22/10/19

Estelle Sandford, Dave King, Dave Walker

1hr

Went over armed with tools to take apart the remaining cable connections and to check the state of play. Disconnected the IP44 link easily with 2 people to pull on it so removed the grey socket cable for cleaning and drying. We then went in and looked at the water levels and took some photos. It's dropped about another 8-10" since yesterday so progress... Hopefully with less rain forecast it will dry out some more over the next week. We measured cable lengths a bit so we can plan how to put on a far more waterproof set up and resin seal anything likely to ever end up getting wet. Headed to pub to discuss ideas further!

checking the water levels 21/10/19

Estelle Sandford
1hr
I popped over  with oversuit over clothes to check the status… The good news is that the water level has dropped considerably in that it is at the bottom of the first grill. The hole in the floor is still full though so not quite sure where it’s draining! Not wanting to get overly wet with no change of clothes, I carefully traversed the ledges enough to grab the pump and bring it back to the grill, only to find the cable seemed jammed and it didn’t want to come out… After some gentle flicking and tugging on the cable, it came away, bringing with it a pile of hauling rope that was obviously sat on top of it! The pump was soon bagged for removal to take home and clean and check over. Left the remaining cable in situ for now, although all is near the entrance.

15/10/19

from Mike - Mike Moxon & Jonathan Riley

Well, it's just as well we didn't have a full turn out. I've included Kevin to find out what level the borehole is at, as last time we had this much water, so did he...

Jon went down ahead of me & just as I was about to join him he reappeared at the cars - turns out the first hole on left was flooded to within view & the end was just below the top of the steps. We both went down & pulled the cable up so the first join was well above the water level. Both pools were c.5 to 6ft below the level of the railway, although we're not 100% that they are at the same height. Jon suggested that Nick could do a practice dive & recover the pump & tools from the end. Early finish in the Hunters' then.

8/10/19 2 trips in one day!

AM

Estelle Sandford, Nick Gymer

1hr

Andrew Atkinson was going to survey the stuff that isn’t on the current survey, but had distoX problems, so cancelled today. I had arranged to show Nick and it was beneficial to pump too probably, so went down anyway. Showed Nick around the top stuff, before heading down to the end to check. End was very wet and the water over the grill was flowing into the end and it was at that height. Set the pump up and going whilst Nick went and looked at the upper series and then we hung around until it had pumped enough to save time tonight. Also took a chunk out of the dam as it seems pointless having it with it filling up and overflowing and means only having to pump one place if we can move the dam enough. It appears to be a rock step though. Once drained headed out and home

PM

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Dave Walker, Chris Duberry, Nick Hawkes

2hrs

Pump was reactivated on arrival to clear the puddle area above the dig as much as anything. Chris went in to dig first, followed by Nick and then Stu had a dig – first time since his operation he had been to the end and he was surprised by how much progress we’d made. We are down to 18 buckets now, but Stu did an extra 10, helped by Estelle removing some of the remainder of the dammed bit so now the top puddle mostly drains into the dig meaning one pump location.

No digging planned for next week as a too many people are unavailable and it’s unviable with the numbers left, but could do with a couple of people planning to head over at some point to pump it so we keep on top of it as it is needing about ½ hour per week with all the rain we are having. Also on digging nights, be good if 1-2 can be there ½ hour early to get it going and maximise digging time. Jon had provided new skip for the bottom run and we have a spare for that too, the top one needs someone to take a knife down to trim the back off as it’s very hard to load at the moment.

2/10/19

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

2hrs

Stu went inside the cave for the first time since his operation and did the 2^nd haul and was definitely a lot more sprightly getting into the cave! We needed to pump quite a bit this week as there had been a lot of rainfall in the last week, so the pump was going for most of the session, Mike went in first to dig once it was low enough to work around the edges and then Dave filled the second lot, only about 35 skips came out as too much time wasted pumping.

24/9/19

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

2hrs15mins

headed down and checked water levels after it had been torrential rain for much of the last 48hrs, so was expecting it to be quite wet, but although the water was up a bit, it didn't need pumping to work, but we chose to pump out about a foot worth of water to make sure we were keeping on top of it in case of more rain before next time. While pumping, Estelle got to digging, mostly on the left and low, trying to clear down as low as possible on that side to see if it was the bottom around the boulders. After 20 skips, swapped and James dug, he also dug the same place, which being lots of nougat type clay, was hard work and took quite a long time on his session. Jon then only did 10 as was getting close to pub time, but he dug on the right of the chamber, which was easy digging! The chamber is getting quite large now, probably a good 3-4m long and about 2.5m wide and can stand up in bits of it (where there are no boulders on the floor!) the bottom skip is desperate for replacement. Stu still getting back into it slowly post op and Mike nursing a hamstring injury so not able to do as much.

10/9/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Dave Walker, Stu Lindsay, Will Sampson

2hrs

Stu’s first time back after his hip replacement, so on strict orders not to overdo it. Jon had car problems, so Estelle met Will and  ensured he found the dig this time. First job was to raise the ladder, so while this was prepared, Estelle checked the end to see if pumping was needed as it had rained a lot yesterday. Not required, so went back up and the ladder was raised another couple of rungs up. Once safely secured, Dave headed in to dig and Will behind him, Stu was able to haul and lift buckets out of skip, but nothing further – he’d also brought a new modified skip for the railway, which may need a bit more modification as it wasn’t running as smooth as it should. Once Dave had done his 20, we all headed out to empty the skips into bags and then Will went in to dig – down to timescales, he only filled 10 skips and then we headed off to the pub. Bottom skip needs replacing, so need to get another drum and cut back sooner rather than later. Next time we move the ladder, will need an adjustable spanner to remove the top section.

3/9/19

Estelle Sandford, Mike Moxon, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker, Chris Duberry

2hrs

Chris went in first to dig, we’ve found an extra bucket so now it’s 20 each! Very easy digging tonight, mud seemed to be slicing off nicely, he soon nailed his 20 and then Estelle dug 20, all going straight on still, plus bringing down some from above – some didn’t need help… Mike went in and did 20 next and because we were digging so fast, there was time for Jon to do 20 as well! We finished off emptying buckets before heading to the pub. We need to bring a spanner over, we also need a new skip for the bottom runway – Jon working on getting.

27/8/19

Estelle Sandford, Jonathan Riley, Nick Hawkes, Dave Walker, Mike Moxon

2hrs

Jon, Nick and Dave dug this week, 19 buckets each and we sent in 5 extras to make a random 62! Still going forward and currently ignoring and going over the boulders in the floor. Estelle was late getting into the dig because of waiting for Will who didn’t make it in the end and Mike was late as he was getting back from Pembrokeshire.

20/8/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker, Chris Duberry, Joan Goddard

2hrs

Mike dug first and filled 19 and then Joan filled 19 buckets too with a bit of help from Mike. Jon came down and filled the last 19 before we headed to the pub. Bottom skip starting to look really quite tired.

13/8/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker, Chris Duberry

2hrs

James went in first, Chris turned up for the first time and brought 2 new tubs with him, so we’re now having to learn the 19x table. After James had filled 19, Chris took his turn and filled 19, then Estelle, then bonus 15 buckets and Dave got to dig too as we were motoring and it wasn’t yet pub ‘o’ clock! The ceiling seems to be coming down a bit on both left, right and in front. The passage on the right resembles the same red ledge as further up passage. There are some quite large boulders in the floor that could do with excavation and removal as it is possible we should be going down. Still a lot more clay to remove though to see what is going on more, but the chamber is getting quite a reasonable size now. Water levels hadn’t been affected by the recent heavy rains.

7/8/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Dave Walker, Jonathan Riley

1 ¾hours

Despite a late start and only 4, we were pretty efficient in getting 51 skips out with Jon, Dave and Estelle digging tonight. Still going forward, although looks like the roof is coming down a bit, but the floor full of boulders still needs digging.

30/7/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker, Jonathan Riley, Dave King

2hrs

James went in first to dig and discovered the dig had been self digging again and some rocks and a lot of mud had come down - last time he dug first he had to deal with a self dig too! He filled 17 buckets quite quickly and Mike decanted some into an 18th as he was overfilling, plus a few rocks came up... Mike then took over digging and also quite quickly filled his 17 buckets. As we always like to give guest diggers an opportunity to dig, we sent Dave King to the end to see our progress and be the 3rd digger of the night - he filled his 17 and as we were running early, we sent down bonus extras, so he got an extra 8 to fill! total 60 buckets and several loads of rocks. The heavy rain hadn't really affected the end water levels.

23/7/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker, Stu Lindsay, Neil Reaich, Chris Smart

2hrs

Jon and Dave had arrived first, so they headed down to the end to start digging, with Jon at the head digging the face mostly right and forward. There is a roof pendant, which may be a boulder, that is slowly being exposed on the left roof above us to keep an eye on. The ‘chamber’ is continuing to grow, but there is a reasonable puddle now in the floor making non-holey wellies essential! Chris and Neil headed down and Dave shuffled back a place and the rest of us manned the rest of the route. Stu followed down about 15minutes later and took over the top haul from Estelle so she was then focussing on emptying buckets. Chris swapped in as second digger and carried on digging more to the left and forward and did his 17 before the final swap around and Estelle filled the last 17 buckets. Mostly from the right/shelf bit. Quite a lot of false floor stal there and lots of yellow and red clay. Possibly worth our while trying to focus on going down a bit and seeing what the boulders in the floor are hiding, but there’s still quite a few weeks of easy digging around this and the boulders may well need chemical persuasion.

16/7/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker, Stu Lindsay

2hrs

Dave went in first and filled 17 buckets. Stu slowly descended to the end and then filled the next two rounds of buckets, so did 34 as he won’t be around soon for a few months post op. His view was that it may be worth working on down more through the boulders. Still loads of spoil to be removed from the area though. Puddle very little difference in height from last week.

9/7/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Jonathan Riley, Stu Lindsay, Neil Reaich

2hrs

James went in first to dig, the roof had all come in from above, this wasn’t unexpected really as Estelle and Mike had intentionally been undermining this last time… All his 17 skips and also the first few of Neil’s were from the roof. Neil got to digging out the floor a bit on his 17, before Estelle did some digging at the left wall in front – there is a large boulder in there too which will need bringing down soon. At 51 skips, we emptied them all and headed to pub.

24/6/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Dave Walker

2.5hrs

Tight on numbers tonight as Jon ill and no-one else about. Despite little rain since last week, there was quite a lot of water in the puddle and dig so we set to clearing that first with the pump. Once cleared, Mike got on with digging, followed by James and then Estelle. All digging in the dig itself tonight, although mostly above into an aven as it all looks like it wants to slump on us! Suspect it will self-dig before next time again. 52 buckets removed plus a few rocks including some of the ones stashed from last week.

18-6-19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker, Chris Seal

2hrs

Considerable amount of rain had fallen since last visit, so we needed to use the pump. Extended the pipe and electric cables so we could also pump the dig too as there was a couple of feet of water in there as well. Got the puddle as dry as we could and then proceed to spend the evening digging that out as it’s been on the to-do list and we’ve been putting it off… Dave and Chris went in first to dig, followed by Estelle and then Jon. The slurry in the puddle is almost gone now and grill removed for the moment. Hopefully next week we can get back into the dig and try and clear some in there. About 60 buckets removed plus some rock moved to top.

12/6/19

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

2hrs

After quite a bit of heavy rain, there was an expectation we may have to pump – Estelle popped down to the end while the others were getting ready and found that the dig itself was under about 18” of water, which appears to be coming in from the aven above it, but the ‘puddle’ had only risen very slightly. The dig looked like it was going to be easy to bale, so went out to send first diggers down! Jon and Stu on surface and bagging happened too. James dug first and between him and Mike they took out 7 buckets of water from the dig to the hole in the floor up passage. James then dug from the end and it was hard going as a lot of that white nougat type stuff, but he managed to remove a large boulder which was passed up passage a bit for breaking up, which was done during the session by Dave and Estelle. Mike dug next and he decided not to dig in the dig, but to help get rid of the sediment and floor in the puddle which really needs us to do whilst it’s drier, particularly now we know the dig will fill up with water rather than the puddle… (although this raises another issue, while we’ve plenty of electric cable to get to the dig with the pump, we will need to get an extension on the blue water pipe as bringing it in a further approx. 7-8m will bring the end too close to the top of the shaft.) 

Mike removed 17 buckets and then swapped with Dave who continued filling from the puddle area – he got extras as digging was quick and it wasn’t quite pub time! 56 buckets total of spoil plus a few skips of rocks.

4/6/19

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

2hrs

Estelle dug first, there had been a slump over the last week from the roof to the right, so the first few buckets came from that before she started digging. Also the puddle side is drying out so on each person’s shift, the bucket carrier person ended up filling or topping up a sneaky few. Mike dug next followed by Dave. All filled 17 buckets – we worked hard spread out so we could get everything to the surface and as the 8:45 alarm hadn’t gone off, once 51 filled, we sent another 9 buckets down to fill with slop from the puddle! Disgusting stuff, like thick chocolate sauce – hard to fill the buckets and hard to empty and clean them… We probably need to aim to do circa 10 buckets of this per week to get rid of this sediment before the winter! Next week’s digging moved to Wednesday down to MCR meeting.

28/5/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Dave Walker, Alex Gee, Jonathan Riley, Stu Lindsay

2hrs

Mostly able to do the entire spoil run to surface today with 6 of us, although hard work. Used the opportunity to get rid of a lot of rocks that had been stacked in the system and about 20 skips full of them were removed. Stu started building a wall behind where the exit haul is that should help protect the hauler eventually and give a bit more spoil dumping space! Dave dug first, followed by Alex and then James. All filled 17 skips each and were emptied with no bagging. End is continuing to look different with boulders held together with spoil and the white nougat type stuff, which is really hard to remove but we appear to be digging ourselves a chamber now! The puddle is drying out a bit and the blancmange consistency looks like it might be possible to clean some of it out soon…

21/5/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley (late down to train delay from London), Mike Moxon, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker

2hrs

Hard work with 4 to start, increasing to 5 about half hour after we started. Having to stage it, so only gives the opportunity for 3 people to fill the 17 buckets each. Estelle went in first as hadn’t seen it for a few weeks, was very impressed as to how much progress had been made. It’s widening out and they’ve gone down in the floor more. Lots of big boulders in floor, but passage is quite sizable and almost made a chamber at the end now – definitely feels like it is changing character. Jon went in next followed by Mike and then we went to the pub.

30/4/19 and 7/5/19 and 14/5/19 - from Mike M

14/5/19 Mike Moxon, James Begley, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker, Stu Lindsay. 3 diggers, 51 buckets removed.

7/5/19 Mike Moxon, James Begley, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker
Decided it was still too damp to clear the silt, so another 51 tubs, plus some big rocks came out of the end, which has changed direction (angling off to the left & may have left Kevin's property, although it's too early to see if it's just stepping across). A small amount of seepage was collecting at the end & it did rain Wednesday.

30/4/19

Previous week 5O tubs worth came out, as one empty bucket escaped down the other dig before the last haul. The puddle was also emptied of most of it's water into the halfway slot (which hadn't completely drained by this week). 

23/4/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker 2hrs pumped tonight, not risen much since last week and not enough to invade the dig which Dave had lowered a bit last week into boulders in the floor. While pumping was progressing, Estelle started digging - carried on a bit down, but there are quite a few large boulders in the floor at the moment. We do need to clear more out from the floor, but it's still progressing well by digging the wall of mud/clay/rock in front of us, so will see how the water levels go on the puddle. After Estelle did her 17 buckets, Dave went in next and then Jon for 17 each, then the pub called! Have left the pump in situ, but removed the pipe from it so the sediment doesn't settle in the pipe. Found a dead baby bunny under the buckets at the start. Also noted that there seems to be some erosion of the mud/rock hedge side, we need to keep an eye on this as it may decide to come down...

16/4/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker, Stu Lindsay (although Stu didn't dig, just brought cable over) 2hrs Stu brought back the pump from clean and looking at cabling and we also inserted the armoured cable in from the mains socket at the top to as far as it would go - part way down 'steps' - via the top dig route. He is going to sort the middle cable ready for industrial connector, so couldn't pump this week. James set to digging, followed by Jon and then Dave. Usual 17 skips each and then we retired to the pub. Dave was digging down in a floor a bit - risky if the water rises much...!

9/4/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker, Pat Hillier, Olivia Gentile

2.5hrs

Estelle went in first to photograph and dig – the boulders had been satisfactorily reduced to manageable sizes and a lot of gravel! Dave, Pat, Mike and Liv all went in and had a session and James helped Liv at the end of her session. A massive 87 skips removed this week, think it’s a record! End looking easy digging still at the end and probably best part of a metre progress made.

8/4/19

Estelle Sandford, Stu Lindsay

2.5hrs

After ending last week with a couple of large boulders impeding digging a bit, Stu and Estelle went over to give them a bit of chemical persuasion – satisfactory thud as we left! Drilled and dealt with the two boulders and also a roof pendant. Also while we were there, we pumped the puddle dry as last week it was getting a bit bigger again. Seems to be seepage rather than anything to do with weather conditions though.

Stu took the pump away to clean and also change the connector for industrial type one to go with the heavy duty cable we have to be fitted.

2/4/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker, Jonathan Riley, Pat Hillier, Harry Page

2.5hrs

Dave started off digging, there are 2 prominent boulders in the middle so having to dig around them. The water levels had risen a bit in the puddle making it quite mucky near the dig face. 10 buckets each going on tonight, so once Dave had done his, Estelle took over. The roof on the left appears to be getting lower by the 2 boulders the deeper we go, suspect we need to seriously look at digging down. After Estelle, Mike, then Harry then Pat all had a turn. Estelle took photos at the end and the right side roof is also lowering. The top boulder does move a little when smacked with a hammer and a bit did fall off, but both look like they need chemical persuasion. We also need to look at building some sort of bund so we can retain the puddle and start looking to dig down without it coming to join us. All looks interesting at the end as the passage is widening, but lots of big boulders.

26/3/19 from Mike Moxon

Naomi turned up again, with her own trowel! So Jon dug first filling 16 tubs whilst Dave tried to break up the boulder, then we doubled shifted them back to Stuart hauling at the entrance. Mike & Naomi filled the next 16 - repeat procedure & Dave finished the night off to total 48. Some big blocks to reduce & remove when we've freed them up. Then all except Naomi retired to the pub.

18/3/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon (back for first time after eye operation), Stu Lindsay, Dave Walker, Naomi Brazier

2.5hrs

set up the pump as the water was fairly high (probably a good 18”-2ft above the floor at deepest part) and left it going while we did other stuff. Raised the ladder up about 3 rungs and then went back to looking at the water, it had dropped by about 6" by then which was starting to expose a couple of large boulders by the dig. Another 15mins and we were just about able to dig but just before it got to that point, Estelle removed the boulders and passed them back to Dave to break up/get rid of. Got about an hours worth of digging, Estelle first, then Dave then Naomi. Filling bags and also rescued mating toads from the dig and put in the pond! It's toad rescue time of year again... 

5/3/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Stu Lindsay, Dave Walker, Jonathan Riley

2hrs

Dropped the number of buckets each to 15! 17 last week was too hard… Stu again opted to haul and part fill sacks, while the rest of us took it in turns to dig. The end is now about 1.5m beyond the current end of the puddle area and having removed a couple of large rocks, is mostly back to mud/clay but with more large rocks starting to emerge again. The passage seems to be sort of heading slightly left with the right side closing in a bit. Hoping that the forecast rains don’t fill it up too much, suspect next session will be pumping. Also next session the ladder needs raising. 2 frogs and 1 toad rescued from spoil heap and deposited in the pond.

26/2/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Stu Lindsay, Dave Walker, Jonathan Riley

2hrs

Stu didn’t feel up to digging, he just wanted to haul on surface and was also helping by putting the first couple of buckets in the bags so we could then finish topping them up. The rest of us took it in turns to fill the 17 skips we appear to have in circulation at the moment. Mike is out of commission after an eye operation so being stuck with only 5 of us is a bit of a killer to get to surface and all positions are hard work, but I guess a damned good workout! The puddle was about the same level as last week, digging is still heading forwards and we’re having to keep the floor level above puddle height, but it’s still about 3ft or so high. Boulder in the middle that looks like it will come out next week. Filling bags as we need to raise the ladder again soon and also build up the wall around our hauling spot. 1^st frog of the season rescued and returned to pond.

19/2/19

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker

2hrs

16 skips each, having to stage it as low on numbers, but all worked hard and dig continues looking good and going forwards. The puddle didn’t need any pumping tonight, but is still there. We do need to try and dig down a bit but this obviously has the risk of bringing the puddle nearer the dig face, right hand wall is cutting across a bit and there are two quite large boulders to the left which will need to make friends with Dr Nobel at some point.

13/2/19

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

2hrs

Dig needed pumping tonight, so first 30mins or so was getting it to a point where it was possible to dig. Once drained enough, Dave got in there and started digging until he’d run out of buckets and around then the pump reached the maximum it could pump out. Jon and Mike followed and did the 16 skips each too, then it was pub time!

6/2/19 from Mike Moxon

Jon, Dave & I built a wall of sorts on the top step before retiring to the Hunters. The end pool had risen enough to cover far end of grill, but only just.

22/1/19

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

2hrs

Good session, although hard work with only 6 regulars now. Really could do with recruiting a couple more in order to make the work easier. We still did about 80 buckets of spoil though and bagged some of it on the surface to continue the wall building. Steady progress forwards, the passage has widened considerably and due to the ‘puddle’ we’re not going down as much at the moment, so not sure what depth we have, there is a large boulder to the left looking straight on which once all the spoil moved around is likely to need some Dr Nobel’s.  Little rain since the last session, so the pump wasn’t needed tonight.

15/1/19 from Mike Moxon

15th Jan - Jon, Dave & Stu did some cementing on the steps. I removed a couple of tubs worth of loose spoil from the end, cleared a tub of silt from the hole & widened the connection to upper passage.

8/1/19

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

2hrs

No pumping required, Mike had brought a metal grill to go over the hole and once we'd leveled the bottom end this proved to be very good for hauling and we only needed 2 people below the grill, one digging and one transporting/hauling, to get the skips hauled up. Therefore we were able to work to get everything out in one go. Mike dug first and then Jon, before Dave took over. Dave had proper dig fever and dug for the remainder of the evening. Just under 70 buckets hauled out and a few bags filled as well. The end is looking interesting - to the right is an alcove, which is full of mud and being cleared. To the left boulder stacked in mud. Down to the puddle, we are not digging fully down at the moment as we don't want the water to end up at the end. Hopefully the weather will hold and allow us to keep on digging.

6/1/19 - showing Tav and Nick the dig for Complete Caves book

Estelle Sandford, Robin Taviner, Nick Hawkes

2hrs

Tav visiting towards his work on Complete Caves and both wanted to take a look around in daylight. Showed them around all the smaller 7 holes before getting kitted and heading down the bigger 8th to show them the current dig and the higher series. Tav seemed quite impressed by what we had dug out and his comment was that 'he had been in a lot of sh*tholes in the past and this was definitely not a sh*thole'! Nick had quite a good look at the geology and all seems quite interesting. Noted that the end puddle had not increased at all since last week's digging so unlikely to need pumping before we dig on Tuesday, also hole in the floor hadn't drained. James Begley joined us as we were exiting the cave and we went and saw Kevin and the inside bones and geology before a coffee and chat.

Happy new year dig! 1/1/19

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

3.5hrs

Afternoon/early evening session. Used the pump again to get the end water levels to a point where we could dig the end, although the slurry in front of it is rather horrible and muddy… The metal ramp that Mike put in it has helped though so we don’t have to wallow in slurry. While the pump was doing it’s magic, we cleared the bang remains from the hole in the floor, removing a lot of rock scattered around and James dug out the hole to a point where it was sort of draining the little pool in the bottom. We had brought over some bits of wood/metalwork to aim to cover the hole so we can drag the skip over the top, but that was a bit of a fail as it was a lot wider than we had estimated, so hoping mike can get another piece of metalwork like what is in the mud at the end. Once cleared, we then went to digging the end, with Mike having first shift, Estelle second and Jon third. The end is definitely changing, it’s a lot wider and some really big boulders on the left, but another aven/roof hole looks like it is on the right above us. Passage now about 6ft wide by about 3ft high, although suspect if we dug out the slurry, it would be deeper… James got some mud in his eye and had to give up to try and clean it out, so we emptied all the buckets and all adjourned to the Waldegrave.

12/12/18

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

2hrs

Kevin had got us a pump, so we set to the job of getting it set up, firstly rolling out a rather bendy and lively length of pipe from the dig to the surface, then feeding the electricity and pump to the water. Pumping then commenced and after about 20mins it was looking quite good and we could have done some digging. Looks like we now have a way of draining! In other news, the bang was so good it filled the hole with gravel, we’ve not touched clearing this year, also the steps look good from last week’s cementing efforts, we need to add more. J

4/12/18

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

2hrs

continued work on cementing the steps (and dug out the next one up) while Stu prepared another bang on the hole in the passage. Kevin is sorting us a pump to use which should be available by the weekend, so hopefully we can then drain the end, but we will need to put something over the hole we've created then! Bang went off well, hopefully plenty of rock to clear on next visit.

27/11/18

Estelle Sandford, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker

2.5hrs

cleared the bang out of the hole and passageway and broke up some rocks and removed all from the cave apart from the larger rocks which can be used for wall building. The hole is quite impressive - about a metre deep and width of the passage and about 1/2m wide in the middle. Really awkward digging as have to reach to toes, can't bend properly!