CRAVEN caver Mick Melvin is due to give a talk on ‘adventure and tragedy’ beneath the Northern hills at the Otley Courthouse on Friday, October 26.

During the 1960s the Happy Wanderers Cave and Pothole Club was a small limited membership caving club based in Kingsdale near Ingleton.

The club, which had held its first meeting in the late summer of 1956 at the Wheatsheaf Hotel, Ingleton, was at the forefront of much of the new cave exploration work carried out in Yorkshire and Lancashire during the 60s and 70s.

Often their members would work together with other cavers, or caving clubs in a joint venture to push new ground. The club produced its first journal in 1966 which has long been out of print.

Mick was one of the founding members of The Happy Wanderers and during his talk at Otley Courthouse, he will give some insight into his time as a caver and how he continues to pursue his passion of speleology today.

His talk will cover the endeavours of the early caving pioneers such as John Birkbeck, son of a Settle Banker, and Edward Alfred Martel, the French Speleologist who was the first person to reach the huge main Chamber of Gaping Gill in 1895.

He will also discuss some of the major caving discoveries made during the 1940s, 50s and 60s and talk about the discovery and exploration of the Kingsdale Master Cave, a cave that became an important link in opening up the three Counties System.

Finally, he will talk about the Mossdale Tragedy of 1967 when six cavers lost their lives in Mossdale Caverns near Grassington, a tragedy that is Britain’s worst caving disaster.

A donation will be made to the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association (UWFRA) following the end of the talk.

Mick Melvin will be at Otley Courthouse on Friday, October 26 at 7.30pm. Tickets are £10 for adults, and £8 concessions.To book tickets visit the website: otleycourthouse.org.uk, call the box office on 01943 467466 or pop into the Courthouse on Courthouse Street, Otley.