How well do you know your caves?

[Caver Keith]

I've just re-read this book which was published for young people (ages 12 and up) in 1951. It cost 7 shillings and 6 pence.

​

FORWARD

British people are always ashamed of admitting that they enjoy themselves. We play games 'for exercise’, not for enjoyment. The art of climbing, exploring and mapping caves can be justified on many scientific grounds.
I explore caves because I enjoy it; although it is true that, the more known of the reasons why caves are what they are, the more enjoyment I get, the chief reason why I go caving is that it is most exciting and satisfying sport that I know.

C. H. D. C.
1951​

As a bit of fun for Christmas, can you name these caves from Cecil’s descriptions written over seventy years ago? There are 26 of them and I will post one each day up to 11th January. The first person to answer correctly each day gets a point. The answers and winners will be announced on 12th January.

SOUTH WALES
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Already sixty caves are listed, this number may soon be at least trebled as various ‘digs’ break through into new cave systems in areas as yet untried. The two best caves to start with are Cave A and Cave B.

1. Cave A is 6 miles north of Cardiff.
   A slippery path straight up through the wood leads to the cave entrance, which is near the top on the left side of the shoulder of the ridge. Several happy hours can be spent exploring.
   The cave is a lofty rift leading downwards. There are various levels, caused by falls of huge blocks from the roof long ago, and ways lead back underneath, with tight squeezes to worm a way through. It offers all kinds of training in rock climbing.

Members of Dudley Caving Club are banned from entering.​

 

[Babyhagrid]

I bet cave A is Lesser Garth cave
(Or lesser girth when I was fitting through the squeezes)

 

[Huge]

Yep, sounds like Lesser Garth Cave. My first caving trip!

 

[Huge]

6 miles North of Cardiff! Things really have changed. It's basically right on the edge of Cardiff now!

 

[Caver Keith]

Thank you Babyhagrid and Huge for joining in. The answers and winner will be posted at the end of the quiz on 10th January. Here is the seventy-year old description of the second 'starter' cave which is also in

SOUTH WALES
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2. Cave B was opened up by quarrying a century ago, and the three entrances are just beyond where the tram-road takes a sharp bend to the right by a sheer quarry face. The main chamber gave the cave its name. At the end of it floor and roof meet; digging might find a way on from here. Halfway down the chamber galleries lead off left and right. The left-hand bypass leads into the passage coming in from the alternative entrances. Light soon appears from an aven, which can be climbed for thirty feet up to the surface of the moor.

Members of Dudley Caving Club are banned from entering.​

 

[martinr]

Why were members of Dudley CC banned from all these caves in the 1950s?

 

[RobinGriffiths]

Siambri Ddu?

 

[Babyhagrid]

Egylws faen cave I believe

 

[Huge]

I second Eglwys Faen

 

[Caver Keith]

The language in Cecil's book is very Boy's Own Adventure stuff. The references are all to boys and men, the girls don't get a look in! Cave C is also in South Wales.

3. At path level where the quarry ends, is a small cave. A few yards on and a little higher, in a corner is this keyhole cave C. Good lights are needed because there is a strong draught in places, which blows out candles and even acetylene lamps. It is also a very strenuous cave; the way back up hill, is very tiring, so that it is a good plan to bring down some food, or malted milk tablets; and word should be left of one’s whereabouts, in case one might be too exhausted to get back. With these precautions, it can be tackled by novices.
The cave ends in a lofty boulder choke. It is possible to get through the floor and join the stream below and continue further. The main way is blocked by a mass of boulders waiting to descend on the first foolhardy man who attempts to climb over. (The notice ‘Danger’ has been smoked on the walls by some benefactor.)

 

[BigDyl]

The language in Cecil's book is very Boy's Own Adventure stuff. The references are all to boys and men, the girls don't get a look in! Cave C is also in South Wales.

3. At path level where the quarry ends, is a small cave. A few yards on and a little higher, in a corner is this keyhole cave C. Good lights are needed because there is a strong draught in places, which blows out candles and even acetylene lamps. It is also a very strenuous cave; the way back up hill, is very tiring, so that it is a good plan to bring down some food, or malted milk tablets; and word should be left of one’s whereabouts, in case one might be too exhausted to get back. With these precautions, it can be tackled by novices.
The cave ends in a lofty boulder choke. It is possible to get through the floor and join the stream below and continue further. The main way is blocked by a mass of boulders waiting to descend on the first foolhardy man who attempts to climb over. (The notice ‘Danger’ has been smoked on the walls by some benefactor.)

Agen Allwedd?

 

[Huge]

Yeah, Aggy.

 

[jonnybellman]

@Caver Keith Even after knowing the answers, I still don't know the answers :

 

[Caver Keith]

@Caver Keith Even after knowing the answers, I still don't know the answers :

That is almost certainly because you are so young and major discoveries have been been made in these caves since Cecil's book was published.
The lofty boulder choke in cave C was first passed in 1957 and the way into the system is now not via the keyhole cave.
This evening's cave, D is in Mendipshire.

 

[Caver Keith]

A very easy one this evening.

SOMERSET
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It is best to begin at Burrington Comb. Cave D is the best of all caves for a beginner. A walk down a long passage, where the nineteenth century handrails are still in position, leads to a hole in the floor, the Giant’s Stairs.


If one continues straight downwards from where the chamber was entered, guarding the head from vicious fangs of rock which come from the roof, an awkward climb in a cramped space over a most unobliging rock, and two equally cramped right-angled bends which will just fit the body, bring one to the ***** ****’ or ‘Worm Hole’. One must wriggle like a worm along the tunnel; if one feels too tired, the rock which is composed of fossils called sea-lilies, like starfish on stalks may be studied.
 As the Vicar of Mirth used to say, ‘Some of born great, others achieve greatness, others have corpulence thrust upon them’. The Burrington Caves seem to have a grudge against those who are of ample build. One master of stocky build, in a school party, became wedged with his nose resting on a lighted candle. On the other hand during the days of training before ‘D’ Day, a party of Welsh Guardsmen were timed through it, and one man came through in sixty seconds.

 

[langcliffe]

Sounds like Goatchurch.

 

[mikem]

With the drain pipe expunged...

 

[Caver Keith]

Slightly more cryptic this evening.

DERBYSHIRE DALES
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A journey through Miller’s Dale and Tideswell brings us to Bradwell. Here there is a good show-cave, E with pleasant stalactite formations and intricate passages in which exploring parties have been lost for hours.

 

[nearlywhite]

Bagshaw?

 

[Caver Keith]

This is what Cecil thought of Northern vs Southern cavers.

YORKSHIRE, THE POTHOLER’S PARADISE
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The largest mass of limestone in England is to be found in Yorkshire; and the small district with Ingleborough mountain in the centre is the richest in caves. Four hundred are already known. In Yorkshire the caver calls himself a potholer, because he prefers the vertical drops needing rope ladders or winches to the caves in which one can walk, crawl or climb without much recourse to ropes. The Southerner takes his sport caving; straddling canyons, climbing chimneys, wriggling through squeezes, with only occasional sixty-foot rope-ladder pitches to increase the excitement.
The true 'dyed-in-the-wool' (or smeared-in-the-mud) potholer of the North prefers the vertical shaft where either a winch with a petrol engine raises and lowers a bosun’s chair, or long lengths of rope-ladder are belayed and the climber goes down with a lifeline tied on for safety. The Southerner believes that all he does when he reaches the bottom is to come up again, roll up his ladders and depart. The Northerner in his turn believes that the caver is one who walks through level and unexciting passages. He has some reason to look upon caves as providing sport for novices, because, while the Yorkshire pots are often extremely difficult and dangerous, most of the caves are very easy. Because they are quite near the surface, and the strata are not twisted, the thrills and exciting variety of Mendip and Welsh caves are often lacking The truth is that potholing and caving are both exciting sports in different ways; and in both North and South there are caves which have potholes, and potholes which lead into caves.

Here's this evening's cave.

Lower down the Nidd valley, is cave F, a show cave, the owner of which is himself a potholer. Only portions are shown to the visitor, but the whole one and a half miles are open to organised club visits, and an extensive new series of passages has just been discovered. There is a famous narrow passage where the caver who is wriggling through hears a hammering sound in the rock, and finds afterwards that it was only the beating of his heart, to which the rock acted as a sounding board.