Blast From The Past

[AR]

Knotlow triangle at Monyash. Hillocks oil drum behind the camera, 210' and climbing shaft off to the right

Its locally know as Five Lane Ends, though there are only four run into it. The hut in the next pic is possibly the Orpheus CC's lair?

 

[AR]

Correction - it is Four Lane Ends, the heat has melted my brain and merged it with the place in Bradford...

 

[Fulk]

Thanks for the price-list, TOR.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

A silhouette is fading from the glass.
The conversations echo, thin and hollow.
Like footprints in the tall, untended grass,
The path is gone before the foot can follow.

The next posts will be about loss.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Gone.

Pete Rose and Trevor Franklyn in Swildons. 1960's.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Not all about folks. Caves and formations too

Gone.

The famous Withyhill twisted stalagmite.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Gone.

The big Withyhill curtain.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Gone.

My mate John Keat.



Photos are memories.

Gone for a walk ----

 

[The Old Ruminator]

For age may bend the strongest back with time,
But not the heart that follows the sublime.
And deep beneath the earth, where echoes roam,
The oldest explorer will always be home.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Gained but lost.
Pillar Chamber, Shatter Cave at the time of discovery with the man that found the cave Ray Saxton.

MDY of the WCC walked right across it. You see the muddy boot prints removed decades later by us and Andy Freem for the filming.

Today decades of dust from passing cavers has settled on the calcite. The sparkle has gone. You will never see it as I saw it.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Curtain Chamber Manor Farm at the time of discovery. Today there is a piece knocked off the bottom.

You will never see it as I saw it.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Eric Catherine sat in his usual place at the Cerberus Cottage at Fairy Cave Quarry. Border C G had half the cottages in the mid 1960's I guess originally that there were three. Border took army cadets caving. Sadly in the quarry caves. After one such trip the best helectites on Mendip were destroyed by a large army boot. There were taped off. Novices using a beautiful cave for sport a day or two off from the rigours of camp. Not interested in caving. Border and Cerberus amalgamated. I was CSS chairman at the time. We knocked through to join both cottages into one. We used to pinch the army ration tins that were left there. Irish stew was the best. Eric must be long gone. ( as are the helectites ).

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

Gone.

Careless caving wrecks caves. Doomed not to survive this lovely stal in Withyhill main passage.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Gone. A lovely lad the son of friends of mine. You cannot know the turmoil in peoples minds. For a while he was happy in Withyhill but it was not to last.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Box Quarries ( maybe mines to some ).

The Robots now a pile of rubble. The place covered in spray paint. The countless rescues of idiots with phone torches. Sometimes if you want open access this is what you get. The owners had enough so all now closed. ( or is it ? )

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Years ago a group were making porno bondage films in Box. Not that I every saw any mind you. Naked people tied to cranes . That sort of thing. ( so I was told )

 

[The Old Ruminator]

(men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. Hebrews 11/38.

Shatter Lost Helectites.

It never got reported by the group. Nobody took responsibility. It was found by me and Pete on another trip.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

I was thinking of curtailing this one. Anyway a bit more to keep the thread near the top .

Andy Freem gets rid of Mr Yorks footprints.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Memories the digital way.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Gone.

Jackdaw Cave at Cannington near Bridgwater.

Photo of me by Peter Glanvill. Important bat roost and archaeological site. Thousands of botryoidal stalagmites. We tried to save it . I went to see the County Minerals Officer but got nowhere. So much for conservation. The quarry company had 1948 long term extraction rights so nothing could stop them. An intact auroch skull was found here. The anti chamber beyond had a big talus cone of material.
There is another deep shaft remaining in the quarry corner but they wont give us access to it.