British speleologies: geographies of science, personality and practice, 1935-1953

Journal of Historical Geography

Volumn 32, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 775-795

  Cant, Sarah G ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Britain; Caving; Clubs; Personality; Science; Societies; Speleology

Indexed keywords

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; RECREATIONAL ACTIVITY; REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; SPELEOLOGY;

EURASIA; EUROPE; UNITED KINGDOM; WESTERN EUROPE;

EID: 33748414242     PISSN: 03057488     EISSN: 10958614     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhg.2005.10.002     Document Type: Article

References (112)

1. E.A. Martel, Speleology, in: J.S. Keltie and H.R. Mill (Eds), Report of the Sixth International Geographical Congress. Held in London, 1895, London, 1896, 717-722. Trevor Shaw suggests that the word 'speleologie' was invented during the 1880s, purportedly by Emile Rivière, a French pre-historian. 'Speleology' became the popular term used to describe the study of caves; however its use was less widespread within Britain at that time. T.R. Shaw, History of Cave Science: The Study and Exploration of Limestone Caves, to 1900, Sydney, 1992, 2.
2. Martel, Speleology, 717.
3. Anon. Review of the Sixth International Geographical Congress. Geographical Journal 6 (1895) 273
4. Palmer L.S. The British Speleological Association. Caves and Caving 1 1 (1937-1938) 7-9. Palmer quotes his own speech at the July 27th meeting. However, there is evidence (club membership lists in the National Caving Library) that indicates a small number of individuals were members of more than one club and in more than one region, and some individuals were connected through interests in climbing and outdoors issues.
5. Craven S.A. Eli Simpson - 16 September 1884 to 1 February 1962. A Biography up to 1945. Studies in Speleology 8 (1991) 39-56
6. For example:. Study of caves. Plan to coordinate all research. The Times (July 29, 1935) 9
7. Articles also appeared in the Yorkshire Post, West Yorkshire Pioneer, and Craven Herald.
8. See Shaw, History of Cave Science, 1992.
9. On popular science, see. Cooter R., and Pumfrey S. Separate spheres and public spaces: reflections on the history of science popularization and science in popular culture. History of Science 32 (1994) 237-267
10. Hilgartner S. The dominant view of popularization: conceptual problems, political uses. Social Studies of Science 20 (1990) 519-539
11. D.N. Livingstone, Putting Science in its Place: Geographies of Scientific Knowledge, Chicago and London, 2003;
12. Livingstone D.N. The spaces of knowledge: contributions towards a historical geography of science. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 13 (1995) 5-34
13. Naylor S. The field, the museum, and the lecture hall: the spaces of natural history in Victorian Cornwall. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers NS 27 (2002) 494-513
14. For example:. Driver F. Editorial: Fieldwork in geography. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers NS 25 (2000) 267-268
15. F. Driver, Geography Militant: Cultures of Exploration and Empire, Oxford, 2001;
16. Kuklick H., Kohler R.E., and Introduction. In: Kuklick H., and Kohler R.E. (Eds). Science in the Field. Osiris 11 2nd series (1996) 1-14
17. Lorimer H. Telling small stories: spaces of knowledge and the practice of geography. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers NS 28 (2003) 197-217
18. Lorimer H. The geographical fieldcourse as active archive. Cultural Geographies 10 (2003) 278-308
19. Naylor The field, the museum, and the lecture hall; R.C. Powell, The Sirens' voices? Field practices and dialogue in geography, Area 34 (2002) 261-272.
20. Lorimer H., and Spedding N. Locating field science: a geographical family expedition to Glen Roy, Scotland. British Journal for the History of Science 38 (2005) 13-33
21. Naylor S. Introduction: historical geographies of science - places, contexts, cartographies. British Journal for the History of Science 38 (2005) 1-12
22. Most studies focus on earlier time periods; for example, on 18th and 19th century geology see. Shortland M. Darkness visible: underground culture in the golden age of geology. History of Science 34 (1994) 1-61
23. On underground technologies, see R. Williams, Notes on the Underground, London, 1990.
24. For example: M. Farr, The Darkness Beckons, London, 1980; J. Lawrence and R.W. Brucker, The Caves Beyond, Somerset, 1975;
25. Irwin D.J. The exploration of Gough's Cave and its development as a show cave. Proceedings, University of Bristol Spelæological Society 17 (1985) 95-100
26. The first British club to undertake and report on organised cave exploration as part of their outdoor activities is widely thought to be the Yorkshire Ramblers Club, formed in 1892.
27. The Yorkshire Speleological Society, formed in 1906, was the first British club with sole interest in caves.
28. For example: Yorkshire Ramblers Club (1892), Kyndwr Club (1899), Derbyshire Pennine Club (1906), and Mendip Nature Research Committee (1906).
29. Naylor, Introduction: historical geographies of science, 8.
30. Withers C.W.J., and Finnegan D.A. Natural history societies, fieldwork and local knowledge in nineteenth-century Scotland: towards a historical geography of civic science. Cultural Geographies 10 (2003) 334-353
31. Naylor, The field, the museum, and the lecture hall, 509.
32. Caves are also found in the smaller limestone areas of south Devon, the Forest of Dean, North Wales and Sutherland.
33. A. Secord, Artisan botany, in: N. Jardine, J.A. Secord and E.C. Spary (Eds), Cultures of Natural History, Cambridge, 1996, 378-393;
34. Finnegan D.A. Natural history societies in late Victorian Scotland and the pursuit of local civic science. British Journal for the History of Science 38 (2005) 53-72
35. Naylor, The field, the museum, and the lecture hall, 509.
36. Elliott P. The origins of the 'creative class': provincial urban society, scientific culture and socio-political marginality in Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Social History 28 (2003) 361-387
37. B. Hevly, The heroic science of glacier motion, in: Kuklick and Kohler (Eds) Science in the Field, 66-86.
38. Hevly, The heroic science of glacier motion, 67.
39. A. L. Hollerbach, Of sangfroid and sphinx moths: cruelty, public relations, and the growth of entomology in England, 1800-1840, in: Kuklick and Kohler (Eds), Science in the Field, 201-220.
40. Hevly, The heroic science of glacier motion, 66.
41. Hevly, The heroic science of glacier motion, 67-68.
42. Kuklick and Kohler, Science in the Field, 4.
43. Shaw, History of Cave Science, 1-2.
44. Palmer, The British Speleological Association, 8.
45. Shaw, History of Cave Science, 1-2.
46. For example: Prof. K. Absolon (Czechoslovakia), Prof. L'Abbé H. Breuil (France), Dr. G.G. MacCurdy (USA), Prof. D.H. Obermaier (Spain), Prof. G. Kryle (Austria).
47. Anon. Nature 137 (1936) 528 [3465, March 28]
48. Craven, Eli Simpson, 47.
49. Palmer, The British Speleological Association, 7-9.
50. Palmer, The British Speleological Association, 9.
51. Palmer, The British Speleological Association, 8-9.
52. 'It was found necessary to open the exhibition hall to the public on Sunday. People were coming from all parts of England, and they could not be sent back until they had had the chance of examining the exhibits.' Manchester Guardian (28 July 1936). Source: Newspaper cutting, BSA Records, National Caving Library.
53. BSA annual conferences were held in Bristol (1937), Settle (1938) and Swansea (1939).
54. Palmer, The British Speleological Association, 9.
55. Cragdale was a large stone house on the east side of the main street in Settle. The BSA rented the top floor.
56. Palmer, The British Speleological Association, 9.
57. British Speleological Association, Report of the Council for the Year 1937, Settle, 1937. Source: Bristol Conference file, BSA Records, National Caving Library.
58. British Speleological Association, Report of the Council for the Year 1937, Settle, 1937. Source: Bristol Conference file, BSA Records, National Caving Library.
59. Palmer, The British Speleological Association, 9.
60. Public Record Office: MAF 49/833 Inland Water Survey Committee. Minutes of Meetings 1-5 [First meeting 21 February 1935].
61. Anon. Inland Water Survey in the British Isles. Report presented at the Annual Meeting of the British Association in Leicester, September 6-13, 1933. British Association Reprints NS 31 (1933) 1-3
62. Inland Water Survey Committee, Second Report of the Inland Water Survey Committee: 1936-1937, London, 1937, 12. The Ministry of Health provided the BSA with the OS maps of Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Somerset.
63. The Wessex Cave Club Circular 21 (1937) reported 'It certainly looks bad when a club of over 120 members cannot turn out more than one or two on this vitally important work'.
64. Inland Water Survey Committee, Third Annual Report of the Inland Water Survey Committee 1937-1938, London, 1939.
65. Anon. Well qualified. Craven Herald (2 August 1935)
66. Source: BSA Records, National Caving Library (Bristol conference papers - newspaper cuttings)
67. Craven, Eli Simpson, 47.
68. Craven S.A. An appreciation of Eli Simpson. Descent 197 (1992) 26-28
69. Anon, Report on BSA Activities in Derbyshire, Derbyshire, 1938. Source: BSA Records, National Caving Library.
70. This position is often played out 'environmentally' through rhetoric of cave conservation.
71. Craven, Eli Simpson, 49-50.
72. Letter from Eli Simpson to 'Digger' [C W Harris], 29 January 1945. Source: BSA Records, National Caving Library. Sir Arthur Keith did not renew his position as president of the BSA after the war.
73. Chantry M.H. Chairman's Address. Cave Research Group Newsletter 11 (1947) 3-7
74. Railton C.L. Chairman's Address, Report of the annual general meeting. Cave Research Group Newsletter 19 (1948) 2-7
75. Railton, Chairman's Address, 2. Aubrey Glennie was acknowledged as being the 'key mover' in forming the CRG, but in a less dominant way compared to Simpson: 'CRG is above all the creation of Brigadier Aubrey Glennie (so modest a man that I dare not let him know what I am writing).' C. Cullingford, Group News, Cave Research Group Newsletter 47 (1953) 1-3.
76. Chantry M.H. Chairman's Address. Cave Research Group Newsletter 11 (1947) 6
77. '[T]he Group as such is in no way interested in organising field work. From the very beginning, we laid down that this was the affair of individuals and their clubs'; Chantry, Chairman's Address, 6.
78. The CRG's apparent separation of sport from science led Eli Simpson to regard academics as 'armchair speleologists', i.e. armchair scientists.
79. Anon. Hydrology. Cave Research Group Newsletter 1 (1947) 3
80. Chantry M.H. Chemistry and physics. Cave Research Group Newsletter 1 (1947) 3
81. Hazelton M. Biology. Cave Research Group Newsletter 2 (March 1947) 2-3
82. Biospeleology Part 1 and Biospeleology Part 2 by E. Aubrey Glennie and Mary Hazelton were published by the CRG in 1947 and 1948.
83. Glennie E.A. Words. Cave Research Group Newsletter 2 (1947) 2
84. Anon. Survey. Cave Research Group Newsletter 9 (1947) 2
85. Glennie E.A. Combined report of Hon. Secretary and Hon. Treasurer. Cave Research Group Newsletter 10 (1947) 5-7
86. Simpson E. The Bulletin of the British Speleological Association 1 (1946) 1-4
87. Simpson E. Report of the Hon. Secretary and Recorder 1947. The Bulletin of the British Speleological Association 6 (1947) 1-4
88. There wasn't a committee for the Mendip caving region or South Wales, Reflecting a north-south divide within cultures of speleology in Britain.
89. The Editor. Editorial. Cave Science: A Quarterly Review of Speleology 1 1 (1949) 1
90. For example the Bulletin of February 1947 (4) listed eight weekend meets that would take place before the end of May.
91. Simpson E. 1939-1946. The Bulletin of the British Speleological Association 4 (1947) 1-3
92. C.H.D. Cullingford (Ed.), British Caving: An Introduction to Speleology, London, 1953.
93. Cullingford, Introduction, in: Cullingford (Ed.), British Caving, 1-7.
94. Part One included chapters on geology, physics, archaeology, and cave fauna and flora, whilst Part Two included caving equipment, exploring caves, diving, photography, and safety precautions. Cullingford, British Caving, v-ix.
95. Cullingford C.H.D. Group News. Newsletter of the Cave Research Group of Great Britain 47 (1953) 1-3 Original emphasis
96. Crabtree P. Perspectives in speleology: a potted history of the British Speleological Association. The Speleologist 2 6a (1966) 18-20. Crabtree comments that the success of Cave Science attracted many leading speleologists to the BSA.
97. Crabtree, Perspectives in speleology, 19.
98. Some former members of the BSA rejoined, and others were simply not interested in the politics, they just wanted to be completely involved with all aspects of speleology.
99. On 'geographies of mattering' see E. Laurier, That sinking feeling: elitism, working leisure and yachting, in: D. Crouch (Ed.), Leisure/Tourism Geographies: Practices and Geographical Knowledge, London, 1999, 195-213.
100. From the archival sources in the National Caving Library - and published sources - it is difficult to ascertain how far individuals' social relations are explicitly linked to matters of social class. Membership lists do not offer indicators such as occupation, education or family background. Fuller enquiry of social class would require investigation of each individual organisation affiliated with the BSA and CRG, detailed enquiry which was beyond of the scope of the research project from which this paper is drawn.
101. Hevly, The heroic science of glacier motion, 66.
102. Chantry C.H. Nettle Pot, Derbyshire. Caves and Caving 1 (1938) 34
103. Armstrong A.L. Cave excavation as a science. Caves and Caving 1 (1938) 1-6
104. Digging is the practice of searching for new cave entrances at the surface by excavating the earth above a rock fissure in order to re-open a natural entry that has 'closed' over time through natural in-fill. Digging can also take place underground, to increase the length of a passage by removing the silt and rock debris that has blocked a naturally-formed cave space over time.
105. Hollerbach, Of sangfroid and sphinx moths, 207.
106. For discussions on fieldwork and embodied spatial practices see Driver, Editorial: Fieldwork in geography, 276-278;
107. Dewsbury J.D., and Naylor S. Practising geographical knowledge: fields, bodies and dissemination. Area 34 (2002) 253-260
108. Finnegan, Natural history societies in late Victorian Scotland, 67.
109. Crabtree, Perspectives in speleology, 19.
110. For example, on geography see D.N. Livingstone, The Geographical Tradition: Episodes in the History of a Contested Enterprise, Oxford, 1992.
111. The Pennines, Yorkshire Moors, and Derbyshire Peak District are identified as being 'north', and the Mendips (Somerset) and South Wales as 'south'.
112. Letter from Eli Simpson to 'Digger' [C W Harris], 29 January 1945. Source: BSA Records, National Caving Library.