Wednesday 28th November

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon & Ben Wetherill

2hrs

4x 1 tonne bags filled in the freezing cold evening while Kevin drove the digger on the hole nearest the house/pond. Making steady downwards progress with no signs of hitting anything solid as yet and might need a longer ladder soon. Also require replacement 1 tonne bags as one died and the second looking quite badly worn out now.

Getting to be too cold and wet on some Wednesday evenings, so we may need to plan another daytime visit on a weekend soon and go somewhere warmer and drier on Wednesday evenings! 

Wednesday 21st November

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Ben Wetherill

2.5hrs

Kevin unable to stay and help, so he gave us digger driving lessons so we could empty the bags ourselves. The hole with the tripod and pulley over was too wet to dig as we appear to have puddled the clay nicely at the bottom and we had very heavy rainfall overnight and early part of the day. We filled 4 x 1 tonne bags over the evening and then each had a go on the digger removing it from the hole. Ben didn't dig as he had no kit with Henry not about and was lurking awaiting AA recovery to fix his flat tyre that he couldn't get the wheel nut off of. 

Sunday 18th November

Estelle Sandford, Mike Moxon, James Begley. Also Joan Goddard and Roy Vranch also came over and Kevin drove the digger.

Had a look at the middle hole and gave up on that, then went to the other hole with the tripod over and started on that. Very heavy clay and some of us weren’t feeling too special after the diggers award last night! Dug for about an hour or so, struggling to haul as it was very wet and hard to get a grip. Kevin then appeared and got to work with clearing the spoil heaps with the digger and removed the 2x 1 tonne bags from the other hole. We then went for a walk across the fields opposite his house and only found the one water filled depression of interest in a field owned by Waldegrave from the ones shown on the old geology map. 

Wednesday 14th November

Estelle Sandford, Mark Denning, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward

2.5hrs

Mark originally forgot his undersuit and socks and had to pop home and get them so we were a bit late starting. Bit lean on the ground on numbers tonight and Kevin also not around, so we focussed on the middle hole and carried on digging that. Leonie started out, but was having light failure and it was easier for 2 being at the bottom now, so Estelle went and helped hold the bucket and give her light to dig, then Estelle took over for a bit and gave the rocks a good beasting with the hammer to remove some of the shelves in there and some jagged rocks. It looks like we have hit a 30 degree bedding plane and that the clay from the pond indicates that the pond drained at this level. Below is very jagged rocks and muddy floor and smallish drain hole. Mark and Mike continued beasting rocks and making it bigger so we can get at the drain holes and see whether they are big enough to warrant following or not. Getting very cold digging now in the evenings, so we may consider heading underground somewhere else for a bit… 

Wednesday 7th November

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning, Jo Denning, Mike Moxon, Henry Dawson, Stu Lindsay and Kevin Clinton

2hrs

After watching the Chewton Mendip firework display from the dig site, we got to work with putting the tripod up over the hole nearest the driveway to start digging that. Henry helpfully turned up and suggested we could use the digger instead to haul out of the hole, so we suggested we also do the hole nearest the pond/house and do that one with the digger instead, despatching Henry to the bottom to fill a 1 tonne bag – unfortunately digger had flat battery so while the bag was filled, it wasn’t removed! Digging got underway in new hole and continued in middle hole (which is looking the most interesting so far and can hear water noises below the hole. New hole has a lot of thick pond clay, the black stuff is like rubber! James and Estelle had a dig until fingers getting tired from digging and then Mark had a go. Mark and Henry had a good go also at clearing some rocks from the middle hole – still mud and rocks coming out and looking very interesting. 

Wednesday 31st October

too wet to dig...

Wednesday 24th October

Estelle Sandford (turned up late), James Begley, Mark Denning, Mike Moxon, Elsie Brooks (RUCC), Henry Dawson, Ben Wetherill, Kevin Clinton (on the digger duty)
3hrs for most, 2 hrs for ES.
Continued working on the big hole filling 1 tonne bags and using the digger to haul and by the end of the evening, this has hit solid rock on all sides with just a rift hole that needs investigating left. We also continued with the middle hole and that is still progressing well and lots of mud coming out and some rocks. Moved the tripod to the nearest  hedge hole and this needs to be erected next week. Mark bringing tools to move pulleys, etc.

Wednesday 17th October 2012

Mark Denning, Mike Moxon, Henry Dawson,  & Kevin Clinton on digger duty.
3 hours.
With Estelle & James on a secret mission, Mark was there first and cleared out the bottom of the original hole which didn't make it look any more hopeful, but we'd better check again in daylight! Mike then arrived with the scaffolding and set up a tripod over the middle hole which allowed Mark & myself to clear most of the mud out, plus the boulder that we dropped in on the first week. A sudden downpour demonstrated that the water in this hole is disappearing down the slot that Leonie opened up under the ladder and down the hole at the back, which after a bit of clearance is currently body-sized but choked with mud and small rocks. (Couple more frogs still require rescue).
After Henry arrived Kevin came over and whilst Henry started digging the big hole Kevin used the digger to lift bags out, proving he's getting the hang of this operation by hauling about 6 tonnes of material out (as well as giving a hand emptying them) - still plenty more to go though.
Everyone got thoroughly soaked in the downpour, but at least it made the bags easier to empty as we could pour the mud out and our suits easier to clean!

Wednesday 10th October 2012

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Henry Dawson and Pete Hellier with Kevin Clinton driving the digger.
3hrs
Had a message from Kevin just before Estelle left work saying he’d put electric to the digsite and also moved the digger to be next to the hole to trial the idea of filling 1 tonne bags. Mark stopped by to drop off 2 of the 1 tonne bags and we got started. Initially both Henry and Estelle had a look at the bottom of the 1st hole where we’d banged it at the weekend and it really doesn’t look very promising as it’s closed off to quite a small hole below in awkward digging space which would need quite a bit of work to remove the rock, so as we’ve got plenty more to dig, that one is basically ready to be abandoned. We then got on and filled the first 1 tonne bag and a second one on top before getting Kevin to come and move them with the digger. This proved to be a very workable method with lifting and then emptying on the spoil heap by tipping them and letting them roll off, hence emptying with a bit of assistance. We filled 8 bags worth of approx. ½ tonne per load – if they are overfilled, they don’t empty as well! Took quite a few photos and video as well. Probably gained about 1m depth across the big hole.

Sunday 7th October

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning, Stu Gardiner, Stu Lindsay, Ben Wetherill, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward, plus visit from Lucy Greenwood (BEC/archaeologist), Joan Goddard (MCG & Wells Museum) and Roy Vranch (local geologist friend of Andy Farrant) to chat with Kevin about the finds, etc.
6hrs

First job of the day was to drill and bang the main dig. The lower ledge proved to be about 6in deep shelf, so only the top ledge was worth drilling and nice long holes were drilled there and subsequently banged by Stu & Stu. During this time, Mike & Leonie continued with the middle hole ‘MCG dig’ and Estelle, James, Mark and Ben continued digging and hauling from the largest hole. This is an awkward haul as we currently have no form of frame, so having to drag it up the side of the shaft. There is also an awful lot of mud to come out! After giving about 1/2hr to clear fumes, the main dig was accessible again and Stu x 2 went back in to clear it. The hole is now larger and it is visible that there is a clean-washed water worn route heading back underneath which doesn’t look like it is very deep or overly promising, but not clear what else is going on. Stu L & Estelle put a second charge into the ledge above which was left for about another half hour before we checked that. Now needs hammer and chisel action to make it larger so we can see what is going on. In the meantime the middle hole mostly cleared of mud and now at a point where beating rock and we hauled out quite a lot from the biggest hole too. Joan and Roy had lengthy discussion with Kevin and were shown all the finds – likely conclusion was that  the fossilised vertebrae are ichthyosaur (the bigger ones inside) and plesiosaur (the one in the ‘bin’) and the bones are almost certainly horse, but no idea of age of them. Geology sounds quite interesting too with the idea that the caves arelikely to have been formed over two periods, Jurassic and Triassic and hopefully we’ll have more information when Roy has had a chance to chat to Andy more as well.

Wednesday 3rd October

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning, Mike Moxon, Stu Gardiner, Henry Dawson, Ben Wetherill
2.5hrs
Stu and Mark got stuck in clearing the last of the mud out of the main hole – didn’t take long before it was clear there is no other way on apart from our letterbox type hole under where the ladder end is. This needs some of Dr Nobel’s best linctus to continue.
Mike and Ben continued with the middle hole and that is going down nicely, although bucket died!
Once we’d given up on the main hole, we decided to have a go at the big hole as it was a bit early for pub o clock. This has quite a lot of very red mud in containing barites. Within quite a short time we had a rift sort of hole going off towards the middle hole.

Wednesday 26th September

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon and Joan Goddard (MCG/Wells Museum volunteer)

Persistent torrential rain during a fair bit of the day and late afternoon meant we made the decision not to dig, despite after about 15mins of arriving blue skies appearing for the rest of the evening until it went dark!
Went and took a look at the holes and all bar the middle one Mike & Leonie were digging last week, were draining well and no puddling at all. Even the middle one only had a puddle on the clay and when you consider the local flooding, it's pretty impressive they have all drained this well. Climbed down into our main dig on Mark's shiny new stemples and had a look at the drain hole and can hear water dropping away. Last 6 pics from tonight on https://plus.google.com/photos/104708662744792505290/albums/5773157977179467425 showing the current end and the drainage being good. Kevin said one was taking a fairly reasonable waterfall for a time through the worst of the rain and it was very noticeable the pond had grown!

Joan had a look at some of the finds and also the holes with interest and we arranged with Kevin to dig Sunday 7th October for a longer day session in addition to usual Wednesday eve, which may give us more answers...

Wednesday 19th September

Estelle Sandford, Mark & Jo Denning, James Begley, Neil Walmsley, Henry Dawson, Ben Wetherill, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward
2.5hrs

Kevin back from his holidays and seemed quite impressed with our progress in the dig and has moved our spoil heap so we've clear space to dump again. Provided us with coffee again as well. :-)
Mark got there early to make a start on getting the stemples resined in for our fixed ladder. Once he was far enough down to not risk dropping the hammer on anyone's head, Henry and Ben made a start digging while the rest of us hauled and dumped the spoil. Too many tonight really so Mike and Leonie took bucket and spare rope and started digging out the middle hole (the last one to be opened a few weeks back). Good progress in main dig still with lots of mud coming up. James and Neil took over for their half hour stint and were starting to hit more rock at the bottom and then Mark and Estelle took over for the last stint. Rock has now been hit on the hedge side with a small gap under which we can throw a small stone down and it drops a few feet, indicating some cavity below although this is currently inaccessible with rock in the way. Any mud at the level of the rock is very wet. On the nearer side to the hauling, there is still quite a bit of yellow clay (probably from pond lining) to come out before we make a decision on whether we need to consider some Dr Nobel's linctus to adjust the rock! Probably one more session to decide that. There is a large rock that needs breaking up to remove anyway from the main dig and Mike and Leonie after removing quite a bit of spoil also have a rock requiring extraction.
We are considering setting up another tripod frame over another of the holes so we don't waste resources when we have a good sized team turning up most weeks and while we suspect they all join up, who knows unless we try!

More photos added to album from tonight - https://plus.google.com/photos/104708662744792505290/albums/5773157977179467425

Wednesday 12th September

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning, Henry Dawson, Mike Moxon, Henry Bennett, Pete Hellier, Richard Webber

Mark brought generator and drill over to start putting the stemples in to create a fixed ladder, over the course of evening he drilled down as far as where the mud ledge was - 6 or 7, can't remember.

Using a wire ladder now for accessing the dig, which meant after Mark had finished drilling the holes, the short ladder was removed and so was the mud ledge we'd had to keep in order to be able to get in and out. Henry D started digging and Pete joined him soon after while the rest of is hauled and emptied. Estelle and Mike did a session at the bottom and then Henry B & Mark until we gave up at pub 'o' clock. We're down approximately 12 feet or so from where we started now and have a pretty good sized spoil heap building up.

3hrs total

Wednesday 5th September

Estelle Sandford, Mark Denning, Henry Dawson, Henry Bennett, Ben Wetherill, Michael Butcher

Estelle and Mark turned up early and made a start on loosening up some spoil, but until a 3rd arrived, no hauling. Rest turned up at 7pm and hauling commenced. Estelle and Mark in the dig initially followed by Henry B & Ben, then Henry D and Mike. Lowered dig by approximately another 4-5ft and approximately 2 tonne of spoil removed. Having to leave a bit of a ledge by our 'fixed' ladder at the moment as we haven't got a longer one in place yet. Next week need temporary electron, although hopefully will get the stemple ladder in place as soon as resin dries.  Spoil getting very gloopy and sticky towards the end, hopefully if the weather remains dry, this will be easier to handle next week!

3hrs total

Wednesday 29th August

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark and Jo Denning, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward and Henry Dawson.
2.5hrs
Mark & Jo in first, removed quite a few skips – using 2 people hauling as skips getting heavy! Then Leonie and Mike took over for a while and then Henry and Mark. Rest of us hauling and moving the spoil heap around for the evening. Probably moved a good 1.5tonnes, if not more from the dig and down by another 2-3ft. Now need a longer ladder as really at a point where we won’t get out easily if it gets levelled off completely at the bottom… Also need to work out how we deal with the hauling as currently 2 people walk away from the pulley but any further and they will fall down another hole!

Wednesday 22nd August

Mark Denning, Stu Lindsay and Tim Large arrived at 6pm and put a pulley and bolt in place on the floor to make hauling easier and stop the risk of pulling the A frame over and Mark also secured the legs better. The 3 of them did about 20 odd skips of spoil using Stu's new digging skip until Mark broke his spade. Shortly after than Estelle Sandford & James Begley arrived (fortunately with another spade which Estelle left in the car from last week) and digging recommenced. Trevor Hughes turned up with a freebie wheelbarrow he'd rescued from a skip and repaired and took Stu with him to Caine Hill while the rest of us carried on digging and hauling. Similar amount of spoil removed, guess around 80 buckets but with only 4 people, it really is relentless on the work involved! Lowered the dig by approx another 3ft and rescued a baby newt which was relocated to nearer the pond for safety.
Dig time 3hrs.

Wednesday 15th August

Estelle Sandford, Stu Gardiner, Mark Denning, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Henry Dawson & James Begley with a visit from Paul & Tiggy from SMCC.

We had a look at the new hole (which is roughly half way between the really big hole nearest the hedge and the one the digger was by last week) and it looks interesting, but decided to carry on digging where we started last week. Mark and Stu G went down into the dig first with Stu L and Henry on hauling duty and  Estelle on bucket emptying until Mike turned up and assisted with the hauling - few problems with the angle of hauling and the A frame nearly being pulled over so need to haul directly under frame which meant it was essential to keep the weight of the skips down, so we opted for Stu L's newly designed skip as it was smaller. A large number of skips were removed from the dig and there was signs in two places on the side walls of passage heading off before they came out and swapped. Kevin kindly brought us coffee over to the dig and soon after James turned up with Paul & Tiggy to show them the site and James then assisted on hauling for the rest of the evening as he hadn't brought caving kit over. Estelle and Henry went in to dig next, around another 20ish removed and then Estelle came out and Stu L went in for a dig. Floor across the entire dig being cleared of mud and rocks and we have lowered the dig by a good couple of feet. They came out and Mark and Stu G went back in for another go. The mound of spoil we've created is nearly half the size of the pile Kevin had created digging the other one with the digger!!! Roughly around 70-80 skips removed - we lost count somewhere along the way! We were forced to stop and retreat to the pub when the digging bucket broke (a bolt came out and was lost in the mud) and the heavens started to open after just under 3hrs digging.

Looking good and planning on being there same time, same place next Wednesday evening! 

Wednesday 15th August - to confirm...

spoke to Kevin tonight to confirm all ok for Wednesday (which it is) and he advised me that since we were there last week, he's dug open another hole and he thinks he can see rounding at the bottom and reckons it might be quite easy to dig open...
Will see you all over there around 6:30ish... 

Wednesday 8th August - A frame in place...

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning, Mike Moxon, Henry Dawson, Stu Lindsay, Tim Large and Trevor Hughes went over to White Pit to retrieve the capstan winch and A frame for relocation to Cutler's Green. Good job there was 8 of us for this job as that winch is very heavy. We used slings and 2 of the A frame legs to spread the weight between us carrying it across the field. After loading it into Mark's van, Stu, Trev and Tim went to Caine Hill and left us to take the winch. Thanks to them for diverting from important bag hauling exercise to help us out tonight!

The 5 of us then went over to Cutler's Green and after Mark, Mike and Henry had a good first look around at the holes, we made the decision to put the A frame over the hole nearest the top corner of the field, which appears to have the most solid walls and the A frame fits neatly across. The one quite large loose boulder at the top was dislodged by Mark into the hole to make safe and we proceeded to get the winch / A frame set up. Our reasoning for not setting up over the big hole that the pond had disappeared down was that would require more engineering to get started so we can plan to get a platform set up and built over the forthcoming weeks/months, but at least we can start digging immediately on the hole we've chosen.

The winch and A frame were ably put over the hole and Henry then dropped down into it and we removed the rock, plus a little more spoil before heading to the pub - a massive 4 skips of rubble! But we're started and that's the important bit.

Kevin was unavailable this evening and next digging session is planned for next Wednesday evening - meet at the dig around 6:30pm onwards. 

Initial visit to Cutler's Green Sinkholes

Saturday 4th August, 2012

Through a post on facebook diggers group, we obtained information regarding Cutler's Green Sinkholes via Phil Hendy, which is over at Chewton Mendip. http://goo.gl/maps/oBHHL shows the google maps view, which was taken at the point (2006) where he had cleared the surface of the land, the gorge and much of the area now is grassed over. The history of the place is that 12 years ago a large carp pond was swallowed overnight by one of the shafts and the landowner Kevin, has been trying to get interested parties (mainly geologists and archaeologists via museums/universities) to come and dig it. After spotting an article on digging in the Mendip Times, he got in contact with Phil Hendy who passed the information out as 'diggers wanted'.

Trevor Hughes, Stu Lindsay, Stu Gardiner, James Begley and myself visited the site yesterday afternoon and had a chat with the landowner about digging the site. He showed us the shafts and talked at length about the history of the area and that some of the shafts have been dug reasonably deep with a digger and there was a gorge there as well at one point, and that the biggest and deepest of the shafts he had to fill in before it swallowed the fence and upset his neighbour! He has removed a number of finds of bones, fossils, petrified wood, coral and interesting rocks and has quite a large collection and is clearly quite passionate about his holes in the ground! There is at least 6 shafts looking worth attacking, although chances are they would potentially all meet up underground, which makes this the ideal project for any number of people wishing to be involved. Kevin has said he will deal with spoil removal with his digger, so we don't have to worry about that, we just need to get digging basically!

We are proposing to take over an A frame and winch on Wednesday night to get the ball rolling and also install a log book at the site so all digging at the site can be recorded. This blog will also be used for recording information and linking images and planning digging evenings/days. We would like this to become a nice project for anyone interested in digging and leaving the politics at home within any of the caving clubs, so if anyone is interested, point them in the direction of the diggers. I have given the regular White Pit diggers plus Stu, James and Trev rights to post here and will add anyone else as they join in.

With regards to photos, there are a number of free upload sites available, so any taken, please upload somewhere and post a link or pass to someone with more technical nous if you aren't sure how to!
I'm intending on using my google account for my photos and the ones taken yesterday by me of the site and some of Kevin's finds are to be found here - https://plus.google.com/photos/104708662744792505290/albums/5773157977179467425