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Mendip Rocks, Earth Science Lecture Day
Mendip Rocks are holding a number of presentations on Saturday 17th October as part of the Earth Science Week. Talks will include:-
Anjana Khatwa, award winning presenter and writer: "The Whispers of Rock: Stories from the Earth". Vince Simmonds, archeologist and cave explorer: "Echoes of the Ice Age: A Pleistocene Record from Mendip Cave Deposits" Of particular interest will be the recent find, the Woolly Rhino Skull that is now in Wells Museum. Owen Dukes - Geologist (Tarmac) "Mendip Mineral Resources"
Big cave at High tor
- Thread starter Badlad
- Start date
AR
Well-known member
I'm guessing High Tor gulley is a climber's name for either Fern or Roman cave; neither are caves but instead deep open stopes. There's a few bits of disconnected workings lower down, the most in-depth publication covering them is John Barnatt and Terry Worthington's work - https://pdmhs.co.uk/MiningHistory/Bulletin%2017-3%20-%20Metal%20Mines%20through%20Time.pdf (be aware this is a 50Mb download)
edit - there's also this short article which I suspect may be describing the "big cave" - https://pdmhs.co.uk/MiningHistory/Bulletin%209-3%20-%20A%20Trial%20Excavation%20on%20High%20Tor%20Rake,%20Matlock.pdf
edit - there's also this short article which I suspect may be describing the "big cave" - https://pdmhs.co.uk/MiningHistory/Bulletin%209-3%20-%20A%20Trial%20Excavation%20on%20High%20Tor%20Rake,%20Matlock.pdf
pwhole
Well-known member
There's photos of mine of both ends of Fern Cave (High Tor Rake) opencut, and a single shot of the west end of Roman Cave (Hard Rake) opencut on the PDCI page:
https://peakdistrictcaving.info/home/the-caves/derwent-south/fern-cave
Roman Cave is too shallow and probably too unstable for climbing, and Fern Cave is locked up. Both are really ancient and beautiful, and hopefully won't be climbed on at all.
https://peakdistrictcaving.info/home/the-caves/derwent-south/fern-cave
Roman Cave is too shallow and probably too unstable for climbing, and Fern Cave is locked up. Both are really ancient and beautiful, and hopefully won't be climbed on at all.
History Trog
Active member
High Tor Gully on the massive cavern-like outcrop of High Tor Rake was a famous climb at the start of the 20th century with the Kyndwr Club. There are contemporary accounts of the climb. It is mentioned in my forthcoming book on the Matlock mines, from which I extract the following:
Nowadays, a rubble slope descends from the base of the fissure into a low passage on top of the Upper Lava. This is silted up after 80 feet although a draught issues from choked workings in the roof. (1) The Kyndwr Climbing Club president, Mr. E. A. Baker, described in 1902 an early climb in High Tor Rake:
We scrambled down slopes of clay and scree for nearly a hundred feet ? the stones that we shifted in our movements crashing all the while into the black gulf beneath us, whose depth we could not ascertain ? Our efforts to enter the gully at the foot were likewise a failure.(2)
This suggests that a considerable floor stope then existed. This ?High Tor Gully? was first climbed in 1903 by Joe Puttrell. (3)
1 Picken, John, 1985. A Trial Excavation on High Tor Rake, Matlock. P.D.M.H.S. Bull. Vol. 9 No. 3, pp 197-199.
2 Climbing Club Journal 1905, No. 26 p98.
3 Manchester Guardian 16 Dec 1903 p12.
Nowadays, a rubble slope descends from the base of the fissure into a low passage on top of the Upper Lava. This is silted up after 80 feet although a draught issues from choked workings in the roof. (1) The Kyndwr Climbing Club president, Mr. E. A. Baker, described in 1902 an early climb in High Tor Rake:
We scrambled down slopes of clay and scree for nearly a hundred feet ? the stones that we shifted in our movements crashing all the while into the black gulf beneath us, whose depth we could not ascertain ? Our efforts to enter the gully at the foot were likewise a failure.(2)
This suggests that a considerable floor stope then existed. This ?High Tor Gully? was first climbed in 1903 by Joe Puttrell. (3)
1 Picken, John, 1985. A Trial Excavation on High Tor Rake, Matlock. P.D.M.H.S. Bull. Vol. 9 No. 3, pp 197-199.
2 Climbing Club Journal 1905, No. 26 p98.
3 Manchester Guardian 16 Dec 1903 p12.
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