chamber onwards. The way on from the 22nd chamber was at last found by Colin Edmond and Martyn Farr in February 1976 and was explored until the line ran out. A few days later Geoff Yeadon and Oliver Statham somewhat controversially reached the 23rd chamber after laying just a further of line. After a further three short dives they surfaced in the 24th chamber to be confronted by what Statham described as "a magnificent sight—the whole of the River Axe pouring down a passage high by wide" terminating in a blue lake after . This lake was dived by Farr a few days later for at a maximum depth of to emerge in the 25th chamber, a desolate, muddy place named "The Lake of Gloom". The 25th chamber represents the furthest upstream air surface in Wookey Hole Cave. From here the River Axe rises up from a deep sump where progressive depth records for cave diving in the British Isles have been set: firstly by Farr () in 1977, then Rob Parker () in 1985, and finally by John Volanthen and Rick Stanton () in 2004. The pair returned again in 2005 to explore the sump to a depth of , setting a new British Isles depth record for cave diving. This record was broken in 2008 by Polish explorer Artur Kozłowski, then later again by Michal Marek, on dives in Pollatoomary in Ireland. Taking advantage of the tunnel driven through to Chamber 20 by the show cave management in 2015, a team began seriously to investigate the leads in that area. One small passage was pushed to a sump that was dived through to Sting Corner in Chamber 24. In 2020 a dry connection was made to the same location. During 1996–1997 water samples were collected at various points throughout the caves and showed different chemical compositions. Results showed that the "Unknown Junction", from where water flows to the static sump in the 22nd chamber by a different route from the majority of the River Axe, is upstream of the sump in the 25th. Witch of Wookey Hole There are old legends of a "witch of Wookey Hole", which are still preserved in the name of a stalagmite in the first chamber of the caves. The story has several different versions with the same basic features: A man from Glastonbury is engaged to a young woman from Wookey. A