Red Rose Cave and
Pothole Club - Newsletter Vol 6 No 4 - Aug/Sept 1969
Sunday the 10th
August.
BULL POT OF THE WITCHES
Party:- Roger Calvert, Duncan Baldwin, Phillip
Pearson and Pete Llewellyn.
Roger and Duncan during the course of their surveying had discovered
near the canal above the sump a boulder choke which appeared to be the floor
of a large chamber. Asking Duncan where it could lead he
said either Barbondale or Lancaster Hole! This
was clarified by being told that it was one of'or
should be one, of the original dry upper passages of the Aygill - Bull Pot stream. Apparently Duncan could
see into a chamber through a series of key stones which he
thought would have to be moved before an entry could be made. Game for anything
once I joined him Roger and Phillip armed with a pulley, a belay and
two lengths of old rope. The rope was tied round a key stone the size of a
football and then passed through the pulley and back down the passage enabling
us to pull out the key stone without being in line of the proposed fall. Well
back down the passage four us took the strain and pulled, then anti
climax .... the rope came free.. Duncan cautiously returned to the
choke to find the key stone had only moved a short distance. The
procedure was repeated and after many pulls the rope went slack and,
concurrently, several boulders crashed down and four potholers dived back
through the crawl to the chamber at the end of the canal, I have never
seen lads move so quickly. Duncan didn’t even mean to run back
through the crawl but was carried by the rush and by the fact that the
rope was caught round his leg.
I lit yet another cigarette and Duncan went back to
investigate; apparently quite a large hole ha boon formed but some boulders
were stil held up by and another key stone
still had to come out. The rope was again fixed and this time we pulled
from the passage near the canal, This key stone came out a little
easier ( Duncan informed us that it was only the size of an
orange). The rope went slack followed by a fantastic crash accompanied by a
strong smell of lime stone dust. As Duncan was discussing going back to have a
look ...‘crash’ even louder than the previous one and quickly
followed by a further enormous noise -upsetting Duncan. We then
decided on a quick trip down to the sump to let tings quieten
down. No sooner had we set off when the loudest crash of all came. Now the
sound of falling boulders can disturb the calmest of temperaments but when one
is close by in the same system the effect is quite dramatic.
No further large boulders fell but every five minutes, as the boulders
were covered with wet mud, they were slowly, laboriously and noisily
settling. We decided to leave the choke to settle down for a fortnight so the
area was roped off and a suitable warning message left there. WHen Duncan retrieved the pulley which
luckily wasn’t damaged, he informed us that a hole approximately five
feet square had been opened up and that he could make out a void beyond large
enough to prevent him seeing the walls or the roof with a spot beam.The fascinating aspect of these exploits was a feeling
of the rope which then went slack and was followed by a ‘crash'
and comparable to fishing in reverse.
Peter Llewellyn