Aquamole

Quick question,
How did Aquamole get its name?
Was down there yesterday with Langcliffe and even with his vast knowledge John was unsure.
Incidentally, the newly bolted pitches in the One Arm Bandit series are amazing and a cracking alternative to Aquamole aven.
Cheers.

The Wikipedia article has a good section on the history:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquamole_Pot#History

There's also an article in Descent (168), October 2002.

The aven was discovered by cave divers, who scaled it and then dug their way up to the surface.

I wrote the Wikipedia article, and I couldn't find out what inspired the name at the time.

Aquamole Pot was named (obviously) after Aquamole Aven, entered by diving upstream from Rowten Pot. It was found by Geoff Yeadon (who took over the upstream explorations from Martyn Farr and Roger Solari in 1973). Without going through the relevant CDG Newsletters to check fine detail (bit short of time as I type), it's most likely the word "Aquamole" originated from Geoff.

You can easily look this up yourself Skippy in your own excellent (and now conveniently located) club library! However, a summary of that period is given on pages 75 & 76 in the Adventures Underground book.

Badlad - next time you're out caving with Geoff, maybe you could ask him?

Would the Mole in Aquamole have anything to do with the use of  the Molephone communication gear being used to locate the entrance?

Good thinking, except that it would have been the One-armed Bandit Series, rather than the entrance.

So we need to get a definitive answer from the horses mouth

Pitlamp said:

Aquamole Pot was named (obviously) after Aquamole Aven, entered by diving upstream from Rowten Pot. It was found by Geoff Yeadon (who took over the upstream explorations from Martyn Farr and Roger Solari in 1973). Without going through the relevant CDG Newsletters to check fine detail (bit short of time as I type), it's most likely the word "Aquamole" originated from Geoff.

Click to expand...

When originally entered it was called Jingling Avens - it was renamed during the 1980 explorations, which is why I think that Flotsam's idea has mileage.

Apparently, according to the Grand Master, Aguamole Aven appears on the survey of upstream Rowten in the Kendal Caving Club journal No 8.  He discovered it in about 1974.

In this same journal there is a tale written by Oliver 'Bear' Statham about a trip to White Scar.  In it Bear describes himself and Geoff as, Geoff 'Aguamole' Yeadon and Bear 'what do I care' Statham.

However Geoff thinks Bear got this name from a report Alf Latham of ULSA wrote before that.  There was a lot of diving rivalry in those days and Martyn Farr had scooped the big discovery in Boreham away from Geoff and Bear.  Farr had also dived upstream Rowten and apparently Alf wrote that Geoff 'aquamole' Yeadon had turned the tables on Farr.

So it seems that the aven was called Aquamole after a little used nickname for Geoff related to inter diver rivalry and the fact that it was discovered by diving from below.  Then, when the cave was linked to the surface the whole pot was named the same.

When they went through in the late 70's (78) with scaling poles etc some of the other divers refereed to it as the Jingling Pot extensions but that was post the naming of the aven as Aquamole.  According to Geoff anyway

Interesting - thank you, Badlad.