Referring to the comments of 3rd March, I would observe that Cymmie's objection to the Cave Preservation Society (correct title) was that in practise it would be unenforcable. That was merely common sense, as 'policing' the underworld would just not be practical. There was of course by this time some animosity between Leakey and Simpson (mainly from the latter), which led to Leakey resigning from BSA. By way of defence, I would comment that Simpson was PASSIONATE about caving, but quickly took the hump with some people, forcing them out of BSA. His collection of archives was astounding, even if his world view was strictly 'BSA-centric', and ultimately, his reputation - perhaps like that of Winston Churchill -should rest on his achievements, not his personal peccadillos.
From the Archives
- Thread starter langcliffe
- Start date
langcliffe
Well-known member
The Kingsdale volume of the BSA records have some great photos of Graham Balcombe taken on his dive in Keld Head in 1945, the first serious attempt on the sump. You will find them here, and on pages following:
https://archives.bcra.org.uk/archive.php?level=image&collection=bsa&document=ES118&item=61
A report of the dive may be found a few pages earlier:
https://archives.bcra.org.uk/archive.php?level=image&collection=bsa&document=ES118&item=53
Bob Leakey repeated the dive in the late 1950s using a bottle, and produced a fine sketch map of the first 80 metres.
https://archives.bcra.org.uk/archive.php?level=image&collection=bsa&document=ES118&item=57
We all stand on the shoulders of giants...
https://archives.bcra.org.uk/archive.php?level=image&collection=bsa&document=ES118&item=61
A report of the dive may be found a few pages earlier:
https://archives.bcra.org.uk/archive.php?level=image&collection=bsa&document=ES118&item=53
Bob Leakey repeated the dive in the late 1950s using a bottle, and produced a fine sketch map of the first 80 metres.
https://archives.bcra.org.uk/archive.php?level=image&collection=bsa&document=ES118&item=57
We all stand on the shoulders of giants...
He was a paratrooper in India and Burma, called up the year after his older brother Nigel was posthumously awarded a Victoria cross in Abyssinia. His younger brother (Arundell) Rea served in North Africa and became a major general in tank regiment. Their father and his 2nd wife were killed by the Mau Mau in Kenya. Their second cousin twice removed, Joshua Leakey, was also awarded the Victoria Cross for his service in Afghanistan in 2013 (He was the only living British soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross for the War in Afghanistan[4] and the last person to receive it from Queen Elizabeth II.) Rea's son (Arundell) David is a retired lieutenant general, also of the tank regiment. Seems to run in the family. Their cousins are the famous Kenyan paleoanthropologists and archaeologists.
Last edited:
langcliffe
Well-known member
Whilst browsing through the Jack Myers Collection in the BCRA Online Archive, I came across a photograph of the Platypus, that gave the junction in County Pot its name. It's the only photograph of the Platypus I remember seeing in its unbroken state. I think that the broken-off end is still in the stream.
https://archives.bcra.org.uk/?level=image&collection=myers&document=JM015&item=8
I'm afraid that you'll have to get past the anti-scraping captcha to see the image...
https://archives.bcra.org.uk/?level=image&collection=myers&document=JM015&item=8
I'm afraid that you'll have to get past the anti-scraping captcha to see the image...
Is there any way of dating that photo? I thought I remembered it from the early 60's but I may be wrong.
It's a l - o - n - g time ago.
rm128
Well-known member
On the cover of Jim Eyre's 1989 A4 book on The Ease Gill System is a photo of a still-intact Platypus (and the author) dated May 1950. Does that help at all?
langcliffe
Well-known member
The only account Myers has in his caving diary of going that far into Oxford pot is from October 8th 1947, but he doesn't mention taking a photograph of the Platypus. There is a signature at the bottom of the photograph, that appears to be that of Theo Wild, as in the Railton-Wild Series in Ogof Ffynnon Ddu. The previous photo in the album is another of Wild's taken in OFD in 1948. For want of other evidence, such as Theo Wild's caving log, we can only really reasonably surmise that it was probably taken not long after the original 1947 exploration.
langcliffe
Well-known member
So there is! That it's a photo of the Platypus had never registered with me. Doh!
Pitlamp
Well-known member
I can confirm that, sadly, Theo passed away not long ago, so we can no longer ask him about this.
Although he stopped caving way back, he always maintained an interest in what his club (the NPC) was up to. He had a good memory and was extremely helpful to me when I was researching the NPC's original hostel at Crow Nest (Austwick).
Although he stopped caving way back, he always maintained an interest in what his club (the NPC) was up to. He had a good memory and was extremely helpful to me when I was researching the NPC's original hostel at Crow Nest (Austwick).
langcliffe
Well-known member
I found an booklet in the BSA Records of the Online Archive called "The Limestone Caves of Craven and their Ancient Inhabitants" written by Henry Ecroyd Smith, and published in 1865 (pages 5 and six, beware of the captcha). In it, he describes a visit to the end of Sleets Gill Cave, then called New Cave, on account of it only being discovered in 1862.
In Northern Caves, it says it was first explored in 1906.
In Northern Caves, it says it was first explored in 1906.
langcliffe
Well-known member
Here is a link to a photograph (beware of the captcha) of the Greasy Slab in Alum Pot taken in the 1930s. I really wouldn't fancy it as a rope climb. In the late 1960s we used a handline for The Bridge, but always an electron ladder for the Greasy Slab.
https://archives.bcra.org.uk/?level=image&collection=black&document=vol5b&item=13
https://archives.bcra.org.uk/?level=image&collection=black&document=vol5b&item=13
JasonC
Well-known member
The gear choice in the Long Churn pictures (going Prev< from the above) is interesting! Clearly knees were made of sterner stuff in them days.
I thought the first image in that sequence (2 of 24) was fascinating - it looked to me as if the sapling on the extreme right of the photo could now be the mature tree used to belay off for the SE route down Alum.
langcliffe
Well-known member
Those of us with longer (or no) teeth will remember with fondness the iron ladder at the base of the Lancaster Hole entrance shaft, as shewn in the photograph below (beware of the captcha). We used to climb it before moving over to an electron ladder, as it was easier. Fixed ladders were installed all the way up the shafts to the entrance in September 1947, a year after the entrance was discovered. According to Jim Eyre, most were removed in 1959 after some lads caused a kerfuffle camping in the system.
https://archives.bcra.org.uk/?level=image&collection=bsa&document=ES030&item=223
https://archives.bcra.org.uk/?level=image&collection=bsa&document=ES030&item=223
