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