Wednesday 13th November

Mike Moxon and Leonie Woodward clearing and hauling spoil from the end.
From Mike:

Hole in floor cleared of debris, the slot below is about 3 inches wide & the depth of the steel bar, still plenty more to pull out of the bottom but it's mostly out of the way of getting washed further in. Spent about an hour there.

Monday 4th November

Estelle Sandford, Stu Lindsay, James Begley

1.5hrs

Estelle and Stu turned up earlier and drilled and prepped for banging the dig with Estelle drilling the holes and setting it up under Stu’s direction. 5 holes drilled around the hole in the base and then James turned up to help haul and also after setting off the bang, we sorted out the rope on the tripod which had come off the pulley. Gave the bang about 10mins to clear and went and had a look. Lots to clear, rock is very layered so bang has loosened a lot but not actually made as much progress has hoped. Hopefully attacking with a hammer after clearing on next bang will get rid of a bit more rock, but getting far too cold now to be outside hauling so heading towards putting to bed for the winter months. 

Tuesday 29th October

Estelle Sandford, James Begley

1hr

Has been quite wet over the last few days and the dig had clearly had a good wash. There was some slumped spoil in a pile plus the hole in the floor directly below the hole in the floor we created has a small way on now, probably caused by water backing up on it and pushing the mud through. Estelle went in and cleared the slump and had a good go at clearing any mud around the hole and a bit of rock from smacking with a hammer, to a point where you can put your arm in with a crowbar and wave it about and drop stones and they sound like they are dropping maybe 2-3ft. The holes at the end are also interesting and can put bar in a far way and see on a bit horizontally. Both holes need banging, there is nothing else to do without bang now. The hole directly below looks like it is another ‘shelf’ or false floor like above. Some water in the other two that still need digging. 

Monday 14th October

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon and Kevin Clinton

2hrs

Arrived and had a look and is looking much larger post bang. James went in and started work on clearing while Estelle hauled and Mike emptied as hole 6 is a puddle at present so no digging there tonight. Rope really slippery so beneficial to have two on surface, until James got below ledge and needed someone at the bottom to help, so Mike went in and assisted leaving Estelle hauling and emptying! Kevin turned up around half way through and assisted with emptying the skips. Mike and James swapped and Mike continued digging out the hole in the floor. The two holes seen by Estelle last week can see water worn beyond, but there is a hole in the floor following the back wall down that also looks interesting. May need more Dr Nobels next time, but also need to do a bit more digging around the floor hole. Good evenings work, some 30+ skips removed of rock and spoil. 

Sunday 13th October

Stu Lindsay, Estelle Sandford & James Begley

1hr

In between showers, Stu had some Dr Nobel’s for which he drilled holes in the false floor level around the small hole that Estelle had enlarged last week to make it passable just in hole 5. A quick glance after the smoke had cleared indicates that the shelf is no more and it now needs clearing. 

Tuesday 8th October

Estelle Sandford, Stu Lindsay, Mike Moxon
1.5hrs
Estelle cleared the debris from the last bang which hadn’t been as effective as the first bang last week in that one hole hadn’t done much but the other appears to have shattered a channel going towards the pond side. Much of the rest of the time was spent beating the rock around the hole in the floor with a hammer and bar while Mike digging hole 6 and Stu hauling for both digs. After about an hour or so, the hole was big enough to get her lower body in, but not quite to pass the arms/shoulders, so Stu had a little go at bashing it before Estelle had one final go and then managed to get into the hole. There is a shelf covered in debris about 2.5ft own which makes it not too bad to get out of the hole, but basically you can drop down about 3ft to the floor and sit down. To the left is floor pendant that is very sharp and attacked oversuit and in front slightly right in the roof is another pendant that should come away with a hammer. To the right again is a channel in the floor continuing to two holes in the floor and the roof above is where the shattered channel is heading. The two holes are about 4” and 6” diameter respectively but with the floor and roof pendants, it’s not possible to get access to it yet. The entrance hole needs Dr Nobel to enlarge it to make it so we can work in there and it is basically a shelf which is about a foot or so deep of solid rock. Some photos taken by Estelle.

Monday 30th September

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Stu Lindsay – joined by Kevin and Chris Clinton a little later when we were about to blow it!

2.5hrs

Arrived at site and immediately started drilling 3 long shot-holes on the left (facing towards house), one higher and 2 lower to take off the left hand wall. I laid the cord under Stu’s instructions and then we exited the cave and let it off. Waited around 20mins before descending to take a look at what had happened as it had cleared the worst of the fumes by then. Worked very well, dig considerably wider now and a large amount of gravel and rocks blocking the way out. Cleared about a dozen skips from the hole before drilling two further holes in the lower ledge by the hole with the way on. Left and behind you can feel quite a long way under, so had to be careful not to just drill through this and went on an angle. The hole in the floor has about 3-4ft of drop, draughts pretty well and going away from the house direction seems to be looking like the way on. Chris flicked the switch for the second bang and it was considerably louder than before! Left for the pub without checking as pub ‘o’ clock!

Report from Kevin the morning after – ‘been down and cleared out rock but hole is same size, need a bigger bang!!’

Planning to clear it again before more of Dr Nobel’s though. 

Tuesday 24th September

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay
1.5hrs
6 skips out of deeper hole 5 and 21 very muddy skips out of the adjacent one (6) using both ends of the rope. Deeper hole has an interesting void below the false floor but the sides need banging now to widen it to make it accessible. We need to do that next trip, hopefully next week. Hole 6 is very muddy and clay and got to a point where the hauling rope so muddy it was impossible to haul anymore, so gave up and went to pub!

Monday 18th September

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon and Henry Dawson.
2hrs
Arrived to find the digger not in usual location, but based on previous discussions about struggling to use it now down to depth and the jaggedness of the rocks at the bottom catching the bags and having less space to keep a 1 tonne bag while digging, we had decided to use the tripod anyway to finish this dig off. We moved the tripod to over that hole first job from the other hole it had been resident over since last year and put the rope back into place. (The hole we have removed it from we want to use the digger on anyway when we do dig that one.) James went in first and started filling buckets with slop and mud as there was a little puddling above the holes in the floor. Estelle on hauling all evening down to a injured foot and then Mike went down to relieve James and realised soon that digging in just old clothes rather than using an oversuit wasn’t the best idea. Henry then went down for the last 1/2hour and broke a larger hole in the false floor and we can see some space below going to about 3ft. Next session needs a decent hammer and chisel but probably the session after will be looking at Dr Nobels best!

Monday 19th August

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay
2hrs
Arrived to find a double length of ladder left for us by Kevin. 6 bags removed between the two holes, 3 from each. Bigger hole now getting really hard to fill the bags and is below the reach of the digger arm, so we may have to consider moving the a frame and using buckets now. Is heading away from house direction into what looks like a rift. Other hole still got a lot to come out!

Monday 12th August

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon and Alex Gee
2hrs
Working on both digs on holes 5 and 6 again. 5 is getting quite hard to fill the bag without it jamming in the rocks now so we’ve had to bash a few bits off, but still going down and still plenty of mud to clear. 6 is still quite a way above 5 in depth and going down nicely, was slightly puddled at start. Alex came for a look and gave us a hand with the digging for the evening and also had a look at the finds bins. Digger still needing manual switch off.

Wednesday 7th August

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon
1.5hrs
We were going to go down HLIS, but as no bags at the Belfry and no drill/plug and feathers sorted, we left Mark and Stu to go and take some photos and retrieve the ladders and rope from down there and headed over to Cutlers as we’d not managed to get over there since Kevin back from holidays. Arrived and met Kevin and he went and fixed the pump wire that he thought was the problem with the digger and we started digging. Got 2 bags out of each of the two holes, but digger not stopping still so we called Kevin back and he had a look and showed us how to turn it off manually as the electric part of the pump isn’t actually working! Main dig draining, but the mud was quite wet, other dig not draining yet. Pond even lower with little rain but Little Grebe’s have chicks now!

Monday 22nd July

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Henry Dawson, Mike Moxon and Stu Lindsay
2.5hrs
As there was more of us this week, we got to work with the 1 tonne bags in the hole nearest the house where we’ve been digging and also the hole next to it as we figured we had enough skill to retrieve the bags using the digger. Removed 8 bags all in, 4 from each hole and the first one is starting to get quite sandy now and pinching out so reckon we might get some answers sooner rather than later on that one. Only problem with today’s digging was that the digger wouldn’t stop easily so we had to stall it at the end, which isn’t the easiest thing to do!

Kevin back now so digger issue will be sorted by next Monday. :-)

Monday 15th July

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning and Henry Dawson.
2hrs

Removed 6 bags and 1 boulder. Floor lowered by another foot or so and is starting to pinch in slightly making it harder for more than 1 person to be filling the 1 tonne bag. Had some problems with the digger starting, but worked out that the battery connection was loose so we sorted that and now starting perfectly.

Monday 8th July

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay & Joan Goddard came across for a look and took some photos
2hrs
Digging in shaft 5 again using digger to remove spoil and rocks. Removed 4 bags of spoil and 3 rocks and a small hole had appeared just under where one of the rocks was. Hopefully this will give us some answers next week, but if not it should help drain the little bit of water that seems to remain puddled on the pond liner clay.

Mon 24th June 2013

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning with Mike Moxon turning up a little later.
2hrs
With Kevin not around, we still had use of the digger with having to drive it ourselves again.
5 bags filled and emptied and 4 large rocks removed, amazed the ancient 20+ year old tape held…. (and yes we did stay well out of the way when lifting rocks). Nice dry evening and water levels of lake still dropping although rain over the earlier part of the week had meant the dig itself was a bit more claggy than last week. Next week we are going to have to dig under where the ladder is making it more interesting getting in and out!

Monday 17th June 2013

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Henry Dawson, Mike Moxon and Leonie Woodward.
2.5hrs

Arrived to find Mark had dropped off 3x 1 tonne bags ready for digging, but was unable to stay himself tonight and dig. The rest of us started digging in the bigger hole filling the 1 tonne bags and also removing some rocks and wood debris from the slightly smaller hole next to that one that we'd not touched to date. Kevin had left us access to the digger, so Mike lifted the first one out and didn't quite get the accuracy to perfection and caught the bag on the side putting a tear into it. Kevin popped over to watch and chat and we continued filling, doing a total of 6 bags. Mike's accuracy got much better after the first one and he successfully avoided touching the side again with the bags! Spoil is quite clay filled and claggy, but thankfully not as wet as it had got to last year. Few rocks removed as well.

Hopefully we'll have a bigger team for next Monday to make it easier to dig more than one hole at a time. We need to bring over some krabs, slings and more tools, only 2 spades and a pick there at present.