Rollerball,
or its guidebook name "Kirtle Pot"
The Rollerball name better
described the entrance as me and Philip Withnall arrived on the scene to have a
look at the prospect of extending this ex-Jim Newton dig. I slid down under the
huge boulder that spans the small chamber below and then wriggled down the
slope underneath with some trepidation. Every time I moved downward the cobbles
kept rolling down behind me, hence the cave name. Not far in I found the floor leveling
out but to squeeze through into the bedding would possibly leave me have to
crawl backward up the tight sloping bit with gravel and cobbles piling up on my
shoulders, so I wimped out. Philip experienced exactly the same problem when he
went in and got to the same point and drew the same conclusion.
Moving on a
few days, I returned with Sam Lieberman and we began stabilising the slope,
which of course meant building walling to hold back the rolling balls. So at
first the cave actually got smaller as we went down, but it was a lot safer
with nothing following us to the bottom. Excavation of the bedding took a
little while but we soon reached a point where a drop was appearing, though of
course it needed another wall and a bit of chemical enlargement. We called the
drop The Pocket as it was where all the balls had finished up. It wasn’t long
until we’d reached the bottom of The Pocket and then the really hard work
began.
With no stacking space
available all the spoil had to be hauled out to the surface which involved
bagging it, putting it in the hauling bucket and pulling it out of The Pocket
and then stacking it again in a widening before eventually lifting it out to
the surface. This was OK at the start but as the passage below got a bit longer, the digging had to be done one day and the bags stacked at the bottom of The Pocket
almost walling us in. The next visit would involve hauling all the bags out in
three stages to the surface shakehole and dumping behind the ever enlarging
retaining wall.
The digging has got much
easier as the passage seems to be increasing in size, however, this does mean
there's an even larger amount of spoil to get any forward movement, so why are
we bothering? Well, first of all there’s a draught, secondly the cave is still
heading steeply downhill and thirdly it’s almost above the Pre-Cambrian Series
in Aygill. Anyone who has ever dug a hole will tell you that the cave goes
where the cave goes, so it may end up heading into a previously unknown area.
Its position is directly in a line between Casterton Pot and Aygill but it’s
also fairly close to Herbert’s Hole and Johnny’s Dig and who knows it might
even be a way beyond the sump in Bull Pot of the Witches, stranger things have
happened.
With seven people we could
haul the spoil straight to the surface and so keep digging at a fast pace to
find out what is really happening, any takers?
The Red Rose has previous in not finishing digs off properly,
such as Pippikin Pot, Maple Leaf and Pot Black to name just three. Remember,
many hands make light work!
Ray Duffy
