On Sunday 30 April 1989 Simon Goyder, Richard Wilgoss and Julie Smith decided to go for a look around in the area of Pulpit Hole. After becoming bored with Pulpit Hole we went on looking for something more interesting. One hundred and fifty metres north of Pulpit Hole we found a depression with a hole. We went in. Having investigated all possible leads, Richard found a pitch. Much haste was made to rig a ladder and descend this pitch. After about 25ft, Richard came to the bottom, followed a passage for 8ft to a collapse and then noticed a small slot in the bottom of one wall. After further investigation this was found to be another pitch of about 20ft. Simon descended the first pitch and after discussion we decided to free climb this second pitch. At the bottom a rift ran south to north along what we suspected to be a fault line. Richard, being the smallest, investigated the south part of the rift; this went to a flat-out crawl and terminated in a 2 inch high squeeze. To the north the rift was too small to enter but was draughting well and so we decided to return the next day with digging materials and some help.
On return we had with us Paul Stacey, Charlie Peacock, Steve Goodall and Adrian Paniwnyk. Paul bolted the pitch and then went down. Charlie and Simon descended the second pitch and began digging towards the north. After some time and much rock removal the hole became large enogh for Paul to ease himself through into the next, larger part of the rift. After more digging and wriggling, Richard managed to get through the next part only to discover that the rift terminated in a very awkward collapse and tight area. However roughly 25ft of passage had been explored to the north and about 15ft to the south together with a potential dig at the bottom of the second pitch that was draughting well.
It was only after the exploration described above that we realised that what we thought to be a new find was already known as Lesser Pulpit Hole.
Care should be taken by anybody visiting this site as, due to some thoughtful gardening by nameless members of the digging team, a rather large boulder was dislodged from the main chamber floor and is now precariously perched half way across the head of the first pitch!
