14/5/24 First visit after winter floods

Estelle Sandford, Jonathan Riley underground, Mike Moxon, Fran Campbell, James Begley and Stu Lindsay didn’t go underground. 

15mins

Estelle & Jon kitted up and headed down. There was polystyrene and plastic containers/tubs at the top of the steps indicating the water levels were higher than we’d originally thought from photos but think the peak was from Storm Henk in January from Kevin’s photos! Reasonable amount of cleanup work required on surface and in the spoil area as bags, buckets, etc. are everywhere! Headed down and while it’s a bit slimey from being under water for so long, there are little signs of any movement of mud or rocks from roof, etc. At the end, the conveyor belt was clear and above water, but the end of the dig is about 1-1.5m underwater still. Not quite diggable, but probably only a week or two if we get reasonably dry weather. Headed off to the Waldegrave after where Stu joined us. Discussed that it is worth a team going over next week to do some cleanup work and check levels with a hope we will be back in digging within the next couple of weeks. 

Edited to add the highest point of flooding from 24/2/24 from Kevin. 

5/1/24 after Storm Henk

 photos from Kevin - now about a metre higher than 2012! 

4/1/24 before Storm Henk

 photo from Kevin - another 3meters and it will be where it was in 2012...

31/12/23 Storm Gerrit

 Photo from Kevin

23/12/23 levels dropped a bit...

Estelle Sandford

15mins

Quick look in the entrance as far as i could go with just added wellies and gloves with a mobile phone. The water levels are at the 2nd step from the photos, a drop from earlier in the month. 

5/12/23 properly flooded

5/12/23 Mike Moxon popped in to check status of the dig after very heavy rains - photos and report below

Cutlers Green is flooded almost to the top of our spoil heap, which is over 10ft higher than it was last Tuesday (when it was about chest deep at the end - not that we tested it). It has been a bit higher (4 tubs & a bag were floating in the pool - I managed to recover 2) & the barrels etc were floating on lowest part, but hadn't been washed over (photos attached) 

 

28/11/23 flooded

 Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Duncan Butler, Stu Lindsay

15mins

Estelle, Mike and Duncan headed in ahead of the other two and very quickly discovered the dig was flooded to the level of the bottom step so quite a large backup. Nothing we could do, so headed to Waldegrave to console ourselves!

31/10/23

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Jonathan Riley, Mike Moxon

2hrs

Jon digging the higher end of the dig and Mike focussing on the bottom area. More boulders and mud/clay being removed, back to quite a large digging face and no sign of being anywhere near a floor on the right hand side. 39 buckets, filled and due to only 4 of us, triple handled out of the cave to be emptied at the surface.  

17/10/23

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Jonathan Riley, Mike Moxon

2hrs

James digging lower level by the hole and Estelle digging the top level, Mike and Jon also filling buckets from loose spoil further up to help prevent it washing in with the expected rains in the next week. James removed a couple of good sized rocks, Estelle was digging down and also removed some rock, Mike cleared by the hole and it's been exposed again by removing conveyor belt and rock that was covering it. Once all 39 buckets were filled up, we headed up moving them out, which is hard work with only 4 of us! Filled a few bags as well whilst emptying as the spoil is starting to go over our bag walls in places. Headed to Hunters as Waldy shut for maintenance.

10/10/23

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Duncan Butler, Greg Horveth, Fran Campbell

1.5hrs

Operation boulder removal - who needs caps, plug & feathers or bang, when you've a Duncan - he spent all evening beating up the boulder with hammer and chisel and reduced it to gravel and small enough rocks to handle. Beats going to the gym! Lots of mud on rocks and floor before it cleared by Estelle & Greg whilst Duncan broke the rock and 39 buckets filled in total before heading out. The end dig is now massive and easily will be diggable by 2 people at the front if we've enough numbers. Headed to Waldegrave for rewards.

26/9/23

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Jonathan Riley, Stu Lindsay, Mike Moxon, Jim Hayward, Joe Holloway

2hrs

Jim digging the forward dig and Joe clearing the aven on the left. Estelle had brought over some conveyor belt for the pool chamber to replace the grids. With some bagging of spoil to help level it a bit more, this was laid and successfully used for hauling. Once that was done, the grids were moved up passage and during the course of the evening, taken out of the cave and to the top to dry out. The 39 skips were all filled and emptied outside and circa another 15ish or so were bagged as well. Headed to Waldegrave for refreshments.

19/9/23

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Chris Smart, Greg Horveth

1hr 45mins

James and Greg dug the end, with James working around the big boulder. Lots of red clay/gravel coming out of that dig, while Greg dug up in the aven which has the proper sticky mud, which sticks like glue to the buckets, particularly when they start out wet rather than dried out! The air was a Little thicker than sometimes, but not too bad, just aware that it wasn't as clear, but we did have similar last year at this time too. 39 buckets of spoil moved out of the cave in 2 stages, some of the spoil bagged, but the bags are holey now so need to get some more from Cheddar Ales soon. After scraping the buckets, we headed to the Hunters. 

12/9/23

Estelle Sandford, Mike Moxon, Adrian Miles, Stu Lindsay

2hrs
Estelle brought along 10 new buckets (£3.94 each inc VAT from CRS) and we packed up the 29 already there and headed down to dig. Stu was making some measurements to make the climb up the bag wall safer as it's very slippery and we also measured the grids (18ft) for changing them to conveyor belt. On arrival at the dig, it was noted that the large boulder above the straight on dig in the roof, was now on the floor! Several of us had tried to bring this down before and assumed it was wall as it didn't come down with much beating, but clearly the clay had been doing a good job of keeping it glued in place until it started to dry out. It had brought down a lot of mud/clay as well, so it only took around 30mins between Adrian digging the right hand aven/dig into 4 buckets at a time and Estelle and Mike clearing the clay around the boulder. There is still quite a bit of clay left. 
Just as we finished filling buckets, Stu joined us. He initially hauled the grids and the rest of us did the other spots to get the buckets to the chamber by the railway. Then we all shuffled up to exit the buckets out and empty them. In hindsight taking down bags and adding more to the ex-pool chamber would have been more sense with the low numbers tonight as it was blooming hard work for all of us and the air wasn't great tonight either. Headed to Waldegrave for much needed refreshments after.

5/9/23

Estelle Sandford, Jon Riley, Mike Moxon, Duncan Butler

1.5hrs
James had injury to his head, so unable to wear a helmet, no-one else available so just the 4 of us. Duncan and Mike dug, forward and right respectively. Right probably has a couple more digging sessions to finish clearing, forward continues to go along and down. Only did the 1 round of 30 buckets before heading to the Waldegrave.

29/8/23

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jonathan Riley, Stu Lindsay, Fran Campbell, Dave Walker

2hrs
A welcome back to Dave to digging, he was impressed by how much further we'd progressed. He dug the side aven briefly before Stu got to the end and took over digging that one. Estelle dug forwards, concentrating on digging out the floor as there had been some tunnelling going on. The floor dropped by about 2 foot all in and boulders removed as well. Need to carry on clearing out all, but looks like it is dropping a bit there. 50 buckets were taken to the top in stages and emptied out. We're now down to 30 buckets with another handle failing tonight. Headed to Waldy after.

22/8/23

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jim Hayward, Jonathan Riley, Duncan Butler
2hrs

Jim and Mike digging, Jim going forwards and Mike digging off to the right. Right is looking more to be an aven, albeit still going up and probably still has a couple of sessions worth of digging out the spoil to reach a conclusion. Forward is still looking interesting and heading into more of a tube at the moment, although need to confirm the floor has been reached below. Is now a good body length past the hole in the floor now. First 31 buckets filled and transported up to the top railway and then all headed up to finish off the haul and empty them, then went back in for a second round of 31 and repeat. Finished just before 9pm and went to Waldy. 

15/8/23

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Jonathan Riley, Adrian and Jack Miles, Duncan Butler, Stu Lindsay, Mike Moxon

2 hours

Jon and Duncan worked the end digs, Duncan on the forward one and Jon in the right side alcove/aven. 8 meant it was possible to get the spoil all the way out, but it was hard work as everyone had to cover more ground to do it. The mud was sticky so didn't empty easy either. First 31 buckets filled and then a further 24 were sent down in 6s until it was pub time. Right side looking more and more like just an aven now. Forwards is smaller than we're used to, but still plenty of compacted spoil coming out. Headed to Waldy. 

 

8/8/23

Estelle Sandford, Jonathan Riley, Adrian and Jack Miles

1.5hrs

Adrian and Jack were given the 2 dig sites and they set to filling the buckets, did one round of 32 and then took down another 12 as we were being so efficient and quick tonight! (One more bucket now died, so we're down to 31) Adrian dug the right hand one, bringing down more from the alcove, still a fair bit to go, not totally clear yet whether it is just an alcove or more. Jack dug forwards and continued on at the same level, very compacted spoil in that part. There was also some left over spoil at the start of the pool and by the hole in the floor from Mike last week. At the start of digging, Estelle put the conveyer belt back over the hole, the water was visible and probably only a foot or so down into the hole. Waldy after to meet James who was working late.  

1/8/23 unseasonably wet!

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jonathan Riley, Stu Lindsay

1.5hrs

Mike and Jon digging the end 2 digs, the water levels were up as it has rained so much recently and the pool chamber had the grill underwater again, plus some big pools at the dig end which needed draining to dig. The hole in the floor is still draining but quite slow, not sure if we've quietly blocked it with spoil or whether it is due to the extremely high water levels for time of year. 32 buckets filled and then moved out of the cave and emptied in stages. Mike also had a go at clearing the hole and also cleared some mud around what looked like it could be a boulder above the hauling spot for the grill, but confident now it's wall. 

Having emptied the buckets, we headed to the Waldy. 

25/7/23

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jonathan Riley

1.5hrs

Estelle digging at the end on the right, interesting going down, but unsure where this is leading, lots of spoil still to come out there and also above it as it will eventually fall on your head otherwise. Also the straight on bit looks like it may be closing off, but we still have the hole in the floor. Lots of rain since last digging, and the grill in the pool chamber was under water! May have to put a drainage hole in the dam somewhere... Did one round of skips (33) and then headed to Hunters. Hoping for more diggers next week.

11/7/23 report from James

A low turnout this evening, with Jon and Duncan meeting at 18:00 to start breaking up some rocks and James joining them at 19:15. Duncan had his drill and capping kit, but forgot to bring his molegrips, so decided not to use the caps but instead broke up the rocks using just a drill and some hefty blows with the hammer. All the loose rocks in the end chamber have been made smaller, and moved back into the 'pool' chamber. 12 skip loads of mud was also removed from the end. Plenty of space at the end to resuming digging operations again next week. All out and in the Waldy by 20:45.

4/7/23

 Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jon Riley, Duncan Butler

1.5hrs
rained a lot today, but didn't affect the dig. James and Duncan did the digging, Estelle did the moving up to the grill and Mike and Jon filled bags in the pool chamber until they ran out and then the rest of the skips went out. Estelle struggling tonight with a sore back. As we were earlier, the Waldegrave was still open.

27/6/23

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jon Riley and Stu Lindsay turned up for the later haul shift. 

2hrs
Estelle and Jon dug, Estelle right hand wall and Jon going forwards. Most of the spoil was bagged and then a load of buckets were taken out too. About 10 bags filled and a dozen or so skips taken out. Straight on has a flake that looks dodgy on the left, the right hand dig can dig down and bury the crow bar, so be interesting to see how it goes. some decent sized boulders removed. Hunters as Waldegrave closed early.

20/6/23

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jon Riley

2hrs

with only 4 of us, we decided to take some bags in and start to level off the pool chamber area. Overall target to level off at least where the grill is, so the grills can come out, probably put conveyor belt across it to make it easier to haul and also there isn't a need for the pool now we have the hole in the floor. 

James and Mike got on with digging. James at the dig above the hole in the floor, continuing forwards and unearthing another large boulder, whilst Mike worked at the right hand walk. That looks to be an aven and could be an alcove, but with a fair bit of spoil and rocks coming out of it, it doesn't look to be hitting a wall yet... Estelle passed the buckets up to where Jon was filling bags - around 9 or 10 bags filled and then filled the dozen buckets we were using and brought them out to scrape and dry for next week. Hunters tonight as Waldy closed early with no darts. 

Still need to take krabs, sort the skip and take a new hammer in. Also there are a good number of boulders now needing capping near the end. 

13/6/23

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jon Riley, Stu Lindsay, Fran Campbell

1hr 45mins

Estelle went in to dig, had moved on surprisingly since the last time i was at the front. The left hand side above the hole has progressed as far as a large boulder (or possibly wall) but still needs more clearance. I spent most of the session digging lower at the left and working on the right wall. Still easy digging and plenty of spoil to come out. Everyone had to be underground with only 6 of us and then once the 34 buckets were emptied, we all headed to surface to empty them, then headed to Waldy. We all still forgot the krabs, knife and skip. Also looking now at replacing the ropes, but we need to measure the distances for that. 

6/6/23

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jon Riley, Duncan Butler, Stu Lindsay, Chris Smart

2hrs
Another dry week, Jon went in and filled a couple of buckets and then Chris took over and filled the rest of the 34 before Jon took over again for the last 18, so 52 buckets in total. 1 really good sized rock came out of the wall, which has temporarily blocked the hole at the bottom, and also a medium sized friend. Rest was mud and small rocks spoil. A number of the larger rocks in the bottom chamber have been moved to the pool chamber now with a view to gradually levelling that off leaving only very large rocks that need capping/plug and feather. Also removed the 2 scaff bars to the surface as no longer needed next to the grill. Rest of the team worked hard moving the spoils to the surface and emptying them before we headed to the Waldy for bevvies.

Need to try and remember for next week - new lump hammer, 2 replacement crabs for middle skip and either a knife to cut the rope or tools to try and undo the stuck crab on the middle skip. If we can get a better middle skip ready that would be good as the one going in for now is quite a shallow one.

30/5/23 Dig dig dig!

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Adrian Miles. Duncan turned up towards the end but didn't dig tonight. 

2hrs

Mike went in to dig the end with Estelle supporting. He focussed on digging above the hole mostly (the conveyor belt covers it nicely) and was removing plenty of spoil and rocks. He worked into the top of the rift above the hole and the texture of the spoil is more 'sediment' and softer layer from water flowing rather than the harder tiered mud/clay layers we normally see. Whilst we waiting for Adrian to turn up, James cleared 8 buckets from the chamber at the end of the railway of the flood slumping and made more stacking space and emptied those buckets. Once Adrian arrived, he and James started shuttling the buckets up to that chamber. 34 buckets were filled up from the dig and sent out and emptied and then we sent Adrian down with 12 more as we still had some time left. 54 buckets filled and emptied in total. Good digging session, but hard work with only 4. Hopefully more people back available next week. Went to Hunters as Waldegrave closed early tonight. 

23/5/23 back digging again, no longer flooded!

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jon Riley

2hrs

Arrived to find many of the buckets still part full of slimy sludgy water from the flooding and stagnating and sadly 3 dead fledglings and a dead rabbit between them too. We emptied all the buckets and headed down to dig. The hole at the end is now around 18" of water below the 'neck' of the rift, so heading down nicely and Jon said the pool above was at the grill last week and that was a good foot lower too. Estelle had taken down a piece of conveyor belt a few weeks ago and now it had drained, that was put over the hole in the floor to stop us getting too much spoil down it whilst digging above it. James dug, he started off by clearing flood debris spoil and then dug forward to the right first and then headed more left as the evening went on. Couple of rocks came out and there is still a mix of rock and clays, quite hard in places, so not the fastest to dig out. He filled about 30 of the 35 or 36 (not sure) buckets - quite a few were very stinky from stagnated water, hopefully by next time they will smell better! Whilst he'd been digging, the rest of us filled a few buckets with flood debris spoil in the passaged to clear up a bit and Mike and Jon managed to get most of the buckets to the top of the steps and were hauling the railway by the time Estelle and James came up with the last 4. Emptied all the buckets and lay them out to dry. Hopefully we're back digging every week now for a good while, could do with more people as only 4 of us was very hard work! Headed for sustenance in the Waldegrave after. 

16/5/23 dry enough to dig now...!

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Jonathan Riley

15mins

Jon was changed when we arrived, so he headed down to check the state of the end of the dig. He came back reporting that the left side where the hole is was about 18" of water, but straight on and right was now diggable. With only 3 of us, there was little we could do, so didn't get changed and we headed to Waldegrave. We did note that there was possibly a couple of rocks that had come down from the walls by the fence and left of the fence and a few looks precarious, need to take a long pokey stick and see if any do want to come down easily to make it safer. Hopefully back digging with a full team next week and then for foreseeable.

1/5/23 still flooded

Estelle Sandford, James Begley

15mins

only Estelle went underground with oversuit over clothes as suspected it would be flooded still. It was flooded to slightly lower than where it was on 21/3 but not by much and does not look like it will be diggable for a week or two still unless very dry weather, which with the forecast is unlikely. Aim to check again on 16/5. Noted that since the last time we visited, the buckets were scattered so that indicates that it has flooded above them recently. 

21/3/23 back underwater again - unseasonably wet weather!

Estelle Sandford, Jon Riley went underground, also Duncan Butler, Mike Moxon and James Begley turned up. 

30mins.

As the first two dressed for underground, Estelle & Jon went in to check water levels. It was backed up on the floor to the usual sit point for the middle drag run, so dig completely submerged at the moment. The rains recently have been heavy and ongoing forecast to be bad for the next week, so suspect we won't get back into the dig for at least another couple of weeks.

28/2/23 Back Digging

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Fran Campbell, Duncan Butler

1.5hrs

Estelle went in to dig and after clearing a bit of slump on the right of the hole in the floor, started working on going straight on ahead. Tried to avoid dropping mud into the hole, we need to cover it whilst digging, maybe bag of bags, or will cut a bit of conveyer belt to bring over. It is easy digging and since popping over Sunday, the dig water level has dropped by about another foot. As low numbers, had to all come up to complete emptying so we finished at 35 buckets and went to the Waldy. We need a longer pokey stick for a couple of loose looking rocks and try and remember some conveyer belt too.

26/2/23 Water levels dropping nicely

Estelle Sandford

15mins

put oversuit on top of clothes and went to check the state of the water levels. The pool with the grill had dropped to nearly dry and the hole in the floor had around a foot or so of water above it. All means good to go with digging Tuesday.

14/2/23 surprising drop in water levels

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Duncan Butler, Stu Lindsay

45mins

Visited Cutlers to check water levels, noted some more rocks had fallen from the roof, we need a longer bar to prod a few suspect places next week. Estelle & Duncan went to look at the water levels and were surprised to note that the water had dropped to a level where there was an inch or so on top of the grill and beyond the dam was 2-2.5ft below the dam height. Suspect if the weather forecast is correct, then we may well be able to dig next week as the water levels have dropped way more than expected. We came back out, each took some rubbish from the pile to go and headed off to look at a dig called Eric. 

7/2/23 still flooded but dropping off

Estelle Sandford, Mike Moxon, Jon Riley, Stu Lindsay

1hr

went to check on water levels and also have a bit of a clear up as a lot of the items we had stored had been scattered all over by the flooding. Looked at the water level and it's down by the bag hole in the floor area. Everything above is looking pretty stable with the bag wall and also passage around the cave. Jon prodded a few ceiling rocks around the edges in the top shaft that were loosened by the water levels reaching above the entire pit. We went through the bags and bagged up a load that need throwing away and also all the dead skips, we'll gradually remove these over the coming weeks to our bins. Tidied up all the usable bags and skips and hopefully it won't flood again this winter now and the water levels will continue to drop. 

31/1/23 less flooded, but still flooded...

Update from Mike Moxon

I had a quick look around the bottom of the ladder last night before going on elsewhere.

5 sets of buckets are still sat where we left them, more surprising is that 3 scrapers (as the lightest items) are also on top of the wall. I guess that means another set of buckets is still adrift underground (they were only ones floating when Jon & I visited). Bags are covered in a thin layer of silt, wall hasn't moved but at least one of the steps has (a bit) - 2 photos. Red winch box still in situ, mini mattock next to it precariously perched! Empty bags are scattered all over with one still half way up the wall (need a pole to dislodge it). Loose stones at base of wall are washed cleaner & water was at c.155m level on survey in left side dig (so you can step down from Stu's rock, but flooded from there, other photo - presumably same in main passage, which means chamber at other end of railway would have been chest deep - I didn't check as wasn't wearing caving kit).

21/1/23 still flooded

from Mike Moxon

Jon & I visited this afternoon after rolls & crisps in the Hunters'. We left there in bright sunshine, but beyond Green Ore was freezing fog (pic of ice crystals on gate, but they were also all across grass around the holes)

The water has dropped about 10 feet & Kevin has removed some of the floating debris (surprisingly 1 stack of buckets is still on the surface!) & we recovered some more that we could reach - yes there is one bag stuck on the back wall...). Otherwise only hole 1 had a small puddle visible in bottom.

Water level is now under the overhang above where Stuart sits, but still a lot to drop (probably 20ft vertically to the dig face). Couldn't see the spoil heap yet. Pic from today attached.

17/3/23 water levels higher still

Update from Kevin. Still rising levels without it raining and all the other holes are now same level. 

12/1/23 Flooded out...

Kevin sent us some photos, with continuous rain for weeks, the water levels have risen dramatically as per the images below. The various holes were not at the same height so indicates groundwater pushing up and that the size of passage (or blockage) means the water hasn't pushed up as high. 

20/12/22 underwater again...

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Jonathan Riley, Chris George, Dave Walker, Stu Lindsay, Mike Moxon, Mark Edwards (MCG) + Paul Quinton (MCG)

45mins
Headed in expecting to find it diggable but with perhaps the pool before quite high, but we were wrong. It had rained extremely heavily over the last 48hours until Tuesday 5am-ish with around 1.5inches of rain falling in the area and all local river levels were up and many mini-streams flowing along the roads as drains or drainage channels couldn't cope. The end chamber was at least a metre deep above the hole in the floor, although the pool area was not up to the level of the grill, so this means that the water levels probably came up rather than flowed down, unless the pool has gained more of a leak at a level since previously!
We can only surmise that either this is water table level at this point in time - may be possible to verify with a comparison to the bore hole levels, or the hole in the floor ongoing passage is too small to cope with the recent rain (or possibly become blocked) or possibly that due to the proximity of the pond to the end of the dig, maybe there is an overspill level which enters the passage ahead of us and doing so faster than it can drain. This is all guess work, and hopefully by the time we are next back in the new year, we will have had enough dry days for it to have drained away again...