Wapping was the first mine that I ever went down, I had just
started college and made friends with Karl, who soon had a group of us going
underground in Matlock Bath. The first trip down was a sleep under. We had a
night of drinking in the Fish Pool pub, then it was to the car, get changed and
a trek up the path to the Cumberland Cavern entrance. Except for Karl, non of
us had been underground before and it was all a new experience. We spent many
trips and nights sleeping underground here and an obsession was forged.
Subsequently I met his father (Don) and he introduced me into the delights of
Smallcleugh.
After picking Don up, we arrived and parked up in Matlock
Bath, getting changed invoked a similar sense of excitement that I got the
first time coming here. Calculating how long it had been since I last visited
this mine, I worked it out to be around 19 years. All changed and we made our
way to the Wapping Mine entrance, which I had never actually seen before -
entrance was always via Cumberland Cavern. A climb over the wall at the adit
soon had us inside and in the First Stope. We made our way along the vein
passing the Second, Third and Forth stopes. There was a big difference on how I
was reacting to the ground we were covering, back when I was 16 years old and
here for the first time, the feeling was one of danger and high adventure
exploration. Seeing the structure of a mine for the first time with its
stemples, large fallen rocks and high roof was something out of a film, a Jules
Verne Journey to the Centre of the Earth in real life. This time it was
routine, automatically accessing the surroundings, making my way quickly over
rocks and small ledges without a second thought, noting the finer details -
shot holes, minerals, geology and artefacts.
Anyway, enough of
philosophical reflections, back to business. From the Forth Stope we entered
the Wapping Maze and soon reached Calcite Junction. A quick evaluation, and we
decided to retrace our route to climb up into Cumberland Cavern via the Funnel
Cave, with a view to climbing down to the maze via Devil's Pit. A short climb
past very large rocks brought us up into the cave section of the complex.
Making our way along 4 chambers we finally entered the last section of the show
cave. This is the spot that we slept in many times. A quick look around and we
climbed up the 1st spiral staircase into the show cave proper. In this second
section of show cave Don pointed out an interesting geological feature. The
flat limestone roof here had a layer of volcanic ash underneath it, a band some
25cm thick. Soon we reached the 2nd spiral staircase and we made our way to the
Wishing Well, the pool chamber and the 3rd spiral staircase leading to the now
collapsed show cave entrance. Retracing our route we had another look at the
features before stopping for lunch in a little chamber just out of the last
section of show cave. After lunch we headed for Devils Pit and climbed down it,
into the Wapping Maze.
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The last time I had climbed Devil's Pit, it seemed to be a big
deep climb down, not really, only 6-8m or so. Maybe when your younger
everything seems bigger? On entering the maze we headed south, passing a few
large calcite outcrops, a wooden pillar with a section of air hose and then we
exited into the maze proper via the Steam Passage. Here a rotting piece of
timber greeted us with the most amazing fungus growing on it, which looked like
big hairy spiders legs. Near this there was a crushed metal barrow. From here
we made our way around the Wooden Props chamber, passing an old paraffin road
lantern (is this an artefact?). Just past the lantern, someone must have had
too much time on their hands - as there was a trio of rude little clay figures.
Past the figures we made a beeline for the Main Stope and the Selenite Deposit
chamber.
Once in the Main Stope we climbed up into the chamber which has
the secondary selenite deposit. White compact fluffy crystals intermingled with
graffiti from the 1960's. Nice. Back in the Main Stope we had a bit of look
around and came across some shot holes and more large dogs tooth calcite
deposits. From here we headed for the Calcite Junction, where we met up with
some other explorers. A bit of a chat, a snap shot by them of our plan and then
we left them to their exploration. We walked back along the 4 stopes to the
walled portal. A fantastic trip bringing back many memories.
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