The history of Stump Cross Caverns is full of fascinating characters. Learn all about Len Cook in our article.
A trip to Stump Cross Caverns is a trip back in time – no time machine required. As you descend the 60 steps underground, you're entering a network of chambers and passageways that are hundreds of thousands of years old.
Yes, these limestone caves are ancient history all right – the results of slow, slow geological change. But the history of the caves doesn't end with their formation. There's also the history of the men and women who explored, surveyed and mapped them.
One such legend was Len Cook, an active and enthusiastic member of the local
Craven Pothole Club – first as a member, then as President.
Len was passionately involved in the digging expeditions that expanded our knowledge of the Stump Cross network. On top of this, he was a pioneer of cave photography, taking beautiful photos of Stump Cross Caverns, Ingleborough Cave, Ireland's Pollaraftra Cave and more.
He was also a regular and prolific writer for Craven Pothole Club journals. These articles are an invaluable source of information about the history of Stump Cross in general – and of Len Cook in particular.
So, how did it all begin for Len Cook? As so often, it wasn't a grand plan – more a happy accident. It all began with a man who needed a lift.
Len's first descent
Gaping Gill is a Yorkshire landmark – the moody, magical spot where the waters of Fell Beck disappear into the Earth.
It's a sight loved by many and a pothole prized by cavers the world over. It was also where Len's love of caving began. But if John Frankland hadn't asked him for a lift in 1947, he might never have got into potholing.
With his typical combination of confidence and self-deprecation, Len remarks that John wanted him there for his driving rather than his company.
He describes the two of them as "ill-prepared" in "ordinary shoes, tweed jackets and grey flannel trousers… armed only with cycle lamps".
He goes on:
"I can still remember standing on the old gantry in 1947 ready for my first descent and wondering why I was putting myself in dire peril on a skinny bit of wire, and then dropping into the darkening hole."
If you were to make a film called
Big Hole: The Len Cook Story, this would be the moment of revelation. Descending into the abyss, Len realises his calling for the caves.
But Len didn't have time for such sentimentalities. "There was no sudden revelation," he writes, "that this was the life for me! It was rather an insidious process aided and abetted by J.F that convinced me that I was missing something."
In those early days, there were hi-jinks, transport difficulties and a slow but steady improvement in the quality of Len's caving gear. But it only really started to get serious for Len when he discovered the art of cave surveying.
Surveys and explorations
In 1949, some two years after his first trip to Gaping Gill, Len announced his intention to start a Cave Survey Group. Around the same time, he became involved in the digging expedition that uncovered the section of Stump Cross Caverns known as "Heaven and Hell".
Len and co began the expedition with a three-course dinner – a decision Len retrospectively described as a mistake. They descended via the 20-foot chimney of Bar Pot and stumbled on some extraordinarily well-decorated chambers.
Len loved the mystery of cave exploration. He knew there was more – and he wanted to be involved in finding it.
"One thing is certain," he wrote, with characteristic clarity. "Only a fraction of Stump Cross is known. A concentrated effort by an organised party during the winter months can count on success; there is no 'if' about it. Take a shovel, dig in Stump Cross and open up a passage."
This
joie de cave
also led him to be part of the expedition that discovered Reindeer Cavern – one of the jewels in the Stump Cross crown you can visit to this day.
It wasn't all plain sailing (or digging), however. In one article, he refers to "time and toil spent with very little to show for it". He spent the better part of 50 years looking for a legendary lost lake before finally throwing in the spade.
Len was closely associated with Stump Cross, but his speleological zeal led him elsewhere. He travelled around the caves of Ireland in a removal van and visited the show caves of France.
By the early 1950s, he was also seriously passionate about cave photography.
Len's lenses
Len was a talented cave photographer – and like all talented people, he knew that results came from one percent inspiration and 99% perspiration.
"There are two 'musts'," he wrote, "associated with colour photography underground
– a good companion of equable temperament, and for oneself, great patience. Two years' work and 300 underground slides have taught me this if nothing else."
In time, his patience was rewarded, and he became a regular on the lecture circuit where he shared his latest snaps. He also set up the "Men of Kent Trophy", given to the Craven Pothole Club member who took the year's best cave photo.
Even today, cave photography isn't easy to do well. Back then, you had to use flash powder and heavy equipment. It's perhaps no surprise that Len was injured in the process on more than one occasion.
He was interested in moving pictures, too – a passion he wrote about in the CPC journal. This was made possible by his knowledge of photography and, more generally, of
"lighting in caves" (the subject of a 1957 article).
Len continued to cave until the grand old age of 78. Throughout his adult life, he led meets at Stump Cross and wrote vividly about his expeditions.
Len Cook, we salute you!
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