Discovery in 1989
1st October 1989. Jim Farrer, Paul Wilkinson and I were on our way to
a dig in Cow Dubs and happened to go down Howe Gill on our way to
Ease Gill Beck. A sink in the Gill had been looked at by Paul and
myself before but the rocks in the entrance were too big to shift.
However today we had the Sylvester, a lightweight ratchet hoist, and
we decided to try it out. The first boulder hauled out opened up a
low crawl, which Paul soon cleared and exposed a large limestone
flake. At first we thought it was bedrock, but levering with the bar
showed it was not. We soon started ratcheting with the Sylvester and
after snapping the rope once out it came. It was broken up with a
sledge hammer. Paul went in and said that it was blowing and it was,
almost as strong as Link Pot!
We soon cleared the rift and were down to a bedding which was blocked
with a slab, however we could see a passage and the draught was
strong.We dug around the block. and were soon at a junction which was
partially blocked by a couple of slabs. Paul managed to squeeze
through and returned after a few minutes with tales of a pitch.
8th October.
We were back next weekend and barred away the two slabs. On reaching
the pitch, which looked dangerously loose at the top, I noticed that
the draught was coming from higher up. Over the top of the pitch was
a sandy bedding plane. Paul dug through and soon came back bursting
to tell of a 50ft. wet pitch. I was through the crawl like a
shot!
By traversing over a hole in the floor above the pitch we joined the
stream and climbed down some cascades to a balcony above the main
part of the pitch. We thought we had brought enough tackle with two
25ft. ladders and a 50ft. lifeline. I lifelined Paul down until he
was on a ledge and the end of the rope was round my wrist. We decided
to return with more manpower
Jim Newton
Exploration
15th October. The Red Rose jungle drums had relayed the
weekend's discovery far and wide. Next weekend brought all the
layabouts and glory seekers out of the woodwork. Unfortunately
Saturday night revelries at the farm were interupted by a call out
for an over due party of students down Pool Sink. In the usual
fashion the crack Red Rose Ease Gill experts were sent down first.
Stumbling and bumbling they set forth and soon located the missing
scholars, who had got lost and "decided to wait for the rescue team"!
Many members did not gain their pits until 6 am the following
morning.
By 10 am a large bleary eyed party began to enter the newly
christened Sylvester Pot. The team consisted of Jim Newton, Paul
Wilkinson, Peter Muckalt, Graham Leach, Paul Saville, Andy Hall, Neil
Pacey, Phil Luff, Keith Wright and Chas Frankland. The pitch was
rigged and Andy descended over 60ft. to land in a boulder strewn
chamber. The obvious way on was followed at first down a 10ft. climb
below the boulders to a hopelessly choked and loose chamber. Andy and
Jim located a small hole near the base of the pitch. This was dug
open and led through a bedding plane to two holes below which could
be seen another large chamber. The race was now on; Andy and Chas
were shouting for a ladder for the furthest hole while Keith and Jim
were trying to climb down the other. Chas won by a short head and ran
off at the bottom of the pitch across the chamber and climbed down
into a horribly loose choked rift. by this time Paul Saville and Neil
had jostled to the front and found another small hole down through
the boulders at the base of the chamber. Beneath the intimidating
boulders they gingerly excavated a route, lured on by the tinkling of
a stream below them.
A ladder proved useful on the awkward squeeze and climb down and so
we had a third pitch. The larger members were stopped at this point.
The thin men continued down a low streamway to the top of a narrow
wet pitch. A high level route above the streamway was also pushed
through a low section to a rift passage where Neil noted signs that
some one had been here before but nobody believed him. Due to its
liberal supply of very moveable boulders and the recent San Fransisco
earthquake the passage was named San Andreas Fault Passage. At one
point only some quick thinking by Graham Leach prevented the advance
party from being entombed.
By now the hour was late and most of us were feeling pretty jaded
after the previous night's activities and we decided to exit. Jim
Davis turned up with survey gear looking for volunteers and the
survey was started. On the way out Neil spotted a crawl between the
second and third pitch. He followed this into a very wide bedding,
which completely disorientated him; another lead for next week. Back
at Bull Pot Farm celebrations were dulled by tiredness, it had been
an exhausting 24 hours.
Sunday 22nd October
Inclement weather the following weekend meant that we all received a
good soaking on the 60ft. pitch. Plugs and feathers and a Bosch drill
were used by Jim to enlarge the squeeze at the top of the Third
Pitch. Chas Phil Luff and Paul Wilkinson pushed on down to explore
San Andreas Fault Passage. Meanwhile Jim Newton, Keith Wright, Andy,
Chris and Ian Ellis, Keith Lewis, Jim Davis, Paul Saville and Neil
Pacey blitzed the bedding or Highway Route 880, after the collapsed
bridge in San Fransisco. The San Andreas party tried to gain the
continuing stream lower down but they only succeeded in scaring
themselves wittless as more large blocks detached themselves. Finally
a rumbling of boulders from somewhere above them caused them to
retire to the comparative safety of Route 880.
The rest of the Red Rose poking, proding and digging machine had been
hard at it. The bedding had been pushed in all directions. Several
holes in the floor had been laddered or climbed. They all led to
breakdown chambers which choked after less that 50ft. Neil, Ian and
Chris managed to slither through a roof tube and discover a couple of
hundred feet of passage and some more breakdown chambers. Andy, Jim
and Paul surveyed after them and in one breakdown chamber caused a
particularly large rock fall. This was the source of the large rumble
heard in San Andreas Passage. Route 880 is an interesting place and
everyone had a great time getting confused and shouting at each
other. Chas climbed a 40ft. aven to find it pinched out at the top.
On the way out, while continuing the survey, Jim and Andy pushed an
insignificant crawl to emerge in a large sand filled chamber
containing an unusual gour pool formation. Jim christened the chamber
and its surprise formation Newton's Wonder.
Saturday 28th October
The survey was fed into Keith Lewis' and Andy Hall's computers and a
line survey rapidly produced. This confirmed our suspicions.The far
end of San Andreas Fault Passage was heading directly for Clough's
Passage, a rarely visited inlet which joins the main system at Dismal
Junction near Molluscan Hall. M.U.S.S. had pushed this inlet upstream
in the early 1970's so old journals were consulted, there had to be a
connection.
Pete Hall, Andy Hall and Paul Saville took advantage of a lull in the
appalling weather and nipped down for a quick ferret around. Things
were going well when Pete crawled up a small inlet in San Andreas
Passage. Much to his surprise at the end of the passage he found a
small inscription scratched on the wall of a tiny alcove at the base
of a small aven - "MUSS BCC 1971". Unknowingly the cave had been
connected to Ease Gill two weeks previously! We were in fact in Upper
Clough's Passage.
Over the next few weeks various loose ends were tied up and the
survey completed. The size of parties entering the cave dwindled as
more sensible members opted to spend more time exploring pleasanter
places with less loose boulders. A through trip was done from County
Pot. Our original stopping point at the head of the tight pitch head
was easily climbed from below just as Lank Mills from M.U.S.S. had
done early in the 1970's. Here the matter rested until early in 1990
but that is another story...see article on Dismal Bypass and Luff's
Passage.
Sylvester Pot is another entrance to Ease Gill which leads to another
backwater of the system. It will probably receive few visits, but any
caver who passes this way will be rewarded with a sporting trip but
do beware of LOOSE BOULDERS.
Chas Frankland