians) we passed through a tunnel where flies clearly came in to lay their eggs – there were many resting passively on the walls. What we didn’t expect to see were little tufts of white fungus with the tips of fly wings poking out: this was a carnivorous fungus which had infected and eaten many of the flies. We were assured that the fungus hasn’t transferred to humans yet (although this may explain Alderley Edge’s death statistics!)

All in all a fantastic and fun, if slightly unnerving trip. A Christmas to remember. 😊

Cavers: Ollie, Jamie, Dorota, Jennifer, George, Wayne, Lorrelle, Mel, Dave & Anne
Photos: Dave & George
Trip Report: Anne