Link Pot exploration

On the day of the breakthrough there were twelve of us on the surface in the pouring rain forming a not-so-orderly queue to descend. Priority seemed to go first to the largest and then to those who could boast of the most digging hours spent on the hole.

I descended after Bill Pybus and found him still spinning round and round at the bottom of the pitch; he was spell bound and kept muttering, "It's huge." I pushed him and we ran off down the passage, the process being repeated by every pair that descended.

Batty, Brandon and Jim Eyre were fighting boulders at the end of Hylton Hall and, due to a herculean effort by Jim, Derek was knocked down a twelve foot drop. Fortunately, he was not badly injured, or the cave would have become the first to be explored almost entirely by the CRO.

The next weekend I arrived at the cottage late on Friday night just as everyone was returning from the pub; we talked of the caves we were going to find on Saturday. Then Bill and Pete Rhodes burst in, intent on exploring the cave that night. Whilst the argument raged, I went to bed, only to be woken up and told that we were off.

A pair of cars containing Bill, Pete and Stan Rhodes, Nigel and myself set off on a mad race to Bull Pot Farm; we got underground for about 3 am and began the 'Night Shift'.

Bill and Nigel went downstream in Hylton Hall whilst I set off for Black Hole Chamber. I pulled out a few rocks and discovered the start of the 'Night Shift Series'.

The three of us rushed down the passages until we came to China Dog Chamber. The excitement was tremendous; finally Bill and Nigel, with some ladder, caught up. Since it was my find, I went down the pitch first and ran off downstream. We all ended up at the Ramp having all gone by different routes. But Pippikin was nowhere to be found. Nigel tried to push the crawl at the end of the Ramp, but with no success, so the 'Night Shift' retired exhausted.

On the way back we met the start of the 'Day Shift'; Batty and Frank Walker closely followed by a cast of thousands. The 'Day Shift' made two significant discoveries after reexploring the Night Shift Series.

Batty dug through the boulders in Hylton Hall and found a large passage ending in a pitch. Half-way up the pitch he could see a rope where someone was bolting up the aven; it was Echo Aven - the first link had been made to Lancaster Hole.

At the same time, Tiger had found, although he didn't know it, the way to Pippikin. He climbed a small inlet in the Canyon which meant a death-defying leap across nothing.

Tiger's Inlet to Serendipity

Tiger's Inlet is where a small stream enters the canyon from a large hole in the wall about 20 feet up. No apparent direct climb could be seen, so a traverse back along the rift at a higher level is required. Climb (back and foot) up the rift to a large ledge at the same level as the inlet. The stream passage can then be entered by applying a layback, using a good handhold on the wall and the right foot on the lip of the ledge. After this, lean across and place the left elbow on the opposite wall using the fist-sized ledge; at the same time placing the left foot on a small but safe knob, then elbow traverse the last few feet until reaching the floor (sounds easy doesn't it!)

K Langham

That night Greenclose was packed with excited people exchanging stories and sketching surveys; Pippikin was only a matter of hours away.

The Sunday saw the same masses returning to Easegill and Iain, Jim Eyre, Roy Roebuck and Kev Millington went to Echo Aven. A really frightening experience, the way through to Echo Aven means passing along Hara Kiri Highway and under the Pendulum. I was sitting in the small chamber after the Pendulum, looking at the boulders and wondering where the walls were, when a boulder fell and just missed my head. Of course, it bruised my shoulder and gave me cardiac arrest.

Jim Eyre climbed down the pitch and so offically joined Link Pot to Lancaster Hole.

The exploration continued elsewhere, but no new discoveries were made. The next big find came two weeks later when Tiger and Derek Brandon announced that they had pushed Tiger's Inlet and found Handpump Hall and, more significantly, they had come to Serendipity.

Serendipity

Tiger and I had just found Handpump Hall, and were feeling very pleased with ourselves. The prospect of exploring the other gently uphill sloping phreatic crawls above Tiger's Inlet seemed somehow less attractive, but we succeeded in continually convincing each other that we should go on with such tit-bits as "There's some nice straws here, come and look", "might as well go a bit further", and so on. We were spoiled for choice, but our selected route took us through Cairn Junction and past Death Row. As we stopped to reflect on our recent fortunes, I thought I was hearing things - it sounded like the distant roar of water ! Surely not, up a low phreatic tube ? A few yards further on and then... "Tiger - come on. Fast !" I reached a T-junction, where the rumbling, thundering noise came from the uphill branch on the right. It sounded like approaching GG in flood from the South Passage. With imagination running riot I shot off, with Tiger close on my heels. The crawl became higher, the sound more spacious when, suddenly, I was halted by a precipice which formed the near side of a 25 foot deep cross-rift. Fifteen feet across the other side, the cavern continued, vadose invaded as a massive stream passage discharging a torrent into the depths of the rift.

"Bloody magic ! - Serendipity !" we exclaimed. We gained the stream passage via an easy traverse on the right. Unable to descend the rift, we retraced our steps, exploring Molten Mars Bar Crawl on our way back to Cairn junction.

Despite being in a state of euphoric ecstasy we decided to tell no-one of our find until the following morning. We awoke the rest with the news at 8 am next day, but they would not believe us at first. The fact that we were on the road by 9 am with Gordon and John Bowers seemed to have some convincing effect. Even Bob Newton came !

Tiger had the honour of being the first down the 25 foot pitch into the rift and burbled back that there was another pitch - "a big, wet one !" Within seconds, Gordon and I had joined Tiger, and soon the pitch was laddered. The shaft was spacious and looked like 70 or 80 feet of wetness. I was first down and kicked the razor-sharp edges from several flakes. At the bottom was another pitch in a wide shaft, and which landed in a large pool. The exit was a high rift, three to four feet wide, at the far side. I was scared to look - would it go ? Gordon was soon behind and we ran round bend after bend down a massive river passage which seemed as though it would never end. The colour and texture of the walls was warm and friendly, and the racing water urged us on. Next came a region of breakdown; I was apprehensive to say the least about passing some of the hitherto undisturbed blocks. But before long we were past the breakdown area and ran as before, stopping only to laugh, shake our heads and reflect on how ridiculous it all seemed.

In due time, the inevitable happened - the roof lowered very gradually, but the floor didn't. The smooth flat rock had been replaced by gritstone cobbles. Of necessity we found ourselves stooping at first, then crawling, then flat out in deepening water. When the airspace was down to three inches, with definite sumpy noises ahead, I turned back. Gordon and I felt sure we had covered a mile, but the survey showed the main passage back to the Pool Chamber to be nearer 2000 feet.

D Brandon

A mass of Pennine bodies went up the high-level crawl towards Serendipity and I trailed along with Bob Newton (!) and Pete Rhodes. We arrived to find only John Bowers holding a lifeline as Nigel, Derek, Gordon and Tiger had thrown themselves down the '70' and were exploring Easy Street.

At the top of Serendipity was an enormous rock jammed across the passage, which one had to crawl under to climb down the pitch. Since I am allergic to big rocks, I decided to knock it down the pitch. Unfortunately, as the rock dropped down, the whole world began to move; it had keyed in a piano-sized boulder that I was stood on. The boulder, with me sat on it, slid gracefully over the edge. I remember thinking "They'll have to name this pitch after me", but before my fate was sealed a hand came out of the darkness and pulled me onto solid ground. Pete Rhodes saved me from a messy end; meanwhile all the rocks were falling towards John Bowers who couldn't decide whether to be ignominiously crushed or throw himself down the next pitch. Before he could decide, the boulders jammed and we sat down for a quick tremble!

The rest of the party explored Easy Street down to the sump and found a new sardine tin; but again no sign of Pippikin.

For the next few weeks the pitch was too wet to descend and attention was directed to other pursuits. Batty et al started on the survey. Stan Rhodes had a dig in Black Hole Chamber, but no real progress was made until Kev produced a four foot long chisel. This proved most effective and the dig progressed rapidly to its demise.

Meanwhile Bill, with the help of others, was entombed in Hylton Hall; an unfortunate incident involving boulders.

Handpump Hall started to attract attention because of its size, so numerous raiding parties were organised. Kev Millington produced some marvellous scaling poles so we dragged them down the hole to be assembled in Handpump Hall. These proved to be extremely rigid, despite dire warnigs from Brandon about their instability. We pushed them up every conceivable aven with no luck at all; but they were an endless source of entertainment.

Two digs were started in Handpump Hall. The first was in an inlet which can only be remembered from a remark by Eyre, when everyone had given up, to the effect that when he was younger he could have forced his way up the passage. The second dig lasted longer and involved explosions in conjunction with Brandon, but that, too, came to nothing.

Attention was then directed to upstream passages. John Bowers and myself pushed upstream in the Canyon into a very unstable area. The way on was past a chock stone, which held up the world, and back into the stream again. I had the worst attack of boulderphobia I have ever had. We came to the base of a ten foot climb (Panic Aven); the rocks looked so loose that we came back. Batty and Tiger also visited this area by a strange route - from Handpump Hall - and rechristened it Whisper Aven.

A week later, Bill, Kev and Roy Roebuck made the same journey and Kev was nearly crushed. As they retreated rapidly back down the passage the whole choke started to run in; they could still hear the sound of falling rocks from China Dog Chamber.

Upstream from Serendipity, conditions were rather similar. In the boulders someone found a crisp packet so the passage must be close to Easegill Beck.

Meanwhile, Batty was continuing with the survey and, together with Frank Walker et al, began a dig in the passages off Squid Junction (The Link).

Bob Hryndyj had, by this time, recovered from his illness and decided to dive the sump in Serendipity.