Recent Extensions To Oxlow Caverns

by J. R. Middleton

New Oxlow Cavern Plan

There were many new caving discoveries during 1964, but none perhaps as surprising or as interesting as that made in Oxlow Cavern, Derbyshire, by the British Speleological Asso­ciation in March of that year. Surprising because the entrance to the new section, 40 feet up the North Wall and 60 feet from the bottom of the 4th pitch, although noted on various occasions, had never been previously entered. Interesting because the new passage, of which there are more than 2,000 ft., exhibits characteristics that appeal to every type of under­ground explorer.

The entrance shaft to Oxlow Caverns is situated at National Grid Reference 126824, 1¼ miles due west of Castleton; it is reached by taking the Sparrowpit road from Winnats Pass, continuing about 300 yards, passing Oxlow Farm and follow­ing a wall southwards to a depression on a hillside. Old Oxlow Cavern was explored in 1922 by A. Humphreys, H. Humphreys and B. Holden and is described fully in Y.R.C.J., Vol. V, No. 16, page 135, by A. Humphreys. A number of changes have taken place since that time, these and a correc­tion to the original survey are noted at the end of the present account.

The British Speleological Association have now erected a rigid metal ladder up the smooth and unclimbable North Wall leading to the entrance to the new section. This is roughly circular, some 7 feet in diameter but within 20 feet the floor rises to within 18 inches of the roof. At this point by squeezing over a coffin shaped boulder one enters “Pilgrims’ Way”; to the left there is a mud choke, to the right, 950 ft. of hands and knees crawling. Within 60 ft. an even lower flat out crawl to the right leads to “Suicide Chamber”, an exceedingly loose place which is traversed by following the right hand wall to a 15 ft. pitch. Care is needed for the descent of this to a boulder strewn floor where, in certain places, stones fall a considerable distance.

Back in Pilgrims’Way the crawl goes on, hand and knee places must be chosen with care, the shingle although small is sharp; it leads past a) few small calcite formations, over a shallow but muddy pool and on to where a small stream, entering from an impenetrable crack (A), follows the passage for 115 feet and vanishes down an equally impenetrable crack (B). There follow more formations, this time of a reddish colour, then a further stream enters, crosses the passage and sinks (C). This sink is more interesting as the water is thought to join up with that in Oxlow Passage of Giant’s Hole; consequently some enthusi­astic work has been done on enlargement^[1]. Following this small stream back across the passage and through a short crawl, one reaches Castle Aven down which it showers, this is worth a visit if only for the fact that one can stand up. Forward once more for another 200 ft. of monotonous crawl­ing and one arrives at Mecca Aven, small but fairly high. Opposite the point of entry the crawl continues for a few feet till the passage divides, the left hand branch leading to Water Rift, very high with a pool in the floor, the right hand branch going on to Rainbow Aven, attractively decorated in coloured flowstone.

From now on the main passage, Upper Gallery, takes on more impressive proportions and shows a definite downward trend; Pilgrims’ Way is all on the same level. Several crawls, some extensive, lead off to the right. Further on a very sport­ing climb can be made up the cascades of Jacob’s Ladder down which showers a stream. The passage becomes even larger and goes down a 5 foot drop into North Chamber, a boulder strewn and rather loose place from which a short pas­sage leads to a 20 ft. pitch. At the top a tight fissure can be followed with difficulty to a small aven. At the bottom of the pitch is a medium sized chamber from which a short high passage continues at right angles as a crawl in water (D). The roof soCin rises and a fissure passage enters from the left, this is “Main Stream Inlet” and can be followed for about 100 ft. to an aven.

Continuing down Main Stream Passage there used to be a ‘duck’ called “The Portcullis”, now no more than a stomach wetter (E). Then follows “The Sewer”, a hands and knees crawl in water, ending suddenly in a large chamber “Boulder Hall”, with a rock strewn floor. From here the passage changes direction to the south-east and to the final straight, a high but not too wide stretch leading to a small, dismal and undiveable siphon. The depth is the same as Old Oxlow but still consider­ably above the water table. The stream is thought to join up with that in Speedwell Caverns and finally to resurge at Russet Well, Castleton.

Since Humphreys’ account of the 1922 exploration many changes have taken place, due partly to the loose character of the cavern and partly to the visits of large numbers of cavers. The mineral rights are owned by the British Speleological Association from whom permission should be obtained before a descent is made.

To prevent sheep from falling down the entrance shaft a concrete surround has been made and a metal lid put on; the belay for the first pitch is a metal bar across the top. Humphreys mentions a shaft in the chamber at the bottom of the first pitch (page 136, line 19); this is now choked up. The belay for the second pitch is a wooden beam directly above the pitch and a rawlbolt further back. All the stemples have now been removed and the hole at the bottom (page 137, line 22) has also collapsed and filled up. Stemples on the fourth pitch have rotted away or been removed.

Humphreys mentions “a sump of no great depth” (page 138, line 5) at the end of the narrow passage leading to the two last pitches, this hole is now much enlarged and an easy, compara­tively dry, descent can be made. The water comes from Maskill Mine and a party of experienced cavers can do the round trip. From the bottom of the fifth pitch a short passage leads to the short 12 ft. pitch, usually very wet indeed, at the bottom of which is the final sump, 450 ft. below the surface, not 550 ft. as it appears on the 1922 survey. The main mistake then made seems to have been over-emphasis of the slope between the third pitch and the fourth.

When reading Humphreys’ article in these days one can feel nothing but admiration for the old-time cavers with their un­gainly tarred rope and even more awkward wooden runged ladders. Had they been able to combine our modern tackle with their tremendous pioneering spirit, I feel that there would have been very little left for us to find today.

In point of fact, on 22nd May, 1966, after these notes had been written, a party of Eldon Pothole Club members success­fully forced a way through from the New Oxlow Extension into Giant’s Hole. This new discovery makes the Oxlow/ Giant’s Hole system the deepest in Britain, in the region of 640 feet. If Nettle Pot could also be joined to Oxlow this would add yet another 100 feet in depth!

Hon. Editor’s Note. A brief account of the discovery of New Oxlow Caverns was given under “Cave Exploration” in Y.R.C. Journal 1964, Vol. IX, No. 32, page 331. This note erroneously gave the impression that the party mentioned in it was the first to enter the new pas­sages; these were in fact discovered, as stated above, in March 1964, by members of the British Speleological Association. The Hon. Editor apologises for this mistake.