Moldywarps gather to discuss their exploits.

CAVERS have discovered five miles of old mines and natural passages which contain fascinating relics of the area’s industrial past.

Details will be revealed on Saturday in Richmond, North Yorkshire, at a gathering of “moldywarps” – a group of cavers formed in Darlington more than 40 years ago.

For the past decade, the moldywarps have been exploring the Devis Hole Mine Beneath Swaledale.

They have made their way along two-and-a-half miles of natural passages created in the limestone by underground streams and along the same distance created 150 and more years ago by leadminers.

“It was like the Marie Celeste,” said Peter Ryder of the Moldywarps Speleological Group – “moldywarp” being Yorkshire dialect for mole, “speleology” being the study of caves. “There were a pair of boots, miners’ graffiti on the walls, all the working gear of the mine was greatly rotted, and there was the skeleton of a truck still standing on the rails.”

One piece of graffiti included the date, November 16, 1859.

In other parts of the mine, which begins near Grinton, they discovered imprints in the mud of the miners’ corduroy trousers and wooden clogs.

“It makes you wonder why they left it,” said Peter.

“Perhaps there was roof-fall over night and it wasn’t worth their while to reopen it again.”

The story of Devis Hole Mine – originally, superstitious miners knew it as Devil’s Hole – is told in the moldywarps’ 12th journal. It will be available on Saturday night when Tony Harrison of Egglescliffe, near Stockton, will give a talk on the finds.

The moldywarp group was formed in 1966 among pupils of Darlington Grammar School, and founder member Peter Ryder has just published his Memoirs of a Moldywarp about his adventures underground. It is illustrated by The Northern Echo’s cartoonist, Cluff, who was a caver in his youth.

“When I was 11 or 12, you could get a 12s 6d railway ticket for a week and you could go anywhere,” said Peter.

“I remember one day at Richmond we found a hole in the ground, an old copper mine, and went and bought a candle to explore it.

“Then we were told it was dangerous, so we went down even further and kept coming back to it.

“The big lure is finding stuff nobody has ever seen before. You know that yours is the first light to shine on something.

“You are inside the history of the earth. The whole dales landscape – the history, archaeology, geology, speleology – comes together.

“There’s so much going on down there. We have only got into five per cent of the miners’ caves in Swaledale.”

Peter, 60, is giving a talk about his book on Saturday.

He shares an ailment with his fellow moldywarps which is graphically illustrated by Cluff on the front cover of the new journal. Cluff’s cartoon sees the ageing cavers exploring underground with the help of a stairlift.

“It hurts more and more as you get older, and you stay in the bath longer looking at the blisters on your knees,” said Peter.

■ All are welcome to hear Saturday’s talks at the Swaledale Outdoor Club Clubhouse, 17 New Road, Richmond, at 7.30pm. For further details, or for information about Peter’s book, Memoirs of a Moldywarp, call 01434-682644 or email pfryder@broomlee.demon.co.uk