http://nymcc.org.uk/vintage-northern-caving-photos/

The NYMCC are starting to get some feedback on these, any information gratefully received here as well.

Sorry blackshiver, I can't shed any light on those - but I thoroughly enjoyed looking at the photos of the quarried away part of Fairy Holes (and others), which I've never seen before.

That NYMCC site is really good.

The quality of these is fantastic and almost modern but the attire suggests an earlier era. My guesses would be Durham Cave Club (Dick Hilton et al) from the mid-fifties or early Moldywarps (Colin Carson era) from the mid-sixties. My main issue is I can?t remember when Fairy Hole access ceased or when the first part of the cave was quarried away.

The photographs are on medium format 6x6cm colour slides with glass covers. given the large format film, the high quality of the photos and 50?s early 60?s gear suggests a photographer who really knew what he was doing. Couple this with photos of the back end of Fairy Holes (before the hard bit was quarried away) also suggests a photographer operating at the top of the caving field at the time.

That might narrow it down a bit......and one of the regular people in these photographs has RS (N or A) initials on his helmet.

The guys in the photographs are not MSG, and we have two names now - Colin Armstrong and Jim Niel of the Durham Cave Club.

Just for completeness, Dick's surname was "Hylton". He only had one leg and there's a framed picture of him (in Crackpot Cave I think) in the NPC library, which I'm sure you'll have seen Blackshiver. Once we're allowed to use caving clubs again you could compare the faces, which might confirm or rule out Dick Hylton.

By the way, I can confirm that Dick Hylton passed away in 1976.

Sorry, meant to mention for anyone who hasn't made the connection, "Hylton Hall" in Link Pot is named after him; it was found just after he died.

Despite only having one leg Dick was a postie; he died because he got knocked off his bike.
This may have strayed off topic but might be useful information to someone out there.

Durham Cave Club was formed by Dick Hylton, Jack Newrick, Norman Black, Professor Coates and Dave Maling. They were also strongly associated with Jack Myers, and other notable NPC cavers like Bert Bradshaw in the 50s. See Journal of the Northern Pennine Club Vol 1 (NPC Newsletters 1955 No 1 and No 3.

blackshiver said:

http://nymcc.org.uk/vintage-northern-caving-photos/

The NYMCC are starting to get some feedback on these, any information gratefully received here as well.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link! Wow to the pictures!

Good list of possible names here.

https://www.yrc.org.uk/journal-and-image-archive/journal-selector/yrc-journal-1957-vol-8-no-28/journal-v8n28p118/

A patient of mine some years ago gave me some photos probably from the 40's or 50's. He used to cave with Ken Pearce. I did send them to Chris Howes but they never appeared in Descent. The forum didn't exist then so if I can find them I might put them up here and see if anybody recognizes the people in them.

What a fabulous set of photos, I don't think I've ever achieved as good photos!