Flower Pot
For information contact Jon Pemberton

Report by Jon Pemberton - November 2008
After two weeks of solid work the Flower Pot entrance to Carlswark Cavern's Dynamite Series has been successfully re-opened. A suspected 300 man hours driven mainly by James Wood, Samuel Pemberton & Myself (EPC) with additional help from Sam Townsend (EPC) with sheer planning and preparation of the whole operation, a few volunteered SUSS member’s and some of Stoney Middleton’s finest.

The entrance was originally dug from surface in the early 90's by Keyhole Caving Club, leading straight into the Dynamite Series. It was opened to bypass the rest of the Cavern in order to reach a dig at the far end of the Dynamite Series (Picnic Passage) but soon after it was opened, Keyhole concentrated all their attention on Waterways Swallet. At current date the shaft was thought to be in a bad state of collapse. Although we still used it to get into Carlswark the third barrel slowly started to dislodge itself. About a month ago it fell out of place bringing all its surroundings down with it blocking the squashed fourth barrel off completely! The Flower Pot shaft is located about 100 yards up the road from the sub-station. As you drive up the road towards Eyam (parking in the lay by on your left) when you reach the 'Welcome to Eyam, Please drive carefully' sign, Flower Pot is directly across the road (15 feet from the road in the corner of a small rock outcrop.)

Description
The shaft is 5m deep with a fixed scaff bar to rig off from the top. At the bottom of the shaft a 6ft climb down a wall leads to a small chamber. Straight on leads to a tight constriction into a small choked up chamber. Left is a low flat out crawl (may require some digging) underneath Old Man's shot blast. The crawl leads into what we call the 'Eff Chamber' because of its F-shape which is the end on the current Carlswark survey. When you reach this you need to take your left another flat out crawl taking you straight into the top of Falls chamber. The way back into the Dynamite Series is through a calcited boulder choke in the floor!

A permanent bat friendly lid should be in place shortly. In the meantime please replace the cat flap back over the hole!

We do intend to survey the passage after Eff chamber to the entrance in the future but it’s on a long to do list (plus we don't know how, as of yet!)

Big thanks to everyone who has helped. We do sincerely appreciate it!

It’s been a blast. Time to start digging beyond!!!