Casserole
Pot - Update
The club began digging at Casserole
pot in Spring 2016 when we erected a scaffolding tripod over the entrance. The
hole is located in the field 200 metres to the West of Cow Pot at SD66371 80854.
After digging out the 8m entrance shaft we finally got a breakthrough to
horizontal passage on 5th January 2017 when Toby Speight pushed a
low wet crawl heading north with the help of Steve Gray an Emma Key. A few
weeks later the crawl was dug and pushed to a small chamber (Chipolata Chamber)
and a way on could be seen down a pitch but it was too tight at the top.
Steve was in the process
of training to obtain his immediate use HE licence and needed supervision to
use explosives. By early March 2017 with the help of Bob Machin Steve Gray used
some chemicals to enlarge the first section of the Tiwckuf Crawl to make it
accessible to Steve Gray sized people.
On a follow up trip on 18th
March we were able to clear out the mud from the far end of the crawl. We then
widened the head of what turned out to be a 3.5 metre pitch, which Toby fell
down as he was too impatient to wait for a ladder. At the bottom of the pitch
in a well decorated chamber was the way on down Savaloy Streamway but it was
too narrow to follow for more than a metre or so but it had a good draft and
echo.
In April 2017 Andy Hall
and Bill Sherrington began capping down the wall of the passage as stacking
debris behind in the chamber. By June we had got access to snappers which are
black powder based explosive cartridges set off remotely by an electronic
detonator. This speeded up progress. Progress slowed over the summer while
people were off on holidays but by September Andy, Steve and Phil Gillespie
were back in the cave capping and snapping down the crawl. They were joined by
Sam Lieberman in October. The passage still carried on narrowly but the draft
and echo spurred us on.
The survey showed the
passage heading North away from Cow Pot but there was some debate as to whether
it went eventually to FX5 Inlet Cow Pot.
To try to resolve this
issue Hugh St Lawrence got involved and with help from Roy Breakell, he did a
smoke test to Cow Pot but that proved inconclusive. Ray Duffy and I did a
surface survey from Cow Pot to Casserole via Jonny Baker’s This Side of the
Gill Hole. I later did a quick survey of the passage in here and it seemed to
be heading towards FX5 inlet. This was proved to be the case in November when
Hugh set up a dye trace from Jonny’s hole and Steve and I collected the
detectors from FX5 Inlet, which proved to be positive.
This spurred us on again
and in December we were back in Casserole with more snappers including a
miss-fire. We could see a passage widening ahead but when we reached it, it was
short lived and we were still having problems with the very hard black band of
limestone the passage was following and at £7 a go for the snappers it was
decided to have a break from Casserole.
The passage seemed to be
going around another corner with more stals and blocks ahead. The last trip was on Friday 13th
April!
Here the matter rested for ten months
as the club diggers got involved with events at Slab Pot in Casterton. In
recent weeks we have made a return. On
the 26th January 2019 Steve and I were back down Casserole with more
caps and snappers. As a result of the
project at Slab Pot we had a new member, Alan Speight from the YSS, useful, as
he has a bang licence. We soon got Alan enthused about Casserole and on 9th
February 2019 we set off down with Alan, bang and a 1 metre long drill bit to drill and fire some
shot holes and again on the 12th and 27th. This produced
more rapid progress around some bends along Savaloy Streamway, creating lots of
debris to drag back to the rapidly filling Pepperami Pot.
There were also a couple of mid week
banging trips by Alan and Phil Parker followed up by clearing trips at the
weekend by me and Steve. On the 2nd March we were joined by Sam Lieberman
and Ray Duffy who were surveying and taking photos. Ray complained about the
passages and said it was not
as good or
as long as his dig in Rollerball! Since then we have carried on digging and
have got round a couple of right angle corners and passed a larger bit of
passage with room to turn round and stacking space. The increasing amount of
bang debris has meant that we have had to build a retaining wall with
scaffolding and planks in Pepperami Pot which is no longer a pitch but a climb
down over rocks and scaffolding. We even got Starkers down the cave digging on
6th April when he helped build up the planks and stack boulders.
Since then I went down with Mark Ashby over Easter weekend and used a snapper
to remove an awkward corner and clear more debris. We also drilled more 600mm
deep shot holes ready for the next bang by Steve and Alan. The way on continues
to the North and goes at least 5 metres beyond the survey conducted by Ray and
Sam. Still takes a stream with a good
echo and drafting out strongly on warm days. Progress continues and still no
idea where it goes to.
Thanks for help from numerous club members including Steve
Gray, Phil Gillespie, Phil
Withnall, Sam Lieberman, Emma Key, Ray Duffy, Starkers, Alan Speight, Mark
Ashby, Bill Sherrington, Toby Speight, and Gwen Tawy.
Andy Hall - photos by Ray Duffy
