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English caver Dave Nixon has established that a recently discovered cave room, called Titan Shaft, is the deepest in England, exceeding the depth of the previous record holder – Gaping Gill in the Yorkshire Dales – by nearly 200 feet.
After reading in 1992 an account from 1793 about a network of caves beyond a well-known system called the Speedwell System, Nixon realized that a vast amount of passage was not being explored by modern cavers – presumably because it had been cutoff by rockfall in the time since the 18th century article was written.
After seven years of exploring and removing rockfall, Nixon and his team of spelunkers gained entry to the bottom of a shaft that turned out to be heart stoppingly deep, at 459 ft from floor to ceiling. The cavers then used radio location to identify the shaft's location on the surface and dug a entrance (about 130 feet of passage required), allowing them to rappel in and avoid the five-hour subterranean trip through the Speedwell System.
Local caving enthusiasts point out that it's particularly interesting that the cave was first discovered from the bottom. That is, when they initially emerged at the bottom of Titan shaft, Nixon and his team-mates would have had no way of knowing that they were standing in the new national record-holder. It was not until Nixon climbed to the top and took measurements that he realized what he had discovered.
Nixon told the U.K. Telegraph on November 7, "as cave explorers you have no idea how small or big the next thing you find will be — that's partly the excitement of it. When you actually break through, it's every caver's dream, but when we broke through to find Titan…"
Cavers around the world dream of discovering 'virgin shaft', but to have established a new record – even if it's only an English record rather than an international one – is a monumental milestone for even a hardcore caver like Nixon.
Like most caves, Titan was formed through water eroding the local limestone, and it still contains a huge waterfall, which plunges deep below ground level before draining into nearby Peak Cavern, which is the largest natural cave entrance in the British Isles.
While Titan is the longest vertical shaft in the U.K., there are caves with more mileage associated with them. Both the Lancaster/Easegill system in Yorkshire and Ogof Draenen in South Wales are more extensive, exceeding 70 km in passages.
There are also far more dramatic verticals elsewhere in the world, but even the most devoted vertical caver would still call the 450-foot-plus depth at Titan 'respectable'. In fact, say proponents of the formerly deepest cave, Gaping Gill, the fact that Titan is highly 'technical' detracts from the ability of the general public to enjoy it.
"The Titan cave may be bigger but it won't be an attraction for members of the public like Gaping Gill is," said Jon Avison, head of Park Management for the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority on November 9. "Every year hundreds of people are lowered into the cave by the Craven and Bradford pothole clubs so they can enjoy it in all its majesty...but the Titan cavern is apparently so dangerous that only experienced cavers can get to it…so size isn't everything after all."
