Hi
Is there any information concerning the  legend of malham cove
I have in the  far distant past heard of a prophecy in the form of a
letter held in malham (possibly the vicar) that was to be opened
On a certain date or when cave passage was located.
Long shot maybe.
Or have I just dreamt it

T pot

Pitlamp will know the answer. It's in his book, but I can't find a copy right now...

Short answer is that there was a prophecy by a vicar, with a survey of sorts if I remember, but it didn't bear any relation to what is actually there. 

Thanks pete

In a nutshell Pete's right. It's not a "legend"; the story is actually true.

From a 2008 post of mine on here ( https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=6606.0 ):

Yes - Reverand Tweedale's sealed letter was opened by Mike Orrell about 10 years or so ago. He was the then Chairman of Malham Parish Meeting (and owner of the Gordale Gifts shop). He decided that as the cave was a mile in total length we had fulfilled the criterion of having "discovered the nature of the caverns . . ." etc. What it contained was the almost unintelligible ramblings and sketches of someone who might usefully have had their sanity questioned at the time.

I have a copy here somewhere but it'd take a lot of finding. To be honest it's not really worth the effort of rooting it out; the contents bore absolutely no relation to reality (as any rational person would perhaps have expected). I suppose I really ought to write this up one day (maybe as a follow up to Ian Plant's original Descent article about the letter) but I've got various surveys to draw and dive logs to write up after a good weather window here in the Dales, so that inevitably needs to take priority. There's only so many hours in a day . . . . .

At least there's now a record here of the "Spooky Parson's letter" having been opened.

PM me T-Pot, if I can help further.

Pitlamp
At least my memory isn't failing.
Thanks for your help
T pot

Always happy to try to help a fellow caver.

In case you have access to back issues of Descent magazine in a caving club library, Ian Plant wrote a very good article about the sealed letter in issue no 42 (1979) pages 4-6. (If you email Mary Wilde, the BCA librarian, I'm sure she'll scan it and email it to you.)

The letter was opened just before we held a get together in 1997 for locals, farmers and cavers, in the Buck Inn, Malham. Various presentations were given about the diving at the Cove, modern digging efforts upstairs - and a magic lantern show of glass slides from the time of the great 1950s dig near the water sinks. Mike Orrell was there and spoke about the opening of the letter. There was a big potato pie supper and a raffle. It was a right good do.

That was interesting if disappointing now the letter has been opened and its contents revealed. No reference to the efforts of the CDG then?

Thank you Pitlamp. Your mention of the Lantern slide show of the surface dig near the Sinks is interesting.
I remember walking past there as a youngster and peering down. Would you know if these have been digitised or are available to view anywhere?

have a look at http://www.mudinmyhair.co.uk/Malham%20Dig.html
by Steve Warren

The magic lantern slides are in the CPC Library. I don't know if this particular collection has been digitised but I know someone in the club who has done a lot of work of this nature on the club's considerable photo archive. You'll have seen the examples on the mudinmyhair website (thanks for mentioning that Alan Sp8) but there are a lot more.

Email me off board and I'll try to help.

mrodoc said:

That was interesting if disappointing now the letter has been opened and its contents revealed. No reference to the efforts of the CDG then?

Click to expand...

The letter was sealed long before the CDG came into existence mrodoc; it was between the wars. So even the early 50s original explorations by CDG members in frogman equipment aren't mentioned, let alone the HWCPC 1960s dives, the late 70s NCC extension or the main advance starting from 1989.