Red Rose Cave and Pothole Club - Newsletter Vol. 2 No. 2 - Summer 1964
A SORTIE ROUND STAKE POT, LANCASTER HOLE
By Peter Ashmead.
There were no less than three surveying parties
under Casterton Fell on a
snowy day in March. Jim Newton, Melvyn Wilkinson, Sandra Kilburn and Ian Curruthers, surveyed the Upper Wretched Rabbit Series, Frank Croll, Ron Bliss and Mike Bateson did the Cotton
Chamber bit and Lower
Trident Roof Series whilst Jim Eyre, George Comes, Les Rothwell and myself did the
rounds at Stake Pot, this article is concerned with the latter surveying party only.
George Cornes has a
wonderful memory for odd corners tucked away amongst the vast chambers that
nobody else seems to know about, or just
cannot find. This time he rambled on about some system or other below Stake Pot. After climbing down the rifts to
the bottom of Stake Pot George
pointed to a boulder slope on the extreme right and on reaching the top we
wondered why George was not following but on turning the next corner we realised why. We wriggled through the ‘ferrets only’
opening with great effort to find ourselves standing in a large long
chamber. Therc was a large hole in the roof with a
tricky climb leading to it but leaving this until later we dropped down
through the boulders into a large passage where a stream came in on the right
and disappeared again on the left. This stream passage defied all efforts by
our smallest ferret Les, both up and down stream. This dry passage decreased
suddenly and we were forced to crawl for 15 foot to a vast chamber.
This chamber contains four of the finest avens in the
entire system the largest soaring up for 80ft. or more and reminiscent of the
Bar Pot aven of South East Passage of the Gaping Gill System. The others were
between 40 and 50 foot and equally impressive. There was no shortage
of flowstone, clear and unsullied so near to well trodden paths. A climb up out
of the chanter led to another dry, but smaller chamber with several
slopes leading upwards. Jim on hearing voices, climbed one of the
elopes to find that Jim Newton was shouting down one of the holes
near Bobs’ Boss. ‘‘What was he doing there?’’ Back came the reply ‘‘Where are you,
what are you doing there?” Jim Eyre scuttling through a maze of passages
searching for Jim Newton was an all too rare sight. Dejectedly
and very frustrated Jim returned mumbling something about Jim Newton being
so near yet invisible.
Just below the slopes a gap in the boulders led us to
another passage with another passage leading off with a stream coming in from the
right and flowing out again on the left in a six feet deep trench. Crossing the
stream the dry passage ended in several bedding planes mostly too low to
follow. Returning to the stream we forged our way upstream to a small waterfall
on the right. Jim and myself formed a bridge and Les climbed up, only to
be beaten back by the volume of water. A big passage was visible at the top and
could be reached in dry weather. Up the main passage was a lofty chamber with
more passages at the top, if only we had brought the scaling tackle. We
returned to our point of entry and set off downstream, a snake-like passage
with deep pools which led directly to the master cave at Stake Pot where
we rejoined George. We set off back upstream with George and surveyed
back to Stake Pot. All this took about an hour and wishing to make the
most of the day ( if truth be known, we did not feel like
ascending to face the Blizzard above. ), we sped up the Master
Cave to near Oxbow Corner.
The water was the coldest we had known and
we spent some time nursing our feet back to life in the comfort of a dry
passage. Jim had remembered this one over his years of topographical
tours. The passage led for over 500’ averaging ten feet in height and fifteen
feet wide. The thin limestone beds had caused considerable
collapse in several places and due to this we decided to call it
Breakdown Cavern. Eventually the collapse finally scotched further progress and
we surveyed back to the Master Cave. To fix the entrance we did a unique
‘running survey’ back to Stake Pot - 900 feet in six minutes flat
must be a record for fastest survey in Britain.
On plotting the survey of Breakdown Cavern, it was found that the limit of exploration came very near to the great pile of boulders at Oxbow Corner and probably represents the same mass. Thus it appears that we have here an old oxbow. An hour later saw us all on the, snowy wastes of Casterton Fell, hastily making for Bull Pot Farm. We must go back to Stake Pot soon and climb that waterfall for prospects are very good indeed.