27/8/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning
1.5hrs
Mark went in first to dig and broke off some more rock and carried on the gravel mining to fill about 8 skips. Estelle went in to have a look and we decided we would be better drilling more holes for bang now as most of the accessible gravel is gone. James went in and filled one last skip with gravel. Mark will communicate with Kevin to arrange electric for drilling more holes. We also took a look at the biggest hole near the hedge with a view to maybe drilling several holes in the bottom of that to see if a bang in there exposes anything - will do the one we're working on first though.

20/8/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon
2hrs
Clearing bang debris - Estelle went in first and quickly filled about 15 skips which the lads hauled out, then swapped with James who did about the same number again. Mostly gravel coming out, but some bigger chunks as well and James pulled out a large rock from the floor towards the end of his session too. Estelle went back in for a final couple of skips - we have gone down a good 2.5ft into an approximately 2ft x 2.5ft hole and there is probably another hour or so worth of gravel clearing to go. To the left as you look at the ladder is solid rock and will probably need banging again to make it bigger. To the right is still quite a lot of gravel going down, but quite narrow and there is a slot in the floor heading in the direction of the ladder that is a couple of inches wide by about a foot deep - can't really see clearly on as the gravel keeps backfilling it at the moment but ideally we need to employ a dwarf orangutan! Took a few photos at the end of the session.

10/8/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley
20mins
Popped over between showers to check the results of the bang last Thursday. Estelle went down the hole and noted it was gravel at the bottom and everything completely blocked up and needing a serious clearing session. Need to plan a clearing session.

7/8/14 - Nigel & Martin banging Cutlers

James and Mike went along to assist Nigel Taylor and Martin Grass. large bang 2x 600mm deep 20mm holes and 1x 1m deep 20mm holes

5/8/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Kevin Clinton
45mins
Nigel Taylor couldn’t make it last minute to bang, but Kevin had sent over some photos from where he had been landscaping the area a bit and had dug open another hole next to the first one we dug out. Looks interesting, but probably not interesting enough to pursue. Hoping to bang either later this week or next.

14/5/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Mark Denning
1.5hrs
With an absence of haulers for Reservoir, we decided to go and clear the bang debris from Cutlers and drill holes for the next one. Clearing only took about 6 skips worth and hadn’t really done enough damage, so looking at the big guns and Mark drilled 3 x 16mm holes and 600m deep and then started trying to extend these to 20mm holes, but the generator was struggling with that and then ran out of fuel. Going to ask Kevin if we can have electric again for next time to make the drill work better.

6/5/14 - bang trip

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning, Martin Grass
1.5hrs
Mark drilled several 12mm holes in what looked like a shelf. 1 went right through, but the rest were ok, so Estelle and Martin then went in to place the bang, we used 3 of the holes and 20gm and 5gm to join them. Once set, it let off a healthy bang, but no real breeze outside so air didn’t show signs of clearing particularly quickly so we left for another day.

Kevin emailed photos next day to say he had had a look and cleared some of the spoil out of the way, but hadn’t done much damage, so need more bang.

14/4/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon
1.5hrs
Estelle went into the dig and started digging – funnily enough, no-one else seemed keen tonight... Quite a lot of skips full of vegetative matter and slimy mud and rocks were removed and it didn’t smell overly pleasant down there, but basically after a dozen or so skips, we’re down to rock all around and it needs a dose of chemical persuasion to proceed. Removed 12 toads (including mating pairs!) and 5 newts from the dig site and a further 3 from one of the other holes and relocated them to the lake. Kevin had been tidying up a bit and there is now a fence and gate to the site.