I joined the Craven Pothole Club (CPC) in 1965 as a young lad of 16 tender years. I was an amateur geologist at this time and it was a family friend, Rhodes Thompson, that first introduced me to geology, rambling and then the CPC. Rhodes had been a CPC member for many years and one of the early members of the club joining in 1930, the second year of the club’s history. I eagerly joined the club for two reasons, firstly I had great interest in caves and potholes and the desire to investigate the underground, and secondly, the lure of the CPC Club Bus, which passed through my village of Gargrave every Sunday en route to various meet locations in the dales giving the opportunity for days out rambling and fossil collecting.

My introduction to potholing, as a prospective CPC member, was a five hour long trip down Gaping Gill with Fred and Tom the famous Austin twins. I immediately fell in love with GG and between 1965 and when I left the U.K. to take up a Lectureship at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1977, I was a regular attendee at the annual Gaping Gill winch meet and camp.

Other regular attendees at GG meets in those days included Fred and Tom Austin, Steve Warren, Mike Greenway, Alan Nixon, Roy Taylor, Randy Coe, John Mason, Pete Rose, Dennis Brindle, John Batty, Don Mellor, Arthur Smith, Sydney Waterfall, Alan Wallbank, Mike Walker, Pete Collen, Neill Platts, John Whalley, Stephen Craven, Alec Bottomley, Andrew Colau, Stephen Wood, Fred ("Poet Laureate") Pickles, John Allonby, John Batty, Mike Scratcher, Brian Varley and Brian Stott. Apologies to those whose names have faded with the passage of time.

A lasting recollection for all GG meet participants is the weather! Perhaps the wettest GG meets I recall were in 1965 and particularly 1966 when Fell Beck flooded, overflowed the dam (see below) and washed my tent away!

The old petrol engine was ceremoniously disassembled at the end of the 1969 meet to be replaced by a new diesel engine. Nowadays, cavers and visitors are driven down and up the main shaft with a sophisticated double cable and hydraulic system. I remember one year (1967 I think) taking on the responsibility for camping at GG during the week between the tackling weekend and start of the meet and looking after the tackle and equipment.

It was quite an experience camping alone on the moor and watching an owl silently hunt on the flanks of Ingleborough at dusk! Tackle also had to be washed and the picture below was taken with the self timer on my old Exacta camera!

Examination of the gantry on my recent visits to GG revealed relatively little change apart from a much safer trapdoor mechanism now replacing the rather hairy plank of years gone by! The ride down the main shaft always required the passenger to foot off the wall for about the first ten metres but that is also now unnecessary following more precise guideline and gantry positioning.

Another improvement I noticed was the use of dog tags for those going underground. This is in addition to the traditional log book and I am sure there have been fewer cases of rescue operations being mounted for potholers that were in fact back home with their feet up in front of the fire!

I do however have one small complaint with all these fantastic improvements to the winch . The ride on the bosun's chair both down and up seems faster, and I missed the former leisure time, particularly on the ascent, to look around the main shaft. On my recent trips it was but a blur! I also missed the "feel" of the old petrol engine as it chugged you up the shaft and the feeling of impending doom as the engine died on you half way up!

Now what of the bosun's chair? Again, the basic design has not changed much apart from a more secure front fastening beam and chain. I do believe however (see below) that the chair has shrunk in size!

The GG meets in the 60s also saw a few hairy escapades which I am sure would be frowned upon these days! I recall on one occasion Roy Taylor in 1966 doing a death defying walk along the back ledge of the main shaft to de-snag some ladders. I captured this on film and reproduce that photo here.

Apart from geology, potholing and rambling, my main hobby is photography and I always took the opportunity at GG to take some photos underground. Many of you will recognise the formation below which one passes in Old East on the way to Mud Hall.

After a very long absence, I finally got to make the pilgrimage to Gaping Gill during the 1998 meet. A conference in Malaysia, followed by a research visit to the U.K., finally brought me back to Yorkshire from Australia at the right time of year and I arranged to meet up with Steve Kirk on the morning of Tuesday, 25 August up at GG. The weather for the previous few days had been more typical of April with sunshine and showers but the nostalgic walk up through the Clapham Woods and Trow Gill and on to the moor was made in fine, misty rain. Soon after arrival I met up with Edward Whitaker, the meet leader and old friend, and I spent some time with him catching up on news over a cup of Fell Beck tea. With a borrowed helmet and a newly acquired electric lamp, and donned in water proofs and boots, I made the trip down into the main chamber. It was Dave Milner who "dropped" me down at about 9.30 am, and I remember commenting on how much the bosun's chair had shrunk in size and getting the comment back from Dave that it was in fact yours truly that had become somewhat more "portly"!! Apart from the main chamber, I had a leisurely stroll on to Sand Cavern and back. The passage on to T junction was rather wetter than I remembered from all those years ago, but otherwise the geography of the place had not changed much! When I came back to the surface in the early afternoon it was raining fairly heavily and I then proceeded to search out a few other club members who I had not seen in many years. It was so nice to meet up with Edward, Dave Milner, Howard Beck, Dave Allanach and especially Roy Taylor who entertained me to a drop of the good stuff while we reminisced! I couldn't believe my luck this year when a big conference in Calgary gave me the same opportunity of travelling on to the U.K. and once again coinciding with the GG meet! Plans were set in motion again and this time I went prepared with camera and tripod to capture the main chamber in all its floodlit glory. I couldn't believe my eyes when arriving at the main sinkhole to discover that my arrival had been anticipated and that a grand staircase leading down to the gantry had been prepared for my arrival! I was really touched!!

Dave Milner and Dave Allanach were winch drivers for my descent and ascent respectively and again the "whinging pom" from Oz complained about the bosun's chair!