20th October 1985
On a fine clear October Sunday the intrepid party of cavers led by Barnes, strode not altogether purposefully across the fields above Oxlow Farm in search of Nettle Pot. Rumour was rife within the party that Barnes had no idea where he was going. Even at this stage the party had seen and done much. Barnes had decided, after many hours of delicate and difficult negotiations over endless pints of beer, to have a practice at laddering, so Friday night prior to the Sunday meet was set aside for Water Icicle Cavern in Monyash.
Duly at 6.30 pm, Barnes, Benton and guest, Peppit, Sampson and Travis met outside the Hobbit in Monyash. The 105-foot shaft was efficiently laddered and the party was joined underground by a late Goodier and guest. Little of note happened until it was time to ascend the ladder. Travis, who was swathed with bandages round his lower limbs, decided to test his special leg protectors and without warning fell backwards off the ladder, bumping the back of his head and dropping his headlamp on Barnes below. Fortunately, Travis was plucked from the murky depths with only his pride, his head and his lamp damaged. (His experimental bandages held up very well during the test!)
Nettle Pot was soon encountered and Barnes climbed quickly down the entrance and started laddering the first pitch. Peppit soon followed down to the belay a few feet below the Sentry Box, having first thrown a hundred feet of aluminium tube ladders on top of Barnes head! Communication was difficult between the surface and the Sentry Box. Barnes then climbed down to the Flats (85 feet below the belay) to be joined, eventually, by the party minus Travis. He had entered the Pot but retreated above the Narrows. (Rumour has it that by doing so he was avoiding paying the £1 caving levy that had only that previous week been imposed by the committee on all cavers using club equipment). On reaching the Narrows some time was lost due to a party of three who were using single rope technique ascending on their fixed ropes whilst we were descending.
The route down the Grand Canyon was led by the ageless Eastwood. A halt was called to look down Elizabeth Pot – the winch used by those pioneering stalwarts of the DPC some 50 years previously not being evident (on a later trip it was seen lying on a ledge some 40 feet down) – before Eastwood set off like a rejuvenated ferret down Stalactite Passage to be followed by the rest of the party. The final aven of this passage was big enough to stand up in and the flowstone was worthy of a mention. On the floor was a bag of cement and pieces of electric wire – further work appeared to be still going on in the system.
Back to the Flats – and Barnes went ahead to investigate the way on to the Far Flats. On seeing Barnes covered in thick, sticky brown mud, Eastwood and Sampson’s guest decided to return to the surface. Goodier then went ahead as Chatburn (never happier than when taking photographs whilst covered in slime) enlisted Barnes’s help in taking some photographs to mark the occasion. Goodier laddered the third pitch of 35 feet and it was found to be 4 feet short despite using a long wire belay. Care was needed in climbing off the ladder to leave the rift and to go off along a horizontal passage on the right that eventually brought the party to Firbeck Hall. Peppit was now finding his insatiable appetite to climb rocks overwhelming and had to be restrained by Barnes from climbing a steep boulder strewn wall at the end of the aven. Time was now getting on so the party decided to call it a day and start the return journey.
At the main pitch, the Narrows proved to be more awkward than anticipated. Movement was restricted, particularly in lifting up ones knees, and a great deal of effort was needed to propel oneself upwards. As the party finally emerged into daylight again some 7 hours later they were each greeted, in turn, by a leering white face. It was the skull of a dead sheep suspended by a wire belay. Across the entrance was the rib cage of the same beast, put there by Travis, as he guarded the entrance throughout the long day.
This excellent vertical pot, enjoyed thoroughly by all for its sportiness, was finally returned to its own denizens with the clanking of the manhole cover. A wooden ladder rung brought out of the pot by Barnes was later presented to Henry at tea (unfortunately thrown away by Micky some years later, in error, during a spring-clean!).
Benton led a party of walkers, 13 in all, for a walk cum ramble. Tea was made in the club hut for 26.
Derbyshire Pennine Club 