27/9/22

Stu Lindsay, Mike Moxon and Jonathan Riley

2.5hrs

limited numbers available so opportunity to cap some rocks and make them smaller. 

from Stu - 7 rocks reduced, and a half of one of  smaller still  ...  1 rod jammed but removed after second hole worked. very interesting in the end chamber, my first time for a while a couple of well worn surfaces peeking out of mud ...boulder [s]???  maybe a heavier hand! required?

from Mike - Jon & I also filled & dumped 36 buckets (the rock lumps are still where they fell) - we were somewhat late to the pub, but darts were on (& Estelle and James were there)

13/9/22

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

2hrs

A tough 2 hours with low numbers, but around 50 buckets filled again. James and Jon were digging at the end and continuing the objective of down ahead of the winter in case there is anywhere that can help with drainage should the water levels cause us issues this winter. Estelle took the next haul bit, Mike at the top doing the top haul, steps and loading the top railway and Dave and Stu outside. Still no sign of the floor, but some large boulders coming out, which are too big to move from the end so there is a need to do some capping to reduce the boulders soon to help with space. Headed to the Waldegrave for refreshments after.

30/8/22

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Stu Lindsay, Duncan Butler, Mike Moxon, Mike Wise, Fran Campbell for last 30mins or so.

2hrs Mike Moxon at the end digging, Estelle was loading onto new railway and Mike Wise in between. Duncan and James were doing the top haul, steps and railway loading between them with Stu on the surface. Digging mainly focused on trying to clear down to floor level at the end rather than pushing forwards. Still pulling out lots of boulders. The new railway is working ok, but got to be careful with the rope getting trapped. Estelle had brought over a new skip and Stu some new rope. I think it was just under 50 skips, but can't remember! Went to Waldegrave for refreshments.

23/8/22

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

2hrs

lean on people so we decided some maintenance work was tonight's project. Stu, James and Mike stayed top and raised the ladder by two layers of bags, plus tidied up the stone by the railway haul. We need to fill in the big hole and then a winter project of wall building probably will happen unless we are lucky enough to have a dry winter again... 

Estelle & Dave filled some bags and with rocks, underlaid the grill in the dry pool chamber to make a haul, then tested it with 6 skips and 2 bags and still replace the maillons on the ladder that are knackered. No obvious sign of floor near the end of the dig. Need some knotted rope next week and normal rope around 10m length for that haul now. Also needing to get some 5gallon drums for skips as we're down to our last!

16/8/22

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Chris George, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Dave Walker, Jonathan Riley, Fran Campbell, Adrian & Jack Miles

2 hours

James and Chris at the end of the dig doing the digging work, everyone else spread between there and the surface. 91 buckets to surface. Continued digging down and forward, no obvious ways on, but the spoil keeps on coming. 

9/8/22

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Dave Walker, Duncan Butler, Chris George, Jon Riley

2hrs

82 buckets tonight. Brought along 10 new yellow trugs so currently 34 in circulation! Estelle went in to dig, been a while since seen the front and amazed how big the end chamber is now. We are moving forward but need to also ensure we are clearing all the spoil out from sides and floor to ensure we don't miss anything. The spoil is very variable from red and orange very hard spoil and below the orange often false floor, to quite sticky wet texture, particularly left and just below roof. Did a couple of trial holes down, but not sure i reached anything other than boulders and there is a lot of rock intermingled with the general spoil. Duncan was digging out the right hand wall just behind me, it was hard work with only 7 of us tonight. Cave in general is very dry and weather has been almost drought level for a while now with very little rain. On exit, Jon and James had a little bit of a poke at the rocks on the wall above the hauling point, but they don't seem too bad, despite little bits of dry mud dropping down a few times during the digging time.

Headed to Waldegrave after.

2/8/22 many hands make light work!

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Jon Riley, Dave Walker, Chris George, Stu Lindsay, Adrian & Jack (13) Miles, Henry & Harley (10) Bennett, Duncan Butler

2hrs

95 skips dug out tonight. Mike and Duncan arrived earlier and had filled 20 skips before everyone else arrived, so we set to work getting that out and then sent Adrian and Jack in to dig, followed by Henry and Harley. The kids did good, and Jack in particular didn’t leave the dig face much during the evening and both want to come back! Stu had repaired 3 x buckets and Dave brought 100s of sacks. The new skips hadn’t arrived via DPD when we left so will be next week now. Headed to Waldy after