Pumping from Russett Well into the water mains............

[Mrs Trellis]

........I've read happened in the 1959 drought.

If it happens in this drought it would be a win-win. South Yawksher gets water (ok - maybe not such a win) and many sumps in Peak/Speedwell get lowered.

 

[Scud]

........I've read happened in the 1959 drought.

If it happens in this drought it would be a win-win. South Yawksher gets water (ok - maybe not such a win) and many sumps in Peak/Speedwell get lowered.

Where did you read that, do you have a reference?

 

[pwhole]

and many sumps in Peak/Speedwell get lowered.

Yeah! Drain the swamp!

 

[Mrs Trellis]

Apparently it made little difference to the level at Russett Well. There's a hosepipe ban in Yorkshire coming but a humungous amount of water in the limestone.

 

[Pitlamp]

COPD P126.

Also I read a piece by Peter Harrison (RIP) in the Castleton Historical Society output giving his memories of growing up there. he also mentions that the TSG "garage" was called the "pop shop" as it was used for making ..er.. pop.

Indeed; occasionally broken lemonade bottles still with the sealing marble in the neck have turned up at the Chapel when building work was happening.

If the RW water level really can be lowered it'd be very interesting to see how far it's possible to get into Speedwell's downstream sump - maybe beyond the point reached by cave divers? Maybe find the connection with Speedwell Pot in Peak, which mustn't be very far beyond the current end of the line (in a low bedding)?

 

[pwhole]

Surely though, as water levels are so low at present it might not actually take that long to lower the sump dramatically - there's very little water going down Speedwell at all right now. We walked into Pit Props three weeks ago, with the traverse line high above

There was just a dribble coming out of the beddings near Block Hall, but that was just the dribble sinking at Pit Props. It is a good time to be checking some of this. Has anyone checked Lumbago Sump recently?

 

[Roger W]

Where did you read that, do you have a reference?

I seem to remember reading the same (although not sure about the year of the drought. Fire engine used to pump water from the well into the mains. I also seem to remember reading something about a fish )or was it two of them?) in the well.. Am I imagining things?

I do remember having a drink out of the well - that was in the days when you paid sixpence to go through somebody's garden to get to the well and a mug was supplied for you to quench your thirst.

 

[AR]

Wacker might be able to remember it happening?

I also remember Dave Williams telling me about the Chapel being a lemonade factory prior to the TSG buying it, I think he chipped in a month or two's wages!

 

[danthecavingman]

The Chapel was a pop factory, G Baum & Sons? Chapel Works Castleton. Well before my time.

Russet Well is at least 27m deep with an unknown volume behind it. I'm sure one of the three phase Flyght pumps could put a dent in it if left running, given time.

As for drinking the water coming out, no ta, that's only going to end badly.

 

[mikem]

1947 & 1959: http://caving-library.org.uk/catalo...=&search_string=Derbyshire Times&search=title

 

[Roger W]

After a bit of fruitless Googling, I found a little gem:

https://chstrial.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/some-castleton-history.pdf

Some memories by Peter C Harrison, who recalled among other things that water was taken from the Russet Well in 1947 and 1959.

When I paid my 6d and visited the well, the water was flowing up out of the basin, nice and clear and cold. It tasted nearly as good as the water from the river in Peak Cavern at the end of the Five Arches, where we were encouraged to have a drink by the tour guide in those far-off days. (It wasn't anybody posting here on UKC by any chance, was it?)

And am I imagining things about a couple of fish (trout?) being reported to live the Russet Well? There must be someone on the forum who can confirm or deny.

 

[danthecavingman]

After a bit of fruitless Googling, I found a little gem:

https://chstrial.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/some-castleton-history.pdf

Some memories by Peter C Harrison, who recalled among other things that water was taken from the Russet Well in 1947 and 1959.

When I paid my 6d and visited the well, the water was flowing up out of the basin, nice and clear and cold. It tasted nearly as good as the water from the river in Peak Cavern at the end of the Five Arches, where we were encouraged to have a drink by the tour guide in those far-off days. (It wasn't anybody posting here on UKC by any chance, was it?)

And am I imagining things about a couple of fish (trout?) being reported to live the Russet Well? There must be someone on the forum who can confirm or deny.

Tim Nixon had an encounter with a big bull trout in Russet Well I believe. Pitlamp may recall the incident? Mark Wright was first to reach the bottom at 27m after passing the squeeze halfway down. Maybe Mark can confirm trout in there?

 

[Pitlamp]

Yep; I was there that day. Tim hated fish. A monster trout had parked itself in the restriction at -5 m, facing inwards. When Tim got back up to this point he met this great thing glaring at him and standing its ground. Took him ages to shoo it away. I reckon he'd have rather drowned than try to wriggle past it!

At times over the years the well has been illuminated with submersible lamps, partly to allow the large trout in there to be viewad from the surface

By the way, the maximum depth in Russet Well is 25 m.

 

[Pitlamp]

P.S. - nice one mikem and Roger W.

 

[Mrs Trellis]

Yes that's the piece I was referring to "pop shop" etc. Peter actually lived in the cottage with Russett Well in the garden.

 

[Mark Wright]

Tim Nixon had an encounter with a big bull trout in Russet Well I believe. Pitlamp may recall the incident? Mark Wright was first to reach the bottom at 27m after passing the squeeze halfway down. Maybe Mark can confirm trout in there?

Dick Turner and Ian Rennie did most of the work clearing out the first squeeze and got everybody enthused about pushing it more. Although I have been to the bottom at -25m i’n pretty sure it was Tim who got there first.

There were a few close calls during the exploration. I managed to rescue Chris Rhodes from a boulder blockage that he caused when passing the squeeze at around -12m and Tim Nixon rescued me from a similar incident.

Mark

 

[droid]

What's the relationship between Russet Well and Slop Moll?

I always get these two confused....

 

[Mrs Trellis]

Russett Well didn't flow when Slop Moll was cleared.

 

[martinb]

Rose Cottage (with Russet Well) is still in the Harrison (Turner) family.

 

[pwhole]

As I understand it there's a significant pressured reservoir of water beneath the gorge, fed from multiple sources, which converge in such a way that they can produce different results at the same times from the outlets. Russet Well and Slop Moll seem to be quite intimately connected, but presumably complex overflow levels between them determine what happens where. They're fed by the Speedwell streamway and Lumbago Sump (at least),and possibly have some connection to Speedwell Pot. It's also possible sinking water in Cave Dale could resurge here, going under the Halfway House or the Swine Hole in a lower passage.

Also now Peakshole Sough has been shown to be a significant third resurgence from this system - not by draining mine workings, but via an upwelling in the floor of the sough, only 20 or so metres inside the level. In drought it's usually level with the floor, and any wetter it overflows into the passage and out into Peakshole Water. Dye traces showed this to be fed from surface sinking water in Cowlow Nick, the Son of Longcliffe sump and Longcliffe Mine (at least - I suspect Rowter Hole and Winnats Head could be added to the list). It hadn't really been used for detecting before that, so it may be significant. I think Jim L hoped to dive it but the slot is far too small to get into and I think he said a camera lowered down didn't look promising. We had a very strong trace here and a very weak one at RW, but at identical times, so it's clearly mixing with other water just after PS.

There's a large number of other potential inputs other than Peak-Speedwell, not least Treak Cliff and Blue John caverns, which both drain water via some unknown passages en-route - possibly some BJ water going into Odin Sough instead, but Treak Cliff is heading more toward Peak as I remember. I still think there's another streamway system north of, and roughly parallel to Speedwell, along the base of Long Cliff or under the road. There's a phreatic passage system under the shale at the far end of PS that Jim and Mich Ping dug out, that could well be an early higher-level part of this system, once connected to Goosehill Cave.