21/8/18

Estelle Sandford, Mike Moxon, Duncan Simey, Claire Havard, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker, Stu Lindsay

2.5hrs

Good digging session with plenty of spoil brought out. Cave still retaining similar size passage, although getting more and more rock out of the floor and at one point we could dig the bar into what felt like a space, but after more digging, it appears it was just looser spoil between the rocks. Dave and Jon dug first and then Duncan took over, then Estelle, followed by Mike and Claire, most of us doing 14 each. Lots of it bagged and the wall is getting quite formidable! At the end of the digging session, Mike started hitting at a rock in the roof, which appears to be dolomitic conglomerate and he had broken it up a bit just as we finished.

14/8/18

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Duncan Simey, Claire Havard, Dave Walker

2.5hrs

Another good digging session despite the low numbers tonight with other commitments. Did some in 2 stages and others as hard work for the top team, but everyone had a good workout and the dig face is still looking good!

7/8/18

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker, Stu Lindsay, Duncan Simey, Claire Havard

2.5 hours

Good digging session, lots of buckets dug out of the cave and lots of bagging done, the bag wall is looking impressive now and probably don’t need to bag much more for a while! End still going down and forwards and maintaining the height and width for the most part. Getting a few reasonable sized rocks from the dig face too.

31/7/18

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

2.5hrs

Stu didn’t dig, but the rest of us had around 10 buckets and a few rocks. Still going down well, more rock at the bottom and mostly easy digging. As 7 we got to fill some bags. Couple of frogs and toads rescued.

24/7/18

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Jonathan Riley, David Walker, Duncan Simey, Stu Lindsay

2.5hrs

Good session, all 6 of us had a dig. New skip at the bottom thanks to Jon and experimenting with using old bucket bases in the buckets to help with emptying. Few toads rescued again.

17/7/18

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Duncan Simey, Jonathan Riley, David Walker, Alex Gee, Tom Elliot, Sarah Payne

2.5hrs

Good to have some fresh visitors, none had seen the current area we were digging. Rescued yet another baby bunny before Alex, followed by Duncan, Dave, Tom, Jon and Sarah, all had a digging session. Sarah and Tom did the round trip into the upper series as well. 5 new purple skips into circulation. Bottom digging skip is knackered and needs replacing, have brought out to dry it and the ropes out, rescued a frog and a toad also. Found remains of 2 more dead bunnies in the bottom dig. Mike has removed all the additional kit we’d left in there for hauling and cleared out the top dig and removed the washing line as it’s not needed and getting a bit low now!

10/7/18

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Duncan Simey, Dave Walker, Fran Campbell

2.5hrs

Started with 4 of us, hard work and had to stage it with digger filling all 9 buckets and then all coming up to top section to drag out and empty. Once Fran arrived, we managed to spread out enough to stagger all of it – damned hard work with 5 still… Lots of rock removed too as well as the 9 buckets each.

Need to look to replace the drag skips, get more buckets and also take a knife down so we can change one of the ropes.

3/7/18

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

2.5hrs

One baby bunny caught, other managed to escape and disappear sadly. Several toads rescued too. Another good digging session and the rock removed from passage so the bottom skip goes further now making it easier at that end. Still going down nicely, getting a few more larger rocks in the lower spoil.

26/6/18

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

2.5hrs

Couple of toads to rescue as usual for this time of year. Good digging session, steadily going down, started to remove a lump of rock stopping the 2^nd skip from going further and broke up remains of a another rock to come out.