[Blino]

Visited with Buddah and a non-NWEX mate.

The interest with this place was initially the numerous legends and myths which surround the caverns.

One of the more interesting ones, and to quote Wiki..

"The story of the children who went down Crank Caverns in the late 18th century. Four children decided to explore the limestone caverns in the area and vanished. One child survived and told a terrifying tale about small old men with beards who killed his three friends and chased him. The petrified child stumbled over human bones in the caves and finally managed to scramble through an opening to the surface as a hand was grabbing at his ankle. The authorities were concerned because a number of people had gone missing in the area near the cave entrances. Two heavily armed soldiers descended into the caverns with torches and claimed that they not only found a heap of human bones, they also found the ruins of an ancient church of some unknown denomination. The interior of the church was lit by three large candles and grotesque gargoyles formed part of an altar. Throughout the exploration of the underground, the soldiers said they felt as if they were being watched, and also heard voices speaking in an unknown language. One report said that a child's head was found in a cave, along with evidence of cannibalism. After a second investigation, the caves either collapsed or gunpowder was used to seal them, and so the riddle of the underground church of Crank Caverns remains unsolved."

The caverns are actually the remains of the Rainford Delph Quarry. in which mining ceased in 1865. The surrounding woods and caverns were later used as a game reserve by the Earl of Derby, and in the WWII they became a storage facility for ammunition for the Anti Aircraft position at Crank.

After a long walk in the wrong direction (thanks to Buddahs navigational skills) we stumbled across the entrances and in we went. A real tight squeeze to say the least.
It was my first ever encounter in such a confined space, worries of claustrophobia did kind of kick in every now and again! But the mild panic just added to the excitement!

Coming back to the surface felt goo, it was really cool in the tunnels and it was raining and really warm and humid when we came out. It added a really nice surreal ending to the night.













I think Buddahs got some more pics so hopefully he'll post them too!

[Reddood]

yet another one for my list of placers to go.

looks fairly chilled! nice explore, and what a story about the children.

[Ojay]

Nice work guys

[Gibbo]

Great stuff, there's a fair whack of underground stuff around there.

[Blino]

Originally Posted by Gibbo

Great stuff, there's a fair whack of underground stuff around there.

Yeah Buddah said there are supposedly a few entrances to 3 separate caverns. We could only find the one when we visited, however it was getting late and lashing it down with rain!

[Ojay]

Originally Posted by Blino

Yeah Buddah said there are supposedly a few entrances to 3 separate caverns. We could only find the one when we visited, however it was getting late and lashing it down with rain!

The one I looked at was in a blokes garden about 5ft away from his back door....

[the copy cat]

Originally Posted by ojay

The one I looked at was in a blokes garden about 5ft away from his back door....

are you sure you was at crank cavens?

[buddah]

just a few of mine, i would of loved to have spent a good few hours more down here and a good few days more above ground to see if there are any other parts that we had missed. Ive done quite a bit of research on this place and the area, and there seems to be a lot of myths and fairy tales regarding tunnels. But when you look at the geology of the area its quite possible for there to be many more caves and caverns littered around the area. i believe the main crank caverns was once just an exploited natural cavern so there may more in the area.





cheers.