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This proved to be only a narrowing to a large ledge and the shaft continued soaring upwards into the darkness. A six-day climb led to the domed roof with no way on, but a passage from the west some 20 metres (66 ft) further down is believed to be the source of the stream that helped to form this
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Moose and his team later went to this area of Peak Cavern via JH and arrived at the underside of an enormous boulder choke just a few metres from the upstream end of Far Sump. The group subsequently discovered a way up through the massive boulder pile and arrived at the foot of Titan. The echoes from
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In 1793, Plumtree wrote a paper describing a network of passages and shafts that went beyond the well-known
Speedwell Cave/Mine system near Castleton. His account took him down the Speedwell Canal and deep into the cave system, but his journal described mined passages (worked mostly in darkness) that
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Blocked by a huge hanging boulder choke, the West
Passage could not be explored as the choke was too dangerous to enter in its exposed position—circa 120 metres (390 ft) above the floor. A 46-metre (151 ft)-deep access shaft excavated from the surface took over four years to dig and now
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The team spent three years removing another huge fall of boulders before finally gaining entry to
Speedwell Cavern at the Boulder Piles. Another huge blockage at the foot of Leviathan was excavated in an operation requiring the building of a railway, and eventually the dig led into the Far Sump
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A group of Peak
District cavers led by Dave Nixon (nicknamed "Moose") discovered the shaft after finding an account by an 18th-century academic, James Plumtree, in a university library. Initial explorations in the James Hall Over Engine Mine led to the discovery of a large shaft named
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Eventually a miners' workplace was discovered, leading to
Leviathan—a huge natural shaft altered by mining operations, 260 feet (79 m) deep in total. Many relics from the mining operations were discovered there still in situ as the miners left them.
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Surveying showed that one of many shafts on the surface on the mineral rake in which
Speedwell's mined passages are formed was the shaft of James Hall's Over Engine Mine (JH). The Hall family were one of the many families of Castleton engaged in
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gives access to a bedding-plane passage entering the main shaft near the top of Titan. Digging continues in an attempt to extend the system in other directions. The total length of the cave system exceeds 11 miles (18 km).
314:' initials marked on the walls of Speedwell Cavern, Peak Cavern and JH confirmed this was one way at least that early miners ("t'owd man" in caving parlance) reached Speedwell Cavern from the surface far above.
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went far beyond what had then been explored. The
Plumtree account specifically mentions a way out to the surface some 230 metres (750 ft) above "by way of another man's mine".
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their shouts and noise from the waterfall indicated a huge shaft, but their lamps showed what appeared to be the top about 60 metres (200 ft) above them—The Event
Horizon.
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extension of Peak Cavern. This section of cave was previously only accessible either by diving Peak Cavern's Far Sump or via
Speedwell Cavern with very difficult caving.
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was carted to the haulage shaft) was found to have no fewer than seven blockages, which took as many years to clear.
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377:53.3333583°N 1.7932917°W
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395:SK1386281847
368:1°47′35.85″W
365:53°20′0.09″N
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43:Please help
38:verification
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444:10 November
380: /
267:Gaping Gill
263:Peak Cavern
185: /
161:Coordinates
471:Wild caves
460:Categories
402:References
356:Derbyshire
236:Derbyshire
154:Derbyshire
71:newspapers
352:Castleton
318:Discovery
283:Leviathan
232:Castleton
214:Discovery
156:, England
150:Castleton
438:BBC News
418:UK Caves
302:mining,
257:to both
146:Location
304:farming
289:History
273:in the
247:Britain
234:in the
85:scholar
312:Miners
251:cavers
228:cavern
206:Length
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243:shaft
230:near
224:Titan
198:Depth
126:Titan
92:JSTOR
78:books
446:2009
389:(or
300:lead
261:and
217:1999
64:news
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308:ore
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