Dudley Caving Club 60th Anniversary Dinner

On Saturday 25th April 2026, Dudley Caving Club as part of ongoing celebrations held a 60th Anniversary Dinner at the Lodge in Dudley. The event was attended by 47 guests. A wonderful mix of founding & original members, retired, current and new members plus partners and a welcome number from the Caving community to support us. 

An excellent 3 course meal was enjoyed followed by 3 presentations. John Smith an original founding member had put together a rolling slide show during the meal and now had the almost impossible task of condensing 60 years into 30 minutes with more slides and succeeded rapturous applause. 

John's talk was followed by Emma Porter and Mike Clayton who spoke about MCRO and it's long standing connection with DCC. They also squeezed into their very tight spot, information about BCRC and the Thai Rescue. A very polished performance and very well received. 

Finally it was the turn of our very own Caver Keith (Keith Edwards) with a light hearted complication of video clips taken over many years and featured many in the room, not always at their best caving  moments. What a wonderful way to end the evening. 

Thanks must go to all  the staff at the Lodge for the wonderful food, room layout and excellent service. Closer to home, thanks to our secretary Paulina Biela, for scouring club records and files to find and contact so many ex members. Likewise Emma Porter did a similar thing with MCRO contacts. Dave Jahn our Treasurer for collecting all the money and making sure the figures added up. All our guest speakers as above for making it such an informative and fun evening and all the members past and present for supporting the evening. And finally Bartek Biela for recording the event for the club blog and posterity.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FT8NvhkwYnZHqQHo6

Report: Ian Millwar

Aggy - Courtesane

After a tiresome unsuccessful attempt to find the High Traverses shortcut link to the Southern Stream a week before and having said that we won't be back in Aggy for a good while, by Wednesday we were ready to find this ''mysterious'' connection, that Mark previously described with 150% confidence: ''it's not this one, this is some old dig...'' 

One-week later Loz and I decided to make a ''quick'' photo trip to the Courtesan and find the ''missing'' link. We stormed down the Southern Stream Passage, Loz confidently lead us into the Priory Road, we went passed the Camp and dropped off to the Iles Inlet. With couple photographs taken on the way, it took us just under 3hrs to get to Courtesan, and what a spectacular formation it is. 

And we also managed to very easily find our missing link, week before we sat right next to it, with Mark repeatedly saying: ''it's just some old dig'', well, I suppose it was at some point... 

Lozed in Aggy - Grand Circle

It was supposed to be a nice and easy Sunday trip to Aggy. Loz and Mark already completed it number of times in the past, the only difference this time was to find the shortcut via the High traverses. Loz wanted to do a decent trip before her birthday a week after. Mark wanted to test his caving fitness. And we even managed to convince Joe to come and join us for this sensible trip. Joe hasn't caved for 12 months so the idea was to get him back in the game after his last trip to Redhouse in April 2025. I was just happy to be caving again after rather less busy caving winter. 

We were doing the route in the opposite way to the Chelsea SS description, so made an excellent progress to North-West junction and down the Main Stream Passage. Mark and Loz seem to have forgotten about the swimming bits in the Main Stream (brrr), but we were still on track for a good exit climbing down from Biza passage into the water again. 

 

 

We found the climb up to the High Traverse and found ourselves in the five-way passage/chamber, which Mark recognised immediately as the way on into Priory way (no it wasn't!). After good almost 2hrs of circling around within 50m on that place, having checked all the possible ways on (no we didn't!), we decided that it is now time to give up and climb back down to the Main Stream Passage and take the known route out via all of the Southern Stream Passage (bleh). We took some beating going up the Southern Stream Passage but eventually were out (with few more little getting lost misadventures that we shouldn't mention here) before the call out. 

After exiting the cave and walking back in the horizontal rain we all decided that we do have enough of Aggy for a while... (or do we: http://blog.dudleycavingclub.org.uk/2026/04/aggy-courtesane.html)

Cavers: Mark B, Loz A, Joe W, Bartek B

 

 

Coniston Copper Mines

Our first trip into Coniston Copper Mines which has been on the bucket list for quite a while. We met up with Dom from CATHMS, who was able to show us around the mine. Bartek brough his camera equipment, so we had to stop quite a few times for some shots, which was good fun. Incredible colours in the mine, with everything from yellows, to blues, to blacks. We only scratched the surface of the mine, poking around in the upper 1/3rd according to our guide. Apparently bottom 2/3rds are flooded - which is always intriguing for the divers part of the community.

Cavers: Jonny B, Bartek B, guided by Dom

Written by: Jonny

Peak Cavern trip report (21/03/2026)

Heading north from Birmingham, Dave, Jas and Oliver set off for the mid-Peak District. Upon arriving at Castleton for a 4-hour trip into Peak Cavern, we headed for our base at the TSG. A group of around ten of us were led to the Cave’s impressive entrance; it is the largest cave entrance in the British Isles. After passing through the show cave area open to the public, we descended and followed a watercourse upstream through Five Arches Passage, soon reaching the northern end of Buxton Water Sump.

Progressing beyond, we headed through open passages, waded through water and even had a short crawl on some soft sand deposits! Reaching Mucky Ducks, we navigated under the rock overhang while trying not to get too cold in the deepest pool yet. After descending a ladder to the main streamway, we headed towards the southern point of Buxton Water Sump, followed by a cave photoshoot in a large circular streamway passage! We headed back past the ladder towards Lake Sump.

Returning towards the entrance, the three of us diverted from the upper gallery through a small inlet, a couple of metres up, into Pickering’s passage (a 1-metre tube which is around 150 m upstream of Mucky Ducks). A decent length of crawling, squeezing, climbing and sliding was needed on our way to Moss Chamber. The most challenging part was the Eyehole, requiring a squeeze and a wiggle to fit through the constriction and round the following corner. The tight passages eventually open out into Moss chamber, a beautifully decorated chamber with vast calcite features.

Returning to the upper gallery and Buxton Water Sump, we had been instructed earlier to wash the mud from ourselves and equipment using brushes hanging by the stream, before reaching the show cave again. The culmination of a hard day’s work was a visit to the fish and chip shop down the road!

Report: Oliver 

Photos: Jas, Oliver and Co

Half of the Draenen Round Trip

Today's trip involved George, Jas, Jonny, Bartek and Dave as well as multiple parts of Ogof Draenen. Although it involved fewer parts of Draenen than first planned, as will become apparent.

Anticipating that the Round Trip would take 10-12 hours with navigation and photography, it was an early-ish start into the cave. True to form, Bambi (aka Dave) took a very impressive slide on some mud by the cars, falling flat on his back before the caving had even begun. Suddenly those slippery Draenen boulders didn't seem like such a good idea…

Heading in through the new entrance that joins Upstream Passage, we made a strong start to the trip, making it to Elliptic Passage in just over two hours. This was despite post-Christmas lethargy in some members of the party, and Bambi’s nemesis: the horribly slippy boulders throughout much of Upstream and White Arch Passages.

Passing into Wyvern Hall, the way on was easy to find, not least because several members of the party had got totally lost in this section of cave a year or two ago, and thus lots of it looked very familiar! Armed with the description of the cave, we made rapid progress through the various tortuous rifts and passages to Isotonic Weirdways and from there to Ponderosa Chamber via more rifts, a tight upwards squeeze and a slightly sketchy traverse. (The traverse was fine in itself; it was getting onto it with all the loose rock that was the less pleasant part).

A quick photography shoot in Ponderosa Chamber was in order before we hunted around for the Didgeridoo Pitch. Having found this, we debated whether it was indeed the correct way on and not merely some horrible slither into an inescapable abyss. Despite the in-situ rope being described as a “handline” in the description (which incidentally is excellent) this was very clearly a full-on pitch, albeit one which could - with care - be down-climbed. Jas “The Beast” volunteered to do so, and having backed himself up with a prussik started the downwards slither.

After much shouting up and down the pitch, it was decided that it was indeed the Didgeridoo. However, with time passing and dropping the pitch being a point of no return, there was an opinion amongst some that it would be better to turn back. We briefly debated splitting the party, however it was decided that this wasn't a good idea, and Jas was required to struggle and fight his way back up the Didgeridoo, earning his moniker in the process. Note to future selves: perhaps it's best to decide that you're going to turn round before you send a member of the party down a strenuous climb. Judging by the annoyance in Jas’ voice when we asked him to come back up, I think he shares that opinion!

From here, we reversed our footsteps and made swift progress back along the Wyvern Extensions Main Route to rejoin Elliptic Passage. Here another photo was in order, and after packing up we made our way through Fault Chambers where we met a couple of cavers on their way to the Lucky Thirteen Extensions. The rest of the trip back to the entrance series went quickly, although Bartek managed to catch at least two of the party out with his vampire impression, causing some alarm (and Jonny to crawl faster than he had done at any other point of the trip!).

On a side note, Bartek took us back to Indiana Rift from Megadrive via Northern Loop instead of crawling along the ledges either side of the trench and dropping down the boulder pile. This added fifteen minutes or so onto the trip, but it took us through some beautiful passage, with no horrible boulders and no crawling. In fact, it was the nicest bit of caving on the trip; it's just a shame it was on a route that added time!

Before arriving back at the entrance (exit?) series, there was time for one more practical joke. Bartek (hereafter called “Tigger”) seemed to have found bundles of energy and decided that leap-frogging Jas, George and Jonny by taking Carpet Crawl why they continued to Tea Junction would be great fun. Bambi followed reluctantly, before Tigger shot off down Wonderbra Bypass to lay in wait as a vampire again…only to find that George and co were on the verge of turning back, worried that one of us had fallen. This extra effort seemed a little excessive to Bambi, who waited at Wonderbra Bypass, musing how most normal people seem to expend energy on caving trips instead of acquiring more…

Arriving at Cairn Chamber, all that remained was the entrance series. A bit of photography at the top of the four meter climb allowed time to look around and spot Strawberry Passage, which - always being in a rush to get out on previous trips - is something I’d never looked for before. Before long, the awkwardness began, but as always, it was relatively short-lived. Although by this point, Jonny (who christened himself Eyeore) had had more than enough of Draenen and was despairing of ever seeing the outside world again. After a final struggle, we exited the cave and all that remained was the trudge to the car, getting changed and a delicious meal at a Turkish Restaurant in Abergavenny.

Cavers:
George ("gorgeous")
Jonny ("Eyeore")
Jas ("The Beast")
Bartek ("Tigger")
Dave ("Bambi")


Trip report: Bambi
Photos:Tigger

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