Red Rose Cave and Pothole Club - Newsletter Vol. 2 No. 1 - Spring 1964
DERBYSHIRE
By
Marion Sargent.
We set off in Jims’ Jowett on Friday night after work, Jim, Sandra,
Melvyn and myself. After a short stop in Manchester we arrivied.
in Winnets Pass about 10-30 p.m. Jim and Melvyn blew up the igloo tent and we
finally kipped down around 11 p.m. We thought, ‘Ah this is all right’ but we
were wrong for at 1 a.m. we woke up to find that the tent had collapsed, we’d
been deflated. After a struggle against severe weather conditions Jim and Mel
pumped the tent back up and we all settled down again. Suddenly we all awoke
again by banging on the tent to find three policemen and beautiful Alsatian dog
standing outside. They told us that a cafe at the bottom of the pass had been
broken into and inquired as to whereabouts we had been during the past few
hours. Seemingly we did not satisfy their curiosity for they took all our names
and addresses. They asked Jim before whether it was his family that was with
him but on receiving a negative reply the policeman became very interested in
Jim and began a series of questions. They seemed very interested in Jims van
and asked him what e registration number was, unfortunately he had forgotten it
and the police becamme even more interested. Now,
notebook at the ready they asked him the make of it and to our relief he
remembered it.
On Saturday we set off for Castleton but a jinx was still with us and
the exhaust pipe blew off. The rest of the day was spent repairing the van and
after a drink in Chaple-en-le-Frith
that evening we spent on uneventful night in a field near the farm.
On Sunday morning we met John and Ann but never found the rest of our party as
arranged., so we set off for Giants’ Hole and after paying our 2/6 we set off down.
We reached the siphons after about half an hour an began the task of baling the
pools. We were relieved by the Northern Caving Club later and with their help
we managed to finish the baling in double quick time! We were then able to
squeeze under and into a large chamber where the tedious Crab Walk began. After
an endless journey we at
last arrived at the sump and were able to pass onto a second and third sump by
climbing high. A quick journey to the
surface and we were met by the farmer, not with his shotgun, but with big mugs
of coffee. We all agreed that this had been a very good trip although the weekend
as a whole had been marred by the weather.
The above report is not an extract from the book ‘Fanny Hill’ and has no
connection with the ‘Denning Report’. - Editor.