Another year is upon us, and the club has a number of exciting changes to be implemented this year. For instance—I hope to get out an updated contact list in the March newsletter, if you have any amendments please let me know, alterations such as changes of addresses would be appreciated. Email addresses can also be included if you so wish—or you might just want to let me have your email address, and I’ll update you each weekend in block on the forthcoming trips through these, where to meet, what time and the trip involved etc. However, let me know if you want it including in the general contact list or not—in this modern age, you might also want to include your mobile phone number. Your librarian Garth has asked me that any books, magazines or indeed any caving related reading matter you might want to pass on will be added to the club library. The updated library index is available to paid up club members, preferably on floppy disk—ask Garth for details. The ‘cage’ recently installed in the climbing tower has now been fixed up with secure lockers and rope and ladder hooks. On Tuesday 17th January Shaun and Jack picked up the all the tackle from Chris Bosomworth and all was installed in the ‘cage’. The club would like to give a big FANK Q to Chris again for all his work in the past as Tackle Master—the new Tackle Master is Keith Taylor.
Obituary.
Norma Hargreaves 1942-2005
Norma, landlady of the Crown at Horton-in-Ribblesdale, passed away on the evening of Saturday 10th
December. Her parents, Mr and Mrs Grimshaw with Norma came to the village and
the public house in the early 1960s. Norma took over the running of the ‘Crown’
in 1965. To many cavers and their respective clubs, be it Craven, Bradford or
Burnley Caving Club, the Crown was THE Dales pub to meet up in after their
caving. When Burnley’s coach meet dropped in
for a pint, and sung a song from the clubs ‘Songs, Poems and Curses’
handbook in the very early 1970s — we were always made welcome. Her well-attended
funeral too place on 15th December at 10.00 a.m., at St. Oswald’s
Church, Horton. After the great loss of George Perfect in 2002, the locals and
cavers see another loss to their welcoming village Horton-in-Ribblesdale.
REPORT by Bernie Bond
Let's Find a New Cave
The year 2006 is also the clubs 55th anniversary year, so wouldn’t it be nice then to
discover a few new caves to celebrate this? Not since the 1970s has the club
made any real contribution to cave discoveries, isn’t it about time that this
was changed?. ‘It all sounds like hard work’ I hear you say. Well it
needn’t be! Your editor and others in the club have eyes on a number of
interesting possibilities. One of these, just needs a bit of digging and its
bound to GO, it being an upstream continuation of a very active and well
visited cave in Yorkshire, which starts off walking size.
It’s not unreasonable then to presume that the as yet,
unknown upstream section of cave is also walking size. In fact we were
surprised that no-one else had thought of digging it! In a second case it’s a
simply locating and finding what we already know. In fact we even have a survey
of this cave cum leadmine. We have also managed to narrow down the area in
which this is located. Although this area hasn’t been visited by the many
regarding caves, it is an interesting area. A large resurgence cave hereabouts
in the valley bottom floods to the roof, but often weeks after heavy rain. Old
lead mines are all over the place, as are numerous shakeholes scattered about.
All it needs now is a search team, and we can claim it for BCC. Although we at
Burnley Caving Club do have a little information about it—it is not mentioned
in Northern Caves, or any other reference source as
far as we can make out. Springtime and
the better months will soon be with us, so remember, the old cavers’ proverb ‘Tis’
he who prods and pokes many holes, that gains the most experience’ or the
ancient coalminers adage ‘It’s a big shaft that penetrates deep’ So, if
you would like to help out, and put BCC back among the ‘cave explorers’ then
you can contact me any club night for more information, or by email at
.
Please note that club meets have priority over member’s personal trips regarding tackle. All trips are of course subject to weather conditions—although in most cases an alternative can be found.
CHERRY TREE HOLEThe exploration of old mines can be a hazardous affair. For instance, your editor was once searching out Elbolton Pot near Grassington; Chris Bossomworth was with me at the time. We found the pot right enough, and eventually entered it. When we returned to the surface, I began poking about in the various shakeholes hereabouts, we knew for instance that Navvy Noodle Hole was in this area. Suddenly I spotted some old rusting corrugated iron sheets and rotting old timbers covering a hole. I leapt at it in anticipation—the first rotting timber I chose for a foothold gave way immediately under my weight, it had obviously been there a number of decades—perhaps centuries. Nevertheless, I began throwing the old tins sheets to one side and exposed the opening, but it was nothing like the description of Navvy Noodle Hole in Northern Caves—so I walked away. The next club night I checked out the various maps and Northern Caves again, only to find I had been perched atop of an old abandoned lead mine shaft ninety feet deep! On another occasion I was off on a lone wandering with my dog ‘Floppy’ to explore the Buckden Gavel Mine (GR 958-780) at the top of Buckden Beck at Buckden, the other side of Kettlewell. ‘Floppy’ wasn’t allowed to go caving, or on mine exploration trips, my wife Rita told me so. With this in mind I tied her up (the dog, not Rita) at the entrance to the mine, near the stream so she could have a drink if she wished, and set off into the mine. Many members of the club have paid a visit to Buckden Gavel Mine over the years—it is a low arched tunnel entrance, once bricked up, but now broken down to allow access. Once inside it starts out in knee deep mud, but after several hundred yards becomes drier. I noticed several initials and dates on the tunnel walls while going in, carved out by the miners, and eventually the mine becomes roomier with worked out stopes both in the floor and in the roof. I began exploring the various passages, first to the left, then to the right. It was then I heard a strange sound—a sucking gulping noise, which was COMING towards me. I tried to make sense of it—was it some running water in the mine, or was it by some strange coincidence some others who’d come to explore the mine.
The answer to the latter had to be a definite no, it was after all mid-week, and no one else would be up here. Was it then the ghost of the ‘Old Man’ the lead miner from so long ago? I looked in the direction the noise was coming from, and the beam of my lamp caught a pair of bright red eyes looking back at me—and then, a muddy ‘Floppy’ came bounding towards me. She’d obviously got fed up of waiting for her master at the entrance, and decided to seek him out—but how the hell she got through the ‘knee deep’ mud at the entrance is beyond me!. There was another strange incident at the Buckden Gavel Mine, whose workings were finally abandoned in 1877. In March 1964, four mining students from Birmingham University were exploring the complex of passages at Buckden Gavel Mine, when two of them came across the skeletal remains of a man in the upper passages some 400 yards from the entrance. Naturally they had to inform the police—who said they needed to take a photograph of the remains, as they were treating this as a case of death by unusual or suspicious circumstances. Because of the difficulties in reaching the body, it was agreed that three of the university students would re-enter the mine with a police photographer and show him the spot where the body was. It was 6.30 in the evening, dark and snowing when the team set off. The students led the way, and stopped just before the junction, and pointed out that the body lay around the corner—one sighting was enough for them! Eventually, and after a number of mishaps the photographs were taken, but it was 3.30 in the morning before the operations had been completed.
Items found on his body included a sixpenny piece dated 1872, and two shillings pieces dated 1885. In the remains of his wallet was a funeral card, which after being examined was found to be for a John Winskill, who had been buried at Settle on 29th May 1890. From the remains of the body found in the mine, it would appear that he was a man of some standing—a stick was by his side, and a felt hat behind his head lay just where it must have fallen when he decided to lay down or where he fell. His position in the mine was too far in for him to be seeking shelter, and the distance from the entrance must have made it impossible to having got there without some sort of lighting—although no trace of which was ever found! A couple of weeks after this incident, members of the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association, who’d taken part in recovering the remains of the body paid a visit to the mine. Further along the passage where the body was found they entered some of the old workings, and found them to be just as the last shift of miners had left them, almost one hundred years before. Clog marks could be seen in the mud on the floor of the mine, and impressions of the miner’s corduroy trousers were visible on the muddy side walls. Here and there were the stumps of tallow candles stuck to the walls in clay cups, chisels and an iron bound bucket were found along with a broken clay pipe which had been carefully placed on a ledge were also found. But nowhere in the old lead mine were there any further clues as to the identity of the body. The mysterious man of the old Buckden Gavel Mine became known locally as ‘Buckden Bill’ and it seems now that his identity will now remain forever another mystery of the Yorkshire Dales—don’t forget the trip to Buckden Gavel Mine on March 5th
JACK NADIN
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