Anyone visiting Wapping in the not too distant future might notice the entrance area has been enlarged and there is a fair bit of smashed rock around. You don't need to report this to anyone, it is known about already. This was action needed to fit a stretcher through on a rescue shout that DCRO have just returned from. It's not massively bigger, and there's still a bit of spidery acrobatics required to get in and out. The DCA Projects Officer is aware (and partly responsible!).

I'd also recommend taking a bin bag on your next visit, it's a tip in there (not from the rescue!).

Pete Knight
DCA Projects Officer
20/12/20

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Hi Pete, any details on the call out?

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Is the snake of Wapping causing problems again?

Hi Pete, any details on the call out?

Not that I can give really, DCRO will issue info via their website or social channels. All ended well though.

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I think a project that's been discussed this year needs bumping up the priority list Pete - I'll drop you and Nige an email...

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Will pop in there with a rubbish sack next time I'm up that way - although it seems it is forbidden territory for us southerners at the moment.

Last time we were there it was quite obvious that there had been a lot of recent inexperienced traffic , with the glow sticks string and new arrows sprayed everywhere .

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There was somebody smoking some weed in there last time I went

There's a long tradition of dope smoking there...:lol:

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A reason I tend to stay away.

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That's what Arthur Proctor said, but they still did it ;)

🔗111218[linkphoto]111218[/linkphoto][/link]

We are rather off topic here but I cannot let the mention of Arthur Proctor pass without putting in a few words for him because he was a very decent chap. He was a pal of my mine-surveying friend, John ("Sinbad") Swain.

“Proc” worked as a window cleaner at Matlock Bath but unfortunately he was killed riding his motorbike at Artists Corner in c.1980.

Thanks for that - the first info I've ever heard as to who Arthur Proctor actually was. Brilliant. Ten years ago a friend of mine in Sheffield said 'I can put you in touch with one of the Troggs if you want, but I wouldn't recommend it if I were you'. So I never did. I still wonder if I should have.

I understand that there are some other members of the Troggs still around, it would be good to try and get some oral history recorded off them if they could be tracked down - I think Nigel Atkins has had recent contact with one

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What are the troggs may I ask is this a team or people who worked inside them ? :surrender:

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They were a gang that hanged out in there, possibly even lived in there in the 60's I think. Sure someone with far more knowledge will provide more comprehensive details.

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I see so the interest would be what it looked like then and artefacts they saw etc .

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They were a loose collection of bikers, drop-outs and suchlike who took over the former show-cave of Cumberland Cavern (the upper part of the Wapping system) in the late 1960s, and used it as a party base. Some of them apparently did live there full time, in particular one member who'd gone AWOL from the army and was in hiding. Their tag was an S crossed over a T, which you see in most of the mines that were accessible around the area at that time, including some quite hard-to-find and access ones so some of them at least were competent cavers. They certainly had carbide lamps as the majority of their graffiti is smoked on.

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Firstly, I must emphasise that I was not a proper Trog despite my tag. Our group were young mine explorers and we did sleep in Wapping while starting to survey and we met the real Trogs in about 1966.

They were usually just spending the weekends at Matlock Bath and enjoyed being unconventional. Most came from nearby towns and cities. I can remember being on the bus going to school and seeing a Trog (the sign on his jacket) on his way to work in about 1966. They had no political agenda and were not that unreasonably behaved at least by modern standards. Most were very impoverished - I cannot remember carbide lamps - most made do with candles. I don't think they left any graffiti apart from the Trog sign.

The first group seemed to peter out about 1967. Later groups of people came along and took up the name until about 1980 but I regard only the early ones as the true Trogs. Lynn Willies could probably supply much accurate information about them as a resident of Matlock Bath at the time and I seem to remember that he acted as a guide to Cumberland Cavern.

Their logo is visible on the wall centre-right in this shot:

🔗111219[linkphoto]111219[/linkphoto][/link]

And here's the main trunk passage, with a little more coverage - astonishing:

🔗111216[linkphoto]111216[/linkphoto][/link]

Equally astonishing is the fact that this is a phreatic tube that dwarfs many of the big ones in Peak Cavern and is at least equal in diameter to Five Arches - suggesting a rather large system somewhere below the floor, as this rises up and sinks again like the back of some huge whale 🙂