damo8604
New member
24th January 2015
Neil, Damon & Damian (CSCA), Lee (TSG) leading.
We arrived in Matlock Bath and skulked around the back of the toilet block looking for the manhole cover to Youd's level whilst waiting for Lee to arrive.
On Lee's arrival we changed and drove up to the parking for Jug holes leaving Neil's car behind in the car park.
The short walk to Masson Lees quarry was uneventful and we quickly found the shaft entrance.
There were already hangers left by DCRO who performed a rescue there four months earlier. Neil rigged the entrance pitch and descended the tight shaft for about 45m followed by Damian, Taff and Lee. SRT kit was tied to the bottom of the rope and we set off down a good sized passage to a climb into the large mined out stopes.
After passing a neat wall of deads to our right we reached a pile of animal bones below a blocked off shaft, this was the start of our climb up into the stopes, there were reasonably good hand and footholds however there was also a reasonably long drop below as we traversed along the top, passing some amazing 'Dog tooth' mineral deposits and at one point a bunch of crystal formation that looked like Superman's fortress of solitude, I was sad I had opted not to take my camera! Eventually we reached the climb down which was trickier than it looked, ever mindful of the long drop below.
The way on led us into Overseer's chamber, some interesting graffiti dating back to the early 1700's adorned the walls along with curious pictures of the overseer and perhaps a witch below it?
After a bit of mooching around we continued on, a little scramble down a scree slope led us to Damon?s nemesis, the first of two squeezes. Lee went off ahead and scraped out the loose scree enough to squeeze through. Damon followed but was beaten by the squeeze and had to return. Damian tried first on his front, but negotiating this squeeze was tricky and the thought of drowning in a six inch puddle of water was enough to make him decide to tackle it feet first, laid on his back.
Wriggling though the squeeze like an inchworm was the way to do it, Damon had another go and, after removing various items from his pockets he made it through, maybe it was the thought of returning up through the stopes and an uncomfortable prusik up the shaft that helped him through? Neil made short work of getting through (interestingly he was followed by a small group of other cavers who had decided to do the same trip, they just floated through the squeeze head first!)
After some flat out crawling, we made it through to the Old Jant mine, we had a little bimble around looking at the interesting miner?s artifacts, a lovely 'jigging box' that was used to sieve the larger minerals from the smaller rock.
After some more flat out crawling to explore more of the mine, we backtracked up to a shaft that led us through to the start of the coffin level, an amazing feat of engineering, hand-picked all the way to the river Derwent, I have since read it is the longest coffin level in Derbyshire, reaching 365m long, it felt like at least a mile as we trudged, stooped and crawled along to the tune of helmet scraping and shoulder bashing.
Eventually the sound of the waterfall was heard, spirits soared as the end was in sight, the passage became larger and soon we were able to stand, easing the lower back and neck strain from all the stooping.
There was an uneasy two minutes of waiting for Neil to open the manhole cover, I didn't fancy the coffin level again, Damon certainly didn't fancy the squeeze again and I don't think anyone relished the thought of prusiking up the tight entrance shaft.
The manhole cover shifted and blinking into the light of day Neil exited Youd's level into the children's playground, we all quickly followed but then realised our schoolboy error of leaving our dry clothes in Damian's car which was parked back up at the top of Salters lane. Once Neil had changed and had protected his car seats from wet cavers, we bid farewell to Lee and drove back up to the top to retrieve the rope which thankfully didn't snag on anything during the retraction.
In summary, a fantastic trip with lots of variation, some abseiling, crawling, climbing, traversing, squeezing and stooping, throw into the mix some cracking mineral formations, centuries old graffiti and miners tools and there you have it Gentlewoman's to Youd's through trip, Definitely one to do again!
Neil, Damon & Damian (CSCA), Lee (TSG) leading.
We arrived in Matlock Bath and skulked around the back of the toilet block looking for the manhole cover to Youd's level whilst waiting for Lee to arrive.
On Lee's arrival we changed and drove up to the parking for Jug holes leaving Neil's car behind in the car park.
The short walk to Masson Lees quarry was uneventful and we quickly found the shaft entrance.
There were already hangers left by DCRO who performed a rescue there four months earlier. Neil rigged the entrance pitch and descended the tight shaft for about 45m followed by Damian, Taff and Lee. SRT kit was tied to the bottom of the rope and we set off down a good sized passage to a climb into the large mined out stopes.
After passing a neat wall of deads to our right we reached a pile of animal bones below a blocked off shaft, this was the start of our climb up into the stopes, there were reasonably good hand and footholds however there was also a reasonably long drop below as we traversed along the top, passing some amazing 'Dog tooth' mineral deposits and at one point a bunch of crystal formation that looked like Superman's fortress of solitude, I was sad I had opted not to take my camera! Eventually we reached the climb down which was trickier than it looked, ever mindful of the long drop below.
The way on led us into Overseer's chamber, some interesting graffiti dating back to the early 1700's adorned the walls along with curious pictures of the overseer and perhaps a witch below it?
After a bit of mooching around we continued on, a little scramble down a scree slope led us to Damon?s nemesis, the first of two squeezes. Lee went off ahead and scraped out the loose scree enough to squeeze through. Damon followed but was beaten by the squeeze and had to return. Damian tried first on his front, but negotiating this squeeze was tricky and the thought of drowning in a six inch puddle of water was enough to make him decide to tackle it feet first, laid on his back.
Wriggling though the squeeze like an inchworm was the way to do it, Damon had another go and, after removing various items from his pockets he made it through, maybe it was the thought of returning up through the stopes and an uncomfortable prusik up the shaft that helped him through? Neil made short work of getting through (interestingly he was followed by a small group of other cavers who had decided to do the same trip, they just floated through the squeeze head first!)
After some flat out crawling, we made it through to the Old Jant mine, we had a little bimble around looking at the interesting miner?s artifacts, a lovely 'jigging box' that was used to sieve the larger minerals from the smaller rock.
After some more flat out crawling to explore more of the mine, we backtracked up to a shaft that led us through to the start of the coffin level, an amazing feat of engineering, hand-picked all the way to the river Derwent, I have since read it is the longest coffin level in Derbyshire, reaching 365m long, it felt like at least a mile as we trudged, stooped and crawled along to the tune of helmet scraping and shoulder bashing.
Eventually the sound of the waterfall was heard, spirits soared as the end was in sight, the passage became larger and soon we were able to stand, easing the lower back and neck strain from all the stooping.
There was an uneasy two minutes of waiting for Neil to open the manhole cover, I didn't fancy the coffin level again, Damon certainly didn't fancy the squeeze again and I don't think anyone relished the thought of prusiking up the tight entrance shaft.
The manhole cover shifted and blinking into the light of day Neil exited Youd's level into the children's playground, we all quickly followed but then realised our schoolboy error of leaving our dry clothes in Damian's car which was parked back up at the top of Salters lane. Once Neil had changed and had protected his car seats from wet cavers, we bid farewell to Lee and drove back up to the top to retrieve the rope which thankfully didn't snag on anything during the retraction.
In summary, a fantastic trip with lots of variation, some abseiling, crawling, climbing, traversing, squeezing and stooping, throw into the mix some cracking mineral formations, centuries old graffiti and miners tools and there you have it Gentlewoman's to Youd's through trip, Definitely one to do again!
