Flower pot, Carlswark cavern re-opened!

Hey All,

After two weeks of solid work the Flower pot entrance to Carlswark cavern has now been reopened!!

The entrance was originally dug from surface in the early 90's by Keyhole Caving Club, leading straight into the Dynamite series. It was opened to bypass the rest of the cavern in order to reach a dig at the far end of the Dynamite series (picnic passage) but soon after it was opened, Keyhole concentrated all their attention on Waterways swallet and indeed it has payed off (Room 101.)

At Current date the Shaft was thought to be in a bad state of collapse. Although we still used it to get into Carlswark the third barrel slowly started to dislodge itself. About a Month ago it fell out of place bringing all its surroundings down with it blocking the squashed fourth barrel off completely!

The Flower pot shaft is located about 100 yards up the road from the Sub station. As you drive up the road towards Eyam (parking in the Lay by on your left) when you reach the 'Welcome to Eyam, Please drive carefully' sign, Flower pot is directly across the road (15 feet from the road in the corner of a small rock outcrop.)

Description
The Shaft is 5m deep with a fixed scaff bar to rig off from the top. At the bottom of the shaft 6ft climb down a wall leads to a small chamber. Straight on leads to a tight constriction into a small choked up chamber. Left is a low flat out crawl (may require some digging) underneath old Man's shot blast. The crawl leads into what we call the 'Eff Chamber' so because of its F shape which is the end on the current Carlswark survey. When you reach this you need to take your left another flat out crawl taking you straight into the top of Falls chamber. The way back into the dynamite series is through a calcited boulder choke in the floor!
[BE AWARE! we have set the scaff bar in this morning 09.11.08 and the Cement will need a few days to go off and set properly!]

A Permanent bat friendly lid should be in place shortly. In the meantime please replace the cat flap back over the hole!
We do intend to Survey the passage after Eff chamber to the entrance in the future but its on a long to do list (plus we don't know how, as of yet! )

BIG Thanks,
Like to thank the many of people that have helped us throughout the two weeks we have been there also including the preparation work mainly Done by Sam Townsend! Cheers Sam.

Digging Team:
Mainly Consisted of;
James Wood (EPC)
Sam Pemberton (EPC)
and Myself.
&
James (SUSS)
Glen (SUSS)


but with additional help from;
Sam Townsend
Rob Eavis
Mark Noble
John Beck
Jeff (SUSS)

Just also like to thank...
Crewe.P.C.C for donating the pipe
Nick Williams for storing the pipe and letting us borrow his landrover and trailer!
Rob and Katie for helping us move it in the week
all the encouragement along the way, Mark and Wendy, Keyhole, various others interested (Eyam Massif! lolz)

..and Keyhole for opening it in the first place

We had some right stupid times up there in the evenings in freezing conditions! Laughing until it hurt! Meeting some Great people along the way.

Now enough rambling on somebody get the through trip done!

P.S. if anyone would like some free rockery stones, Please be my guest!

Thanks to Rob Eavis for the photos.

SamT digging the old barrels out



Mark shoring



top off old fourth barrel



Industrial new barrels

Can move on to something else now, glad weve managed to get it sorted though. Prob never go down 

Bloody good effort yoofs


:bow: :bow: :bow:



Excellent work, took more (of your) time than we all thought it might, but you got there in the end.

Note to all - when AndyF says "Day and half"  - he means two week's. 
proper sandbaged we where.
I've got visions of andy down waterways constantly saying - "we'll be through in a couple of days lads"..

I think a few folks out there may have thought that this was 'my' project, but far from it, I only contributed one days and one evenings digging. The majority of the work was most definitely done by the 2 Pemberton boys, (John and Sam) and James Wood (All EPC). Of course there was help along the way from assorted folk. Seems like a couple of SUSS lads (Glenn & James?) where heavily involved in the latter stages too.

Thanks especially to Nick Williams, Mark Noble, John Beck, Rob Eavis and Katie Dent for helping get the show on the road of course those who chipped in along the way. 

All told I think it was 3 full weekends and work of some de script (mostly evenings) on all of the 10 week days in-between. With an average of say 4 men on site, I reckon its about 300 man hours. 

I think its been a fine 'derbyshire' effort, and goes to show what can be achieved when a few folks with a bit of time on their hands put their minds to it.

I'll help you survey lads - no bother, maybe one eve next week.

All that remains is for someone to start digging this end of Carlswark...

go on then .. fill yer boots.

Well done guys. brilliant to see some young blood getting on with it in Stoney Middleton, theres still lots to find round here, now youv'e got that one out of the way you can get on finding some stuff,

Good effort

Mark N Wendy

PS: Did you remember to take the hardboard off the trees before you left?

thanks everyone,

Most of the tools were taken away last night when Jams and Myself left the premises...

the scaff, wood & old barrels should also be removed today making the area totally clear, though abit muddy!

Yeh gona be spending alot of time in Stoney, exploring...digging.

Us lot wouldn't mind a trip down Hungerhill swallet if anyone would like to guide the way?

JonP said:

A Permanent bat friendly lid should be in place shortly.

Click to expand...

Glad to hear about the grill Jon and big pat on the back for all the graft.

Nice work!

Next we need someone to connect it all up to Eyam Dale House Cave!

Or even better connect it to some unknown cave. 

Looking at the surveys they aren't exactly heading straight towards each other, kind of parallel. 

Nipped up there this morning on my way to work. A fine job if ever i saw one!     

Nice pics Rob. Mind if I borrow a few for a report?

Me and Jams have just removed the rest of the old barrels so the area is completly clear!

Hopefully within a few weeks leaves will have covered the floor and the area will have settled a treat.

Scaff bar seems to have set rock solid aswel.

anyone been down yet?

Bl**dy good effort lads
Pipster and I were down last night...its an impressive bit of engineering!

Wow that is impressive engineering - looks like that will last a bit longer than our efforts.... well done all

thanks very much.

how far did you get in the dynamite series? past porth crawl?

us three have still yet to go down it since we built the wall.

Jams & Myself used the entrance for the first time today

works a treat!

Also noticed somebody doing a poss solo trip when we were heading back from the Miners. anyone from here?