Red Rose Cave and Pothole Club - Newsletter Vol. 2 No. 1 - Spring 1964
TERRIFYING TALES OF TAILBRIGG
by Jim Eyre
26th. January. After a stop at a Kirby Stephen Boozer, we
staggered up the road from Nateby and commenced
finding holes - various, shakeholes, diggers for the
use of. However, having no digger in our possession and not wishing to soil our
unsullied hands too much we did little else but turn over stones in the hope of
unearthing 100ft. shafts,
By a strange coincidence we didn’t find any and wandered unwittingly
into a fine limestone gorge where a rising was discovered in an open cave. Lol and Gordon volunteered into going back to the van, five
miles away, for a light and an hour later it became dark, I stumbled on some
open shafts and Lol and Gordon returned fully clad
for a major expedition on a cave that went in for the formidable distance of
10ft. Later we made for the road which was another of my discoveries and whilst
doing so were amazed by the number of open pots that sotted
the moor, An hour later footsore and weary we met Frank and Ron who were also
burbling about discovering all these open ‘gouffres’.
We decided to call them the Croll Caverns.
PARTY:— Jim Eyre, Rose,
Lol, Gordon, Stew, Ron, Frank, and Ann.
2nd February Someone who could read discovered that the
famous Croll Caverns were really Tailbrigg
Pots, however we still decided to give them the once over and a team of experts
with enough tackle to do Penyghent twice descended on the peaceful moor. Soon
weird cries hit the air as people hurled themselves into open shafts and the
‘moderate’ pots soon turned into S.S.P.’s as Mr. Newton and his family got to
work. The first hole was soon laddered by Stew and I where we opened up a
passage and called for a ferret, along came Les in his best suit and without a
light. It proved too much for me so I decided to return to the surface.
However, halfway up the 75ft. pitch I came face to face with a young lady’s
rear, Somewhat astonished I looked up and found the other half of the young
lady which turned out to be Marion. Being a gentleman I hurled myself into space.
Sometime later this dry, easy shaft rang with cries of horror as an
imaginary flood began filling the hole with wet water. I looked down and
perceived a frantic Newton building a darn, ‘Sods, Sods’ he shouted. What a way
to speak about your friends. ‘I want sods’ , he shouted. So I knocked 3cwt, of
overhanging foliage down which unfortunately destroyed the dam releasing the water
to meet Mel halfway down the pitch. The timing was wonderful and Mel rushed up the
pitch to shake me by the hand, or something.
The next performance came when I descended an adjacent shaft on to some round
woolly rocks - that smelled. This strange phenomenon was explained when I found
one with four legs, so not being a greedy bloke I yelled for Jim to join me and
together we romped hand in hand and knee deep in dead. sheep.
The rest of the day was spent without mishap, strangely, until we set off for
the Whoop. During this brief journey Stew got a puncture (so he said), Jim
blocked a major road for halt an hour whilst he practised a three point turn and Ray end Co. landed in a
farmyard. The A.A. and R.A.C. have requested Jim not to apply for membership.
Following this blow by blow account is a summary for the scientific ‘splinter’
group. As per Pennine Underground, Tailbrigg Pots. Between exposed clints
and a peat moss is a line of shakeholes close
together and running north from the road. The drainage from the moss has found its
way into the exposed clints and formed solution
fissures which in several cases open up in joints to form vertical fluted
pitches, which however tend to become blocked with debris and only one shaft remains clear enough to enable any
horizontal development to be observed. Proceeding from the road, No. 1 hole was
not descended but contained a narrow 40’ pitch with a dead sheep at the bottom which
seemed blind. (The pot not the sheep.) No. 2 hole had an obvious 25’ pitch at
the north end whilst at the south end a partially concealed pitch descends via
rubble ledges for 50’. The fissure narrows and continues under a rubble choke.
No. 3 hole is the main hole, Hollow Mill Pot. A stream enters off the peat moss
and drops 20’ and an easy climb down the fissure lends to the stream and a pitch
of 75’ A couple of sods suffice to direct the water down a narrow fissure that
comes in again at the foot of the pitch where loose rocks partially block a narrow
passage that leads off. All these holes are close together and No. 4 is only a
few feet from Hollow Mill Pot. This has quite a large open shaft with an
adjacent eyehole the pitch, 70’, which ends on a mould of rotting flesh in the
shape of scores of dead sheep which deter the most sinus ridden caver from
further exploration. No. 5 hole is 100 yards north of the first group, being
the most impressive with its entrance fissure 70’ long and 5’ - 6’ wide, the
hole being 40’ deep. It is possible to climb down the north end of the fissure
which from below is very uniform and straight with a level floor of packed
debris. A small stream comes in from the left hand wall and after a few yards
runs through a very narrow fissure which seems to widen out below. At the south
end of the pot a mould of debris leads to another narrow pitch of 12’ which is
possible for non pear-shaped potholers. Another pitch of 20’ is partially blocked
by rubble but is possible with a certain amount of work. No. 6 is to be found following
the shakeholes and is an open shaft of 20’ and appears
to be restricted below. Numerous shake holes are partially open to the
limestone and continue to gorge further north where several rising’s appear.
South of the road a well defined dry valley could contain a large cave system.
PARTY:— Jim Eyre, Rose, Jim Newton and his ‘Family’, Stewart and his
girlfriend, Mick and Marion, Ron and Ray and Co. ,and Ian.