Photographic Stories.

[The Old Ruminator]

Trapdoor Chamber, Reservoir Hole.

Got the idea lying in bed today. We have the Showcase but we can look at photographs another way. So anyone can join in. I don't chase perfection as you well know. There are other reasons that make a photograph valid. That is in the story that they tell. Most of the great photos of the past are well known because they tell that story.

Digging at Skyfall was a dangerous pastime. Hence the name but it also reflects a connection with the film which was showing at the time. ( I like topical cave names ). Skyfall lies on the great fault on which the whole of High Country lies. The fault also forms the high wall at the far end of The Frozen Deep . Skyfall dig started at the very bottom moving upwards through large trapped boulders in a heavily scalloped rift. We built a cage to save us from harm whilst using a long pole to poke through it. This worked well until the boulders fell on the end of the pole jamming Peter Glanvill against the wall. He did suffer minor injuries and I completely forgot to take a photo of his anguish. Skyfall kept going up. In the more vertical bits we use polybags to store the debris held back by scaffold poles. Eventually we reached a stal choke the aven continuing upwards through a tight squeeze. Nigel Cox climbed this to a conclusion. The rift continued by the squeeze well hidden by the stal choke. We got through this going upwards through fill to a solid stal ceiling. About this time a boulder fell down Skyfall ladder pitch and snapped my ulna. Accidently kicked by somebody but then I was standing too close to the pitch base. The pain was intense . I demanded that no rescue be called out. They got a sling on me and we started out. The ladder climbs were excrutiating but I managed it even stopping for a photo on the way out. We went back to Martin Grass for the usual tea and bickies but I almost passed out when sitting on the couch. Somebody drove my car home and dropped me off. I was past caring by then so had my dinner in the usual way . I then walked half a mile to hospital in the rain. Slumped then in the corner at A and E for three hours. ( I was the only one there visibly injured though a child had a raisen up her nose ). Eventually I got seen. Would I like a traditional plaster or would I like an operation for a plate. They recommended the former. I was in a pink plaster for a couple of months. When it came off they said that there was " non union ". In effect nothing had repaired and I could still feel the break through the skin ( %30 out of line. ) I cried all the way home. At the same time I was waiting for a painful hernia repair which they would not do until my arm was better. Lord knows way. In fairness they whipped me back in the next day to fit the metal brace. It was New Years Eve. Nobody wished me a happy nrew year. Back to square one with the hernia and broken arm. Finally I got back to Reservoir. They had cut a trapdoor though the stal ceilng to find the pretty Trapdoor Chamber. I went back with Chris Milne to get some hurried photos. ( keeping well clear on the ladder pitch ) . Trapdoor Chamber is a decorated rift with a stal floor. In the roof is a choke with the passge apparently going ever upwards. The chamber would be ruined by digging that so we called it a day. As far as I know only four people have ever been here and its not on the survey. Perhaps its best just to leave it in peace. In any case Reservoir Hole is still closed. My friends Peter Glanvill, Nigel Cox and Chris Milne were very kind in getting me out. I wont say who kicked the boulder down

 

[mrodoc]

Nick never liked me calling the choke we were digging through Chicken Licken Choke but I reckon it was pretty appropriate considering what happened there!

 

[The Old Ruminator]

I wondered whether to continue --. Well why not ? Stories and relevance are important. Sill sorting images for MCRA so they are getting more searchable on my own pc now. Loaded to files for particular places rather than by date. This as a paired shot via screenshot and Flickr from MCRA so not from my originals. (low res now here ). Both are Withyhill in the early days. The cave was found in 1972. I was with Cerberus back then. From the late 60's Pete Rose and I made every effort to capture caves at Fairy Cave Quarry in the pristine condition that they were found. Cave photography was not common place 50 years ago. Cheap 35mm cameras and flash bulbs. The old BLF rule. All shot on slide film so thay have had to be scanned to jpeg. It does at least give you a chance at some minor editing. Something not possible back then. You got what you got and could not change it.
Sadly so much has changed . These photos show you that. Left we have that remarkable twisted stalagmite. So fragile. Long gone now. A plan to resurrect it failed so the pieces were returned to the original site. Right shows Pete Rose in his prime. Now sadly far too ill to go caving any more. Probably not even fit enough to visit his beloved Hunters to read his Times and Mendip magazine over a pint of Butcome. The lovely curtain to his left got smashed when somebody backed into it ( no names ). The pure white pillar has muddy handmarks. So unnecessary. So you see how things have changed. The crystal floor in Shatter Cave no longer sparkles. That due to dust from passing cavers. So keeping a record is important. Photography is the best way to do that. Catch things at their best. A constant reminder of how things used to be.

 

[Pitlamp]

Totally agree O.R.

Is it worth looking again at reassembling the fractured twisted stalactite? Cavers are much better at doing it these days.

I'm thinking here of one I mended a number of years ago. Probably broken by Victorian show cave visitors, so lay on the floor for decades before repair. I suspect this would have been far less of a jigsaw puzzle than your twisted Withyhill stalactite (only three joints were needed). Now the joins are very difficult to spot, even when standing next to it. Soon they'll be grown over and not be seen at all.

It's very much a time-consuming labour of love (and best done at home, apart from the final connection) but I find this kind of thing immensely satisfying and worth all the thought and effort. Stals will eventually self-heal, if given the right assistance.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

The " Tutankhamun " moment. " What can you see ?" -- " Wonderful things "

As you know I love the "moment". That tiny slice of time that can never be repeated. You can never go back to it in reality so you have to be ready.

Nigel Cox got though the choke in "Hard Times" in Reservoir Hole and promptly disappeared. A little echoing voice came back. " Its huge ! ". What did he say asked Martin at the back. Its "huge " I said. Alison was trying to tape the new finds as we pressed forward and down the bouldery low passage. Then rising through big boulders we entered a " huge " chamber. In time we called it " Resurrection " which said a bit about us and carried forward Willie Stanton's Easter theme from "Golgotha." Later we climbed " Ascension " to find " Heavens's Landing " to complete the story. But I jump ahead. "Resurrection " is huge by Mendip standards but looking around I thought thats it. One massive choke rising to the ceiling. We would never dig through that. Eventually Alison and Nigel climbed up the unstable choke to a small landing. Looking forward all they could see was an immense blackness with a 30m high stalagmite cascade down one side. I had the camera and found them just looking unable to say very much I was the third person to look into " The Frozen Deep " with its 3,000 square metres of floor area. Below a was pitch needing a ladder. Tony and Peter were in Iceland. We took the descision to wait for their return in a weeks time. Martin sent a text " Return next available steamship. Massive caverns discovered ". I am not sure if they believed it. God ! that was a long weeks wait.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

I suppose that I have got to that stage in life where you sit in the pub and recount thrilling tales from your younger days. Not that anyone ever listened. So with 1.500 Reservoir Hole images captioned and sent off to MCRA . ( no doubt bunging up the website ) I can relax a bit and lapse back into story time.

The Rocky Horror Show.

I never liked " Pickwick " that boulder area leading from TFD to the Sump. Photo one shows Nigel pointing out a particularly nasty rock with a big point at the end. Its very dangerous he said but no notice was taken. Along comes a very nice Hungarian lady for a tourist trip. Down to Pickwick she went. Oh not with me I stayed in TFD. The ruddy rock came down splitting her ulna along its length. Poor lady was in shock but we got a sling on her. ( where have we had that before ? ). Got her out sans fuss with any call out though the Mendip rescue chairman was on hand as well as a doctor. ( The latter forgetting how to rig a sling. ) Off to hospital she went. They had never seen a bifurcated ulna before. Anyway I took her in flowers to cheer her up and to lessen any thought of bad diplomatic relations with Hungary. Nobody brought me in flowers.
I was with Duncan Price's sump expedition getting the gear through the horribleness of Pickwick. The second image shows Nigel sat on the rock ( boulder ! ) that crashed down on me along with a charming young lady ( again ). The ruddy thing missed my head by an inch but trapped my left hand between it and the wall. The young lady was bleeding from a head wound so an advance party took her out. I was left with a vet and a doctor. Oddly I had no pain just a numbness creeping up my arm. Horrid thoughts of THAT film sprung to mind. The Doctor admitted that he was not a medical doctor but a doctor of chemistry or something. The vet told me to stick out my tounge. I did say " shall I say meow ". So we are in big trouble. I could get my shoulder under the boulder and the " doctor " got a rope over it. He pulled and I pushed. It moved about an inch. I got my hand free but the fingers would not work and were all bent. Took months to get them all working again. Nasty women in the hospital kept bending them whilst leering at me across the table. Anyway I got myself out of the cave to be met by a policeman at the entrance. He asked who I was so I told him I was the casualty and would he carry me down. He would not. Looking down to the road I was horrified to see fire engines, ambulances and two Hazard Response Teams. ( HART ). Dozens of folk milling around but nobody in caving gear. The road was closed. I got jumped on by one of the HART teams. They said that my blood pressure was high. I said that it was because I was lying here arguing with them. I was going to drive home. No way. Off to Weston Super Mare hospital but I was not having that either. More arguments until a paramedic up from Taunton drove me back there. Another nice lady in the dive team took my car home. Meanwhile Nigel had rung the wife. " Nick is trapped in a cave. Dont know when they will get him out ". Really helpful there.
All ended reasonably well. The hand still does not work properly as the tendons were damaged and one finger is off line. I drop things occassionally. The Hungarian lady and I are bonded for life. Both with snapped ulnas from Pickwick Passage in Reservoir Hole.

 

[mrodoc]

It is all in the book but unfortunately it sold out. Thinking about a second edition as more work done in the cave after it was competed but it is an expensive business and I don't want to commit until I know I have customers. Some of the photos in the book are, and very likely to remain, unique featuring the extensive high level series above the Frozen Deep explored by Nigel Alkinson and Clive Owen and visited by about 4 other people.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

It is all in the book but unfortunately it sold out. Thinking about a second edition as more work done in the cave after it was competed but it is an expensive business and I don't want to commit until I know I have customers. Some of the photos in the book are, and very likely to remain, unique featuring the extensive high level series above the Frozen Deep explored by Nigel Alkinson and Clive Owen and visited by about 4 other people.

Far more chance of a book revival if the cave was open to cavers. Seems its all a right mucking fuddle.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

From Pete Rose archive kindly scanned by Peter Glanvill from slide . Sadly Pete Rose is very ill at the moment and wont be caving again. This is the old CSS cottage ( now a ruin ) at Fairy Cave Quarry. Probably close to 1970 . Two Portsmouth Poly C C members Tony with the ball and Cliff. Me with the camera by Pete's sports car. Border C G shared the cottage back in the 1960's . CSS and BCG amalagamated when I was CSS Chairman. Sad to say BCG hosted army cadets at the cottage and took them into Shatter Cave. One such trod on the helectites even though they were taped. Eric Catherine ran BCG long gone now I suppose. Pete fancied sports cars. Going up a hill on the Mendips the bonnet flew up and covered the windscreen. Another time mistaking the accelerator for the brake pedel he shot through my neighbours fence ploughed down the garden and crashed into the back of the house crushing a visitors pushchair. Another time I nealy killed him with a pipe b*mb. It had a banger fuse which he lit too far down. Staggered out of the cave in shock. The Portsmouth group adopted me as it were though I was far too dopey to go to Uni. We had great away trips in Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Wales. We took Peter Glanvill under our wing in the late 1960's for him to become the great man he is today. It would be unkind to say what our nick name for him was. We are all in out 70's now. Pete was the eldest by a few months with me next. I have had three digging trips this last week and two more for the current week. I am long past caring weather I find anything again. I have had more than my share of caving " glory ". Not that it really means much at the end. I enjoy my days digging. Helps keep me fit and in touch with a hobby I have pursued for 60 years. The Fairy Cave Quarry film shows the same view probably filmed by Pete the same day.