This relatively small but sadly notorious cave was just another insignificant "mud hole" until October 1972, when three divers drowned after stirring up the silt which covers the floor of a silty side-chamber, without being equipped with a safety line. The cave's original form consisted of both a walk-in entrance in the bottom of a depression and a large roof-window hole which required ladders for access, but today, access is only possible via. a strong steel gate which has been set in a concrete slab over the latter entrance; the walk-in area has also been filled with huge boulders.
The first (entrance) chamber is a rectangular room with dimensions of around 15 x 8 metres and cavers can only explore this from the dry vantage point of a dirt "island" which is surrounded by a dimly-lit lake of clear, calm water. A low area with a fine tree-root "curtain" points the way to the other old entrance area to the east, and the floor slopes down especially to the north and west, where a very low, silty "passage" heads off at a depth of 6m.
This silty, rock-floored section runs for a few metres to a point where the ceiling arches up again, allowing divers to enter a waterfilled room with roughly the same general shape and dimensions as the entry chamber. However, there is no air surface – the shallowest water depth on the flat ceiling is around 3 metres, and there are several low flattener areas and false leads around the walls which can create 'line-traps' for unwary divers (this is the chamber in which the three became trapped.) Some scratchings and bones have been found in this room, and the floor consists of very soft and deep clay-like mud. The ceiling is also extremely soft, clouding the water quickly, so cave divers need to practice perfect buoyancy control and take care not to touch anything unnecessarily.
Alleyns Cave was first placed into CEGSA's Records by local speleo-logist Fred W. Aslin in June 1965, after he learnt of its existence from pioneering cave diver Jock Huxtable. It was originally numbered "S126" but was erroneously reported as "S86" during the coroners inquest. The cave was named by forestry workers after the late Mr. "Paddy" Alleyn, who was employed as a rabbit trapper by the Woods and Forests Department around the early 1950s (pers. comm. ‘Paddy’ Alleyn, 1985, and former Forestry worker Jack Clayson, 1992).
*P Horne LSECR
