Interested in Caving and looking for Information

[Oliver_gary]

As I live in the fens basically there isn't much in the way of caves or  even hills but my interests in exploration have always led me to find interesting things.  For example me and a few friends mapped a storm drain system in our area laying on skateboards (a tight squeeze to as the tunnels were tiny).  I have also discovered a small cave near my village about 20ft underground, crawling down that distance in a narrow shaft no larger than your shoulders into a room only a couple of foot wide and tall but non the less a great feeling of achievement once I had done it!  Always being adventurous like this makes me very interested to get into caving, I have visited the Peaks on a few occasions taking part in the touristy stuff like Speedwell ect.  I also do photography and would like to try out cave photography.

But anyway all I'm asking for is someone to chat with about the caves what they do and to get lots of information as I would love to get into this. As I am not mobile at the moment I can't get to the clubs and places but once I am I will definitely start!

Thakyou for your help.

Gary Oliver

 

[cap n chris]

Good morning, Oliver; if you are interested in caving and looking for information and are based in the UK then you have quite definitely come to the right place! - you can speed the process up for yourself somewhat, while awaiting responses pointing out various clubs you might wish to visit and/or caving regions to explore, by using the search feature on the top right of the page; you will need to ensure that you are searching in the right category first of all and this is done by clicking the heading on the top left (e.g. ukcaving.com>uk caving>New to caving will be the category you search if you start now, whereas if you were looking for advice on helmets or lights you would want to be in the Equipment category, done by selecting that section from the main forum board). There is now masses of information on this forum covering a wide variety of topics (e.g. kit, places, sites, techniques, contacts etc.).

Good luck with your endeavours.

 

[SamT]

Welcome to the forums. 

They are possibly a bit quiet at the moment as I think a huge number of our regular posters are abroad on various expeditions/holidays etc. (probably the speleo en vercors event that is currently on in france).

any how, if you hang out here long enough, you should soon pick up the feel of it.

As chris suggests, rather than starting new topics such as "which harness should I buy" etc. Use the Search facility as most topics have usually been discussed before  .  (of course you can always re-ignite a debate, or start are more specific topic.

Most people will suggest joining a club of some sort, Probably peak based as that is the closest caving region to you.

ttfn  8)

 

[Pitlamp]

If you don't have transport your best bet is to find cavers who live near you who do! There are plenty of cavers based around Cambridge for example, which I think is close to the fens? I'm a devout northerner, so my knowledge of the geography around you isn't too good - but you might like to ask for local contacts on this forum? The big clubs have members all over the country who go away caving at weekends (or even on midweek evenings).

Best of luck.

 

[Oliver_gary]

Yeah i think that that would be a good idea to get some local contacts to my area, Cambridge is about 2 odd miles from me so not to far.  Thanks for you comments 

 

[ttxela]

I have also discovered a small cave near my village about 20ft underground, crawling down that distance in a narrow shaft no larger than your shoulders into a room only a couple of foot wide and tall but non the less a great feeling of achievement once I had done it! 

I'm interested as to what you've found so close to Cambridge, could it be a badger sett perhaps?

 

[Oliver_gary]

Not sure but I do think that it is basically a sink hole as there is a couple of metres of earth to get through befor you find the cave.  I have some pictures of it if you ar interested?  What i thhink has happened is that water as basicaly created a whirlpool and slowly eroded the earth as it is a cylindrical shape down to the bedrock.  But yeah thats about as much as I have done, exploring what I can around me with what I have!

 

[caving_fox]

The non-university caving club in Cambridge is the  CCCC -  the Cambridge caving and climbing club. They are very friendly, have kit available to borrow, always looking for new members. They tend to go on about 1 trip a month, normally a weekend in south wales or yorkshire, if you can get to cambridge station a lift from there won't be a problem, there are many members living in around the area. Jane is the current caving sec, contact details on the link. Hope to see you on a trip sometime.

 

[ttxela]

Not sure but I do think that it is basically a sink hole as there is a couple of metres of earth to get through befor you find the cave.  I have some pictures of it if you ar interested?  What i thhink has happened is that water as basicaly created a whirlpool and slowly eroded the earth as it is a cylindrical shape down to the bedrock.  But yeah thats about as much as I have done, exploring what I can around me with what I have!

Yes I'd be very interested to see the pictures and know the location, if you don't want to post it up here send me a pm.

 

[Mel-Smith]

Hi there! There is someone in the YSS who lives in your neck of the woods, he comes up to the dales caving every month or so. If you want to get in touch then just let me know! The YSS are also hosting a "try caving weekend". If you want to know more, again, just ask and I'll forward on the details. All the best! Caving is ace by the way Mel

 

[Oliver_gary]

Yeah ill Post it here,  here are some pictures,(not sure how to post them but here it goes) nothing special as the space was ver small but these were the shots i got 

THIS IS THE HOLE IN THE EARTH WHICH LEADS DOWN TO THE ENTRANCE

THE ENTRACE, JUST OVER YOU SHOULDERS WIDTH APART

THE MAIN AREA OF THE CAVE, ABOUT THE SIZE OF A PANTRY REALLY

LOOKING BACK UP AT THE ENTRACE, ITS A LITTLE CLIMB UP ABOUT 4/5 FEET


well thats them, there not very good because they were taken some years ago, if you go onto google maps and paste this location it will home right in on the small wooded area where the cave is located.

52.820498,-0.523857

Its in the little tree area there North of Corby Glen, if you zoom out you will find your self near grantham stamford and not to far from peterborough.  I hope all this works!!!!

 

[Oliver_gary]

Hi there! There is someone in the YSS who lives in your neck of the woods, he comes up to the dales caving every month or so. If you want to get in touch then just let me know! The YSS are also hosting a "try caving weekend". If you want to know more, again, just ask and I'll forward on the details. All the best! Caving is ace by the way Mel

Yeah yeah that would be great, if you could give me some details id love to chat! you know where abouts they live? 

thanks!

 

[ttxela]

Yeah ill Post it here,  here are some pictures,(not sure how to post them but here it goes) nothing special as the space was ver small but these were the shots i got 

Looks to me like a natural cave, doesn't look dug out.....

I wonder if there are any more in the area, might have to ride out and have a look.

 

[Oliver_gary]

Looks to me like a natural cave, doesn't look dug out.....

I wonder if there are any more in the area, might have to ride out and have a look.

yeah i think its all natural, a stream runs overhead but basically into into the ground here, maybe its just absorbed into the water table are there could be tiny tunnels further on. i dont know.  i know of 2 other of these sink holes in my surrounding area but they are nothing but tiny holes no larger than your fist(it might change after you get through all the dirt!).  Me and my friends dug away at one to try and see if it opened up, we reached the bed rock but was battling mud and water coming back down ontop of us so we stoped as we couldnt carry on, shame really could of found another one.

 

[Duncan]

Me and my friends dug away at one to try and see if it opened up, we reached the bed rock but was battling mud and water coming back down ontop of us so we stoped as we couldnt carry on, shame really could of found another one.

Sounds like a fairly typical cave dig    A little bit of Googling confirms what your photos appear to show, which is that you are indeed in limestone.  I think that I can see the stream-bed leading to the entrance on Google Maps; presumably the water ends up in the river a few hundred metres to the west.  How far below the level of the entrance is the river?  It's hard to tell from the imagery on Google Maps, but presumably it's not very far.  Still it's always interesting to find even small caves in areas that aren't generally known for them.

As I am not mobile at the moment I can't get to the clubs and places but once I am I will definitely start!

If you're lucky there'll be someone in your area, or that can detour through it, that can give you a lift to go caving.

Duncan

 

[Oliver_gary]

I think that I can see the stream-bed leading to the entrance on Google Maps; presumably the water ends up in the river a few hundred metres to the west.  How far below the level of the entrance is the river?  It's hard to tell from the imagery on Google Maps, but presumably it's not very far.

 

well the cave is found in the trees and the stream runs to the west but obviously disappears at the cave.  the whole area is a small valley kind of thing, created by the water.  The water that runs into this cave is only really active when there is heavy rain so most of the year its dry and when it is raining although very very small the water runs at a pace plus ive been down there in heavy rain and looking into the entrance with a light and the cave didn't seem to fill up so the water is escaping somewhere.  I dont know where it or if it connects to the river further on as ive not found anything atall along the river, so it must stay underground in some form.

Maybe soon i will go down again and basically give it a survey and try and find out about where the water runs off to.  i have the location of another sink hole near the cave.  looking at this one it is nothing more than a slump in the ground leading to a tiny hole, so no access to anthing, but both of these holes are in the area of the river.

52.823349,-0.534588

just if you want to have a look

 

[caving_fox]

All you need to do is just dig those few stones and mud out the way and it'll open out into a wonderous cavern. Or a grotty hole. 

Regarding transport drop Jane at the CCCC an email, they are pretty good at working something out.

 

[ChrisJC]

Although it looks a bit like a cave, I would argue that there's a greater chance that it is man-made.
The rock I believe is Oolitic Limestone, part of the belt that stretches from Oxford to the Humber Esturary. This rock was extensively mined - Eric Tonks wrote a series of 9 books covering the mines, 'THE IRONSTONE QUARRIES OF THE MIDLANDS'
I don't have my copies to hand, but it wouldn't surprise me to find that there was ironstone mining in that area.

Chris.

 

[langcliffe]

Although it looks a bit like a cave, I would argue that there's a greater chance that it is man-made.

The last photograph seems to show distinct scalloping, which implies that it's natural.

 

[cap n chris]

In the caves which I make, great pains are taken to include chiselled scalloping, for an all-round authentic look. This, however, isn't one of mine so that's no guarantee it isn't man-made.