UK's biggest cave found

Potholers have discovered the UK's biggest cave beneath a hillside in the Derbyshire Peak District.

Titan is estimated to be about 459ft (140m) from floor to ceiling - as high as the London Eye.

Dave Nixon, a local potholer and leading underground explorer, discovered the cave after finding an account by an obscure 18th century academic in a university library.

In a paper written in 1793, James Plumtree described a network of caves which went beyond Leviathan, a well-known cave system near Castleton.

Mr Nixon and and a group of Peak cavers realised the entrance must have been blocked by a rockfall, and, after removing rocks, they eventually discovered a long system leading the group to Titan.

Cavers spent three years removing another fall of boulders before finally gaining entry to the bottom of the cavern.

Mr Nixon told the BBC: "It wasn't a matter of stumbling, it was a lot of research and a lot of hard work."

His team have now completed a man-made shaft which allows cavers to abseil down in to the cave, saving them a challenging five-hour underground journey.