OUCC Proceedings 4 (1966)

I feel very pleased to be able, at last, issue number 4 of the O.U. Cave Club “Proceedings”. Although two years have passed since the last issue in May 1964, I feel that the contents of this issue should be adequate compensation for the long wait.

The papers and articles in this issue have been intended to record, in as interesting a way as possible, some of the things that members of the club have done in the last two years. Michael Walker’s paper on cave development in north-west Spain is, as he says, a summary of the findings and conclusions of a number of expeditions which have taken place since 1961 in which members of the club have participated. My short account of erosional features around Oxford tells of the not strictly speleological work that the Club has done on the limestones nearer home. Here I must acknowledge a suggestion by S.A. Craven of the Craven pothole club that the OUCC excavate one of the sinkholes near Henwood farm, holds that have been christened by him “Henwood pots”, as it was this suggestion that opened our eyes to the possibility of research a little closer to Oxford in Mendip, our nearest caving area.

The paper on cave location in Turkey was written from data collected for a report to the committee of the expedition that later became the British Speleological Expedition to the Cantabrian Mountains, 1965. Michael Walker has drawn my attention the forthcoming bulletin of the Soc. Spél. de Paris which will contain an interesting account of potholes and caves explored by that club in the Turkish Toros mountains in 1965. A.C.W. Robertson’s account of the Spanish expedition follows, as does an account of some of the activities of the Club in S. Wales.

Hugh Ralph’s paper on the calculation of likely errors in cave surveying will probably be useful to many, even if they, like me, find the mathematics very hard going! This work was done in conjunction with Graham Stevens, a late member of the club, who has recently produced a survey of Washfold Pot.

A leader and certain correspondence that appeared in the Guardian recently is reproduced by their kind permission, and Michael Walker has added a further comment. Finally, for the sake of tradition, I have included a summary of OUCC meets, fortunes, and misfortunes during the last two years, written by Dick Hazelwood.

I’m sorry to have to abandon the previous format of the “Proceedings” and to have reverted to the cyclostyled quarto sheet that is the resort of so many these days, but it is simply a question of costs, and one flatters oneself that it is the content that really matters. A considerable saving by these means it should allow continuation in the future of the old policy, “an issue a year”.