Frog Pot
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| Regions \ Yorkshire Dales \ Wharfedale and the North East \ Nidderdale \ Frog Pot |
Contents |
Location
Grid Ref: SE. Alt.m.
Limited parking (further parking as for Goyden Pot) by the entrance of Limley Farm. Note: Do not park in what looks like a layby opposite the entrance as this is for tractors to swing round. Park on the verge beyond this area of road. Walk down the track towards Limley Farm and then turn right onto the Nidderdale footpath. Follow the footpath past the entrance of an old mine and at the point where a stream crosses the path turn left towards the river bed. Frog Pot is visible by it's metal bin lid.
Access
Presently permission granted for access by Mr Church of Limley farm, no need to call.
Description
NOTE: At present the choke in Shackleton passage leading to Lister Hall is blocked. Black Sheep Diggers in the future plan to open a new way through and will inform people of when it has been done here and in the Descent magazine. The 30m sump connecting Toad Hall and the New Stream passage which was lowered to provide access through with limited airspace is now once again a sump. Work is currently underway (July 2008)making the connection passable between Frog Pot and New Goyden.
Overall
Entrance shaft leads to a series of small muddy crawls and then pitch down to the stream passage. From there an interesting round trip can be made with a rich variety of passages for such a small cave.
Detail
Entrance Series.
Entrance lid opens to reveal 9m shaft climb down with care, rope may be useful. At the bottom a short squeeze on the right leads through to passge turning right and then left to a small drop. Here water enters on the left and falls down through a slot in the floor. The way is through a crawl on the right. The continuing passage briefly opens out to standing height before closing down to a continuing crawl through to 3m drop. Drop down into the bedding and follow the muddy crawl to the Toad-U-So 17m pitch. At the base of the pitch go down the slope and through the excavated crawl into the New Stream passage.
New Stream Series
The excavated crawl soon opens out to reveal three ways on. To the right a 30m sump has been lowered to provide long wet crawl through to the Toad Hall series. Straight on from the excavated crawl over cobbles passes under an aven and through to the streamway. Turning left gives access to the same streamway. Upstream a short duck under the arch leads through to a lake and the upstream sump. Downstream waking and stooping size passage leads to a small cascade. To the right of the cascade a small muddy opening leads up and through to a an aven. At the base of the cascade the passage narrows and then doglegs on the fault to reach the downstream sump pool. A small climb at the start of the sump pool, on the right, leads up to passage linking back over to the roof of the streamway and further climb up an aven through to a bedding. Here a visual and vocal connection has been made with a passage in the Dry Wath series of New Goyden pot. Traversing across the 17m sump pool using the wall on the left provides access to Shackleton passage. Traverse the passage in the higher wider section until the T-junction. A small stream enters from the left which is too tight. While right leads on and eventually after crawling through a pool opens out into walking passage. The passage narrows as it rises up to the choke. Make your way through the choke with care and squeeze through between the blocks into Lister Hall. The falling water comes a roof tube inlet which chokes after a short distance.
Toad Hall Series
At the top of the slope in Lister Hall is a hole and climb down into a walking size passage. Follow this until the passage turns right, down the slope into the crawl and through to climb and continuing crawl through to Fossil chamber formed on the shale band. Ongoing crawl turns left into wide section and continuing crawl straight ahead. The crawl soon turns right and leads into Toad Hall with pool of water at its base. Turning left and then down under the arch opens out into fine walking size phreatic passage. Eventually leads to a short drop and sharp left turn brings you to the top of a 5m drop. To the right the phreatic continuation is being excavated to hopefully provide a sump bypass. A climb down the 5m drop leads to short section of open passage between Goyden sump 6 and New Goyden sump 2. Right from Toad Hall leads to a short crawl and climb down into larger passage to a junction. Left at the junction is the North passage terminating at a choke. Straight on both the high level and low level tubes can be followed down to a canal. Upstream goes into a crawl and gets too low while downstream follows the fine canal to the 30m crawl with limited airspace and access through to the base of Toad-U-So pitch and New Stream passage.
History
Frog pot was dug out by the Black Sheep Diggers during 2005-2006. It made a dry link from the surface with Toad Hall and the Aquamole series found by divers Julian Griffiths, Rob Shackleton and Jim Abbott in 1981/82. In 2006 a vocal/visual connection was made with New Goyden pot.
References
- Northern Caves Volume 1, Wharfedale and the North-East. Frog pot is not mentioned in Northern Caves as it was dug open long after publication. Frog pot does provide access to the Aquamole series and Toad Hall. Toad Hall is shown on the survey, page 152.
