Red Rose Cave and Pothole Club - Newsletter Vol 2 No 4 - Winter 1964
A WILD GOOSECHASE
The phone rang at a quarter to midnight. It was the
police, who day wanted our cave rescue unit to be at Mold police station with
as many men and as much equipment as possible at 8a.m. on September 30th. ‘‘That’s
tomorrow isn’t it?’’ I asked, receiving an affirmative answer, Evidently the
two Liverpool boys last seen in that area and missing since Sunday had not been found. It was now Tuesday night and athough we did not
realise it at the time, this was going to be one of the biggest rescue
operations ever known. Publicity of potholing seems to be confined to the rescues, and little mention is ever
made of the hundreds of people who on any weekend will spend their time epIoring the networks of Britains
caves and potholes. After driving round to our leaders house and knocking him
out of bed and then phoning the police to tell them to contact the other
members of the unit, I collected some equipment together. At about 3 a.m. ten of us from the Lancaster area had assembled at the
leaders house and so we drove off, taking all our ropes, ladders and lights,
and complete with ‘Rescue’ stickers on the car windows. The ninety mile journey
to Wales was a complete story in itself what with one lucky person carrying on past
our turn off at Lymm and travelling to Crewe before
he could turn had back, another person who shall be nameless tried to demolish
a bridge on acquiring a puncture and the whole journey was made even more memorable
by a dense fog which reduced visibility to a few feet for most of the motorway. On arriving at
Mold we were redirected to Ruthin Police Station and at 6 a.m, we were drinking a
hot cup of tea in the tiny police station, while other rescue units from
Yorkshire arrived on the scene. Soon we drove to the nearby village of Maeshafn, which consists of a village street, chapel,
school, shop and an appropriately named pub 'The Miners Arms’. In spite of the early hour all the locals were out in force and one old lady
was overheard to say ‘This’ll put us on the map at last’.They
all seemed very surprised that we had come from so far. The village green had a mobile police radio base as well as the Civil Defense's radio van and the whole village soon became swarmed with police, locals and rescuers. We had now changed into our gear and were directed to assist with the the search of nearby mineshafts which were rumored to be a thousand feet deep. It was
from one of these shafts, that a local boy thought he had heard voices calling the previous day. Light wire ladders were soon lowered
and together with a telephone our leader began the descent, filmed by I.T.V. cameras.
He reached the bottom after 300ft. which was later established as a false floor
caused by the tipping of old scrap by locals. Aftcr searching a small side
passage he returned to the surface assisted by a down strong life-line party. After
re-coiling the ladder we returned to base, and lunch provided by the W. V. S.
Soon we were off again to Pothole Valley and the mine
shafts there. The army was now in the area and soon megaphoned orders
were being heard all over the valley which directed us to shafts hidden in the bracken.
None of the shafts or caves revealed anything exept that they had not been worked on for years and were
in a dangerous condition After finding nothing we returned to base to report on our blank day as did all the
other teams, Outside the H.Q. Brian Truman the I.T.V. newscaster who failed to
be recognised until later when he was besieged for autographs. We were all by now realising that we should
be required on the next day and wondering where we should sleep when we were
told that a School was being made available for
us, this was welcome news as we had not caught up with the previous nights lost
sleep. The majority of us then made steps for the Miners Arms whose few locals
were still holding their ground, the village shop was of course making a
roaring trade in sweets and cigarettes. The school proved to be most
hospitable, providing a supper, bed and a very good breakfast. We were even
served at supper by some young Liverpool girls who preferred the Rolling Stones
to the Beatles. They were on geography courses arranged by their schools,
Next day we made an early and (this time ) refreshed start and our unit
was joined by another and together we were assigned to recheck completely a
very intricate mine which four rescuers had spent. the night digging at a fresh
earth fall. The mine was on three levels joined by steep connecting slopes, and
a complete search of the system was undertook. This mine occupied the entire
day though we broke for lunch and returned to the surface for a welcome meal of
sandwiches and coffee provided for us by the Civil Defence.
At about 14.30 p.m. we again emerged only to be told
that the search had been called off. Although the boys had not been found,
certain evidence had indicated that they were probably not in the area at all.
After a meal at the Youth Hostel we were then able to make our way home. It was
indeed a wild goose chase, as the boys were subsequently found in Weston-Super-Mare.
Tom Walsh.