Wookey
Hole Caves are considered to be the birthplace of British cave diving.
Until
1935, Chamber 3 represented the limit of cave exploration on foot. Chamber 4 had
been flooded by the mill leat and raised sluice gates since the 1850s, and nobody
had penetrated further in recent times.
In
1935 two courageous divers, led by Graham Balcombe, walked along the river bed
from Chamber 3 to Chamber 4.
The
heavy and cumbersome deep sea diving equipment was not at all suitable for exploring
caves. In spite of this, Balcombe reached Chamber 7 later that year. And in 1948,
using oxygen equipment developed during the 2nd World War, he and his colleagues
reached Chamber 9, now known as Cathedral Cave.
This
is one of the most famous caverns in the history of cave diving. It is 100 feet
high, its green water 70 feet deep, its vast walls red with iron oxide and shining
with "flowstone" stalactite formations.
High
on one wall is a beautiful "curtain" stalactite. And, most valuable
of all for the divers, there is a wide curve of mud bank above the green water,
enough for men and supplies to remain dry.
Chamber 9 was to become a
forward diving base for all the explorations to follow over the next 30 years.
The blasting of a manmade tunnel, and advances in modern diving technology have
now allowed divers to explore as far as Chamber 25.
On
the 29th of Sept 2004 John Volanthen and Rick Stanton with their dedicated team
reached a depth of over 249 feet (76m) setting a new British cave diving record.
