24/5/22

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

2hrs

Not enough for the complete run, so we staged by the railway. James went in first and dug, still easy going. He moved a number of large rocks off the shelf that Estelle had dug out last week. Most need breaking up to get out of the dig. Maybe with hammer, probably capping or P&F. After James had done his dig, Mike went in - 48 skips in total between them. Still no real obvious way on, looks like there may possibly be another aven off to the right. 

17/5/22

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

2hrs

water levels still dropping off nicely, even though there had been a bit of rain during the last week and many of the skips were over half full on the storage shelf. Dave went in first to dig and did 28 skips including clearing some leftover rock from previous weeks which is being used to make the steps up to the ladder safer as the bags have got really slippery. Estelle went in second and did 32 skips. The bottom skip was replaced with one of the spares as the crack in the bottom was making it catch badly.  Dave mostly dug shelf and walls, while Estelle dug down at the front of the shelf. Directly in front at the dig, there is no obvious way forward yet, but the shelf is still high enough to hide anything. The right hand wall is still all mud and could reveal a way forwards, but also digging down, Estelle went down about 18" below the shelf and the bar could be pushed further into that still. Shelf needs to go, it is a number of good sized boulders, 2 of which are free but need breaking up. They look like a hammer will do the trick. It's all easy digging at the moment apart from a few boulders - there is space to store them near the dig, but be good to get them out if we can.

10-5-22 - slump cleared, back digging

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

2hrs

A bumper 7 of us meant a good session – as Adrian and Jon hadn’t been digging for a while, they were sent to the end to share the digging for the evening and it was clear they were very fresh after a break as the buckets were storming out – it was pretty relentless of them coming up from the dig, barely a minute to draw breath on any of the other locations of hauling and moving. Adrian started and then Jon took over and then they swapped back at the end – 64 buckets in total. Some of it was bagged on surface as well. Reports from the end were that the wall in front appears to be quite solid still, but possibly the dig turning right, the slump from the aven is pretty much gone now so it is back to digging. Hopefully next week we will get some clues. Waldegrave back on darts season so they are happy with us coming in around 9 again.

3/5/22

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker and briefly joined by Fran Campbell   

2hrs

Arrived to find 2 baby rabbits that were alive and needed relocating to above the hole, once done, we got to digging. The pool before the dig has loads of toadpoles in at the moment, not sure what we’re going to do about those… James went in first and filled the 23 buckets with more of the aven slump and cleared the last of the wetter spoil at the bottom. Because only 4 of us, we had to stage and then all go out to empty the buckets. Mike went in for the 2^nd round of 23 buckets and Fran joined and helped a bit at the end with the emptying work before we headed to the Hunters as after 9 by the time we left the dig and no darts so early closing. There’s probably another 3 weeks of clearance to do with the amount of spoil still left from the collapse. Also getting to a point where both skips are going to need replacing soon as they are starting to wear out.

26/4/22

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker

2hrs

After missing a few weeks due to lack of people around to dig, we finally got back in tonight. Water levels in the pool were right down several inches below the grill and the end dig had a few buckets worth to bail into the pool, but wasn’t very much before Estelle got on and filled the first round of 23 buckets, with Dave doing a second round from the large collapse of mud from an aven. There’s probably 3-4 weeks worth of digging left in that collapse before we have cleared everything and can look to progress forwards. Too late for the Waldegrave as they have no darts, so headed to Hunters.

29th March Aven opened and large collapse of mud below

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

1.5 hrs

Restricted on time with pub opening, so slightly shorter session. Mike and Dave got to baling the end into the pool. We found several toads near the dig end and one had laid eggs attached to our grill at the end… The pool was at grill level and the dig was below that, so the end is draining – the pool seems to drain back to just below grill level when there is little to no rain. Once the dig was drained down a bit, Mike filled the first round of about 25 buckets from a collapse from an aven which has given quite a bit of height at the end. Estelle did a second round of 15 buckets, all taken from the slump and there is several more weeks to clear that slump and see where the way on is as the walls cleared in the aven are still above any way on currently from the mud height.