Bonsall Moor Swallet - Information

ben_m

ben_m

New member
Hi everyone,
Does anyone have any information on Bonsall Moor Swallet (SK 255 588) or any other drainage features on the moor?

What is the access situation?

Is it still being dug, or if not, what was it's conclusion?

Is it still an active stream sink?

It looks an interesting site to have a look at - to my knowledge it's the only enterable swallet in Derwent South?

Hopefully some of you know about this one :)
Ben
 
M

markpot

Member
Not heard much about this site since Rick was digging there many moons ago,be interested if there was any updates.
 
M

markpot

Member
Pretty sure Speleokitty on here was involved in the dig,maybe able to give you some info.I have not been down the dig but know the area well,very interesting and deserves further attention imho.
 
richardg

richardg

Active member
Some references to Bonsall Moor Swallet

Westwood, R. (2002) , Descent No. 164., p.13. Survey., Wild Places Publishing

Barker, I. & Beck, J.S. (2010) , Caves of the Peak District, p. 142, DCA

Hardy, J. (2013) , Descent No. 235., p. 11, Wild Places Publishing
 
aardgoose

aardgoose

Member
Currently not being pursued after infil of dig after storms several years ago.

The latest dig was at the other end of the shake hole from the original dig, but was an area that the stream also sank in. Was still in fill of boulder and clay but was breaking into some open voids. Picture from an earlier state.


Photo0011.jpg
 
S

speleokitty3

New member
ben_m said:
Hi everyone,
Does anyone have any information on Bonsall Moor Swallet (SK 255 588) or any other drainage features on the moor?

What is the access situation?

Is it still being dug, or if not, what was it's conclusion?

Is it still an active stream sink?

It looks an interesting site to have a look at - to my knowledge it's the only enterable swallet in Derwent South?

Hopefully some of you know about this one :)
Ben
Click to expand...
Rick Westwood and I opened up the lower sink and we got down to around 50 feet below the floor of the shakehole. We were intermittently digging at this point for some time, but I had a quite epic caving accident in 2008 which put this part of the cave off limits to me. The cave continues downwards where we were widening it. We diverted water to the upper sink while we were working in there and never saw or heard anything of the stream while we were down there. I don't think that anyone has revisited since.

I started digging at the upper sink with Angus Sawyer and a few others some years later and diverted water to the lower sink. We dug down to about 8m, eventually following an overhanging bedrock wall to the North and could see big gaps between boulders going down. Unfortunately, this dig was overwhelmed by a flood which caused a major collapse, and we considered it to unsafe to continue digging by hand at the time.

I last visited the site about 2 years ago to check on the fence and the ground seems to have consolidated well so it might be worth another go. We would have to arrange new permissions with the farmer though.

There probably wouldn't be any problem with a trip to the lower sink, but I'd take a shovel and plenty of lube to make sure you can open the grille - it isn't locked. The entrance becomes impassible in wet weather.

There was another large shakehole nearby that has been filled and several more depressions in adjacent fields. I'd be happy to show you around on surface if that helps.

Edit - Angus appears just as I'm posting :)
 
pwhole

pwhole

Well-known member
We don't currently have an entrance photo on the Registry for this site - will that one suffice, or do you have any better ones? The description is also quite light - if this could be updated it would be very helpful. For access it also states: 'No known access restrictions', so I guess that should be updated too.

A small swallet cave approximately 20m deep. The route consists of a series of climbs down narrow rifts with large jammed blocks. Progress has been slow, and for a time was hampered by regular collapses.
 
S

speleokitty3

New member
II think I'm well past 9 lives already (and have the damage to prove it)

Phil - I'll come up with a bit more of a description for both sinks for you and maybe take a proper picture of the lower sink entrance. the next time that I'm up there. The one above is the top sink before it collapsed.

"No known access restrictions' is true but I haven't been in touch with the farmer for a while and if car loads of cavers suddenly started turning up then it might be a problem.

On a separate topic but different area I was wondering if anyone had taken a look at the wet weather resurgence on the South side of the via Gellia recently? Someone did a bit of digging there around the late 80's but it seemed to be quickly abandoned and I've not seen any activity since.

Must also get around to recording what seems to be an unrecorded cave in the VG. I talked to John Beck about it years ago, but never got around to giving him the details.
 
pwhole

pwhole

Well-known member
That would be great, thanks - and the access info can be modified at a moment's notice if needs to be.
 
S

Stoney Boy

Member
On another note there always seems to be loads of water in Bonsall. Flowing down Horse Dale and then under the road and also down through the village. Admittedly I've noticed this when walking back from the Mow but are these both Soughs? Keen to hear more...
 
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speleokitty3

New member
Most of the water in Horse Dale comes from a sough just up the dale from the village with some additional wet weather sources. The sough was used as a water supply, so we never got to explore it, but I don't know if it's still used. I've heard several tales about it being explored by kids from the village in the 1940's etc. but that's the stuff that legends are made of.

The water running down (below) Yeoman Street seems to collect on the Bonsall Sill and gets fed in by field drains and wet weather surface flow.

We considered several possible destinations for the water from Bonsall Moor Swallet including the springs above Grange Mill, the floor of the Via Gellia and Horse Dale. but it has never been dye tested.
 
AR

AR

Well-known member
I had a look at Horsedale Sough a few years back, it doesn't appear to be used as a water source now other than for stock in the field. There's a sleepered air shaft not far beyond the tail which I'd wondered about dropping but never got round to finding out which farmer to ask
 
H

History Trog

Member
There are no mines recorded in the vicinity of the Bonsall Moor Swallet. I checked the Barmaster’s records for references to caves elsewhere on Bonsall Moor.
All I could find were details about Shack Founder (shack was the miner’s term for a cavern). This was situated on Bonsall Moor in Salterway (the road along the north side of the moor):

24 May 1746 Thomas Woolley and Henry Woodhouse freed an old founder ranging SE-NW in Salterway on Bonsall Moor and called it Shack Founder.
3 Mar 1747 same two freed an old vein there “near Clod Hall”.
7 Mar 1748 Wm Kirkland freed a 1st taker NW from Thos Woolleys Shack Founder.
21 Jun 1749 ditto freed a new founder E-W out of the 1st taker NW from Shack Founder at Woolley Old Groves “on top of the hill”.
Production was very low – only about 4 loads a month while in work.

Jim Rieuwerts 3rd book gives an excellent summary of the mines on Bonsall Moor. He quotes White Watson about a fault that was present at Salterway – the cavern may well have been associated with that. He also mentions that Saltersway Mine was deep and heavily watered.

Various springs above Uppertown were used as water supplies in the early 20th century. The one called Boiling Pot Spring sounds interesting but apparently it was natural.
 
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Stoney Boy

Member
That's a great post. I was about to ask the question where you would find information about the mines up there.

I did hear about some of the water flow being altered up there as a result of tailings being "recycled" when Dresser Minerals were in operation. I need to ask again exactly where.
 
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mikem

Well-known member
If you search dresser minerals bonsall on Google there are several downloads & references that may be of interest (not so much for the swallet, but for the mining)
 
H

History Trog

Member
Apologies, I made a mistake in my last post when I added the afterthought about Boiling Pot Spring. I use the local library for Internet access and was not able to run the subject through my computer's archives until I got home. I could remember that there was something interesting about Boiling Pot - it was indeed a sough tail. A meeting of Bonsall Council in Jan 1900 about improving water supplies and a doctor was asked about the advisability of using Boiling Pot as a domestic water supply "because it came from an old lead mine level" but the doctor thought it would be OK as similar supplies had proved satisfactory. It was said to yield about 26,000 gallons a day tho' the Geol Surv later said much less than that. It is located 100 yards SW of Puddle Hill at Bonsall, the water being trapped above a thin clay wayboard, according to Geol Surv.

Jim Rieuwerts Vol 3 p189 gives details of the sough at Highstone Mine - a barmaster's gift of that mine in 1790 included 14 meers of ground on the "Sough Rake" from the Leas fence northeast. He correctly deduced the course of this vein down towards Puddle Hill and marks it on a map on p182 but he was not aware of the Boiling Pot Spring details (I only discovered them in recent years). I have not checked it out on the ground to see if it is still used as a water supply and what it looks like - am rather wrapped up with Matlock research at present.
 
ben_m

ben_m

New member
Hi all,
Thanks for your detailed replies - I'm glad I've managed to stimulate some conversation about this interesting spot. Hopefully over the Christmas break I'll get a chance to drive over and have a look on the moor. Perhaps some snow might give some interesting discoveries...

I'm a bit tied down digging wise with projects in Stoney, but it's one to keep on the radar for sure :)
Ben
 
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