The DCA has received the following message from the landowners of the wood where Devonshire Mine is located:

I wanted to let you know we?ve put a couple of signs up saying ?please keep out, private garden? by the wall near the cavern.
Would you mind just letting the caving community know that this doesn?t apply to them, I don?t want them to think we?re stopping people using the cavern. It?s just that this last year has been really awful in terms of people using the area around the cavern as a toilet, and groups of people drinking etc. there and going into the Devonshire when they really shouldn?t be. We had one group who went down there in white track suits with no equipment and just a phone torch ? they?d come over on the bus from Chesterfield!

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For those that do not know, the owners live at the edge of the wood where the mine is. They have been highly supportive of responsible cavers and we are grateful to them for the additional entrances we have been permitted to use since they purchased the property. If local cavers (and other visitors when restrictions allow) can continue to let DCA or PDMHS know about any issues with litter, graffiti or damage to the gates that would be appreciated and we can try to do something about it quickly.
Pete Knight
DCA Projects Officer

thanks for the update

With the collapse of the stacked material causing the lower entrance to be out of commision for genuine cavers (but obviously not 'joe public'), greater use has been made of the upper entrance. The last time I was in there (September last year) you could easliy squeeze round the edge of the gate so there was no need to know the padlock code. Could a similar padlock be fitted to the lower door when the work is completed and the hole to the left of the upper gate blocked with suitable angle iron or such like? Happy to assist once we are able to come out of lockdown (too far away for it to be considered 'local' to me).
Agree entirely about the ameniable owners, met them a while ago, very nice people.

The original caver's entrance is fixed and perfectly fine with the Derbyshire key. There will rightly be an outcry if it was converted to a padlock and it'd last 2 minutes. The padlock on the Upper Entrance was only a temporary solution too.
I had someone lined up to fix steel bars over the gap at the Upper Entrance and convert it to Derbyshire Key, but then Coronavirus happened. No idea if they are still up for it so any volunteers who can sort it (when allowed) would be welcomed. The Upper Entrance was passable before the gate was installed and then subsequently vandalised, there was a big gap in the old rusty grill, so I don't think the increase in visits is down to the current gate gap. More likely boredom and social media.

phizz4 said:

With the collapse of the stacked material causing the lower entrance to be out of commision for genuine cavers (but obviously not 'joe public'), greater use has been made of the upper entrance. The last time I was in there (September last year) you could easliy squeeze round the edge of the gate so there was no need to know the padlock code. Could a similar padlock be fitted to the lower door when the work is completed and the hole to the left of the upper gate blocked with suitable angle iron or such like? Happy to assist once we are able to come out of lockdown (too far away for it to be considered 'local' to me).
Agree entirely about the ameniable owners, met them a while ago, very nice people.

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The collapse under the lower door was fettled by myself and other members of the ATAC just before lockdown last year. The door itself has always done a pretty good job of keeping knobheads out and I agree with Pete, putting a lock on is an invitation for it to be broken just as happened with the Owlet Hole shaft entrance.

I went to Devonshire Mine today and found the door was not locked when I arrived.