Haunted hillocks

[JAM]

I can tell a few interesting stories from Water Icicle. Not menacing in anyway though.
As most of you know Pipster and I are digging in WICC so spend a reasonable amount of time nipping in and out that place. I can't speak for pipster but I for one have heard voices down there.
I've heard mutterings at foot of shaft, in great rift and most recently at the dig in dung beetle passage. I'd say it sounded like t'owd man having a friendly chat, nothing sinister. I have felt on a couple of occasions, when we were unknowingly close to the south passage extensions breakthrough, a presence that didn't want us to leave. On the night of the break through We arrived back at the shaft only to find a pristine and DRY piece of white cloth underneath my SRT gear. Anybody that knows Icicle will know it leeks like a cullinder, nothing stays dry for more than 5 mins.....  I leave you to draw your own conclusions, but I think if your digger they welcome you.
 

 

[cap n chris]

WOOOOoooo!

 

[JAM]

That was my response when descending the rope and forgetting that I'd added WD40 to my Stop!!!  )))

 

[crickleymal]

Why's it called Water Icicle? Surely that's tautology?

 

[paul]

Why's it called Water Icicle? Surely that's tautology?

That was T'Owd Man's name for stal.

 

[al]

Why's it called Water Icicle? Surely that's tautology?

That was T'Owd Man's name for stal.

Often wondered what he thought the normal sort of icicles were made of!

 

[paul]

Why's it called Water Icicle? Surely that's tautology?

That was T'Owd Man's name for stal.

Often wondered what he thought the normal sort of icicles were made of!

Ice!

 

[graham]

Why's it called Water Icicle? Surely that's tautology?

That was T'Owd Man's name for stal.

Often wondered what he thought the normal sort of icicles were made of!

Ice!

I suspect as in frozen, rather than at normal temperatures.

 

[Brains]

There is a little galena in there and a small amount of mining activity in the currently accessible and known passages, but the natural passages were once very well decorated with "water icicles/watericles" which have been carefully harvested by T'owd man, presumably to decorate the artificial grottos of the landed gentry

 

[aquamole jim]

It's not just the mines that are haunted? One night I was staying alone in the Chapel! And just after midnight I heard what I thou rt was some one one the stairs! I drifted back asleep again and was awoken by banging and groaning!coming from the members room :0 the next morning it was empty.

 

[Pitlamp]

Yes, the sycamores in the back "garden" do creak and groan and tap on the roof and windows when it's draughty.

 

[Cryptic]

Water Icicle - last man out - by god I was terrified, and yarded up the ladders like all the hounds of hell were after me.

Oxlow - night trip - followed voices all the way down that we assumed were from a party in front of us. Even shouted to them - but only garbled replies. Thought we'd catch up with them at the bottom, but no one there.

Only ever felt "it" in mines - never in the natural stuff

 

[Gollum]

Was you not a little concerned when you could hear voices in front of you but the cave wasn't rigged  :-\

 

[Dorbin]

Don't be daft. Ghosts of old miners would never have learned SRT.

 

[Gollum]

Don't be daft. Ghosts of old miners would never have learned SRT.

Think that was my point. No cars parked and no ropes would indicate there is no group in there unless they've come through from Giants

 

[John B]

There are a few well-documented and unexplained happenings in Derbyshire mines. Some may remember the filming for Peak Practice in Hanging Flat Mine. A few cavers helped in various capacities, and we arrived one day to find everyone in a flap because they had heard someone shouting further into the mine, which threw the director into a rage until they sent someone to find the culprit and there was no-one there. There is no other way in. Hanging Flat Mine, and the ruined house above, have long had a local reputation for being haunted. I could never cave on my own in nearby Lay-by Pot, because I had a very strong feeling that someone was looking over my shoulder all the time. Carlswark, Bagshawe, Peak, Lathkill Head etc. etc. have always seemed friendly.

But beware! Confession time. On 9th May 1985 I was on my own in Carlswark, and heard a party bumbling about in North West Passage. There was a candle floating in the pool between NWP and Noughts and Crosses. I lit it and stuck it in the bank. I hung around to listen to the dismay and then come clean, but they took so long I gave up and went quietly away.

It occurs to me that the clean dry cloth under the SRT gear in Water Icicle could just have been a similar trick! However, I agree - it always happens in mines, not purely natural caves.

Perhaps someone should collect all these tales together?

 

[Cryptic]

Was you not a little concerned when you could hear voices in front of you but the cave wasn't rigged  :-\

Yes, very. The only thing we could think of was some sort of pull through trip - meeting up with people coming down Maskhill or maybe even Giants.

 

[Chocolate fireguard]

Hanging Flat Mine, and the ruined house above, have long had a local reputation for being haunted.

Is that the house at the top, just below the path? We heard about its reputation back in the late 60s when we often used to camp on the bit of flattish ground just to the East of it. I spent at least one night on my own there but never felt anything odd. Of course too many pints in the Rose and Crown might have affected my sensitivity to these things.
The story we heard was that it was haunted by a man called Cornelius Brushfield who used to live in the house and work the mine.
We also heard that he never travelled beyond Eyam in his life.
Rightly or wrongly we called the house Brushfield Cottage.
Do you know how much of that is true (not the haunting bit)?

 

[Cryptic]

The story we heard was that it was haunted by a man called Cornelius Brushfield who used to live in the house and work the mine.

CORNELIUS BRUSHFIELD, of the Hanging-flat, Eyam, was perhaps the greatest anchorite that ever lived. He dwelled in a house built on the ledge of a rock in the Dale, a full quarter of a mile from any other dwelling; and, it is said, that only on one solitary occasion did he leave his abode during his whole life; and this occasion was the great contested election in North Derbyshire, by Harper and Clarke, when Cornelius visited Eyam. He died in 1780, aged 66 years. His family were Presbyterians, and remarkable for their hospitality - never suffering a visitor to leave their house without having first partaken of a basin of milk and some bread.

http://places.wishful-thinking.org.uk/DBY/Eyam/History/Families.html

 

[JAM]

It occurs to me that the clean dry cloth under the SRT gear in Water Icicle could just have been a similar trick! However, I agree - it always happens in mines, not purely natural caves.

Perhaps someone should collect all these tales together?

Aye John, it is the most likely answer, I agree, but I can't account for why it was so bone dry..... That one has me flummoxed. The quickest I've ascended the shaft is just under 3min and I've been purposefully out to blast it. When pipster and I arrived back at shaft bottom anyone who could have left it were long gone and the cloth still dry.... If nothing more, it's a mystery as to how the rag stayed that way..

I bet there'd be a market for a haunted caves book...... Mmmmm, DCA interested in funding another project??    .