Reasons why it's called that...
- Thread starter Pegasus
- Start date
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
Ah Twin Titties was called that as it was two shakeholes together looking like a giant woman had fallen face flat.
Golgotha because Willie thought some rock projections looked like skulls.( Reservoir )
Herbert's Attic after Hebert Balch.( Reservoir )
Suicide in Hilliers as originally it was horribly dangerous.
My name Drop Out Rift in Fairy Cave because the floor disappeared when we banged the dig.
Tar Hall in Hilliers cus the tar seeped in from the tanks above.
Festival Cave, Devon cus it was discovered when The Festival of Britain was on.
Another of mine. Rumble Tumble Hole. Fairy Cave Quarry and very loose.
Pickwick Passage in Reservoir as well as Dingley Dell. Both Dickens related
Happy Snappers in Reservoir Hole cus I was always taking photos along with Mr O'Doc.
One wonders when a name becomes official. I would guess that is when it appears on a survey.
Golgotha because Willie thought some rock projections looked like skulls.( Reservoir )
Herbert's Attic after Hebert Balch.( Reservoir )
Suicide in Hilliers as originally it was horribly dangerous.
My name Drop Out Rift in Fairy Cave because the floor disappeared when we banged the dig.
Tar Hall in Hilliers cus the tar seeped in from the tanks above.
Festival Cave, Devon cus it was discovered when The Festival of Britain was on.
Another of mine. Rumble Tumble Hole. Fairy Cave Quarry and very loose.
Pickwick Passage in Reservoir as well as Dingley Dell. Both Dickens related
Happy Snappers in Reservoir Hole cus I was always taking photos along with Mr O'Doc.
One wonders when a name becomes official. I would guess that is when it appears on a survey.
Green and Smelly passage, in the Easegill System, is a gross misnomer, conjuring up as it does an evil place ? more like a sewer than a cave.
As I understand it, it was so-called because a group of cavers were underground exploring new cave and walking along a very pleasant passage, when suddenly they were assailed by acrid fumes from a smoke-bomb set off on the surface near a draughting hole by some friends of theirs; the smoke was followed shortly by the water's turning bright green, as the fluorescein that had been intodued into a stream sink (by the same surface group) reached them.
So Green and Smelly were very temporary phenomena, but the (rather unfortunate) name stuck.
'Ignorance is Bliss' is another Easegill name, this time with rather more pleasant connotation. Again, as I understand it, a youg lad named Ron Bliss had caught the caving bug and got the bit well and truly between his teeth as he joined the early exploration of the Easegill caves ? which, at the time, were known as the near series of County Pot (Oxford Pot at the time, of course). Anyway, he evidently 'discovered' several passages that had already been entered, and his efforts were indulged by the older members of his group.
So when he really did find a new passage, I gather that the other guys didn't believe him at first; when they found that he'd discovered a route through to the back end of Lancaster Hole, they called it after him ? 'Ignorance is Bliss'.
Again in Easgill, I don't know who was first to reach Holbeck Junction, but the 'real' Holbeck Junction is (or at least, it was) a major junction on the railway just outside Leeds. So I guess that the guys who were first there came from somehwere near Leeds and named it accordngly. Maybe 'Main Line Terminus' and 'Main Line Passage' continued the railway theme?
As I understand it, it was so-called because a group of cavers were underground exploring new cave and walking along a very pleasant passage, when suddenly they were assailed by acrid fumes from a smoke-bomb set off on the surface near a draughting hole by some friends of theirs; the smoke was followed shortly by the water's turning bright green, as the fluorescein that had been intodued into a stream sink (by the same surface group) reached them.
So Green and Smelly were very temporary phenomena, but the (rather unfortunate) name stuck.
'Ignorance is Bliss' is another Easegill name, this time with rather more pleasant connotation. Again, as I understand it, a youg lad named Ron Bliss had caught the caving bug and got the bit well and truly between his teeth as he joined the early exploration of the Easegill caves ? which, at the time, were known as the near series of County Pot (Oxford Pot at the time, of course). Anyway, he evidently 'discovered' several passages that had already been entered, and his efforts were indulged by the older members of his group.
So when he really did find a new passage, I gather that the other guys didn't believe him at first; when they found that he'd discovered a route through to the back end of Lancaster Hole, they called it after him ? 'Ignorance is Bliss'.
Again in Easgill, I don't know who was first to reach Holbeck Junction, but the 'real' Holbeck Junction is (or at least, it was) a major junction on the railway just outside Leeds. So I guess that the guys who were first there came from somehwere near Leeds and named it accordngly. Maybe 'Main Line Terminus' and 'Main Line Passage' continued the railway theme?
langcliffe
Well-known member
A name that a couple of us have been mulling over recently is "Shistol Pot", named by the Yorkshire Ramblers. I always assumed it was a malapropism, given their tendency for bearing firearms when they were caving.
Hi langcliffe, I've wondered about that one, and figured that as they were exploring the cave a rock came crashing down somewhere near where the explorers were standing, and someone said something on the lines of 'Christ, I thought that was a Pistol Shot' but in his somewhat agitated state it came out as 'Christ, I thought that was a Shistol Pot' (so in my scenario, no firearms were actually involved).
langcliffe
Well-known member
No, I wasn't implying that firearms were involved - only that such things as pistol shots were not unfamiliar to the gentleman caver of the day. Your theory is a credible one, though.
langcliffe
Well-known member
Topimo said:
Absolutely - I stand corrected.
All Fools Passage in New Rift Pot is called that because the breakthrough of the dig happened on the 1st April. The team went to the pub and with a straight face told everyone that the dig had gone and there were "Caverns Measureless to Man etc" (Coates Cavern/Route 66). As the dig had gone on for about five years the reaction was "oh sure" and general disbelief. They were all fools of course and the un-descended pitch was untouched until the week after.
psychocrawler
Member
Eerie Pot in Penyghent Pot because it is a strange place, not because it is like a eagle?s nest on a cliff (eyrie).
danthecavingman
Member
EMT Aven was discovered the day after a bruising night out in Buxton involving an Ex-Marine Tw*t who took it upon himself to knock several shades of crap out of me. We made the breakthrough with me sporting a black eye, broken nose and quite severe bruising to my body. I'll decline to go into too much detail about the circumstances that lead to the beating but the bloke involved was an Ex Marine. And a Tw*t. EMT. Suffice to say I didn't deserve what was done to me.
danthecavingman
Member
Yes indeed! After we broke through the choke we realised we needed climbing gear so headed back to the Chapel to fetch more kit and I think we might have had a brew. We got changed out of caving kit and then kitted back up for a return visit later the same day. Stuart Carter announced at some point that we would be heading home commando as we'd used all our dry grots and the subsequent pitch climbed by Glyn Roberts became 'No Shreddies 'til Sheffield' in memory of our lack of undies....
