No spray paint please!

[Vkocher]

Out again to clean some graffiti off a cave in the Peak District. This is a SSSI and a protected area. Please download a map or survey rather than damage these wonderful places.

 

[pwhole]

Well done - though it's becoming a bit too regular. Last year Victoria and myself spent three hours cleaning fluorescent orange spraypaint from inside Suicide Cave in Castleton - a giant pentagram and the legend 'Satan Lives Here'. Very mature. Anyway, it's a ballache to clean off, even with wire brushes, and although we're certain it wasn't cavers doing this, please keep an eye out, and report any 'new' damage to DCA. Then we can waste our evenings cleaning it off again...

 

[Maj]

Some years ago some scrote spray painted on a vertical flat surface in Fairy Cave Quarry (surface as opposed to underground, but on limestone none the less). We tried various methods of removal, inc wire brush, graffiti remover, non were that successful. In the end we spray painted over it with a very close colour match to the limestone. Worked a treat, even though I know roughly where it is I can't spot it.

 

[Alex]

Perhaps we should just laminate some surveys and leave them just in the cave with a sign saying please don't use spray paint, here's a map instead. But then people will prob steal the laminated maps. Still it's worth a try?

 

[pwhole]

Much of this is caused by non-cavers on a rare visit inside a cave, so it's unlikely they'd care or even notice a survey. Admittedly the regular 'helpful' 'OUT' arrows might be reduced in some mines!

But this graffiti below was done in Cave Dale in Castleton last year - not even in a cave, but by the main footpath, opposite Peveril Castle. This should be cleaned off by the Duchy of Lancaster estate wardens, who are 'responsible' for this particular patch of land. Except that they don't exist. One might have thought that receiving rent continuously since 1083 might have provided enough money by now to employ a serf with a bucket and a wire brush...

 

[snebbit]

Spotted in Gavel recently someone had scratched 'KEEP OUT, SUICIDAL FUCKS' into the limestone at the bottom of the second pitch - managed to smooth it off a little but it's still visible, not sure how would be best to deal with that when it's physical damage to the rock? Maybe take a wire brush next time we're down there.

The alarming thing was that it had been done by someone with enough technical skills and equipment to survive descending 2 pitches.

 

[royfellows]

I often wonder what exactly it is with paint. Whats it about?

 

[pwhole]

Banksy?

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Some years ago some scrote spray painted on a vertical flat surface in Fairy Cave Quarry (surface as opposed to underground, but on limestone none the less). We tried various methods of removal, inc wire brush, graffiti remover, non were that successful. In the end we spray painted over it with a very close colour match to the limestone. Worked a treat, even though I know roughly where it is I can't spot it.

Nothing uncomplementary about the management committee hopefully

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Yes. Sadly the whole of Box Mines have been ruined.

 

[Flotsam]

I often wonder what exactly it is with paint. Whats it about?

That question drove Van Gough mad

 

[Maj]

Nothing uncomplementary about the management committee hopefully

Just general graffiti.
I can't actually recall what is was, probably a tag or something but covering a triangular area with a base line of about 1m.

 

[alastairgott]

Banksy?

Deffo before banksy - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Pointz

 

[mikem]

Well, the miners & tourists started it...

 

[paul]

It's not just underground - I've noticed lately increasing amounts of "tagging" on road signs and elsewhere, including a limestone tor near where I live, and the surrounding area. I was on Kinder Scout the other day and the amount of scratching on rocks of names and other graffitti has increased a lot recently. (Although they are nowhere near as ornate nor painstaking as the old Victorian era examples!)