• Descent 302 is published on 15 February and it will soon be on its way to our subscribers.

    In the newsdesk, read a review of the underground events at Kendal Mountain Festival, plus tales of cannibalism and the Cavefish Asteroid.

    In regional news, we have three new connections in Ogof Agen Allwedd, a report on the iron mines of Anjou, an extension to Big Sink Cave in the Forest of Dean, a new dig in Yorkshire's Marble Steps Pot, student parties, an obituary for Tony Boycott, a tight find in the Peak District and a discovery in County Kerry with extensive formations.

    Click here for details of this edition

From the Archives

langcliffe

Well-known member
There are a number of caving archives which are not locked behind Club website logins which are well worth browsing through. I thought it would be interesting to have a thread of little gems which people may like to share when they come across them. It may also serve to draw attention to the wealth of material that is out there.

This first offering is from the Harold Wadsworth Hayward collection hosted by the British Geological Survey. It shows someone on the New Roof Traverse in Lost Johns during a trip by Leeds Cave Club in 1933. They got at least as far as Battle Axe, via Cathedral and Dome. There were about ten people on the trip, two of whom were women.

The gentleman in the photograph does have an electric light on his head, but no helmet. He is wearing clinker-soled boots, and his main protective clothing is a raincoat.

https://geoscenic.bgs.ac.uk/asset-bank/action/viewAsset?id=161873
 
That is a fascinating site - thanks for posting! The quality of the photos is amazing, given the equipment of the time.
I also love: the lady stepping delicately across the plank in Long Churns, the chap going down Dowkabottom in shorts - in winter, and indeed Harold himself in shorts in Long Churns, and much more.
It's striking how recognisable many of the views are - there's no reason why they shouldn't be, yet it somehow seems surprising given how much has changed above ground in nearly 100 years.
 
Jason: It's striking how recognisable many of the views are - there's no reason why they shouldn't be, yet it somehow seems surprising given how much has changed above ground in nearly 100 years.

Unfortunately something that has changed is the formations in Lost Johns; I don't remember ever seeing so many down there as can be seen in the photos.
 
If it’s of any interest, the archive of the Fylde Mountaineering Club is now publicly available on our website. We have always had a small but active group of cavers. The website is now hosted on AWS and much faster to load the larger documents.


If anyone or any libraries have any of our journals or newsletters from 1960-1974 we would be delighted if you’d let us scan them.

I will try and add some excerpts when I’ve had chance to read through more of them.
 
Without doubt, the most comprehensive caving online archive is that maintained by the Mendip Cave Registry, with getting on for 50 log books, and thousands of photographs, all well organised. Feeling insecure if I ever venture south of the Dales, most of the content means little to me, but one log book does chime with personally. That is Eric Hensler's.

Two of the explorations around the late 1930s and early 1940s stand out as remarkable, One is Bob Leakey's explorations in Mossdale Caverns, and the other is Eric Hensler's exploration of his eponymous series in Gaping Gill. Solo, he explored Hensler's Long Crawl and much of the series beyond. To do this with modern equipment knowing, with some idea of where one is going, is a major undertaking. To do it solo as an original exploration was an incredible achievement. His understated log book account of the exploration is absolutely typical of the man.

I met Eric at the CRG Field Meet at Gaping Gill in 1968, and I found him to be a charming, modest, gentleman with traditional values. It was soon after ULSA's exploration of the Far Country series, and he joined us to have a look. He was about 60 at the time, and with the brashness of youth we were amazed that such an old man was still caving. Unfortunately, he failed to negotiate The Blowhole, so he spent the next couple of hours chipping away at the squeeze with a hammer and chisel whilst we went on.
 
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