Speedwell Cavern

Speedwell Cavern by Tom Wills

On Saturday afternoon, after my little problem with the mountain bike, we visited Speedwell Cavern, which is accessible only by boat. When we arrived and went to the ticket office it emerged that the last trip had already left, but after some begging from Mr Jenkins and Mr Bown the manager relented and said he'd run one more boat for us. After this had been sorted we had to go to a room to get helmets (the roof in the tunnels very low, but more about that later). We were then introduced to our guide, Phil, and a trainee guide called Ashleigh (Ricky from Eastenders twin brother) before going down the long, steep flight of stairs (not a nice experience for someone with size 12s!)

.Descending the steps into Speedwell Cavern

At the bottom of the 100 odd stairs we boarded our boat and told that we had to keep our hands inside, that is if we wanted to keep our hands. The boat was slow and gave lots of time for Phil to tell us the story of the tunnel.

In the boat with Phil

The tunnel that our boat was moving through was actually manmade, and the river had been sourced from somewhere else. Miners, who believed that there was a huge deposit of lead in the rock, had built it. For their troubles they found enough lead... to leave them with a huge debt. As there would be more than one boat working the mine at any one time, it was difficult for boats to pass each other. This is why the miners built the 'Halfway House' (which is actually ? of the way along the tunnel!) where one boat would wait while another passed. Further along the tunnel we saw a hole, and it was tiny, where four men where expected to hide when dynamite was being used to further the length of the tunnel. A bit further along we saw another one of these holes that could've accommodated four men quite comfortably... then we were told that it was meant for seven men.

Listening to Phil the guide.

The tunnel ends at a cave, where we stepped out of the boat to look around. To the right was the so called 'Bottomless Pit', which Phil told us later was a staggeringly, bottomless... 35 feet. The top of the cave was very high up, and we could just about make out an opening to the outside world. We were also told that its possible to go caving from Speedwell Cavern and emerge 8 hours later in the Peak Cavern, where we went the next day. But that's another story...

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Speedwell Cavern by Tom Wills

On Saturday afternoon, after my little problem with the mountain bike, we visited Speedwell Cavern, which is accessible only by boat. When we arrived and went to the ticket office it emerged that the last trip had already left, but after some begging from Mr Jenkins and Mr Bown the manager relented and said he'd run one more boat for us. After this had been sorted we had to go to a room to get helmets (the roof in the tunnels very low, but more about that later). We were then introduced to our guide, Phil, and a trainee guide called Ashleigh (Ricky from Eastenders twin brother) before going down the long, steep flight of stairs (not a nice experience for someone with size 12s!)

.Descending the steps into Speedwell Cavern

At the bottom of the 100 odd stairs we boarded our boat and told that we had to keep our hands inside, that is if we wanted to keep our hands. The boat was slow and gave lots of time for Phil to tell us the story of the tunnel.

More about that later! In the boat with Phil

The tunnel that our boat was moving through was actually manmade, and the river had been sourced from somewhere else. Miners, who believed that there was a huge deposit of lead in the rock, had built it. For their troubles they found enough lead... to leave them with a huge debt. As there would be more than one boat working the mine at any one time, it was difficult for boats to pass each other. This is why the miners built the 'Halfway House' (which is actually ? of the way along the tunnel!) where one boat would wait while another passed. Further along the tunnel we saw a hole, and it was tiny, where four men where expected to hide when dynamite was being used to further the length of the tunnel. A bit further along we saw another one of these holes that could've accommodated four men quite comfortably... then we were told that it was meant for seven men.

Listening to Phil the guide.

The tunnel ends at a cave, where we stepped out of the boat to look around. To the right was the so called 'Bottomless Pit', which Phil told us later was a staggeringly, bottomless... 35 feet. The top of the cave was very high up, and we could just about make out an opening to the outside world. We were also told that its possible to go caving from Speedwell Cavern and emerge 8 hours later in the Peak Cavern, where we went the next day. But that's another story...