Pitlamp
Well-known member
rhychydwr1 said:I am a bit puzzled. Is this the Eli Simpson of BSA fame? and what was he doing with the speleothems? Was the cave about to be quarried away?
That's a very good question. Maybe there are clues about his purpose in a BSA publication around the time or soon after? I don't think there was much likelihood of the cave being lost to quarrying, the nearest proper quarry being at Gauber, almost a mile to the south east. (This quarry didn't finish extraction until 1958 but it's very unlikely to have been even a vague threat to Gunnerfleet Cave.)
Cymmie was a true speleologist; he had a strong (fairly authoritarian) vision for caving which came to be at variance with other members of the caving community as the war came and went. From what I know of him (and admittedly this will be less than some forum users) I cannot imagine he would have done a stal removal exercise on this scale without a good reason. I like to think it would at least have been for study purposes.
Remember the great furore over Cymmie's efforts to keep Lancaster Hole lidded soon after its discovery? That was mainly for conservation reasons.
Langcliffe makes a very good point above that the Gunnerfleet story might have provided at least some of Bob Leakey's possible motivation for starting the Cave Preservation Society.
I always feel uncomfortable when someone gets pilloried for something when they have passed away and thus have no opportunity to give their side of a story. But I suspect Cymmie would have written something somewhere which might help us understand his reasoning.
He died (from memory) in 1962 or 1963. Much of his collection of written material is in the BCA Library but does anyone know what happened to his mineral collection? I think there are photographs of this in the Cragdale days. (There might be clues in any notes with that.) Craven museum at Skipton, maybe? I think it's due to reopen soon; if anyone's passing through, why not go in and ask?