In Living Memory: Mossdale Caverns
March 22nd, 2008 by Steve BowbrickMy wife put me onto this one: really special speech radio from Ray Kershaw, reportage veteran. Somehow I missed the first two episodes of this series, called In Living Memory, billed as a 'contemporary history series'. This one's a quiet and mournful piece about the awful deaths of six young potholers in Mossdale Caverns on a rainy night in the Yorkshire Dales in 1967 (MP3).
October 3rd, 2008 at 6:45 am
Hello Ray
I was a friend of Geoff Boireau and Mick Ryan….and by a stroke of luck was in South Wales rather than Yorkshire the weekend of the ‘67 tragedy. I had arranged with Geoff to “burgle” Langcliffe Pot the weekend he and the others died in Mossdale. We thought this pothole should extend beyond the limits reached in ‘67 towards Black Keld. But the owners of the land were hostile to our traversing the land so we were waiting a few weeks before attempting to enter under the cover of darkness.
Meanwhile, a short while before the weekend of 24 June, I went to the end of Mossdale with a friend (Dave Judson); still recovering, Geoff called me the Wednesday before June 24th and described the access problems with Langcliffe and said he was going to Mossdale instead – and would I like to come? Answer was no (thank goodness) because my knees were still hurting so I went to the South Wales Caving Club instead at Penwyllt.
I have a letter from Geoff about some of this…and would like to send a copy to Geoff’s wife if she would like it?
Please let me know …and many thanks for bringing back the memories, traumatic as they were and still are.
I am a geologist and have lived/worked in Australia for a long time but have never forgotten my Yorkshire caving friends, alive or dead.
Richard Arculus
July 30th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
I was a student at St Johns College the year Geoff was killed. Ihadnt yeard the news but as we took our exam, I noticed one of the students was crying and she told me afterwards.
He was a wonderful man and I didnt get over it very easily
May 16th, 2010 at 12:01 am
Hi,
I used to go caving with Geoff Boireau. I was invited o the Mossdale trip but didn’t go. I would really like a copy of the letter that Geoff wrote, Richard, if that were possible. This has haunted me all my life.
Joyce