When John Smith heard a child at school whispering about the “secret underground caves” he knew he had to go down there himself.

“I grew up near Eve Hill in Dudley and heard a boy talking to his friends about the limestone mines,” says John, who lives in Sedgley.

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“The lad lived on the Priory and children off the estate would talk about these great underground caverns and bottomless pits.

“They would sneak in with torches – it was their playground.

“It wasn’t just children that headed down there, because along the front of the Seven Sisters was where the gamblers would go.

“When I left school I started work with Gibbons Brothers as an apprentice draughtsman and became friends with Mike Symonds. We decided to explore the Seven Sisters and spent the next two to three years exploring the mines under Castle Hill and the Wrens Nest.”

The limestone caverns are currently sealed off but plans to open them up as a tourist attraction form part of bid to bring £50 million to the region. A Million People: Black Country as an Urban Park, has been shortlisted for the televised vote along with The Eden Project, a national bike route proposed by Sustrans and protecting the ecology of Nottingham’s Sherwood Forest. On-line voting starts today, with phone voting to start on December 7. John, aged 69, says to see the Seven Sisters when the arches are open is an incredible sight. “It is awe-inspiring when you see the scale of the mines,” he says. “It reminded me of Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

“The thrill of going into the unknown as a teenager when you have no knowledge of what is down there is amazing. The feeling of wonder I felt is indescribable and it gave me a spirit of adventure which has been in my blood ever since.” John says when he first started caving he didn’t have any experience. “Today everyone has a hobby but in those days people didn’t have transport, so it took a lot to go out for a day,” he says.

“We were a generation where our parents were not into hobbies – it was all work for them. We had to learn slowly and carefully.” When a 13-year-old boy from Wolverhampton died after falling down a mine shaft, John started to take caving seriously. “It was 1959 and the fire service had gone in and recovered the boy’s body,” says John. 

“Some time later Mike and I went down into the particular underground gallery that he had fallen into and we found his watch. 

“We took it to the police station and the chief was curious about how we had got down there. I was 21 years old at the time and he introduced me to the auxiliary fire service, which was similar to the sea or army cadets. One day someone reported that they had seen clothing near the entrance to a mine and I was sent to investigate. After I confirmed that there had not been a fall they decided to set up a separate team called Dudley Auxiliary Fire Service Cave Rescue Team. If there were any call-outs they knew I had the knowledge whereas most people haven’t got experience underground.” 

The Cave Rescue Team lasted until 1968 when they decided to disband the auxiliary fire service. “We kept the rescue side going but in 1990 a lot of the mines around Dudley were being filled in,” says John. “We didn’t feel it was helping the group so we became Dudley Caving Club.” 

The mines at Wrens Nest were once a big tourist attraction, says John. “It was heart-breaking when they filled the mines in. We are only saving a small part of the jewel but it is better to save that than lose it all.”