Thrope Edge Pot

Regions \ Yorkshire Dales \ Wharfedale and the North East\ Thrope Edge Pot

Location


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Parking is at the farm or on the road. Follow the Nidderdale way from the farm up the valley till it meets the river bed and straight opposite is the small entrance to New Goyden pot whilst down stream a few metres by the large tree is the entrance to Thrope Edge Pot. The entrance is covered by a metal lid and is on the line of Thrope Edge fault. Note: There is no access straight accross the fields from the road.

Access
Presently permission for access has been granted by Mr Harker of Thrope Farm, no need to call.

Description
Climb down the pot with care avoiding loose sections through to the scaffolding. Climb down the scaffolding and note the shotholes in the wall made by the original miners. Part way down the climb is a poised boulder and under that leads to a passage that goes under the river bed and heads towards the mining area on the hillside opposite. The main way on is to carry straight on down and under the arch into a standing height fault passage. Follow this to the holes in the floor. Traversing over the hole follows the fault passage and small stream to a choke. Down the hole (handline useful and maybe even a ladder for some) is the way on to New Goyden streamway. Climb down the hole ducking back under yourself onto the flowstone onto a bridge. Climb down the hole in the direction away from where you came in to land on the top of a waterfall. Climb down the left hand side of the waterfall to the base of South Avens. Crawl through the small rift at the base of the chamber through into the main stream passage of New Goyden pot. Upstream leads to the duck whilst downstream leads to the aven and SRT route into the system. Refer to New Goyden Pot for a description of the rest of the system.

History
Chris Camm and Chris Fox while waiting for divers in a project to molephone the location of the Caravan Trail made a prospective look at the mining activity by New Goyden pot and started a dig. This had been previously dug by Harry Long and others who found miners shotholes. The two Chris’s working from the surface were aided by Russ Brooks and Nigel Gatenby prodding boulders in the roof of South Aven inside the cave. They opened Thrope pot in may 2007 providing a climbable entrance in and out of the New Goyden. It was clear from the shotholes and stempled floors that miners had entered South aven many years before cavers discovered New Goyden pot.