19/6/18

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Mike Waterworth, Jonathan Riley, David Walker

2hrs

With a few people away, it was good to have Mike W back this week to make up the 6 meaning it wasn’t too hard to dig! Mike took the front for the first 15-20 skips, then Estelle took over, then Dave, followed by Mike M and Jon. James still suffering shoulder problems and didn’t want to dig. Changed the top rope on the bottom skip for a nicely knotted one, which made it a lot easier, need a knife for the other end as a pair of scissors isn’t robust enough. A good sized rock had come out of the wall on the left hand side since the last session, but that was broken up by Mike M and came to surface. Quite a lot of rock coming out at floor level now, so hopefully that’s a good sign.

11/6/18 - ladder lifting

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Martin Cross, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker, Stu Lindsay

2hrs 5mins

Arrived to find 5 baby bunnies hiding around the skips, these were soon put in a digging bag as they were going to leap from the bucket and then exited from the cave and released away from the entrances. No idea where the mum went and hopefully they are old enough to thrive on their own. Also rescued 3 toads tonight.

Good digging session, quite dry digging and filled a good number of bags to raise the ladder buy another couple of feet so it’s in a really comfortable position now. Plenty of spoil dumping space around it. Dig at the end still heading slowly on and down in same sort of dimensions. Need to replace the ropes on the bottom skips for decent knotted ropes. At the end of the session lifted the ladder.

5/6/18

Estelle Sandford, Duncan Simey, Mike Moxon, Martin Cross, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker, Stu Lindsay, Fran Campbell.

2.5hrs

Good digging session, my back was playing up so only hauled for the evening, but lots of bags filled and at the end of the digging session, raised the ladder by another layer of bags. At the start of digging found a dead pigeon in the dig, looked like a sparrowhawk had given it a beating and it hid in the dig (and shat everywhere…)

29/5/18

Estelle Sandford, Mike Moxon, Duncan Simey, Jonathan Riley, David Walker

2.5hrs

Very hard work… found a dead baby bunny at the top which we buried. Took a skip down to the bottom to try and make the bottom work easier. The poor person with the steps and the haul is hard work now, but the rest is easier! All had a dig during the evening. Still going nicely down although right hand wall has a curve going on currently.

22/5/18 back at the end digging

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, David Walker, Jonathan Riley, Mike Moxon, Duncan Simey

2.5hrs

Another good session, finally digging the end again after clearing the last of the infill from the winter floods. Found a baby bunny at the end, sadly we couldn’t catch it so it’s likely to meet its demise. More toads rescued.

15/5/18

Estelle Sandford, Mike Moxon, Duncan Simey, Jonathan Riley, Martin Cross

2hrs

Still clearing the debris from winter flooding, last of it hopefully tonight so first digger in next week should be digging the end.

8/5/18

Estelle Sandford, Jonathan Riley, Mike Moxon, Duncan Simey

2hrs

Investigated the end of the dig first and it is dry enough to access and dig, but there is a lot of slumped in spoil to clear before we can start digging again. Estelle started digging the steps until tired and then swapped out so Jon could dig. We found we needed 3 in the cave ideally, so Mike on the outside was having a hard time with having to haul and empty. Swapped again for Duncan for a while and then Mike at the end. We definitely need a minimum of 5, preferably 6 or 7 next week. Hopefully we’ll be able to start digging the end before the end of the next session.

24/4/18

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Duncan Simey, Dave Walker, Jonathan Riley

2hrs

Dave remembered a knife so got to cutting the skip to fit the buckets. Started on the mission of clearing out the slumped in from the end of the railway. Got part way down the steps by the end of the night taking it in turns to dig. Still at least another 1-2 sessions before we’ll be at the end, assuming the water levels drop any time soon…