WMCEG

WMCEG, founded in November 1959, organised caving trips to all areas of UK plus a few to caving areas elsewhere in Europe.
Membership declined towards the end of the 20th century and by 2007 the club was effectively closed on the basis that none had paid their subs and the rules were that membership lapsed after 6 months non-payment. That meant the only remaining members were a few who had been made Honorary Members for life. Records having been lost we currently know of only two.

At time of writing some assets remained including a bank balance and proceeds from the sale of the Old Darren Sunday School. Other assets like caving tackle and the library were lost. Those were of limited interest or value but we hope that perhaps they found a good home with another Midland caving club.

Sadly we believe the record books were also lost. We were led to understand that the remaining assets were to be liquidated and the proceeds (around £4600)  donated to the Cave Rescue Association.

This is not an “official” WMCEG web site, the club no longer exists, the purposes of this website are:

• To ensure anyone seeking information about WMCEG is not misled by obsolete content on the internet
• To locate any former members wishing to re-establish communication with former caving colleagues
• To find any records & photos etc. such that copies can be made available to other former WMCEG cavers
• To build the contact list such that we can get in touch should we have another reunion

Contact list

I have a list of names, nicknames, phone numbers and email addresses.  It was assembled in 2017 but is out of date. Please advise me of your current details if you believe thay may have changed since 2017 (or whenever you first provided them)

For reasons of privacy I can’t publish the full list here or share individual’s personal contact details however if you wish to contact anyone I can send them YOUR email address such that they can respond.

The list of names and nicknames is here wmceg members list

A Y next to the name indicates that I have an email address on file but the address may be out of date and the list will include names of members who may have died.

Any updates are welcome.

Want to try caving?

WMCEG is no longer active.
When it was active, to visit caves (and occasionally mines), we would normally travel to a Limestone area i.e. in the UK mainly the mendips; the peak district; north yorkshire; south wales. There are caves in other types of rock but limestone, is primarily calcium carbonate. It is easily dissolved by acidic groundwater which creates  “solutional caves,”  the most common type of cave.

If you want to go underground you must do so with a club, they will help with the practical information, equipment and support you will need.
In the Midlands you might try https://www.caveandcrag.co.uk/ or https://www.dudleycavingclub.org.uk/

We would normally go caving for a weekend or more as most caving regions involved a lengthy drive from Birmingham so we’d need caver-friendly accommodation (i.e. affordable and suitably equipped for dealing with wet and muddy cavers!)  The cavers magazine https://www.descentmagazine.co.uk/ has a list of suitable accommodation as well as a list of UK clubs.