Links to other Years:
Sat, Dec 14 2024
The last organised caving trip of the year had two members exploring Gautries Hole, at Perryfoot. We got very wet and very muddy, exploring the Eldon Extensions. Didn't quite make it to Poundland as a rising squeeze between mud and smooth rock defeated us.
Some photos of the trip from Gaz.
Tue, Dec 10 2024
The Waterways Swallet car park received it's annual veg bash and clear up, courtesy of Will Cooper. This had to be delayed several times due to the very poor weather.
The meets list for 2025 has been published. Some old favourites and new to us caves in there from our new Meets Secretary.
Sun, Dec 1 2024
Removed the tackle lists from the topos for Long Rake Mine (Bradwell), the second Nettle Pot topo, Merlin Mine and the Hope Shaft - Level 7 topo. This brings them in to line with the other topos in the guide and reduces the risk of contradictions between the two sources of information. Note that there is currently no access to Long Rake Mine. The full printed guide is now entirely in portrait orientation. Topos made to read in landscape orientation are rotated before the page numbers are added. This makes guide production easier and prevents printing problems seen with some printers.
Sat, Nov 23 2024
Newsletter 157 has been published. Mainly about the less often visited and gnarly parts of Knotlow Cavern. read it here.
Our planned trip to Whitescar Cave on the 16th November was cancelled when most of the team planning to go came down with the lurgy in the week running up.
A couple of minor corrections to the Hillocks/Whalf and Knotlow topos in the Rigging Guide.
Sun, Nov 10 2024
The Rigging Guide now has a topo for Middle Engine Mine, near Hassop.
Mon, Oct 21 2024
The rainfall over the preceding days made the planned trip to White Scar Cave impractical. Instead a visit was made to the Wretched Rabbit entrance in to the Lancs-Easegill system. The entrance was recently rebuilt, following a serious collapse. Three hours were spent underground exploring.
Tue, Oct 8 2024
In the last few weeks we have had trips to a North Wales slate mine and to Knotlow Cavern in Derbyshire. Our latest newsletter is out and can be read here.
Sat, Aug 31 2024
A week ago, it was found that the Whalf Climbing Shaft had been vandalised. Stones from the wall around the entrance had been dropped down the shaft, blocking it and potentially causing damage to the ginging and rigging anchors. This site was found and opened up by our club in the last century and we have been back for maintenance and improvements since. Needless to say, Crewe members have been involved, along with other clubs and The DCA in restoring access.
In the rigging guide, the P8 topo has been revised to take account of the new resin anchors recently added by The DCA. These replace the iron spike that has been there for decades and allow a choice of hangs. Added Caves of the Peak District (2010) page numbers to the full printed guide contents page.
Mon, Aug 26 2024
A small group headed up the M6 on Saturday to do Notts 2. A fine time was had and Gaz has written a report for the Newsletter. In the mean time, here are some of his photos.
Sat, Aug 24 2024
Updated the Oxlow topo for the new shaft lid belays and backup stake installed on the 23rd August by The DCA.
Sun, Aug 17 2024
Some changes to the Rigging Guide. Updated Robin's Shaft Mine to show the current rigging of the entrance. Added a topo for Owl Hole in the Dove region. In the complete printed guide, a placeholder page has been inserted for Cussey Pot. This topo should hopefully be published in the near future.
Sun, Aug 11 2024
Saturday saw four of us travel to Clapham for an early start walking up to Gaping Gill on Ingleborough. Craven Pothole Club had their winch meet on and we were there to take advantage of the many rigged entrances available to cavers, while members of the public got to see the Main Chamber via the winch. We did a traverse from Stream Passage Pot to the Wades Entrance of Flood. The entrance of Stream Passage is still being rebuilt by volunteer cavers, but reopened during the winch, while work goes on. We picked up a couple of independent cavers on the way, Father and Son Ian and Jack, who were doing the same trip. Sixty cavers were underground that day and we got to see many of them. This lead to a few traffic jams at pitches, but it made for a very social trip. Five hours underground, including a visit to Main Chamber to see it lit up with the lights that CPC had installed.
Some photos from Neil Conde.
Sat, Jul 27 2024
A fine day in the Dales for five club members to explore Illusion Pot, on the border of Kingsdale and Chapel le Dale. We got to see pretty much everything except the rift traverse. Lots of pretties to look at.
Some photos from Grace Chu.
Mon, Jul 15 2024
A camping weekend in South Wales, with visits to Little Neath River Cave, Bridge Cave and Porth yr Ogof. Plenty of water heading down the river level entrance to Little Neath! A report has been written for the next newsletter.
Sun, Jun 30 2024
We had a rare for us visit to Deep Ecton copper mine in the Manifold valley in Staffordshire yesterday. Thank you to our guide from the Ecton Mine Educational Trust for an interesting tour and the historical, mining and geological story of the mines.
Some photos from Nigel Cooper.
Some more photos from Gaz McShee.
Mon, Jun 17 2024
The Top Sink to Lancaster trip was postponed, due to the people with the most knowledge of the route being unavailable that day.
Instead, a small team descended part of Marble Steps. The unsettled flaming June weather dissuaded them from going in to the lower parts of the system.
Some photos of the trip from Gaz.
Mon, May 20 2024
A visit to the Forest of Dean for this 14km system. The team shared the cave that day with a large group doing some filming, but there were no traffic jams underground. A report has been written for a future newsletter.
Some photos from the trip, courtesy of Neil Conde.
Our latest newsletter is now on-line and can be read here.
Sun, May 5 2024
Three club cavers were at Giant's, getting changed in the sunshine, for a go at the round trip. Aside from a minor route finding error, after the Windpipe, we made the trip in good time. Lots of people on guided trips in the upper series, but from Garland's Pot onwards, we had the system to ourselves. Castleton absolutely rammed with visitors, enjoying the warmest weekend day so far, after a cold and wet Spring.
Wed, May 1 2024
Peak Caving Club have added some extra anchors to allow several exposed traverses and pitch head approaches in Snake Mine to be better protected. The rigging guide topos have been updated, based on their information.
The planned trip to the Pierre Saint Martin system in the Pyrenees has been cancelled. Hopefully this may be revived in 2025.
Tue, Apr 23 2024
The planned trip to Five Ways Pot in the Dales was cancelled, due to a mixture of illness and peoples plans changing. Two members did go Jug Holes, near Matlock in Derbyshire instead. A report has been written for the next edition of the Newsletter.
Sun, Apr 7 2024
There was a trip to Moel Fferna Slate Mine in Denbighshire today. Some pictures here.
The Safety section in the rigging guide has been revised with links to The BCA Anchor Scheme for advice on checking and using resin anchors. The BCA provide best practice and liability insurance for official anchor installers in the Peak District and beyond. Recommendations on the best organisations to report defective anchors have been updated. The symbol for a tree belay has been replaced with something that looks a bit more like a tree!
Tue, Apr 2 2024
Newsletter 152 is now available to read here.
Mon, Mar 25 2024
A trip to this Dales cave near Casterton Fell yesterday.
Tue, Mar 19 2024
Some updates to the rigging guide for the White River Series in Peak Cavern. The Moosetrap series in White River, Peak Cavern, has been updated following a recent visit to the top of the third pitch. The Ventilator series, down from the White River has been updated to reflect the recent rebolting work by the Peak Cavern Keyholders. Pull through and pull up ropes in the the following topos have been standardised to show the total length of rope required to pull through, or up. Only those routinely rigged as pull throughs, or pull ups are shown this way. Nickergrove Mine, for example, where pull through is an option some visitors take, is shown with rope lengths for regular rigging.
The pull down rope is shown as a dashed line for clarity, unless that rope is anchored at the base of the pitch and supporting a caver's weight, where it is shown as a solid line. Pull up cords are shown as a dotted line.
Sun, Mar 10 2024
Two club events this weekend. Saturday had eight of us on a trip to the White River Series in Peak Cavern. We were followed along Colostomy Crawl by three Notts Uni student cavers with similar plans to us. The large numbers made the climb up Block Hall very time consuming, so three Crewe and one of the Notts cavers decided to turn back. This team discovered a large block of clay had fallen and blocked the Trenches since the morning. To get out, they had to dig their way through, using SRT descenders as spades! The others explored the White River Series and took a look down Moosetrap, before descending the newly updated pull through rigging of the Ventilator pitches.
Sunday saw three people meet up with bat expert and TSG caver Jess Eades for a bat identification session in a mine adit by the Via Gellia. Two bats of different species were found and identified, so the day was a success! Thanks to Jess for a fascinating day. A full report will be in the next Newsletter.
Sun, Mar 3 2024
We have now uploaded all the newsletters back to the first numbered edition from July 1983. Over forty years ago. There are earlier editions, from before they were numbered still to do that will take it back in to the 1970's, but this is a major milestone in the project and worthy of announcing in the club news. Direct links to the latest uploads:
Links to all the uploaded newsletters and indexes for those yet to be scanned can be found on the newsletters page.
Tue, Feb 27 2024
Following the visit on Sunday, a rigging topo for Son of Longcliffe has been added to the main Longcliffe Mine topo.
More old newsletters have been scanned and uploaded to the site. Direct links:
Sun, Feb 25 2024
A first official club visit to these two relatively recent rediscoveries near Castleton, though several members have visited with other clubs. We split in to two groups, with some doing Longcliffe and others Son of Longcliffe. Unfortunately, the person most familiar with Longcliffe descended Son of and those doing Longcliffe had problems finding the correct SRT rigging route, leading to a long delay. When the Son of Longcliffe party returned to the surface, the last of the Longcliffe group were still on the surface. The rigging on the entrance pitch was soon sorted and some of the second party descended, meeting up with the first group. Between us we explored much of Longcliffe Mine. With it getting late in the day, the ladder and line were pulled up from Son of Longcliffe without a further descent. Some photos of Longclffe from Paul Griffiths.
When we used carbide lights to see by and our caving suits had very broad shoulder pads. Our project to upload back issues of the club Newsletter continues. Every Newsletter from the 1990's to the present day is now on-line. We are currently working our way through the 1980's editions. Direct links to the latest uploads are below. Thanks again to Steve Knox for his commitment to scanning these in from his complete paper copy library.
Sun, Feb 18 2024
The latest club newsletter is available to read.
Sat, Feb 10 2024
Five people underground at Odin Mine today, Plus Steve Knox, who was out walking and met up with us at the start and the end of our trip. Castleton and the surrounding area was packed with people on what was a miserable day, weather wise. We made our way down to the Cartgate chamber, admiring the mud and the dry stone ceilings along the way. As a result of this trip, we've made a change to the Odin mine rigging topo rope length for the traverse for the 2nd (up) pitch from 25m to 16m.
Tue, Feb 6 2024
Eyam Dale House Cave rigging topo. Changed the Derbyshire key symbol to key, or code required symbol, following changes to access for this cave.
Sun, Jan 28 2024
A visit to Sidetrack Cave, followed by Convenience Cave, in Eldon Quarry today for squeezes of varying lengths, leading to well decorated passages beyond.
Dan Badderley in Convenience Cave. Photo © Grace Chu 2024
Tue, Jan 16 2024
On Sunday, three club members were guests on a trip to Bottle Pot in the Upper Dove catchment. A short, but fun cave, with fine "Yorkshire" style pitches, descending to horizontal passages of Derbyshire mud. Notes were taken, sketches made and ropes measured. A rigging topo for this trip has been added to the Rigging Guide.
Mon, Jan 8 2024
Seven members underground in a wet P8 on Sunday. Another two explored old mine workings elsewhere.
Wed, Jan 3 2024
Some minor changes to the rigging guide topo for Longcliffe Mine. Added the resin anchor for a backup at the entrance. In addition to the padlock key to open the lid, it is a good idea to have a Derbyshire key, AKA a large adjustable spanner, to help open and close the latch from the outside.
2024 is the 30th anniversary year of the very first CCPC Rigging Guide. A scan of the first edition is available to view, for those that are interested. Much has changed. Thefts from caver's cars while underground have thankfully declined. Many cavers still had to be convinced that resin anchors were reliable and safe. There have been new discoveries and major extensions, along with new and improved routes in existing caves and mines. Vertical caving in Derbyshire has come a long way.
Heather Simpson and Rob Nevitt in Cae Coch Sulfur Mine, North Wales. The colours are real. Photo © Gaz McShee. April 2023.