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.