Treak Cliff Cavern Castleton Derbyshire

http://www.nottinghamshirenotes.com
'Polish Your Own Blue John Stone' said the advert - now who could resist an invite like that! Not me, and that's for sure!
So I headed off last week into what must be the most beautifully stunning part of the Peak District.
I must admit polishing the stone I'd selected in the shop wasn't too arduous, and was maybe an activity intended for children, but it was still something different that I hadn't done before. It was also interesting reading the information round the walls. For example in Treak Cliff Cavern water drips 4 to 7 times an hour in any one place, and then may between one hour and six weeks to appear inside the Cavern. There was also this diagram.

Miners started digging into the hillside in the 1750s, and using primitive tools it took them a staggering two and a half years to reach the first cave. When they got there and saw the bands of dark rock they thought at first that they had found coal.

In fact the mineral is a unique colour banded form of Fluorspar, and Treak Cliff Hill is the only place in the world where you'll find it. (I find that thought so exciting!).

Originally the yellow and blue mineral were processed in France, where it was simply called 'bleu et jaune'. It is thought this simple description was corrupted, and became Blue John as it is known all over the world.

The tour round the cave was amazing - and well worth doing, although you did have to be quite able-bodied to cope with all the wet stairs!

Rob our lovely guide explained everything very clearly, and pointed out 'The Pillar', the largest piece of Blue John ever found. It is unlikely to ever be mined as it's holding up the ceiling - although once processed it could be worth up to 2 million pounds!Blue John used to be very popular for large ornaments, but by the 1920s it had fallen in value. Consequently it was decided instead to produce large amounts for use in Sheffield steelworks - and much beautiful ornamental stone was wasted in this way. However, this activity lead to the discovery in 1926 of a whole new cave system full of stalagmites, stalactites and flowstone. So it was that we went even deeper underground into these wonderful limestone cave formations. Stunning as these were, it must in fact have been extremely unpleasant to work in these conditions, especially by flickering candle light, and we had a taste of the total darkness when Rob turned off the lights!


The most famous formation within the cave is 'The Stork', which is standing on one leg! It is thought that eventually the stalactite and stalagmite will join up, but it will take at least one thousand years!





Altogher an excellent tour, but then it was down to Castleton to find ASD Jewellers to see if they could use my little sliver of Blue John and turn it into a piece of jewellery. After some quite outstanding service it was decided that it was indeed possible after further resin treatment. Shall now be hanging on the post waiting for my totally unique piece of jewellery to arrive - what an amazing souvenir from a smashing day out.