Ralph Johnson has just emailed me with the following:

Sadly I have to report an incredible amount of damage in Eyam Passage. This is NOT accidental damage- the culprits must have gone in equiped with the necessary tools. It would appear that this vandalism has occured within the last few days.

More details as they arrive.

bastards!

Ralph writes further:

. I would think hammer not drill (mineral collectors?) the
bed of calcite removed is about 1" thick. There is quite a bit lying about -
some of it in large chunks. I dont know if they plan to return & collect it or
whether they have got enough. It demonstrates how nice the passage must have been before it got covered in mud.

It's a fucking disgrace - some people just have no idea do they? Ok, they might not understand the full significance being non-cavers, but it's still vandalism.

Some lads are going to go down and check it out on Saturday - let's hope they meet the culprits down there.

bubba said:

Ralph Johnson has just emailed me with the following:

Sadly I have to report an incredible amount of damage in Eyam Passage. This is NOT accidental damage- the culprits must have gone in equiped with the necessary tools. It would appear that this vandalism has occured within the last few days.

More details as they arrive.

Click to expand...

I live just up the road from Carlswark so if anyone would like to say where the vandalism took place i will go and view the damage and post details of my findings, it may also be possible that a watch could be put in place to catch the perpatrators of this act

T pot

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

Grrr - I sure would love to catch them at it (well just before they put hammer to chissel

Eyam dale house cave near by suffered similar abuse last year some time. It suggests to me that the mineral collecters are relatively local.

It could be worth keeping and eye on things - god forbid they get into any decorated caves in the peak :x

:shock: I checked it out on Saturday- it's in Eyam Passage after the hole into Oyster Rift. Unfortunately, there are a number of large lumps of the flowstone broken off and left laying by the sides of the passage. I'd say it was a geology-type hammer that was used- there are a few holes left in the underlying layers, as though a spike was used to hit the top and penetrated beneath but didn't break the rock.

Judging by the amount of flowstone chunks left in there, they were either after summat else, intent on returning to collect the remainder, or simply mindless vandals.

The only conclusion we could possibly draw was that they were after a stal boss on top of the area which has been attacked- although it's hardly a pristine example anyway, just like all the other floor stal in that passage.

Interestingly enough however, it was a nice opportunity to see the various layers of flostone and mud deposition on the broken edges- there are very thin layers of flowstone through to inch thick layers, with the sediment layers in between. I can't imagine this will last long before the passage of feet and muddy water will spoil it all though.

A sad occurence- go and 'ave 'em T pot!