Returning from a fruitless scaling trip in
Waterfall Passage, Jim Newton and Chris Bargh decided to take a look
at Burgess Passage but found they had insufficient tackle.
On the 28th July 1970, Gerry Williams and D. Creedy relayed the
equipment down Lancaster Hole, ascended the first scale, transferred
the poles to the next scale and surveyed out to the Master Cave.
Steve Hesketh joined the duo for the next trip when an interesting
aperture 40 feet out of reach was assaulted from all angles using 30
feet of maypole. (This hole was gained on a later trip and found to a
blind pocket with a tight rift leading upwards.) Directly opposite
this focal point was a more accessible scale which to our jubilation
yielded three more passages. A solitary boot mark crashed our hopes.
(One party had explored this area many years ago.) Whilst exploring
the right hand tunnel a vertebra was found resting on the sandy
floor. The British Museum pronounced it the vertebra of a sheep or
deer. It is interesting to speculate how the bone came to be there.
An awkward, meandering side passage (Keyhole passage) was followed to
a 15 feet pitch terminating in an impenetrable rift down which a
small stream flowed. Shouting along the rift generated acoustics
promising wide open spaces beyond. The passage continued for a short
distance above the pitch to be made impassable by sturdy
pendants.
The 30th August brought Pete Llewellyn, Duncan Baldwin, Hugh
St.Lawrence and David Creedy once more unto the Keyhole. A pendant
trimmed, the party squeezed into new territory to find themselves
hanging over a deep chasm. A descent was engineered to a ledge
surrounded by a delicate sheet of limestone which Pete Llewellyn
immediately (with great imagination) christened the "Pulpit".. A
short ladder deposited one on the floor of a chamber. The walls bore
the marks of frequent spray lashing. An inlet could be seen high in
the roof, (from Cow Pot?) The' way on was to be via either of two
pitches. Lack of tackle prevented further progress that day.
That same afternoon Howard Rothwell and Roger Calvert were digging in
Montague West in an unsuccessful attempt to connect with the right
hand tunnel.
The final trip involved Duncan Baldwin, Howard Rothwell, Pete
Llewellyn, Peter Jones and David Creedy. From the chamber with a now
active inlet, a 50 feet pitch (wet) was descended to a ledge, below
which was a saturated rift. From the ledge a passage was followed to
a further 15 feet descent into a system of narrow rifts decorated
with fresh mud and green plant debris. The level of Lancaster Hole
main sump had almost been attained.