Clee Hills

AndyF

AndyF

New member
Sorting through the heap of jumbled notes in my desk I found a scribbled note from the Birmingham Exploration Club March 1970.

It says there is a sink at "Foxholes" on the Clee Hills in Shropshire, resurging a mile away at Oreton. Apparently the sink was penetrated for "some way"..

Anyone know anything at all about the area. It is certainly limestone, but if it is cavernous or not I don't know....

Multimap for Oreton to see the area....

andyf
 
AndyF said:
Sorting through the heap of jumbled notes in my desk I found a scribbled note from the Birmingham Exploration Club March 1970.

It says there is a sink at "Foxholes" on the Clee Hills in Shropshire, resurging a mile away at Oreton. Apparently the sink was penetrated for "some way"..

Anyone know anything at all about the area. It is certainly limestone, but if it is cavernous or not I don't know....

Multimap for Oreton to see the area....

andyf
Click to expand...

There are some 'caves' on Clee Hill, but they are rather small tight short affairs that aren't anything to write home about. I think something might have been written up on them in the club journal. If I think on I'll have a flick through my back-issues.

Of course if Kelvin comes floating through he'll know off-hand (as editor) what's been published in the journal!
 
Thought this may be of ineterest.

"The rock of Clee Hill consists of up to 45m of massive and oolitic grey limestone. A number of swallets in the area have been described by Price (1971), including a cave system with a sink to resurgence distance of around 1.6 km and a fall of 45m. The main sink for the system is at FOXHOLES (SO 641803) where a stream disappears under a low cliff. Unfortunately the passage is blocked by a boulder choke and flood debris after a few yards. A shaft sunk near the entrance choke has now collapsed. The resurgence at SO 657803 is totally unenterable - the water issues from fissures in steeply dipping limestone. The stream passage was entered by an incline at SD 656804, driven by the late Duncan Glasfurd, from which it could be explored for about 45m upstream to a sump pool. The Birmingham Enterprise Club attempted to blast a way round the sump, but without success. The entrance now appears to be blocked. "

From Cambridge Undergrounf 1980 pp 35-40

:?
 
I will have to sort through some of my old journal's Hereford caving club had a few articles about 3 or 4 insignificant caves on clee hill one of them being Foxholes and if i remember they only go in a few feet.
 
JJ said:
a sink to resurgence distance of around 1.6 km and a fall of 45m.
Click to expand...

..that sounds lke "potential" to me, in an area I didn't even know there were any caves.

I wonder if the resurgence is significantly bigger than the sink?

I may take a wonder over there and have a look around...
 
There's a section about these caves in the Subterranean Shropshire book (sorry can't remember the author off the top of my head) - I think the text quoted above also appears in it but there are some pictures (mostly sketchs as opposed to photos) - when I get home I'll check the book and see if there's any more info in there...
 
AlunSc said:
There's a section about these caves in the Subterranean Shropshire book (sorry can't remember the author off the top of my head) - I think the text quoted above also appears in it but there are some pictures (mostly sketchs as opposed to photos) - when I get home I'll check the book and see if there's any more info in there...
Click to expand...

Hi Alun,

Thanks, I'd be interested in any info. There are a few coal mine soughs under the Clee's too - apparently!

And welcome to the forum BTW...  :)

Andyf
 
JJ said:
Thought this may be of ineterest.

"The rock of Clee Hill consists of up to 45m of massive and oolitic grey limestone. A number of swallets in the area have been described by Price (1971), including a cave system with a sink to resurgence distance of around 1.6 km and a fall of 45m. The main sink for the system is at FOXHOLES (SO 641803) where a stream disappears under a low cliff. Unfortunately the passage is blocked by a boulder choke and flood debris after a few yards. A shaft sunk near the entrance choke has now collapsed. The resurgence at SO 657803 is totally unenterable - the water issues from fissures in steeply dipping limestone. The stream passage was entered by an incline at SD 656804, driven by the late Duncan Glasfurd, from which it could be explored for about 45m upstream to a sump pool. The Birmingham Enterprise Club attempted to blast a way round the sump, but without success. The entrance now appears to be blocked. "

From Cambridge Underground 1980 pp 35-40
Click to expand...

Do you mean:

TRUCK HILL CAVE, Cleobury Mortimer, Salop SO657804

The entrance leads to an easy passage 45 m in length which reaches the sump.  However, at 3.6 m depth there are large boulder obstructions at a distance of 5 m from base, with a possible route around to the left.  There is an associated resurgence 61 m away with a short 1.2 m length of passage.  This also ends at a solid boulder choke.

References:

CDG NL 17:12 (1970)
CDG NL 36:22 (1975)
CDG NL 46:18 (1978)
CDG NL 47:12 (1978)
CDG NL 109:14 (1993)

(the above entry taken from the Welsh Sump Index http://www.lulu.com/content/361251
)

I dived the sump on 11/7/1993 helped by Peter Cousins and John Stevens, here's the text of my report to the CDG NL 109:14

"Thanks to Dennis and Brenda Warburton for arranging access and for their hospitality.  The entrance is an improbable hole beneath the roots of a tree in the middle of a field.  This leads to a streamway ending upstream at a pool.  This was dived using a single set and base fed line for 5m in a roomy passage to a large boulder.  Looking over the top it was possible to see into ongoing passage and, on the second attempt, the diver was able to squeeze around the lefthand side of the block into a apparent enlargement.  In the by now zero vis, the way ahead appeared to be choked.  The diver's exhaust bubbles were not seen at base suggesting that they filter up through the choke.  On the surface this appears to be beneath a water-logged depression."

Sounds like the same place though the NGR's are different.

Duncan
 
Caves near Cleobury Mortimer, that is new to me.

There is certainly a lot of limestone in the area, but I've never heard of caves/dives there. This is interesting, never know when there is anothe FoD to be found in a place where "there aren't any caves"

I may take a little trip over there and nose around...

Andyf

 
Its a handy piece of geography keeping the Brummies and the Welsh apart, god only knows what would happen if they were next door to each other... :lol:
 
The oldest known whitelackington lives in Dudley,
I haven't been there since I were a lad.
I understand they have some sort of limestone there, is that true, any actual known cavities? :blink:
 
whitelackington said:
The oldest known whitelackington lives in Dudley,
I haven't been there since I were a lad.
I understand they have some sort of limestone there, is that true, any actual known cavities? :blink:
Click to expand...

I'm from dudley, well Gornal actually...

There are huge caverns in Wenlock (Dudly) limestone, but all but a few are mines. Wrens nest, Hurst Hill, Dudly Castle, Walsall all have them

PDMHS published a book on them a few years ago...

Andyf
 
Sadly, there is very little left of the Dudley mines. Over the last 10 years most have been sealed, filled with sand and grouted.

The local authority are working to preserve the Seven Sisters on the Wrens Nest, but the first phase of this is to fill all the entrances with tons and tons of rock.
 
Hi Dudley bug and welcome....

I remember going down some workings at Hurst Hill, they led to a tunnel. I don't know if they are still accessable.

I think there were some workings under Castle Hill, and over near Walsall, though I heard that some had been filled with fly-ash...

Is the canal tunnel from castle millbasin to the Wrens nest still open....?

Andy
 
dudley bug said:
Sadly, there is very little left of the Dudley mines. Over the last 10 years most have been sealed, filled with sand and grouted.

The local authority are working to preserve the Seven Sisters on the Wrens Nest, but the first phase of this is to fill all the entrances with tons and tons of rock.
Click to expand...
What!
Surely this can't be legal!
Can't you locals protest, people even protest about coal fored power stations, filling in limestone cavities, terrible wontaness.
IMHO
 
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