Upper Flood

Upper Flood first became known to the modern caver when water was seen running down a hole in the Blackmoor valley during the July 1968 floods. There followed 17 years of digging, making slow but steady progress with an occasional chamber to provide encouragement. Then in April 1985 came the breakthrough into Midnight chamber and 300ft of beautifully decorated streamway.


Removing digging spoil from the 'face' in 1983. All spare space for 'deads' was full by then, so the only place for it was outside the entrance!	The breakthrough in 1985 opened up 300ft of beautifully decorated stream passage, at this point almost blocked by calcited boulders.	Here a section of false floor is seen on the left wall of the streamway, probably broken by meltwater at the end of the last ice age. Large quantities of broken stal and false floor were found in the silt blockage removes to gain access to By-Pass passage, 300ft downstream from here.


Some of the lower formations are spotted with surface marks. Any theories as to the cause?	Here, straws have developed kinks and growths as a result of irregular air currents...	...and here only one of a row of four stalagmite bosses has grown to a significant length.	The 1987 breakthrough gave access to the high rift of By-Pass Passage with its rock bridge.

One of the main difficulties in making further progress downtream was the fragile beauty of the stream passage. To reach the 1996 downstream sink involves stooping and crawling through 1500ft of passage, much of it lined with delicate formations. Too much traffic keen only to reach a dig would inevitably result in irreparable damage. The overflow stream passage leading back almost to the surface at Rip-Off Aven therefore seemed something of a godsend, as it provided a potential alternative route from the surface to the dig, bypassing the streamway. However, for a number of reasons, work on an alternative entrance was suspended.