1/12/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Duncan Butler, Stu Lindsay and Kevin Clinton

2.5hrs

Capping is the way forwards! Stu soon released the stuck plug and feathers and broke up a number of rocks to moveable size. Estelle and James continued digging in the bottom dig and that’s starting to go around the corner and has a channel below which looks interesting, but can’t get into it yet… Kevin joined us and helped with the rock removal as well. Duncan went and had a look at the previous week’s finds and then came back to help manhandle the rocks. 

24/11/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Stu Lindsay, Mike Waterworth, Mike Butcher

2.5hours

Stu brought along a drill and Estelle some plug and feathers. The attempt didn’t work well and they ended up stuck in the rock, capping is likely to be the way forward as most of the rocks are nicely accessible. Estelle carried on digging in the dig below where Stu was working and the rest of the lads headed down into the bottom of the top dig where they dug their way into the bit down the hole at the end, retrieved Kevin’s drain rod and continued on into a bit more passage which had a bit of a chamber as well. 

17/11/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Mike Waterworth, Duncan Butler

2.5hrs

Took a couple of old hammers from HLIS over and while Mike W and Duncan did the tourist trip into the top bit of cave, the rest of us started on trying to move boulders and mud from the lower digs. Duncan came back and joined in helping and Mike W decided to dig in the end of the top dig. Mike M joined him after a while. Estelle carried on digging out of the lowest dig while James and Duncan got ‘personal’ with a few boulders and beat them up and got them out. A drill and either caps or P&F would be more productive, but we do need more tools in general in there – couple of decent hammers, a small shovel or 2 and maybe another bar or 2 wouldn’t go amiss. A few of the cable ties on the ladder are starting to come loose and we really should look at getting a better ladder to make it safer. While we were digging we could hear storm Barney blowing a hoolie over the top of the digsite! 

10/11/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon

2hrs

Evening spend attacking boulders and digging in the lower digs – broke the hammer so need another one and boulders too big to extract. We decided then to start at the entrance and make it all bigger so a few big boulders dragged out before exiting to the pub. 

4/11/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon

1.5hrs

Estelle forgot gloves so had to race back home for them, but James made a start and then Mike turned up as Estelle got back. Got down to digging in the lower hole where there is dark space beyond boulders. Moved a fair bit of rock and spoil between us. Really needs drilling and plug and feathering to deal with the rocks. We also need to work on tidying the surface by the top of the ladder as it is quite slippery up there. 

20/10/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Duncan Price
2.5hrs
Mike arrived earlier and put a rope down to do a bit of clearing on the fence side above the digs and then we all went down and did some digging. Duncan turned up and went into the top dig and looked at the cave as he grew up locally and there was never cave this side of Mendip! He seemed reasonably impressed and came and joined us digging at the bottom after. Going at 2 separate holes at the bottom at the moment, Stu and i digging at one from two sides and Mike, James and Duncan on the other which is going down well. 

13/10/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward, Stu Lindsay, Liz Wire, Dave King
2hrs
Mike collected a couple of ladders from the Belfry and brought them over so we could look to access the top dig. This worked with just the one longer ladder and Mike then cleared the shelf of all loose rubble to make it accessible safely. Leonie and Dave went in with Mike to have a look as they hadn't seen it before and also had a dig up there. Stu's leg was too sore so he continued with path building while Estelle, James and Liz took it in turns to dig the bottom dig bringing out quite a bit. Now need a skip in the dig as we're far enough in. 

11/10/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Stu Lindsay.
4hrs
Estelle went down to the bottom to try and work on digging a connection to the old dig. It soon became apparent that the dig wasn't going the right way and was going straight on/more left. James came down and joined Estelle as it got deeper. Stu remained on surface doing path. Joan Goddard visited with her professor from uni Professor Desmond who was 92 years old and chatted to Kevin for a while. He was quite interested and amazing for a bloke his age. Kevin also came down and had a look at the digging. Now at a point where we consider it safe enough to dig when dry on evenings going forwards and it's quite easy digging and draughting well. Need a ladder to get to top dig - will need to grab from Belfry. 

29/9/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay
2hrs
Has been quite dry for the last week and the access to the entrance is much better. Plan was for Estelle and Mike to take a look at the bottom as not seen it since Kevin put a makeshift ladder in and for us to build a stone path from the top platform down towards the entrance to make it safer when wet and easier (and tidier). Estelle went down the ladder (3 ladders held together with scaffolding and cable ties and ropes!), which felt perfectly stable surprisingly! Looking at the bottom, tucked under the entrance shelf where there was previously lots of frost shattering, this is much better as it has slipped off down to the fault and is beautifully red and flat now. Above it at dig level on both sides are a couple of rocks that would be nice to knock down to bottom as they don't look safe. Looking around before it got dark, about 5m to the left the dig on the right wall (as you look towards hedge), it looks like a couple of hours digging would give us access back into the dig we were working on as you can sort of see through to there and it is easy mud and rocks digging to clear it. Mike arrived and went down also. Estelle and Mike both had a bit of a go at making a start with no tools (as they are stuck in the dig!). Looking around the rest, there's a couple of rocks and muddy areas that might subside which we need to take care of, but generally it is looking like it has mostly stabilised itself with the recent rains. Going downwards is unlikely to be an easy option going forwards without major engineering works, so is looking to be abandoned for now. Stu arrived and then we all spent the rest of the evening doing the path, which is mostly complete, just needs more rock added, but we need some tools to dig out some more of the suitable flat rocks. 

25/8/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Liz Wire, Dave Morrison (Tuska) and his girlfriend, Martin Grass, Joan and Simon Goddard
1.5hrs
Arrived at 7 and met with Tuska who came over to advise as large hole like this is similar to what they had to deal with at Templeton and he is probably the most expert at dealing with large excavations. Since the weekend and a lot of rain, a couple of large boulders had fallen into the bottom. Tuska advised on suspending any workings and platforms from RSJs and also clearing the areas around the edges of the site to ensure no rocks would wash in. He suggested one idea of rolling turf down the right hand slope and then pinning netting to it to allow it to naturally grow over whilst secured. The back edge by the hedge probably needs shuttering. The approach to the dig needs tidying and a path creating as there is a lot of mud and clay to stick to your feet. Martin came across and took photos for Descent. 

22/8/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley
2hrs
The digger having finished and gone, Estelle and James visited to look at the final result. The sides are fairly even now and the digger has done a pretty good job of cleaning out the edges making it look a lot safer. Need to sort out rigging and also work out how to get some sort of platform and hauling system in place to assist with this. Estelle contacting Templeton diggers to help out Tuesday, particularly Tuska if about. Chatted to Kevin over a glass of wine about ideas for how to access and dig. 

18/8/15 Big Digger!

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Stu Lindsay, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward, Kevin Clinton
3hrs
Estelle got a text from Kevin while over at Vurley Swallet saying that he had an 18m arm digger there digging the big hole out deeper. Estelle called in on way home from Cheddar to gauge what might be required for the evening and took a few photos and a bit of video. As soon as James got back from work, Estelle and James headed to dig armed with ropes, ladder, SRT kits, etc. to work out best method of getting down. The digger was still in situ and the arm had been left in a good position to act as a belay point, so this was used to attach the ladder via a length of rope to the edge and the lifeline. Estelle went down first and it is around 11m to the very bottom, but a 10m ladder suffices as you can come off easily enough on the slope. A couple more holes have been exposed on both the left and right, but a lot of loose stuff was falling in. Estelle came out and James went in and shortly after James came up from having a look Stu, Mike and Leonie arrived and Kevin came over in caving kit. Kevin started going down the ladder and as he got a few rungs down there was some movement and a couple of large rocks decided to come out of the right hand wall. He decided not to descend after that and came back up. Mike and Leonie both went down and had a look but Stu declined the ladder, although he was very keen for someone to get his shovel out of the dig that he needed to take for his holiday. Estelle went down for another look and took Kevin’s gopro down and then Mike went in again and managed to climb up to the dig using the longer ladder which was lowered down to use to get back up and also removed some rocks from the shelf that were perched and retrieved the shovel. De-rigged and went to pub. Digger planning on clearing out some more and also levelling off the right hand side and clearing all around the edges to hopefully make it all a bit safer.

11/8/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Liz Wire, Stu Lindsay, Kevin Clinton
2.5hrs
James brought up the survey on laptop to show Kevin and the others in survex. Total cave length between all holes currently at 107m and new cave at 61m.
Mike, Stu and Estelle started digging/hauling as James forgot his undersuit and had to pop back home, but was soon back and came in to dig and Liz also turned up too. It worked easiest to have one person loosening the spoil and one person filling the skip while a couple of people outside hauled and emptied. The mud is a particularly sticky consistency and stuck very well to the hauling skips making them heavier and harder to move as the evening went on and the heightening of the passage. Diggers swapped so everyone got a chance and it's easy digging with a lot of spoil coming out, hence 70 kibbles in one evening. Hauling got tiring and Kevin came down and assisted with hauling and emptying later in the session
Kevin is looking at getting an 18m digger in to have a go at making it deeper and safer, probably over a weekend soon, so the digger works Friday, we visit over the weekend and he does more on Monday. Await news on dates...

Left for pub just after 9:15, but Waldegrave shut so went to Ring o' Bells at Hinton instead - we need to plan letting Derek know and getting sarnies booked so he stays open! 

4/8/15

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Martin Grass, Liz Wire
2.5hrs
James and Estelle arrived first and soon after Mike and Stu and we went down into the dig to start digging the entrance spoil out to continue the enlargement. Martin arrived and soon after Liz and both Martin and Liz were given the guided tour and Martin took photos for Descent. He left soon after and we all carried on working on the dig. For a little while James and Estelle worked on the other side dig but didn’t really have enough digging tools there yet. Will need to bring more next week. 

2/8/15 surveying

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Andrew Horeckyj (MCG & geologist)
3.5hrs
Primary function for this trip was to survey the entire site. We used the large rock Kevin had pulled out from the big hole as a centrepoint and James and Estelle surveyed from it to each of the holes in turn and then into the holes to their ends, starting with the one nearest to the gate first and going anti-clockwise and ending up with the big one after we'd done all the others. It was quite hard work doing the surface surveying with the laser on the distoX disappearing into the sunlight! The new cave section is roughly 35m, not including the shaft and passage the other side. Noticeable that there is some instability at the hedge side with a trickle of soil as it was drying the whole time we were down there. Andy had a good look around to analyse his thoughts on the place geologically. He seemed to find it very interesting. Took a few photos using proper camera rather than mobile phone. Mike and Andy did some digging in the entrance continuing to remove rocks and mud to make it larger for getting in to start hauling from lower and reducing the amount of mud in there. Survey complete, we packed up and went home. Back Tuesday to dig... 

29/7/15 The big hole!

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Kevin Clinton
2hrs 15mins
Kevin emailed Estelle 28/7/15 with 2 images and that he had used a larger digger to dig out the big hole nearer to the hedge. We agreed to visit Wednesday evening for a look and dig.
On arrival, we were shown the large amount of spoil that had been removed which was filling in the top pond that had dried up but been too wet to level it since. We then went down to the newly dug out hole. To the bottom was about 5m or so with a bit of a ledge at the top and a metal ladder to climb down into it. There had been some infill down to recent rains and there is a section near the hedge which does look like it needs securing as rains may cause it to subside. To the right of the metal ladder (pond side) was a bedding plane going down dip with beautifully brownish/yellow (from lead probably) scalloped roof and the floor was several inches of sedimented mud over rock. Estelle clambered in and where it got a little tighter, gardened a few rocks to make it more passable and then carried on down following the solid roof. Looking forwards, to the right it carried on curved around with the floor being sloped  with rocks covered in mud and looking like they would head updip towards the holes we were digging previously. There was a couple of places at the very bottom on the left that had space between muddy rocks that could potentially be dug out. Going back to the left was a little bit of a climb down into a muddy small chamber which had a hole in the floor between muddy boulders, of which there was another hole below it that was about 18"x12" and currently too awkward to access safely. This needs some digging to access. Took a few photos on mobile phone as forgot camera and then headed back up, The amount of mud in there is incredible and the weight on the oversuit climbing back out was hard work. The passage continued some 40m in there. Kevin and James came in as far as above the last chamber before heading back out. Mike had been focussing on the driveway side of the dug out shaft and this appears to go in towards the original hole and others and he got in a few metres there as well. Kevin said the middle of the floor had slumped since digging out, but hadn't hit solid and was the yellow mud we'd been digging out of the holes previously.
We started digging out the entrance boulders and mud from the hole i went in while Mike went in and took some photos and had a look and by the end of the session had made it considerably more accessible. With the depth of the shaft down and the side passages off, reckon approximately 50m in there so far.
First thing we really need to do is survey the lot so we can see where everything is and where it's going and then clear a good route down to the dig as suspect we will have to haul out to surface as while there is quite a bit of space in there, it's on a slope so wouldn't make easy storage for spoil. 

Link to Estelle's images https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fxn6l8yi9cpbvpi/AADy5R5CqK58wga8CL9HNQCZa?dl=0

13/12/14 Winch removal

Estelle Sandford, Mark Denning, Matthew Wire
1.5hrs
removed tripod and winch and all digging tools from site and back to Belfry or home to clean and store until next needed.