Chippings

LUD’S CHURCH, STAFFORDSHIRE.  Mr. Michael Paffard, of the University of Keele, writing in Country Life, 19th October, 1961, under the title “The Lollards’ Valley of Legend”, mentions Lud’s Church in the Blackbrook Valley. On a small scale this resembles the gorges and collapsed caverns of the limestone districts, but in millstone grit it is probably a unique geological curiosity.

At either end of the chasm there are narrow caves. The one at the north end appears to go down into the rock almost vertically for a considerable distance and Mr. Paffard at the time of writing could find no record of its ever having been explored, he says it would need an experienced potholer to attempt the descent. The cave at the south end was partly explored during the 19th century, one explorer claiming to have found a high chamber with “Druidical Remains”, while another penetrated to a great depth and could hear the sound of running water.

These caves present an undoubted challenge to any potholing club; Mr. Paffard tells me that since he wrote the article some of his students at Keele who are keen potholers have tried to explore both caves. The one at the north end was found to have been carefully bricked up at some time, which lends substance to the local legend that a passage leads from there to Swythamley Hall. The south cave was blocked by an apparently recent rock fall about ten yards from the entrance; the party is hoping to be able to clear this.

H.G.W.

RINGING OF BATS.  The ruined 12th century Cistercian Abbey of Villers-la-Ville, near Brussels, is a refuge for bats, of which fl species have been identified here. The Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles has been carrying out a programme on ringing since 1945 in order to study behaviour, hibernation, migration (direction, distance, time), length of life and proportion of sexes. The rings are marked “Musee Royal d’Histoire Naturelle (Bruxelles) Belgique” and each carries a number; they are of aluminium and are placed on the forearm. Speleologists are specially asked, if they find a bat so ringed, to note the exact location and whether found in cave, loft, cellar and so on, the date of capture and the number on the ring, and to send this information on a postcard to the Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles, 31 Rue Vauthier, Brussels. On no account must the bat be killed; it should at once be released, leaving the ring on. It has already been established that one species of batt Mysotis Dasycneme, migrates during the summer season from this district to the north west of Holland and distances as great as 400 kilometres have been recorded. It is thus not impossible that bats ringed in Belgium might be found in England. There are several interesting articles on this subject in the Bulletin d’lnformation de I’Equipe Speleo de Bruxelles. (Y.R.C. Library).

H.G.W.

SALT MINES. The Hon. Editor asked E. H. Sale, who is in charge of LCI’s salt mining and brine pumping operations in Cheshire, whether in his profession he ever came across anything of interest to potholers. His reply was that modern salt mines are too hygienic and air conditioned to attract potholers, they bear the same sort of relation to a real mine that White Scar does to Lost John’s. He makes an exception, however, of some old mines which he inspected in 1953 at Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland. Descent in a bucket, a good deal of brine on the floor which was also well littered with pieces down from the roof; a safety hat was comforting. Eventually, there being no hidden passages, one of the mines was hired out to a firm of mushroom growers.

H.G.W.

ANCIENT ANIMALS OF THE UPLAND. Dr. Beverly Tarlo, of the Department of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Oxford, writing in the New Scientist of 5th July, 1962, describes how the fossils of small lizards and mammals living in Triassic times, about 200 million years ago, can be found in the caves and fissures of the limestone hills.

The fauna of the limestone uplands of those times were not so easily preserved after death as were those living in the swampy lowlands and the river estuaries where mud and silt covered their bodies rapidly and so preserved them from decomposition or from being scavenged. Sometimes, however, small animals would fall into limestone fissures, or their bodies would be washed in by rain before they disintegrated, and would be quickly buried in mud or sediment.

Such fossils are found in the Mendips, in South Wales, the Peak District of Derbyshire and in southern Poland. Examination of deposits from fissures in limestone in various districts is revealing that the land was not entirely dominated by the large herbivorous dinosaurs, but that many small forms, including mammals, played an important part in the life of the time. Knowledge about them is still incomplete, but gaps in the evolutionary picture are beginning to be filled.

H.G.W.