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.
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.
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