Geoff, Keith and Co have begun digging on Norber with the aim of finding a safer route into Last of the Summer Wine.
Initial progress was fairly swift, with Keith breaking through into around thirty feet of good sized descending draughting rift in November 2014 and a further breakthrough entering a well decorated larger fossil rift passage. Below this a crawl heads off to a point below the entrance shaft where a (sometimes) strong draught is felt.
Early results from animal bones recovered from the rift suggest that the cave may have been filled in during Neolithic times, between four and six thousand years ago, either deliberately or naturally by soil creep. More finds from lower in the cave are probably older.
Norber is now an underground dig, the surface shaft has been capped and tided up and digging continues in a couple places eighty feet below the entrance.
The pitch (25ft) is currently rigged (SRT and ladder) and there are also two ladder climbs in the cave. The pitch head is a little exposed and has made one or two experienced cavers a little nervous, so you’ve been warned!
We’ve been getting lots of interest from passing walkers over the last few months. Please don’t be tempted to enter the shaft unless you’re an experienced caver as it’s around eighty feet deep with loose boulders and several long drops.
We’re up there most Sundays so please feel free to come and have a chat if you’d like to know how we’re getting on or drop us an email.
We’ll try and get some decent photo’s up here for the armchair cavers amongst you!
Work continues both on the surface and eighty feet below…
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