A special turn out for this evening’s endeavour, as we were blessed to be in the presence of Senor Townsend of mid 2000’s notoriety. For this special occasion Rob and I had agreed a trip down Cussey would be fitting, for what we hope will turn out to be a second coming of sorts
Sam and I car shared from the top of Froggatt and had to detour for Rob en route after he’d had an eventful afternoon catching an Uber back from Scarborough due to his truck breaking down! Once at Cussey, we confirmed the entrance was rigged and that the Saltpan was flowing so we quickly kitted up (furry’s this time) and headed underground. We gave Sam the brief spiel on Cussey’s exploration history and soon found ourselves de-kitting at the bottom of Inglorious. It was now time to enter Loper, we lucked out for Sam’s first time as the whole crawl was bone dry, like how it was during the original exploration which of course brings its own problems with sticking to the floor! We proceeded forward and as soon as we reached the bendy ladder of Doom Sam started to remember his previous trips into the system during the Credit Crunch expeditions and Doom exploration via Black Engine and Moorwood Sough. On reaching the Wet West natural caverns we showed Sam the entrance to Vulgarious and continued through the choke towards the sump, getting lost en route. Our mission for the day was to get fresh eyes on the sump which denotes the end to this section of cave.
Map showing the section of the Wet West Caverns beyond the sump
A brief history of the Wet West Sump
This had all came about after Rob had finally stumbled across the section of survey data from the cave beyond the sump (which he’d been looking for, for over a decade!) The Wet West Caverns we’re first explored by the Eyam Exploration Group in 1985 after gaining access to the Sough for maintenance work. The discovery was huge! "This is the big one – 6ft. diameter phreatic tube! I turned back at a junction!" The team were eventually thwarted by a large terminal looking boulder choke which due to its location – seemed a daunting prospect. Perseverance paid off and with some hair-raising efforts the choke was eventually passed in the late 80’s to a large section of phreatic tube heading NW towards Hungerhill and Waterfall, eventually terminating at a sump in the base of a cross rift. The sump (too tight to dive) was originally passed back in June 1991 using one of Tom Proctor’s many alternative digging methods. Below is an excerpt from John Beck’s diary,
“beyond was a very large stretch of passage on the main joint. Big, roughly square cross section, for about 80ft. At the end was a slope of clay over rock, and the main route turned off the joint to the right. Almost immediately there was a big block in the way. A dig began at roof level, where a bedding continued along the line of the joint. We avoided it for a while as there were many stals, but Mark wormed his way in carefully for some distance before we retreated.”
Unfortunately, that day was cut short,
“Tom said the sump was filling back up, and we all piled out quickly. There wasn't very much air space left. The mud had slumped down the slope from the chamber and into the sump.” The party returned the following week, “The sough party returned in late afternoon. They had passed the sump again (it had to be pumped) and had another go at the continuation. They dug from the high-level bedding sideways until they could see back down into the tube beyond the big fallen block, but it needs blasting before they can get down. They had had an epic getting back through the sump. The mud had slumped in, and Tom had to virtually free dive through liquid mud. He didn't like it.”
They returned one week later to try and pump the sump once again but after the wettest June of the century they called it quits and left for other prospects. The Wet West Caverns proved to be a significant section of cave, linking the Stoney Middleton system and thus the eventual discovery of the SMMC.
Rock striations in West West Caverns
Efforts were once again made to drain the sump during the Credit Crunch Expedition in June 2011 (20 years later). After the great success draining the Duke Street Sump in Ireby Fell Caverns (Yorkshire Dales) we managed to get our hands on an “Ireby Sump Buster” via Johnny Dingle (The other EPC), who joined us on the establishing trip to demonstrate how the pump works. As before, we dragged in tons of gear for the job via Rock Cottage and the sough. Once set up, the gaggle of bodies got to work, and the sump was drained in no time! The sump is around 10-15m long with a steep slope on entry and exit (max depth of 2.5m). Everyone went through the sump, I was paired up with Jams Wood, we surveyed through the sump and the chamber beyond paying close attention to anything heading backwards, hoping to find a dry connection with the cross rift. The team reached the same blockage at the end, a large fallen block restricting access to the open phreatic tube beyond. A small team consisting of Dan Hibberts, Jim Lister and Bob Toogood returned the following week and once again pumped the sump to gain access beyond. Jim Lister’s account,
Ireby Sump Buster in the WW Sump
“The sump was still dry, and it did not take long to drill shot holes, in the rock restriction and then to remove it with snappers. The restriction was still tight but passable which Dan quickly proved, in hindsight it may have been better to have made it big enough for a caver with a mini cylinder, but as Dan rightly said, Let’s see if it goes first. Beyond the dry sump was a small chamber with a pleasant stooping sized, stream passage, meandering off, this was followed for fifteen minutes (?) to a cross rift, which was blind at both ends. Ahead was a raised gravel bank, holding back another sump (Sump 2). We thought it may just be a duck, I entered feet first on my back feeling for an air space with my feet. I felt none and was up to my nose so came partially out and asked Dan for his belt to hold onto so I could get further in. Kicking about inside the submerged section I could feel that the passage stayed approx. 1m square in dimension. I came out for a breath and Dan pointed out that a rather lot of water was now running from the gravel bank. We looked at each other, and both started racing back to the sump (Sump 1) Before it filled up!”
* * *
Roll on 15 years and here we are, back at the sump and boy did we leave in a hurry all those years ago. The place has certainly seen better days, it mimics the modern mine beneath us with the discarded pipes and hoses left lying around to rot, albeit not only from us but our predecessors too. Some of the equipment down here outdates me! We made a conscious decision to remove as much waste as we could carry and vowed to keep on doing so until the place reached an acceptable level of cleanliness. The sump on this trip was flowing, meaning it was full to the brim. Any pumping efforts were sure fizzled out of our minds, and we made our way over to the possible dry connection (the calcited cross rift). This looked far more appetising than when I’d last set my eyes on it in 2011. Jams and I tried snappering the squeeze back then but gave up quickly due to it being heavily calcited, absorbing anything we threw at it and access. Time heals all wounds and in 2026 the view beyond the calcite squeeze looked tantalisingly spacious and interestingly emitted and enticing draught. We coiled rope, cut up pipe and tied together drain rods before slowly plodding our way down the Wet West towards Cussey. Out by 9:30pm, we headed to the Mechanics for Sam’s initiation and vowed to return armed with a drill.
Preparing junk to be dragged out Cussey
04/11/2026
Chris Hibberts, Sam Burgess, Sam Pemberton and I returned to the scene of the crime a week later. Chris had devised a plan to try and pump the sump using modern methods (a pump powered by a drill) and thus I had the great honour of carrying 2 drills to one end of Cussey (a first for me!) Begrudgingly for this to work we needed more hose to be carried down, which Chris had the great pleasure of bearing, alongside 4x drill batteries and capping gear. A touch slower than last week with a Cussey virgin in tow, we made our way down Inlgorious and was pleasantly surprised to find Loper Lust still bone dry. With the route fresh in my head, we got through the choke with ease, chaining the bags through where required and eventually found ourselves in the cross rift. I was first to the end and immediately I became speechless… The sump looked empty… I was like - WTF? I had to drop my head down into the steep muddy tube to see the water level approx. 1.5m below. Flabbergasted, I waited for the cavalry to arrive and was pleasantly optimistic that we may get through the sump quicker than capping the rift.
Chris got to work with the pump, helped by Sam P, whilst Sam B was capturing it all on his GoPro. I got to work fast on capping the cross rift. Almost immediately I could tell this wasn’t going to be an instant win. The first few caps did relatively naff all but fracture and crack the solid rock which I was hoping to slowly chip away at. The damage I was inflicting on said rock gave me heavily weighted vibes, like the rock was under an enormous amount of pressure and nothing could move from its place. Hard headedly I proceeded to attack the same side and then when I got bored, I moved to the calcited right and then the calcited slope itself. After 90 minutes or so I was fully cooked. Covered in dust and squinting through shrapnel, I took one last look through the gap and made my way back to the others, feeling rather deflated from the whole debacle. The others had a similar anti-climatic ending after burning through 2x drill batteries, they’d only managed to lower the sump by 8 inches and unfortunately not enough to break it.
With no wrist watches in sight, it was certainly time to make a move. The journey out was hard, we divided the gear up accordingly and broke surface at a whopping 11:10pm, just enough time to hit last orders at the Mechanics. On a positive note, the air at the end of the cross rift remained crystal clear throughout the capping session, confirming the strong draught emitted from beyond the constriction.
Who knows, maybe the sump will be bone dry on the next visit? Stranger things have happened.
Jon in front of his dig