Afternoon all,
As the title says, I have come across a few caves that have the remains of bell/telephone wire in them leading from the surface inwards (off the top of my head Dow cave, Darnbrook pot).  What is the reason for this ? There seems to be some considerable effort involved in placing these particularly in Dow cave where it has been placed at ceiling level.  What is or was the purpose of this?

For rescue communications, however I guess its been a while since you have been to Dow as the wires I think have all or at least largely been taken out now. Now that new technology (cave-link) has helped eliminate the need. However, some deeper systems in other areas will still need the wires to either make a big enough aerial or where the cave is that deep the only way to communicate is via a direct connection to the surface via the wire (rare nowadays).

As its not always clear if they are left over from rescues in the olden days and can do with tidying up or are in active use, please check with the rescue organisation in the given area before taking any action in removing/modifying any wires.

Oh I forgot the other reason for wires could be down to on-going exploration. i.e. bang wires.