Does anybody know anything about Thirst house cave in Deep dale near Buxton
would be interested to know who dug below the floor in the second chamber
and what the water level is like in summer
incredible cave entrance for such an unknown cave

Hi Bog,

Oh yes. I've had a very close look at this cave.

Bear in mind I think it may be SSSI or have archeaological interest. I'll PM you with some details...

Andy

As an Orpheus member who's delving through old records, I have a feeling the Orpheus may have been digging there ages ago.  I'll see if I can find anything.

Cheers Andy
I think you are right about the SSSI
the whole dale was awash when i went up the other night with a couple of the ELDON
lads i will have to have a better look at the dale in daylight i know the Orpheus were looking at deep dale cave on the opposite side of the dale

The first thought is that Thirst house is a resurgence, and there must be a system behind it, but I think the flow was INTO the cave from the other cave across the valley . The downcutting of the valley then interected the cave, leaving two truncated sections.

The deep climb down in Thirst House to sump level supports this idea....


Lotta limestone and not many stream in the area...


Andy

Both caves were periodically dug by the Orpheus in the 50's - 70's, though not to great effect. Thirst House was an archeo dig at one time, so there must be records somewhere.

Armchair said:

Thirst House was an archeo dig at one time, so there must be records somewhere.

Click to expand...

Your wish is my command.

Site: Thirst House Cave (Deep Dale Cave), Derbyshire

References:
Branigan, K. & Dearne, M.J. (1991) A Gazetteer of Romano-British Cave Sites and their Finds. Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield.
Branigan, K. & Dearne, M.J. (1991) The small finds from Thirst House Cave, Deepdale: a reappraisal. In Smith, K. & Hodges, R. Recent Developments in the Archaeology of the Peak District. 85-100.
Cox, J.C. (1890) Some notes on Deep Dale Cave, Buxton. Derbyshire Archaeological Journal 12: 228-230.
Cox, J.C. (1891) Some further finds in Deepdale Cave, Buxton. Derbyshire Archaeological Journal 13: 194-199.
Fitzpatrick, J.J. (1889) Recent discovery of a bone cave at Deep Dale, near Buxton. Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society 6: 200-206.
Fitzpatrick, J.J. (1891) Further notes on the Deep Dale Bone Cave, near Buxton. Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society 6: 447-452.
Gillam J.P. (1939)Antiquaries Journal 19; 429-437.
Palmer, L.S. & Tratman, E.K. (1923) Some Derbyshire caves. Proceedings of the University of Bristol Speleological Society 2: 90-94.
Salt, W.H. (1897) Discovery of ancient remains in Deep Dale, near Buxton. Reliquary and Illustrated Archaeologist.
Salt, W.H. (1899) Further explorations at Thirst House, Deep Dale Cave. Reliquary and Illustrated Archaeologist.
Ward, J. (1894) Romano-British objects from Deep Dale, Autumn 1891. Derbyshire Archaeological Journal 16: 185-189.
Ward, J. (1895) Deep Dale Cave near Buxton. Derbyshire Archaeological Journal 17: 60-81.
Ward, J. (1897) Recent cave hunting in Derbyshire, No. II, Thirst House. Reliquary and Illustrated Archaeologist 87-98.

You need the Buxton Herald, from 12th March 1890.....

Andy

AndyF said:

You need the Buxton Herald, from 12th March 1890.....

Andy

Click to expand...

Don't we all. 

Your wish is my command.

Nice one, Graham.
As those old geezers would have no doubt agreed, it's also a good spot for a digger's bivi.

Aye, but it'd be worth checking it's not a scheduled ancient monument as well as checking its SSSI status before doing anything there.

This is part of the Buxton Herald article, recntly re-published by PDHMS. I don't have the whole article.


At the further end of the chamber there was a hole in the stalagmite floor which has been made by Dr Bennet.... After passing through this aperture there was a drop of 6 feet, which leads to a chmaber 17 feet long, 3-5 feet wide and 6 feet high...   They came to another chamber...whence they passed to another chamber. To the right there was a passage.... At the end of this passage they crawled through a small hole whence they dropped...into another chamber 40 feet long.. The floor was level...at the end of which there was a passage along the bed of which, in wet weather, ran a small stream. The folowing week they could see there was another long chamber below....

The first part of this matches Thirst House cave, but then makes no sense, unless the boulder choke has moved significantly, which it doesn't look to have.

The stream in wet weather hints that this was visited more than once over a period.

There is a run-in level below Thirst House Cave that may be the location of described, not now accesable.

Does the Buxton Herald still exist.....anyone in Buxton able to get the whole article...?

Andy - your comment about the descent to "sump level" intrigues me.  The CDG Peak District Sump Indexes don't list any sumps at Thirst House; did yopu mean down "to saturation lavel" or is there actually a true sump?  It'd be useful to know either way as we are working on the next Index now.  Ta.

There is indeed something that looks a lot like a sump, a patch of water about 2m square.....

May be full of rocks with no way on, as I didn't get into it in my visit, but looks like a good possibility if no-one has had a look.

Easy to get to internally, but quite a long carry up the valley to the cave.



It's my guess from the 1890 description that the present "sump" was the way on to these described chambers......

Well, well.  We must have missed that one.  Is the "sump" still there in dry conditions?

Don't know if it's there in dry weather.

The cave entrance is maybe 20m above the valley floor. When you go down the choke, you drop quite a way, my guess is that you are at about the valley floor level.

The valley contains a stream at some times, I'd guess the sump rises and falls in sympathy. It was certainly there three weeks ago.

We pondered about pumping it, but the lift would be too high for our pumps.

Thanks.  If you learn any more info about it please can you PM me, so we can keep the records as up to date as possible?  Ta.

Have you got the info on the Waterways Swallet sumps BTW...?

Andy, the Herald description was surely made before the entire floor was lowered by the archeos?
If memory serves, water can be heard running at the bottom of the boulder choke at times, and backs up to form a pool in very wet weather - not a sump as such.

Armchair - thanks; that's what I remember from the times I've been down there.

Andy F: re. Waterways - no we don't have the spec on any sumps in this fine discovery!  All I know is a second hand story I heard from Jim Lister, who was aware that someone else has already dived a sump inthere (the dopwnstream sump?).  Please can you PM me and I'll make sure the information gets on record.  Thanks.