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
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
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