7/12/21 Storm Barra made no difference to the water levels...

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jon Riley, Dave Walker, Stu Lindsay, Fran Campbell

2hrs

James and Mike went to the end, the water levels were unchanged from last week, despite Storm Barra causing a bit of rain in the last day. James dug first continuing down into the floor where Estelle and Dave had been digging last week, pulling out more gravel and rocks, not clear it’s at the bottom, but definitely a different floor to what we’ve been used to. Estelle turned up about 30mins in with buckets being backed up at the inside end of the railway and hauled them out and emptied. At changeover digger to Mike, who continued more forwards on digging, Jon came outside and everyone else moved down one apart from the 2 at the bottom, Fran appeared with about 30mins to go and helped Jon with emptying. 42 skips filled during the evening. We need to look at getting some replacement trugs soon as many of them are splitting and handles going now.

30/11/21 driest we've seen it!

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker, Jon Riley, Stu Lindsay, Adrian Miles

2hrs

Estelle went in first and dug around 18 buckets, focussing on digging down. There was no fresh water in the dig beyond the dam and the water before the dam was about the lowest we have seen it all year. The weather has been kind to us for a while, which is great for continued digging. Going down saw the usual layers of multi-coloured sediment and yellow false floor and eventually hit a gravelly layer and some rock, which was probably wall rather than boulders. Dave then went in and dug, continuing down and he found the definite right-hand wall, not sure we’ve got to the bottom in the middle, but he then moved onto digging forwards. Estelle moved to the taking the skips from the digger to the haul - an annoying roof pendant had to be beaten into submission after stabbing in the back a few times! It’s now much easier to walk across the metalwork. After around 15 bags, Adrian swapped in and dug so fast no-one could keep up! Packed up and headed to pub!

We worked the dig with one in dig, 1 taking across the puddle grill to the lower haul and one on lower haul, one top of, one doing steps, one doing outside haul and one emptying – could do with one more on the steps really, as with 7 and the digging being easy, you are going to get a bottle neck somewhere!

22/11/21 no rain, so keep on diggin'

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

2hrs

No rain since last week, so minimal bailing to get the dig ready to dig. Mike initially went in to clear the water and start digging, but Stu then took over and did about 25 skips before Mike took over again. The grill is making it a lot of difference with not having to walk through the pond at the end. During the session we increased the rope length of the drag haul so it’s about 5m longer, which means it’s a little less hard work for the person behind the digger, but all jobs are quite hard work with only 6 of us – we need more diggers on a regular basis!

16/11/21 - a decking across the pond!

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker, Stu Lindsay, Fran Campbell, Adrian Miles

1hr 45mins
Mike brought along 2 scaffold bars with an idea we could put them across the pond at the end and then put the 2 metal grills over so we can get to the dig end without ending knee (plus!) deep in water when we are trying to deal with the water levels. The water had dropped back down to relatively normal levels again and the scaffold/grill idea worked a treat. Mike and Adrian filled all the water containers several times each until the dig beyond the dam was empty and did a few more in the pond too bringing all the water out, so as to help prevent it lapping over the dam. Digging was then possible so Fran went in and dug 16 buckets worth before we headed to the pub. It's easy clay digging at the moment with the passage lower in height and less wide, but we don't know yet how far it goes down due to water levels and not having dug down as much recently. Long range forecast is for mostly dry weather so fingers crossed the water levels won't rise for next week and it may well just be a few containers of water to clear the other side of the dam.

 

2/11/21 flooded!

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

1hr
After several weeks of a lot of rain, unsurprisingly the dig was flooded at a high enough level it wasn't diggable - water up as far on the floor as where the lower haul is. We checked the length of the electric which goes to the top of the step currently and then exited and went to the pub to discuss our options... Basically either quit for the winter and buy a pump in the spring or buy a pump now... we will chase to get the updated survey from Andrew and also look at the pump options a bit further and see how the weather goes.

18/10/21 just Mike!

 Just Mike, the weather had been rubbish all day and not enough interest in heading over!

from Mike - 

I was already at chew valley lake when Estelle got hold of me, so I headed over for a look anyway. It was only light mizzle when I arrived, although pretty murky on the hill (not nice driving). A bee greeted me in the entrance & a newt was hanging out by the buckets, but they had less than 5mm of water in any of them & the pool was 2cm or so lower than last week (so not washing over into dig).

I discovered a lost bucket still in the water, so filled it up (obviously we only did 17 last time! - the roof is still dropping ahead), then carried it & the spade & bar back to steps. Air quality seemed to be less fresh than last week - not too surprising, as when water evaporates it releases any CO2 it contains (& it would have been hard work with only 4 again). The bucket load filled one of last week's bags & I left after only half an hour or so on site.

12/10/21 report from Mike

 Dave, Mike, Jon & Stu 

Stu got there (with sharpened trenching tool & another 2 fixed handles on buckets) just as we were going in.  

Jon checked water levels, which were much the same as last week (possibly slightly more in the dig, where it had spilled over wall, & a baby frog swimming vertically, which I rescued on my glove & handed over to Jon to take out). Dave dug 18 buckets which we carted out & used to fill the slop bags from a couple of weeks ago (somewhat smelly) before adding them to the far end of wall. 

Buckets were then scraped before making an exit to the pub, where Jon bought the first round & I did second. We did consider putting the steel grills back into end pool to reduce depth back below welly height, but couldn't see the bottom by then, so thought it better to wait until next week. Another consideration is bailing the main flood so we can empty the water out of the dig, but that depends how much rain is due next week...

 

5/10/21

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker, Fran Campbell and also Stuart MacManus and Mark Denning

2hrs

The weather had been awful in recent days with a lot of rain so we expected the water levels to have risen. Thankfully only slightly over the end dam in the end. Mark had come to check on the electrics ahead of putting a pump in, so he did his checks and assessed it as looking safe and it tripped fine. Mac had come to do some air checks after the last 3 or so weeks of it being quite ‘thick’ to breath and everyone feeling breathless. His results are as below. While all this was going on, Mike and Dave started filling the water containers up from the end and we assisted taking them out. We did several rounds of this and lowered the water level a bit and also the end beyond the dam, so hopefully with long range forecast looking warmer and drier again, the levels will drop off again before we get to a point of needing pumping. After a couple of hours, we headed off to the Waldegrave for sustenance.

 

the results from the CO2 and O2 sensors.

 

End 2.96% CO2 17.83% O2. Pressure 993hPa

Steps 2.4% CO2 18.4% O2

Bottom Entrance shaft  - 0.08% CO2 20.73% O2

 

Interesting was the CO2 was 3.2% in that small alcove above the end pool where there was a heavy drip.

28/9/21

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

1hr 45mins

Weather had been rubbish for last couple of days rain/wind wise and the water levels had risen slightly with a flow running into the pool at the end. The air wasn’t great still when Estelle went in to take a couple of photos of the end and check water levels ahead of starting to dig. Dave dug first, then Mike and 2 rounds of 18 skips were filled. No headaches but heavy breathing while working anywhere from the bottom haul down. Hopefully will sort itself with the weather pressure changes as this is a new phenomenon

 

21/9/21

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

1.5hours

Arrived at dig and Estelle and Dave went to the end with bags to fill and load into buckets of watery stuff to drain as this had been proven to help a bit with water levels. The air was quite poor at the dig end. Filled about 6-8 skips with bags of watery spoil and sent up then went to the end to get on with digging. Air wasn’t great, lots of hard breathing, but not headachy, so suspicion this may be lower oxygen than a CO2 big problem. Last weeks team said it wasn’t great then either and this isn’t something we’ve had to deal with before, but it has had a long period of dry high pressures with harvesting season all around which is typical of bad air problems in caves. Estelle dug around 18 skips and then James dug 10 before the poor air drove us out and to the pub. We agreed to look to get someone to analyse the air or borrow the MCR testers as this was out if the ordinary.

14/9/21 report from Mike

 Stu Lindsay, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker, Jonathan Riley

I handed the bolts over to Stu, then all 4 mouseketeers made it to the bitter end where despite the rain today, the water level had dropped since last time. So we took in 14 bags & all of us filled them with slop from the pool (to variable weights) & chained them back out in trugs, along with the other 3 buckets, which were filled with drier mud - this did destroy the central skip, so that came out as well (along with the tools, to steps). Emptying the buckets was much easier with bags in, so that didn't take long, but we found it to be almost 8.30, so headed down the waldy, where Alan was playing darts. He said most weeks they will be now, so can get there later & he will let Estelle know if different. Bags are all sat by the ladder awaiting further fill, an adult & baby toad were around the hauling boulder, and the skip still needs ropes switching to a new one.

31/8/21

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker, Fran Campbell

2hrs

Water levels had dropped and we got 2 rounds of digging in before heading to the pub.

24/8/21

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

2hrs

Opted for a later start as the pub is getting happier with late as they’ve started more darts. Water levels up, lots of discussion re pumps after, but we need to look at the electrics and make sure we’re getting the right pump for the job. Usual round of a couple of diggers before heading to the pub.

17/8/21 water levels still high, time to start looking to pump...

Dave Walker, Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Stu Lindsay, Chris George

30mins

Dave was quickly ready to head down so he headed down to check the water levels while everyone else got ready to go down. He was met coming up the ladder on his way out. He reported that despite mostly dry weather in the last week, the level had dropped about an inch, it was still extremely unpleasant level and the area Estelle had been digging 2 weeks earlier was under water, only high level digging was available. It was decided that there was no point in the unpleasantness of digging in those conditions and that we should go to the pub and discuss planning what we do next – while the water may slowly drop again over the coming weeks, it is unlikely to get to a point where it is where it was before the rains of the 8^th August and if we want to try and dig more through the winter, we need to get back to pumping

Plans in the pub involve looking at acquiring 1 or most likely 2 110v pumps as safer than 240v, we will need a transformer, but between us may have ones that could come and go each week if needs be. We need to look to secure the pipe at the end as currently it is crossing the path and effectively in the way and it needs to be set up to allow a bit of future proofing on length to pump a bit further ahead than we are now. We need to decide if we want to split the level and pump to a barrel which could be located by the outside end of the railway line and then a 2^nd pump would pump up to surface and towards the pond. We also need to look to check the electric cable that is currently in the cave and make sure it is safe and sound. Will look to ask Mark or Ben to come over at some point soon and take a look for us. We will ask around re 2^nd hand pumps, but also look to price up new from online, they need to be able to cope with the sludge and also the height.

10/8/21 water levels back up after a storm at the weekend

Mike Moxon, Dave Walker, Jonathan Riley, Estelle Sandford turned up about half hour later

1hr

Sunday had seen rain of biblical proportions locally and the dig had suffered a rise of around a foot or slightly more of water thanks to that. Along with limited people turning up tonight, this made digging challenging as it was over the knee height now to walk to the end and digging was kneeling on a wet ledge. It was too wet to bother to try and bale water, so just one lot of 17 skips was brought up and emptied and the decision was made to abandon and go to the pub, where James and Stu turned up also.

3/8/21

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

2hrs

Dave went in first, water levels lower than last week, not affected by rains, he sent out 4 bottles of water and then some slurry before starting digging proper. The rest of the spoil was digging. Easy going… Estelle in next for her 17 buckets and then Chris in after and then off to the Waldegrave. Hopefully it will dry out further…

27/7/21

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Dave and Max Walker, Jon Riley, Chris George, Stu Lindsay, Mike Moxon

2hrs

Good session, James went in first to dig, followed by Jon and Mike. Mike brought over some empty containers to fill with water which helped reduce the water levels a bit. Easy digging for the most part at the end, all bagged with us being an 8 and then off to the Waldy after.

20/7/21

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

2hrs

Chris, Estelle and Dave dug tonight, puddle down a bit further and making steady progress forwards with the roof coming down a bit. Usual 17 skips each then Waldy.

13-7-21

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

2hrs

James went in first to dig the end, the water levels were slightly up on last week, but it had rained a lot in recent days. The hole in the floor we’d dug out had flooded, but there is still a good seat to sit on for digging. As the start was just Estelle, James and Dave, with the backlog, everyone came out and helped bag/empty the buckets, before Mike went in for a dig and then Jon took over for the last buckets, which totalled 43 tonight before heading to the Waldegrave.

6-7-21

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

2hrs

Dave went in first to dig and as the water levels had dropped a couple of inches, the mud at the sides was now exposed, so the first 10 buckets were like chocolate blancmange! (didn’t go down well with surface…) after that, started digging down in the floor just in front of the bank at the end. The water was dammed by clay and a rock to a point, but we didn’t expect it to last… Estelle continued digging in the floor after and it went down about a foot at it’s deepest along side a boulder and false floor above. Could sink most of the crow bar in through a small gap at the end too! Between us did 44 buckets and then headed up to help empty before heading to the Waldegrave.

29-6-21

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

2hrs

James went in first to dig and the water levels were surprisingly slightly down on the previous week, despite a lot of rain. He continued digging the end going forwards with leaving a bit of a shelf to sit on. Mike went in 2^nd and did his round of buckets and a few extras to total about 40. Between each digger, we all went surface to help empty buckets and then after digging off to the Waldegrave.

22/6/21

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

1hr 45mins

Good to have a team of 6 for a change, another 1 or 2 would make it even easier though! The water levels were about the same as last week, we had fairly constant rain over Sunday and Monday, so not unexpected, but it does feel like it isn’t going down as fast this year, probably down to the clay puddling in the pool and making a good seal! Jon went in first to dig and dug at speed to fill his 17 buckets from the higher level of the bank of spoil ahead. Estelle then dug 17 buckets worth continuing working down the spoil bank. The roof is coming down a bit at the moment, but we are not able to easily dig the floor out due to the water so don’t know how deep the mud/clay/rocks below us actually are. Dave then went in and did 17 buckets too. There was no requirement for all to go out and help empty buckets between each digger, which saved us a lot of time and meant we were able to fill 51 buckets (+ 1 rock) quicker than we’d done 34 last week! Hopefully we’ll have a drier week and the water levels will drop by next time a bit further. We have got several buckets and also some of our digging tools heading towards end of life, so will need to go shopping soon. Headed to Waldegrave afterwards

16/6/21

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

1.5hrs

Moved to Wednesday as MCR AGM on the Tuesday. Water levels down a bit further, so not quite at welly height for slopping over anymore. Mike went in first to dig and carried on removing the wall of mud in front, lots of higher mud/sediment, which is the easiest to empty out of the buckets. He did his 17 and then we went out to empty them, the next batch James did and these were bagged by Stu as he hauled and then topped up when we all came out. 37 skips in total tonight, then off to the Hunters as it was a Wednesday!

8/6/21

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

2hrs

Despite little to no rain since the previous week the water levels had barely gone down, which is annoying as they are at that height where they will just about lap over the top of your wellies! Estelle went in first to dig 17 buckets and then Dave the second round of 17. With only 5 of us, we have to stage the emptying so everyone has to come out in between. Still digging from an island at the end, so digging is actually quite easy at the moment. Still seem to be extending the chamber at the moment. Stu took the top sled away for repair/modification to improve it

1/6/21

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

2hrs

40 buckets filled between James and Mike. Water level back down to approx. where it was 2 weeks ago, which means it just catches lapping over welly when you get it wrong. First 18 emptied, rest bagged, one bucket demised as a handle fell off. Still easy digging.

25/5/21

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

1.5hrs

Wetter again than last week after a week of heavy rains and the puddle is at knee height. Dave and Estelle the only ones with wetsocks on so Estelle dug first filling the 18 buckets and then Dave did the 2nd round then we went to the pub slightly earlier. In between the 18 bucket hauls, we all came to surface to help empty. End still easy digging and grateful for the seat. Hopefully with good weather forecast indefinitely at the moment we’ll see it a lot drier next week.

18/5/21

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

1hr 45mins

Water levels back up around 3-4 inches since last week after recent rains, so just lapping over welly level when you are moving around or leaning over to move skips. James went in first to dig, followed by Mike and then Dave. Digging forward is still pretty easy and until the water levels drop, keeping a seat level just above water, but once dried, will need to go down to rock in the pool. A section of roof mud came down in what is looking to be another mini aven above as well during the dig. Good to be back in the Waldegrave for the first time since they opened after lockdown release.

11/5/21

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

2hrs

60 skips between us - Estelle went in first and did 18 as at that point we were only a 4, then people arrived and Mike went in second and did 18 and then Jon 3rd and 18, followed by Dave doing 6. Going forwards nicely, easy digging although it seems to stick to the skips. The water level was a bit lower than last week, but not a lot, but then it had rained a lot. Hopefully the last week of bring our beer and drink at the cave...

4/5/21

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

2hrs

4 diggers today – end puddle had dropped by about another 6inches, the end was dry to dig. Easy digging. Estelle first, then Jon, then James and then Dave did a short shift of 10 compared to everyone else doing 15-27 buckets.

27/4/21

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

1.5hrs

Estelle checked the end on arrive and success, we’re digging tonight. Mike headed in and dug first with Estelle digging a bit in the passage above where there is still flood debris. Once the first round of 18 buckets had been filled, we all headed up to the top to help empty them as it’s hard going with only 5 of us. Once done, Dave went in and dug and the rest of us hauled and carried. Again headed out to empty the bulk of them. Decided we were all feeling a bit achy after 2 rounds of buckets so decided not to push for the 3^rd one this week! Beers at the top again – starting to get a little midgey, need the pub open soon before we get eaten alive!

20-4-21

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

1.5hrs

Water levels had dropped by about another foot since last week, and it looks like we’ll clearly be back digging next week. We spent the evening cleaning off some of the passageway of the mud caused by the winter flooding to make it a little cleaner and also help smooth the passage for the skip run. Another night of a beer at the surface as no pub yet!

13/4/21

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker

2hrs

Cement and dust brought over tonight by Dave, so wall building session planned. James went to the end and reported back that the levels had dropped a little but probably not that much and there’s still no way of digging the end without it dropping further or sorting pumps. Dave then went in and took a look too. We then set to Dave cement making, James wall building, Estelle digging out the collapse at the end of the railway and Mike hauling and between him and Dave, more bag filling for the retaining spoil walls. 3 mixes later and the wall is probably about where it needs to be and Estelle had dug out the bank – lots of the white clay had been exposed and there is a rock that may need removing at some point – am sure it’s slid down that bank more than it was before! As it was warmer, we sat at the top of the ladder for a beer before heading home – roll on the Waldegrave opening properly!

6-4-21 first visit after lockdown restrictions easing

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

2hrs

First look at the dig since before COVID-19 lockdown. Headed into the dig to look at the end and it is currently flooded to approximately where you would sit for the lower haul. There is probably 3ft-ish depth of water at its deepest. It is possible to traverse along the edge a bit and see under the arch into the chamber at the end, but far too wet to dig at present. Since our last visit, there has been a subsidence from under the hedge line and most of the spoil buckets were buried under this. We soon retrieved these, but made the decision to spend the rest of the evening building up the retaining spoil bag wall in case of further subsidence, plus as it was quite chilly and windy that evening, it kept us warm for a while until we decided to crack open a beer each whilst down there! We discussed possible pumping ideas and also mused over whether the dig water level was at water table level or just backed up thanks to the thick clay we usually dig out. We also discussed the ideas of pumping and are looking towards a 2 pump system as most likely and Stu has brought over a big blue barrel that we could use for the middle level. We’d need 2 pumps with less lift that way and thus cheaper to acquire, plus looking at options to make sure the bottom pump is a 110v for safety, where it won’t matter for the top pump down to its location. We’ll look at the options over the next few weeks on all this, but meanwhile we can bring cement to continue building the wall up the side of the steps and also there is a small collapse the other side of the railway needing clearing.

3/11/20

 

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jonathan Riley, Dave Walker plus Kevin Clinton at the start

2hrs

More cementing by the steps, water levels down a little bit. Kevin and Estelle headed into the top part above the main dig and Kevin showed Estelle a possible place where he thought likely to be worth digging. It’s worth a go whilst we’re unable to dig the end down to flooding. Made sure we tidied up a bit and didn’t leave cement as we know we’re not digging for a month down to lockdown #2 and had last trip to the Waldegrave for a while too.

27/10/20

 

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

2hrs

Cementing the wall by the steps as reinforcement to stop slumping. Also filled a load of bags with mud from the top to add to the wall levels at the top for retaining spoil before heading off to the Waldegrave.