Treasure trove of Peak's caving history unearthed
A TREASURE trove of early records of cave exploration in Britain – including pictures of visitors at Castleton's Peak Cavern nearly 100 years ago – have been discovered and preserved.
The British Caving Library, a national research and reference library, is based at two sites in the Peak District, at Matlock Local Studies Library in County Hall, Matlock, and at Glutton Bridge.
Following the death of the library's longstanding voluntary librarian, hundreds of boxes of material – including unpublished record books, photographs, glass slides, negatives, maps, surveys and paintings – came to light.
Unknown to members of the national caving body, the British Caving Association (BCA), or the British Cave Research Association (BCRA) who run the library for the caving community, the boxes had been sitting in storage for 30 years.
The records date back to the 1900s and before, when many of the major cave systems in Britain were being discovered and explored.
BCRA Chairman David Checkley said: "The material was gathered together by members of the first national caving body, the British Speleological Association.
"One man, Eli Simpson, collected together much of the material and originally stored it in Settle in the Yorkshire Dales. However over the years the whereabouts of the collection was lost and people assumed that it had been thrown away or disappeared into private collections.
"It was therefore with considerable pleasure that we realised that the majority of the collection had been in storage in the librarian's house, safe and sound for 30 years."
A safe and suitable storage for this unique collection has now been found at the British Geological Survey (BGS) in Keyworth, near Nottingham.
The deposit of the material at the BGS will mark the establishment of the British Caving Archive. The BGS will ensure the collection's long term preservation and provide public access.
"At the BGS the cave archive will be in good company with other extensive earth science records," added Mr Checkley.
"In the longer term, the photographs and key elements of the record books will be made available to the public on the website.
"We are also hoping that other people, who have equally exciting records of the caves of Britain, will in time donate their own collections to the archive."
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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