Cotham Caving group/ Speleological Society

Katie

Active member
Hi all,
I am looking for some information on Cotham caving Group - specifically if anyone on here knows for sure if Cotham Caving Group and Cotham Speleoloical society were the same organisation or different ones?
I am cataloguing some publications and have found lots for Cotham Caving Group and 2 for Cotham Speleological Society. The dates of these overlap - suggesting it was not a simple name change. Anyone know for sure?
Thank you!
Katie
 

Jenny P

Active member
When I first filed these publications from the old BCRA Library "vaults" together, way back in about 2010, I didn't check them individually but just put all the Cotham ... ones together on the shelf to deal with later.  I noted at the time that we seemed to have Cotham Caving Club, Cotham Caving Group and Cotham Speleological Society but I had a suspicion then that this was all the same group of cavers.  I thought the group, or groups, were now defunct but did vaguely remember reading something about them at the time in the notorious "Mendip Caver", written and published (on scrappy foolscap paper on an old duplicator) by ADO.  We do have a full set of Mendip Cavers in the British Caving Library but now, alas, can't go there to check them.

I didn't get round to checking at the time and Katie is now catching up with all these old sets so she'll be enjoying all these arcane publications.  They are real caving history now so I'm pleased we have them in the Library.
 

mrodoc

Well-known member
It's a bit like a recent reference I made to the Wessex Caving Club (it is in fact the Wessex Cave Club).
 

Jenny P

Active member
Even more peculiar are the publications from the "Northern Caving Club" - that's right, it was Northern Caving C.  Deliberately so titled to be confused with the publications of the Northern Cave Club and produced by "the Gruesome Twosome" of undying infamy in Derbyshire circles.

They specialised in this kind of thing to entice unsuspecting newcomers to caving into their clutches.  We always joked that they had to stand in front of a mirror to hold a committee meeting as there were only the two of them but they claimed to be so many clubs it was unbelievable.  They attempted to join CSCC as Southern Caving Club, but Wig (of sainted memory) was suspicious about the letter and contacted me.  We spotted that the typewriter (yup, ancient technology but useful in this case) was the same one as that used for the Northern Caving Club's correspondence - we compared photocopies (as one did in those days) and, because typewriters can be as individual as handwriting, the deception was obvious and they got no further.

Their finest hour was to attempt to con the North East Sports Council, then based in Leeds, that they were representatives of the North East Regional Council for Caving in order to obtain grant aid.  The NESC was suspicious and phoned me (I was then secretary of DCA) to ask about them - I told her all and, when she'd finished laughing, she assured me they would get no change out of NESC.
 

AR

Well-known member
Katie said:
Hi all,
I am looking for some information on Cotham caving Group - specifically if anyone on here knows for sure if Cotham Caving Group and Cotham Speleoloical society were the same organisation or different ones?
I am cataloguing some publications and have found lots for Cotham Caving Group and 2 for Cotham Speleological Society. The dates of these overlap - suggesting it was not a simple name change. Anyone know for sure?
Thank you!
Katie

I looked at this and immediately thought of  "Life of Brian" - SPLITTER!  :LOL:
 

dugadig

Member
Dave Shipton. Dave Bryant, Paul Brock and myself Mike Willett were the Cotham Caving Group.
Attborough Swallett was a CCG project finding most of the known cave.  (y)
 

Jenny P

Active member
Many thanks for this - so we now know who Cotham Caving Group were.. 

What the British Caving Library needs to know for the purpose of cataloguing is whether your group ever produced publications under the name of either Cotham Caving Club or Cotham Spelelogical Society.  We have publications apparently produced by all three of these groups but thought it might actually be the same group using slightly different names, or else a successor group of cavers using similar names.  The dates of some of these publications overlap so it is quite tricky to sort out and we could do with some help on this.

You are welcome to PM me with an explanation if this helps to clarify the situation.

Thanks in advance. 
Jenny Potts
British Caving Library Co-ordinator
 

estelle

Member
dugadig said:
Dave Shipton. Dave Bryant, Paul Brock and myself Mike Willett were the Cotham Caving Group.
Attborough Swallett was a CCG project finding most of the known cave.  (y)
https://bec-cave.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1128:belfry-bulletin-no-497-june-1998&catid=68&showall=&limitstart=13&Itemid=508&lang=en& - re Attborough.
 

mikem

Well-known member
CCG & CSS are listed as separate entities in:
http://cscc.org.uk/wiki/lib/exe/fetch.php?id=documents%3Astart&cache=cache&media=documents:cscc_2006.05.06_minutes.pdf

But don't think they are entirely unrelated.
 

Jenny P

Active member
Many thanks for that information.  Knowing that Cotham Caving Group and Cotham Speleological Society were listed as two separate CSCC member clubs in 2006 is very helpful.

We can now get on with the cataloguing of the publications we have at BCL.

Jenny Potts
BCL Co-ordinator
 

Dusty

New member
Hello,
        This thread arrived at a opportune time. I have some pdf versions of R.J. Tucker's work on the graffiti in the Box quarries; "Scripta Legenda vol' 1& 2" and "Some Noteable Quarrymen". I don't want to fall foul of someone's copyright and detailed work but would like to share with other folk. Is there any way of contacting anyone from the  Cotham Speleological Society in order to obtain the necessary permissions? With thanks Tony; www.wiltshire-medieval-graffiti-survey.com
 

royfellows

Well-known member
You might try through John "Mole" Hine,  molegrottage[at]gmail[dot]com

OK to mention me, he still speaks to me.
 

Dusty

New member
Hi All,
        Thank you for a swift & positive response. I now have contact details, thank you.
Best
Tony
 
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