Stump Cross / Angels of the North

[mikem]

Funnily enough the article in Record 90 is mainly about the possible location of the lake and Geoff mentions that "due to collapse of the loose looking roof (both deliberately and naturally) the floor of the [Miners] chamber is now about 10 feet higher than it was in the 1920's".

 

[Relict]

If you can get past the snowflakes, then it is explained at:

The legend of Long's lost lake

In 1922, Christopher Long discovered new chambers in Stump Cross – and allegedly an underground lake. Dive into the legend with us…

www.stumpcrosscaverns.co.uk

Ok so the story told here is a bizarre mix of truth, legend and completely invented old news. The general political story is not too bad: Long was a superb and committed cave explorer who came into conflict with land and underground rights owners. He was living in the vacuum of time for young men too young to have thrown their lives onto the bonfire of the great war. Seeking something perhaps as exciting and approaching this, he and his companions came North to force a passage in an uncompromising and difficult cave. Mud, endless effort and the ever present danger of extinction drove their commitment to breakthrough, which was realised.
Meanwhile, between their long efforts to force a route through the Clay Level, came Saturday nights in the Miners Arms in Greenhow. Cambridge University students in one of the most remote communities in Northern England caused a stir and attracted local youth of both sexes. These men were well educated and became a focus for local youngsters, soon gaining a following of young people used to the underground in a mining community.
Local records document several instances of these relationships but perhaps the most relevant here was that of a teenage follower of Long named W. Busfield. Assuming this to be Will Busfield, a young teenager in the early 1920's, he was asked in the 1970's to recall his visit to the eponymous Lake discovered and accompanied by Chris Long.
In his mid to late 60's, which in the day was a very old age, he produces a sketch map annotated. This was directed to S.Craven, a CPC member.
The sketch is very basic and at first sight seems somewhat unprepossessing. Nevertheless, from someone in a mining community who had doubtless seen the underground world, it's remarkably convincing and authentic.
He describes rock walls surrounding a streamway 15 ft wide. He observes water emerging from under rock, flowing about 50m across to sink under rock to left, probably west. He guessed the water to be 40 ft deep. Across the stream he depicts a typical boulder choke. He is assertive that he waited on the shore as Long swam across to explore beyond: Long would have been a competent swimmer as a Cambridge student, but Busfield a typical rural non- swimmer. His depiction is a classic sketch and utterly believable.
Two things support this interpretation. In the 1970's cave divers discovered an air bell in a streamway to the south of the Dissected Area.This is close to the area near Astor Column where Longs' exploring terminated.
Much later the Stump Cross fanatic Geoff Workman, accompanied by the also late explorer, Mal Goodwin, a pal of mine and committed Stump Cross revealer, found this section of stream from the Astor Column. Mal was sadly dying from an aggressive cancer and rang me on numerous occasions to reveal some of the secret but intricate routes discovered by Geoff Workman.
Mal's clear description of this place matches the CDG report and Will Busfield's memoir.
I don't want to disabuse anyone who wants to find a great big lake under Craven Cross. I humbly submit that Chris Long may have discovered a section of the downstream stream.
It could be?....