Many thanks for your replies. Made me dig even deeper into my memories. Yes, I remember exploring the Masson complex in the very early 1950's before it was blown apart by opencasting for fluorspar from late 1978 onwards. We use to go on illiceit midnight caving trips into Masson, after throwing out time on a Saturday evening from the Queen's Head (in those days it was a pub not a shopping complex like now) on Matlock Bridge. We'd walk from there, often in snow and frost on a winter's night up the footpath to the top of Masson (we had no transport in those days, we went everything either on bus, train or walking, carrying our caving gear and ruc-sacs, bus conductors didn't really welcome us!) cross through the surface remains of the washing plant at Knowles mine where there was a collapsed adit where the Canadian troops worked the Masson fluorspar deposit during the war, and where Derbyshire Stone were then working a small opencast quarry for fluorspar, past Crichman's shaft with the boiler over it, and finally arrive at the back door entrance of Masson cavern (which was the way out from the show cave at the top of the long flight of steps). One of us would lie down, put their hand under the hole beneath the door and draw back the bolt which kept the door closed. We then descended into the show cave to the Black Ox Gate where Guy Pearson and his son Lewis (who incidently is still alive and in his 80's) had their crushing machine (a very primitive mangle type of equipment) for crushing the fluorspar by hand. From there we went through to Crichman's (where, from memory, the metal arches were and very close by there were sand deposits that had infilled the pipe workings during a later geological age, where t'owd man had cut through - Trevor Ford has written about this, will try and find the reference if anyone is interested as I have the complete set of PDMHS Journals ) and shortly afterwards one would find in the side of a passage a hole in the floor beneath a very large boulder, I think a Nottingham caver had dug out this hole. This was the entrance to Queen Mine (now known as Gentlewoman's Pipe). Again one lay on one's back and went under the boulder headfirst, on the other side one then had to bring one's knees up to one's chin and push one's feet sideways to the right into a rift, quite a dicey proceedure on reflection. A total impossibilty for me these days! This led to a twin headed shaft which we climbed down into a passage which had a beautiful spar type sand on the floor (similar to what lined the floor of the Tearsall mines at Mount Pleasant on Bonsall Moor before they were quarried away). After that we were quite shattered and then climbed back up the shaft, back and heeled along the rift, crawled back under the dicey boulder and then out via the back entrance of Masson cavern. We then wended our way westwards, often wreathed in moonlight, across the hillside to Jugholes (on the Nick Noon Vein - incidently shewn as a cave on an early map by Nuttall in about the 1760's) which having recently been worked for fluorspar by Derbyshire Stone Ltd., in about 1949 still had the workman's hut which Derbyshire Stone allowed us to use as the club headquarters.
Thanks for letting me know about Doug, I'm still in contact with him from time to time. Spent hours up at Magpie as well, I know the Knotlow/Hillocks area quite well. My youngest son regularly stays at Magpie. Have got photos of three caving chums who attempted to dig Hubberdale sough in the 1950's they came out very muddy indeed. If of interest to you with a fellow mole we compiled the article on the Greensward Pump, Monyash and I wrote an earlier article on our Hillcarr sough trip in 1962 (where I took some black and white photos with my mum's old Agfa box camera and very large fllash gun, which I subsequently dropped in the water on the way out after we discovered gas - I rushed it to Doug Fearn Op. Mole's photographer who managed to save the film and somewhere I have some ancient negatives taken in Hillcarr sough) in the PDMHS Journal
Will write about Riber mine at a later date. I didn't live far from Ripley once upon a time, I used to live in the middle of the layby at Sawmills - once a hive of industrial archaeolgy. Seeing how interested you are in trains made me remember catching a steam train from Derby station in July, 1952 (four of us) to Ribblehead Station, via Leeds and Carnforth with our rucsacs, camping and caving gear including rope ladders and belay rope. We camped at the back of the Station Inn at Ribblehead just by the Viaduct (from memory it has 24 arches), it rained solid for two weeks but didn't stop us from caving, one of the trips we did was with Derby Orphesus (of which my first ex-husband was a member)down Alum pot via the Dolly Tub pitch, walking both ways from Ribblehead to Horton-in-Ribblesdale and return with all our gear, I shudder to think of it now.
Anyway enough for now. Thanks for replying.