Tourist attraction plans to open up a lost cave

Stump Cross Caverns near Pateley Bridge is run by the Bowerman family

A cave previously only seen by potholers will be opened to the public as part of a tourist attraction's planned expansion.

Stump Cross Caverns, near Pateley Bridge, has been run by the Bowerman family since it was bought by Lisa and her husband Richard in 2003.

The new cave has been known to cavers since the Victorian era but is not currently accessible.

The Bowerman's son Oliver said they would be working with Craven Pothole Club to excavate the site and make it accessible to visitors.

Mr Bowerman is gradually taking control of the business from his mother Lisa.

“The main chamber is 9m across and 3m high, and it’s well decorated with formations. At the moment you have to crawl through and get over mud that washed in during the Ice Age,” he said.

“The formations in this cave are more impressive than most of the show cave passage,” said Mr Bowerman.

“We will need to excavate lots of mud and debris. But we will also open up the old mine entrance on the field over the road.

“We might find Ice Age animal remains in the mud – in the 1990s when the main cave was excavated they found ancient wolverine bones.”

He said the project could take two or three years before it is open to the public, but they wouldn’t know until they started work in January.

Oliver Bowerman's parents bought the caves when he was five years old

Mr Bowerman said the caves were part of his upbringing – along with his brother Jacob, 27, and sister Evie, 23.

“We’ve lived on the site since 2003. We had a normal life before the cave. We lived in Alnwick in Northumberland, and then my parents said ‘we’re moving to a cave’ I was terrified to go down originally.

“They wanted to move back to Yorkshire – my dad was a plumber and mum was a children’s nurse - they saw a newspaper advert for the caves and bought them.”

Oliver Bowerman said the cave contained impressive formations

The family home is attached to the site and since he graduated with a psychology degree, Mr Bowerman has been helping run the family business.

“I was happy to come back from uni and help the family push it forward.

"Mum’s now getting to the age where she wants to take a step back,” he said.

The limestone caves were discovered by lead miners in the 1860s and have been privately owned ever since.

In the future, Mr Bowerman said he wanted to install new lighting in the caves and expand the visitor centre.

"We put on events and have a cinema.

"We do fossil experiences for kids and a Stone Age experience. We also do a dark skies event – anything to do with natural history,” he said.

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