CAR POT BREAKTHROUGH

By D. Brindle

[By the courtesy of the Craven Pot-hole Club, Mr. Brindle’s very full record has now been placed at the Editor’s disposal, and we publish most of it. Like other caves lately dug into, the new Car Pot has a terribly narrow approach, and required many week-ends of work by men who are lucky enough not to be cut off from the pots to-day by distance.

Car Pot is over the sky-line wall seen E. of Gaping Gill. On top of the Birkbeck Trench ridge close to the wall will be found a pot-hole which can be walked down, and Car Pot is forty yards further from the wall, a rocky pot 27 ft. deep. In 1909 Brodrick and Rule cleared a fissure and made a 44 ft. ladder descent. It is right above the end of Gaping Gill East Passage.

Digging on the floor has been done at intervals since 1933 by the Craven P.H.C. men – Ed.]

Mainly because of A. C. Waterfall’s hopes of success, several of us rushed up to Clapham on 25th April, 1948. Car Pot is rather cramped for space to dig, so only Waterfall, Birkett, and Hartley went down, but by the end of the day stones could be heard to rattle down, so prospects were good.

On May 9th, there were five men ; K. M. Wood and myself went down and dug under a drip at what used to be the highest point of a steep floor. Stones began descending an unknown pitch and before long we had a dirty-looking opening big enough to crawl through. Two ladders were rushed up from Clapdale ; one was tied to the first pitch ladder and thrust into the breach. Hartley descended, I next.

The narrow opening led into a nearly circular shaft, about 10 ft. diameter, the pitch being 25 ft. with a floor of stones, rather damp from the drip. Sounds indicated Hartley about 15 ft. away along a narrow cleft. After much puffing and blowing he declared the place too tight but ages seemed to elapse before he emerged from the rift which did not look too bad to me (I had not tried it then) and we departed joyful at getting somewhere.

Campers at Clapdale at Whitsuntide all had a go at the Car Pot Letterbox, but the following ” Crawl ” was a really nasty bit of work in which you stuck like a cork in a bottle. The weather was really beautiful so we spent our time elsewhere.

A garden trowel was used to deepen the Crawl on May 23rd and a damp job it was too, a puddle persisting at the tightest part of the Crawl in spite of us lying in it and mopping it up. At last, however, the ” breakthrough ” occurred. Past the Crawl the passage widened and the trickle of water vanished down a narrow crack. This was disappointing but a few feet farther on the nick narrowed and then widened out to a pos­ sible but rather awkward pitch. The three of us (B. Hartley, K. M. Wood and myself) retired jubilant.

The following Sunday saw seven men up at Car Pot with more ladders. S. Peckover, B. Hartley, K. M. Wood and I got through the Crawl and descended the following 25 ft. pitch on to ledges above a narrow rift. A short traverse took us to the head of a nice 50 ft. pitch which was followed by a short, high passage to the head of a fifth pitch. 50 ft. of ladder was lowered and Hartley and I descended to a ledge from which the pitch took a turn and then plunged into a black abyss. It was now evident that Car Pot was really big and we congratulated ourselves on the success so far obtained. We got another 50 ft. of ladder down but we were still short of the bottom by about 30 ft. so the retreat was sounded.

The next attempt was on June 6th, a miserable day. The Club was up in force and in spite of the soaked ground we decided to carry on. The troublesome drip above the second pitch had become more of a showerbath now but a bucket placed on a ledge about 8 ft. up caught a certain amount so we got away fairly lightly. Near the head of the big pitch, a small stream drops in from the roof and the behaviour of the spray caused by the increased flow gave a reason for the curious fact that one wall of the passage is smooth, apart from a large flake of rock which forms a really substantial belay, while the opposite wall is very heavily pock-marked with deep hollows. In spite of the water we put the ladders down the 130 ft. pitch and (not without misgivings) I descended to the ledge at 50 ft. down and sent over the piled-up ladders. On a ledge 8 ft. lower are some very fine specimens of knife-edge limestone of which one or two flakes have since dropped down. The ladders went down under the ” Gong ” (a great flake of rock which emits a dull booming sound when struck hard) and then came out into the open shaft for the last 25 ft. of the pitch.

At the bottom a large passage runs N.W.-S.E. ; to the S.E. (South Craven Passage) a wall of mud and stones 20 ft. high barred the way while to the N.W. (North Craven Passage) the stream descended a sloping floor of stones before turning from the main passage to disappear in a siphon choked up with small stones. Past the siphon the passage, now rising, carried a small stream. It was now smaller but quite roomy and after the source of the stream was passed, quite dry. Craven Pass­ age, now widening, contained much sand-like dried mud and many fallen boulders while the stalactites reminded me, very forcibly, of the East Passage in Gaping Gill. At last I turned back and was very glad of a good life-line on the big pitch which was decidedly wet.

The three of us pulled the tackle back up to the end of the Crawl, and we were very glad to hear Birkett at the other side of the Crawl. Wood went through and began helping Birkett with the tackle which had, of course, to be tailed through. The water was on the increase as indicated by the louder roar from below so at last Hartley and I abandoned the tackle and went through the Crawl which was streaming with water. Birkett was waiting to help us through the Letterbox but after seeing Wood struggle up through the rush of water we decided that another route was essential. Discarding some sodden clothing we managed to climb up the rift a short distance before the Letterbox and traverse out into the open pitch. The Crawl was bad but Birkett’s position was worse. The water which sprayed down the pitch was loosening stones above and bringing them down to arrive, very often it seemed, on his helmet. Before long we were out of the watery inferno into the gentle rain of the storm outside. A. C. Waterfall who held the fort at the bottom of the first pitch (usually dry but now wet) came up last and we all made tracks for Clapdale farm and dry clothes.

Next week-end, Hartley, K. M. Wood, and myself were the lucky ones to get through the Crawl and, greatly helped by being able to pick up tackle left, before long were in the Craven Passage. Once here, we turned north past the siphon and the inlet, to the dry passage which rose and widened before flattening out to a great bedding plane 40 ft. wide and 3 ft. high. Formations were in evidence and a few yards farther on the floor dropped and the cave opened out into a large chamber (Curtain Chamber) and we saw, for the first time, the beautiful curtain that gave the name. A large stalactite 7 ft. from starting point to tip hung from the roof. From the top of the stalactite a beautiful curtain about 2 ft. high and 4 ft. long ran along the roof at an angle of about 30° to the horizontal. Below the stalactite and separated from it by 6 ft. of space was a large stalagmite about 5 ft. high and 2 ft. diameter. A 2 ft. high stalagmite stood under the end of the curtain. This set of formations was promptly voted the best ever seen (we were naturally biased) and we proceeded up the passage beyond to find an array of smaller stalagmites and hosts of straws. We noticed at this point that many of the straws were broken, which suggested an earth movement of some kind. The passage went on, contracted, widened out and finally ended in a sandy choke. Greatly pleased with our discoveries we decided that the time had come to return. We found the big pitch moderately damp and after hauling the ladders up out of the water we left them in residence and departed.

More, than a month later, July 18th, four of us (Hutton, Wood, N. Brindle and I) made an early start in. This time we attacked the wall of mud and stones to the south. By cutting steps with a pickaxe we managed to climb this ” Mud Wall ” and a ladder was soon fixed. Hutton and Wood went on south while my brother and I went north to Curtain Chamber to try and take a photograph. We had nearly set up the apparatus when the Mud Wall party returned so we ushered them into position and let the flash off from Flash Boulder – a mighty chunk of rock facing the formations. We gathered that South Craven Passage rose steeply and then flattened out to a crawl on a floor of mud with many stalactites, stalagmites, and pillars. This bedding plane was penetrated to a point where it would have been necessary to break stalactites to proceed, and since the crawl was less than 1 ft. high and still decreasing they turned back. We now realised that it was about time for the retreat, so we departed as quickly as the. Crawl would allow, but it was midnight when we arrived back at Clapdale Farm.

July 31st saw the next descent, when the surprising number of six got through to Craven Passage, V. J. Wood, K. M. Wood,

Hampden, Peckover, Hartley and myself. After a thorough examination of North Craven Passage, about 150 yards long, Peckover, K. M. Wood and I went along South Craven Passage. After breaking a few stalactites we forced the muddy crawl and found ourselves in a large passage. The roof level remained approximately constant while the floor fell away until at an offshoot the height was about 20 ft. The crawl we had just come through was not a bedding plane but a large passage filled almost to the roof with mud. From the offshoot (Glissade Pot, so called because of the slippery mud) we hurried forward up the passage which was now decreasing in height and which contained some exquisite stalactites and stalagmites until we arrived at a fork. These were evidently inlet passages and the left branch proceeded to turn into a low, wet crawl while the right branch passed a 30 ft. aven and divided, both branches being too small to follow at 240 yards. Having explored all the passages we could, we returned to Glissade Pot. A steep, slippery descent led to a 15 ft. pitch that we could not descend without tackle.

Saturday afternoon August 14th, saw K. M. Wood, N. Brindle and myself up at Car Pot and all prepared for surveying. A stake accompanied us up to the descent and was driven into the mud at the top of Glissade Pot to serve as a belay. The Mud Wall ladder was attached and the 15 ft. pitch descended to a choke! The last probable exit from Car Pot was thus written off and the survey commenced. Photographs were taken and the difficulty of removing the ladder from the Mud Wall was solved by an abseil which worked very well indeed. After finishing the survey of Craven Passage the tackle was hoisted up the 130 ft. pitch for the last time and left. When we finally emerged it was Sunday morning and seventeen hours since we had entered the place, a Marathon effort.

August 28th. The survey was finished and then the task of pulling the tackle out through the Crawl began. Much to our surprise it went out with hardly a hitch, and by 3 a.m. on Sunday morning a mountain of ladders and ropes had risen outside the pot. Later on Sunday the last of the tackle was taken down to Clapdale and the siege of Car Pot was at an end. We left it very much as we had found it for others to “enjoy ” but felt tremendously relieved that the ordeal was over at last.