Welsh Journals

Gower Caving: recollections of 'the Taylors' by Glenn M. Jones I began caving in the early 1960s following several visits to the Gower coast armed with Allen and Rutter's Gower Caves. I was completely obsessed by caves and anything to do with them, but had little idea of how to progress to 'real' caves. Fortunately, the son of a friend of my mother went fishing with a lad who knew some local cavers. An intro- duction was arranged and a date set for my first visit to a 'sporting' cave. The cave which was to have such an overwhelming effect on my life was Llethrid Cwm Swallet. At the time the arrangements were made I had no idea what to expect. I was unaware of any guide book I could refer to and my visits to the local library drew a blank. Then one of those strange coincidences happened. Following tea one evening my father said, "I don't like the sound of that". He was referring to an article in the local paper written by 'the Taylors', about Llethrid. I was enthralled (my father wasn't). The article described how the Taylors (M. Clague, Marjorie and Eileen) had re-found the entrance to the cave, after the initial discovery by the South Wales Caving Club some years earlier. They had struggled through several hundred feet of unpleasant-sounding stream passage and had entered, for the first time, 'The Great Hall of Llethrid'. The article continued to say that Llethrid was dark, damp and dangerous. I was hooked, I couldn't wait. Much to my parents' relief we all returned safe and sound from the dark damp depths of Llethrid. I was absolutely obsessed with my new sport. Our little group quickly expanded and we started to call ourselves the Gower Caving Society. Two new members, Tony White and Bob Radcliff, and myself spent many afternoons in the Swansea Reference Library thumbing through back issues of the South Wales Evening Post, looking for articles by the Taylors. That's how we discovered the location of caves such as Stembridge, Bovehill Pot, Wooleys Hole and others. We would copy out the articles longhand and then try to find the caves on an old two and a half inch Ordnance Survey map. I cannot remember how it came about, but one Sunday afternoon I was knocking on the Taylors' front door. That afternoon a completely new world opened up before me. I was shown an amazing collection of photographs taken in caves I didn't know existed. Clague, Marjorie and