27/8/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning
1.5hrs
Mark went in first to dig and broke off some more rock and carried on the gravel mining to fill about 8 skips. Estelle went in to have a look and we decided we would be better drilling more holes for bang now as most of the accessible gravel is gone. James went in and filled one last skip with gravel. Mark will communicate with Kevin to arrange electric for drilling more holes. We also took a look at the biggest hole near the hedge with a view to maybe drilling several holes in the bottom of that to see if a bang in there exposes anything - will do the one we're working on first though.

20/8/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon
2hrs
Clearing bang debris - Estelle went in first and quickly filled about 15 skips which the lads hauled out, then swapped with James who did about the same number again. Mostly gravel coming out, but some bigger chunks as well and James pulled out a large rock from the floor towards the end of his session too. Estelle went back in for a final couple of skips - we have gone down a good 2.5ft into an approximately 2ft x 2.5ft hole and there is probably another hour or so worth of gravel clearing to go. To the left as you look at the ladder is solid rock and will probably need banging again to make it bigger. To the right is still quite a lot of gravel going down, but quite narrow and there is a slot in the floor heading in the direction of the ladder that is a couple of inches wide by about a foot deep - can't really see clearly on as the gravel keeps backfilling it at the moment but ideally we need to employ a dwarf orangutan! Took a few photos at the end of the session.

10/8/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley
20mins
Popped over between showers to check the results of the bang last Thursday. Estelle went down the hole and noted it was gravel at the bottom and everything completely blocked up and needing a serious clearing session. Need to plan a clearing session.

7/8/14 - Nigel & Martin banging Cutlers

James and Mike went along to assist Nigel Taylor and Martin Grass. large bang 2x 600mm deep 20mm holes and 1x 1m deep 20mm holes

5/8/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Kevin Clinton
45mins
Nigel Taylor couldn’t make it last minute to bang, but Kevin had sent over some photos from where he had been landscaping the area a bit and had dug open another hole next to the first one we dug out. Looks interesting, but probably not interesting enough to pursue. Hoping to bang either later this week or next.

14/5/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Mark Denning
1.5hrs
With an absence of haulers for Reservoir, we decided to go and clear the bang debris from Cutlers and drill holes for the next one. Clearing only took about 6 skips worth and hadn’t really done enough damage, so looking at the big guns and Mark drilled 3 x 16mm holes and 600m deep and then started trying to extend these to 20mm holes, but the generator was struggling with that and then ran out of fuel. Going to ask Kevin if we can have electric again for next time to make the drill work better.

6/5/14 - bang trip

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning, Martin Grass
1.5hrs
Mark drilled several 12mm holes in what looked like a shelf. 1 went right through, but the rest were ok, so Estelle and Martin then went in to place the bang, we used 3 of the holes and 20gm and 5gm to join them. Once set, it let off a healthy bang, but no real breeze outside so air didn’t show signs of clearing particularly quickly so we left for another day.

Kevin emailed photos next day to say he had had a look and cleared some of the spoil out of the way, but hadn’t done much damage, so need more bang.

14/4/14

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon
1.5hrs
Estelle went into the dig and started digging – funnily enough, no-one else seemed keen tonight... Quite a lot of skips full of vegetative matter and slimy mud and rocks were removed and it didn’t smell overly pleasant down there, but basically after a dozen or so skips, we’re down to rock all around and it needs a dose of chemical persuasion to proceed. Removed 12 toads (including mating pairs!) and 5 newts from the dig site and a further 3 from one of the other holes and relocated them to the lake. Kevin had been tidying up a bit and there is now a fence and gate to the site.

Wednesday 13th November

Mike Moxon and Leonie Woodward clearing and hauling spoil from the end.
From Mike:

Hole in floor cleared of debris, the slot below is about 3 inches wide & the depth of the steel bar, still plenty more to pull out of the bottom but it's mostly out of the way of getting washed further in. Spent about an hour there.

Monday 4th November

Estelle Sandford, Stu Lindsay, James Begley

1.5hrs

Estelle and Stu turned up earlier and drilled and prepped for banging the dig with Estelle drilling the holes and setting it up under Stu’s direction. 5 holes drilled around the hole in the base and then James turned up to help haul and also after setting off the bang, we sorted out the rope on the tripod which had come off the pulley. Gave the bang about 10mins to clear and went and had a look. Lots to clear, rock is very layered so bang has loosened a lot but not actually made as much progress has hoped. Hopefully attacking with a hammer after clearing on next bang will get rid of a bit more rock, but getting far too cold now to be outside hauling so heading towards putting to bed for the winter months. 

Tuesday 29th October

Estelle Sandford, James Begley

1hr

Has been quite wet over the last few days and the dig had clearly had a good wash. There was some slumped spoil in a pile plus the hole in the floor directly below the hole in the floor we created has a small way on now, probably caused by water backing up on it and pushing the mud through. Estelle went in and cleared the slump and had a good go at clearing any mud around the hole and a bit of rock from smacking with a hammer, to a point where you can put your arm in with a crowbar and wave it about and drop stones and they sound like they are dropping maybe 2-3ft. The holes at the end are also interesting and can put bar in a far way and see on a bit horizontally. Both holes need banging, there is nothing else to do without bang now. The hole directly below looks like it is another ‘shelf’ or false floor like above. Some water in the other two that still need digging. 

Monday 14th October

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon and Kevin Clinton

2hrs

Arrived and had a look and is looking much larger post bang. James went in and started work on clearing while Estelle hauled and Mike emptied as hole 6 is a puddle at present so no digging there tonight. Rope really slippery so beneficial to have two on surface, until James got below ledge and needed someone at the bottom to help, so Mike went in and assisted leaving Estelle hauling and emptying! Kevin turned up around half way through and assisted with emptying the skips. Mike and James swapped and Mike continued digging out the hole in the floor. The two holes seen by Estelle last week can see water worn beyond, but there is a hole in the floor following the back wall down that also looks interesting. May need more Dr Nobels next time, but also need to do a bit more digging around the floor hole. Good evenings work, some 30+ skips removed of rock and spoil. 

Sunday 13th October

Stu Lindsay, Estelle Sandford & James Begley

1hr

In between showers, Stu had some Dr Nobel’s for which he drilled holes in the false floor level around the small hole that Estelle had enlarged last week to make it passable just in hole 5. A quick glance after the smoke had cleared indicates that the shelf is no more and it now needs clearing. 

Tuesday 8th October

Estelle Sandford, Stu Lindsay, Mike Moxon
1.5hrs
Estelle cleared the debris from the last bang which hadn’t been as effective as the first bang last week in that one hole hadn’t done much but the other appears to have shattered a channel going towards the pond side. Much of the rest of the time was spent beating the rock around the hole in the floor with a hammer and bar while Mike digging hole 6 and Stu hauling for both digs. After about an hour or so, the hole was big enough to get her lower body in, but not quite to pass the arms/shoulders, so Stu had a little go at bashing it before Estelle had one final go and then managed to get into the hole. There is a shelf covered in debris about 2.5ft own which makes it not too bad to get out of the hole, but basically you can drop down about 3ft to the floor and sit down. To the left is floor pendant that is very sharp and attacked oversuit and in front slightly right in the roof is another pendant that should come away with a hammer. To the right again is a channel in the floor continuing to two holes in the floor and the roof above is where the shattered channel is heading. The two holes are about 4” and 6” diameter respectively but with the floor and roof pendants, it’s not possible to get access to it yet. The entrance hole needs Dr Nobel to enlarge it to make it so we can work in there and it is basically a shelf which is about a foot or so deep of solid rock. Some photos taken by Estelle.

Monday 30th September

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Stu Lindsay – joined by Kevin and Chris Clinton a little later when we were about to blow it!

2.5hrs

Arrived at site and immediately started drilling 3 long shot-holes on the left (facing towards house), one higher and 2 lower to take off the left hand wall. I laid the cord under Stu’s instructions and then we exited the cave and let it off. Waited around 20mins before descending to take a look at what had happened as it had cleared the worst of the fumes by then. Worked very well, dig considerably wider now and a large amount of gravel and rocks blocking the way out. Cleared about a dozen skips from the hole before drilling two further holes in the lower ledge by the hole with the way on. Left and behind you can feel quite a long way under, so had to be careful not to just drill through this and went on an angle. The hole in the floor has about 3-4ft of drop, draughts pretty well and going away from the house direction seems to be looking like the way on. Chris flicked the switch for the second bang and it was considerably louder than before! Left for the pub without checking as pub ‘o’ clock!

Report from Kevin the morning after – ‘been down and cleared out rock but hole is same size, need a bigger bang!!’

Planning to clear it again before more of Dr Nobel’s though. 

Tuesday 24th September

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay
1.5hrs
6 skips out of deeper hole 5 and 21 very muddy skips out of the adjacent one (6) using both ends of the rope. Deeper hole has an interesting void below the false floor but the sides need banging now to widen it to make it accessible. We need to do that next trip, hopefully next week. Hole 6 is very muddy and clay and got to a point where the hauling rope so muddy it was impossible to haul anymore, so gave up and went to pub!

Monday 18th September

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon and Henry Dawson.
2hrs
Arrived to find the digger not in usual location, but based on previous discussions about struggling to use it now down to depth and the jaggedness of the rocks at the bottom catching the bags and having less space to keep a 1 tonne bag while digging, we had decided to use the tripod anyway to finish this dig off. We moved the tripod to over that hole first job from the other hole it had been resident over since last year and put the rope back into place. (The hole we have removed it from we want to use the digger on anyway when we do dig that one.) James went in first and started filling buckets with slop and mud as there was a little puddling above the holes in the floor. Estelle on hauling all evening down to a injured foot and then Mike went down to relieve James and realised soon that digging in just old clothes rather than using an oversuit wasn’t the best idea. Henry then went down for the last 1/2hour and broke a larger hole in the false floor and we can see some space below going to about 3ft. Next session needs a decent hammer and chisel but probably the session after will be looking at Dr Nobels best!

Monday 19th August

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay
2hrs
Arrived to find a double length of ladder left for us by Kevin. 6 bags removed between the two holes, 3 from each. Bigger hole now getting really hard to fill the bags and is below the reach of the digger arm, so we may have to consider moving the a frame and using buckets now. Is heading away from house direction into what looks like a rift. Other hole still got a lot to come out!

Monday 12th August

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon and Alex Gee
2hrs
Working on both digs on holes 5 and 6 again. 5 is getting quite hard to fill the bag without it jamming in the rocks now so we’ve had to bash a few bits off, but still going down and still plenty of mud to clear. 6 is still quite a way above 5 in depth and going down nicely, was slightly puddled at start. Alex came for a look and gave us a hand with the digging for the evening and also had a look at the finds bins. Digger still needing manual switch off.

Wednesday 7th August

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon
1.5hrs
We were going to go down HLIS, but as no bags at the Belfry and no drill/plug and feathers sorted, we left Mark and Stu to go and take some photos and retrieve the ladders and rope from down there and headed over to Cutlers as we’d not managed to get over there since Kevin back from holidays. Arrived and met Kevin and he went and fixed the pump wire that he thought was the problem with the digger and we started digging. Got 2 bags out of each of the two holes, but digger not stopping still so we called Kevin back and he had a look and showed us how to turn it off manually as the electric part of the pump isn’t actually working! Main dig draining, but the mud was quite wet, other dig not draining yet. Pond even lower with little rain but Little Grebe’s have chicks now!

Monday 22nd July

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Henry Dawson, Mike Moxon and Stu Lindsay
2.5hrs
As there was more of us this week, we got to work with the 1 tonne bags in the hole nearest the house where we’ve been digging and also the hole next to it as we figured we had enough skill to retrieve the bags using the digger. Removed 8 bags all in, 4 from each hole and the first one is starting to get quite sandy now and pinching out so reckon we might get some answers sooner rather than later on that one. Only problem with today’s digging was that the digger wouldn’t stop easily so we had to stall it at the end, which isn’t the easiest thing to do!

Kevin back now so digger issue will be sorted by next Monday. :-)

Monday 15th July

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning and Henry Dawson.
2hrs

Removed 6 bags and 1 boulder. Floor lowered by another foot or so and is starting to pinch in slightly making it harder for more than 1 person to be filling the 1 tonne bag. Had some problems with the digger starting, but worked out that the battery connection was loose so we sorted that and now starting perfectly.

Monday 8th July

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay & Joan Goddard came across for a look and took some photos
2hrs
Digging in shaft 5 again using digger to remove spoil and rocks. Removed 4 bags of spoil and 3 rocks and a small hole had appeared just under where one of the rocks was. Hopefully this will give us some answers next week, but if not it should help drain the little bit of water that seems to remain puddled on the pond liner clay.

Mon 24th June 2013

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning with Mike Moxon turning up a little later.
2hrs
With Kevin not around, we still had use of the digger with having to drive it ourselves again.
5 bags filled and emptied and 4 large rocks removed, amazed the ancient 20+ year old tape held…. (and yes we did stay well out of the way when lifting rocks). Nice dry evening and water levels of lake still dropping although rain over the earlier part of the week had meant the dig itself was a bit more claggy than last week. Next week we are going to have to dig under where the ladder is making it more interesting getting in and out!

Monday 17th June 2013

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Henry Dawson, Mike Moxon and Leonie Woodward.
2.5hrs

Arrived to find Mark had dropped off 3x 1 tonne bags ready for digging, but was unable to stay himself tonight and dig. The rest of us started digging in the bigger hole filling the 1 tonne bags and also removing some rocks and wood debris from the slightly smaller hole next to that one that we'd not touched to date. Kevin had left us access to the digger, so Mike lifted the first one out and didn't quite get the accuracy to perfection and caught the bag on the side putting a tear into it. Kevin popped over to watch and chat and we continued filling, doing a total of 6 bags. Mike's accuracy got much better after the first one and he successfully avoided touching the side again with the bags! Spoil is quite clay filled and claggy, but thankfully not as wet as it had got to last year. Few rocks removed as well.

Hopefully we'll have a bigger team for next Monday to make it easier to dig more than one hole at a time. We need to bring over some krabs, slings and more tools, only 2 spades and a pick there at present.

Wednesday 28th November

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon & Ben Wetherill

2hrs

4x 1 tonne bags filled in the freezing cold evening while Kevin drove the digger on the hole nearest the house/pond. Making steady downwards progress with no signs of hitting anything solid as yet and might need a longer ladder soon. Also require replacement 1 tonne bags as one died and the second looking quite badly worn out now.

Getting to be too cold and wet on some Wednesday evenings, so we may need to plan another daytime visit on a weekend soon and go somewhere warmer and drier on Wednesday evenings! 

Wednesday 21st November

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon, Ben Wetherill

2.5hrs

Kevin unable to stay and help, so he gave us digger driving lessons so we could empty the bags ourselves. The hole with the tripod and pulley over was too wet to dig as we appear to have puddled the clay nicely at the bottom and we had very heavy rainfall overnight and early part of the day. We filled 4 x 1 tonne bags over the evening and then each had a go on the digger removing it from the hole. Ben didn't dig as he had no kit with Henry not about and was lurking awaiting AA recovery to fix his flat tyre that he couldn't get the wheel nut off of. 

Sunday 18th November

Estelle Sandford, Mike Moxon, James Begley. Also Joan Goddard and Roy Vranch also came over and Kevin drove the digger.

Had a look at the middle hole and gave up on that, then went to the other hole with the tripod over and started on that. Very heavy clay and some of us weren’t feeling too special after the diggers award last night! Dug for about an hour or so, struggling to haul as it was very wet and hard to get a grip. Kevin then appeared and got to work with clearing the spoil heaps with the digger and removed the 2x 1 tonne bags from the other hole. We then went for a walk across the fields opposite his house and only found the one water filled depression of interest in a field owned by Waldegrave from the ones shown on the old geology map. 

Wednesday 14th November

Estelle Sandford, Mark Denning, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward

2.5hrs

Mark originally forgot his undersuit and socks and had to pop home and get them so we were a bit late starting. Bit lean on the ground on numbers tonight and Kevin also not around, so we focussed on the middle hole and carried on digging that. Leonie started out, but was having light failure and it was easier for 2 being at the bottom now, so Estelle went and helped hold the bucket and give her light to dig, then Estelle took over for a bit and gave the rocks a good beasting with the hammer to remove some of the shelves in there and some jagged rocks. It looks like we have hit a 30 degree bedding plane and that the clay from the pond indicates that the pond drained at this level. Below is very jagged rocks and muddy floor and smallish drain hole. Mark and Mike continued beasting rocks and making it bigger so we can get at the drain holes and see whether they are big enough to warrant following or not. Getting very cold digging now in the evenings, so we may consider heading underground somewhere else for a bit… 

Wednesday 7th November

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning, Jo Denning, Mike Moxon, Henry Dawson, Stu Lindsay and Kevin Clinton

2hrs

After watching the Chewton Mendip firework display from the dig site, we got to work with putting the tripod up over the hole nearest the driveway to start digging that. Henry helpfully turned up and suggested we could use the digger instead to haul out of the hole, so we suggested we also do the hole nearest the pond/house and do that one with the digger instead, despatching Henry to the bottom to fill a 1 tonne bag – unfortunately digger had flat battery so while the bag was filled, it wasn’t removed! Digging got underway in new hole and continued in middle hole (which is looking the most interesting so far and can hear water noises below the hole. New hole has a lot of thick pond clay, the black stuff is like rubber! James and Estelle had a dig until fingers getting tired from digging and then Mark had a go. Mark and Henry had a good go also at clearing some rocks from the middle hole – still mud and rocks coming out and looking very interesting. 

Wednesday 31st October

too wet to dig...

Wednesday 24th October

Estelle Sandford (turned up late), James Begley, Mark Denning, Mike Moxon, Elsie Brooks (RUCC), Henry Dawson, Ben Wetherill, Kevin Clinton (on the digger duty)
3hrs for most, 2 hrs for ES.
Continued working on the big hole filling 1 tonne bags and using the digger to haul and by the end of the evening, this has hit solid rock on all sides with just a rift hole that needs investigating left. We also continued with the middle hole and that is still progressing well and lots of mud coming out and some rocks. Moved the tripod to the nearest  hedge hole and this needs to be erected next week. Mark bringing tools to move pulleys, etc.

Wednesday 17th October 2012

Mark Denning, Mike Moxon, Henry Dawson,  & Kevin Clinton on digger duty.
3 hours.
With Estelle & James on a secret mission, Mark was there first and cleared out the bottom of the original hole which didn't make it look any more hopeful, but we'd better check again in daylight! Mike then arrived with the scaffolding and set up a tripod over the middle hole which allowed Mark & myself to clear most of the mud out, plus the boulder that we dropped in on the first week. A sudden downpour demonstrated that the water in this hole is disappearing down the slot that Leonie opened up under the ladder and down the hole at the back, which after a bit of clearance is currently body-sized but choked with mud and small rocks. (Couple more frogs still require rescue).
After Henry arrived Kevin came over and whilst Henry started digging the big hole Kevin used the digger to lift bags out, proving he's getting the hang of this operation by hauling about 6 tonnes of material out (as well as giving a hand emptying them) - still plenty more to go though.
Everyone got thoroughly soaked in the downpour, but at least it made the bags easier to empty as we could pour the mud out and our suits easier to clean!

Wednesday 10th October 2012

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Henry Dawson and Pete Hellier with Kevin Clinton driving the digger.
3hrs
Had a message from Kevin just before Estelle left work saying he’d put electric to the digsite and also moved the digger to be next to the hole to trial the idea of filling 1 tonne bags. Mark stopped by to drop off 2 of the 1 tonne bags and we got started. Initially both Henry and Estelle had a look at the bottom of the 1st hole where we’d banged it at the weekend and it really doesn’t look very promising as it’s closed off to quite a small hole below in awkward digging space which would need quite a bit of work to remove the rock, so as we’ve got plenty more to dig, that one is basically ready to be abandoned. We then got on and filled the first 1 tonne bag and a second one on top before getting Kevin to come and move them with the digger. This proved to be a very workable method with lifting and then emptying on the spoil heap by tipping them and letting them roll off, hence emptying with a bit of assistance. We filled 8 bags worth of approx. ½ tonne per load – if they are overfilled, they don’t empty as well! Took quite a few photos and video as well. Probably gained about 1m depth across the big hole.

Sunday 7th October

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning, Stu Gardiner, Stu Lindsay, Ben Wetherill, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward, plus visit from Lucy Greenwood (BEC/archaeologist), Joan Goddard (MCG & Wells Museum) and Roy Vranch (local geologist friend of Andy Farrant) to chat with Kevin about the finds, etc.
6hrs

First job of the day was to drill and bang the main dig. The lower ledge proved to be about 6in deep shelf, so only the top ledge was worth drilling and nice long holes were drilled there and subsequently banged by Stu & Stu. During this time, Mike & Leonie continued with the middle hole ‘MCG dig’ and Estelle, James, Mark and Ben continued digging and hauling from the largest hole. This is an awkward haul as we currently have no form of frame, so having to drag it up the side of the shaft. There is also an awful lot of mud to come out! After giving about 1/2hr to clear fumes, the main dig was accessible again and Stu x 2 went back in to clear it. The hole is now larger and it is visible that there is a clean-washed water worn route heading back underneath which doesn’t look like it is very deep or overly promising, but not clear what else is going on. Stu L & Estelle put a second charge into the ledge above which was left for about another half hour before we checked that. Now needs hammer and chisel action to make it larger so we can see what is going on. In the meantime the middle hole mostly cleared of mud and now at a point where beating rock and we hauled out quite a lot from the biggest hole too. Joan and Roy had lengthy discussion with Kevin and were shown all the finds – likely conclusion was that  the fossilised vertebrae are ichthyosaur (the bigger ones inside) and plesiosaur (the one in the ‘bin’) and the bones are almost certainly horse, but no idea of age of them. Geology sounds quite interesting too with the idea that the caves arelikely to have been formed over two periods, Jurassic and Triassic and hopefully we’ll have more information when Roy has had a chance to chat to Andy more as well.

Wednesday 3rd October

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning, Mike Moxon, Stu Gardiner, Henry Dawson, Ben Wetherill
2.5hrs
Stu and Mark got stuck in clearing the last of the mud out of the main hole – didn’t take long before it was clear there is no other way on apart from our letterbox type hole under where the ladder end is. This needs some of Dr Nobel’s best linctus to continue.
Mike and Ben continued with the middle hole and that is going down nicely, although bucket died!
Once we’d given up on the main hole, we decided to have a go at the big hole as it was a bit early for pub o clock. This has quite a lot of very red mud in containing barites. Within quite a short time we had a rift sort of hole going off towards the middle hole.

Wednesday 26th September

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mike Moxon and Joan Goddard (MCG/Wells Museum volunteer)

Persistent torrential rain during a fair bit of the day and late afternoon meant we made the decision not to dig, despite after about 15mins of arriving blue skies appearing for the rest of the evening until it went dark!
Went and took a look at the holes and all bar the middle one Mike & Leonie were digging last week, were draining well and no puddling at all. Even the middle one only had a puddle on the clay and when you consider the local flooding, it's pretty impressive they have all drained this well. Climbed down into our main dig on Mark's shiny new stemples and had a look at the drain hole and can hear water dropping away. Last 6 pics from tonight on https://plus.google.com/photos/104708662744792505290/albums/5773157977179467425 showing the current end and the drainage being good. Kevin said one was taking a fairly reasonable waterfall for a time through the worst of the rain and it was very noticeable the pond had grown!

Joan had a look at some of the finds and also the holes with interest and we arranged with Kevin to dig Sunday 7th October for a longer day session in addition to usual Wednesday eve, which may give us more answers...

Wednesday 19th September

Estelle Sandford, Mark & Jo Denning, James Begley, Neil Walmsley, Henry Dawson, Ben Wetherill, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward
2.5hrs

Kevin back from his holidays and seemed quite impressed with our progress in the dig and has moved our spoil heap so we've clear space to dump again. Provided us with coffee again as well. :-)
Mark got there early to make a start on getting the stemples resined in for our fixed ladder. Once he was far enough down to not risk dropping the hammer on anyone's head, Henry and Ben made a start digging while the rest of us hauled and dumped the spoil. Too many tonight really so Mike and Leonie took bucket and spare rope and started digging out the middle hole (the last one to be opened a few weeks back). Good progress in main dig still with lots of mud coming up. James and Neil took over for their half hour stint and were starting to hit more rock at the bottom and then Mark and Estelle took over for the last stint. Rock has now been hit on the hedge side with a small gap under which we can throw a small stone down and it drops a few feet, indicating some cavity below although this is currently inaccessible with rock in the way. Any mud at the level of the rock is very wet. On the nearer side to the hauling, there is still quite a bit of yellow clay (probably from pond lining) to come out before we make a decision on whether we need to consider some Dr Nobel's linctus to adjust the rock! Probably one more session to decide that. There is a large rock that needs breaking up to remove anyway from the main dig and Mike and Leonie after removing quite a bit of spoil also have a rock requiring extraction.
We are considering setting up another tripod frame over another of the holes so we don't waste resources when we have a good sized team turning up most weeks and while we suspect they all join up, who knows unless we try!

More photos added to album from tonight - https://plus.google.com/photos/104708662744792505290/albums/5773157977179467425

Wednesday 12th September

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning, Henry Dawson, Mike Moxon, Henry Bennett, Pete Hellier, Richard Webber

Mark brought generator and drill over to start putting the stemples in to create a fixed ladder, over the course of evening he drilled down as far as where the mud ledge was - 6 or 7, can't remember.

Using a wire ladder now for accessing the dig, which meant after Mark had finished drilling the holes, the short ladder was removed and so was the mud ledge we'd had to keep in order to be able to get in and out. Henry D started digging and Pete joined him soon after while the rest of is hauled and emptied. Estelle and Mike did a session at the bottom and then Henry B & Mark until we gave up at pub 'o' clock. We're down approximately 12 feet or so from where we started now and have a pretty good sized spoil heap building up.

3hrs total

Wednesday 5th September

Estelle Sandford, Mark Denning, Henry Dawson, Henry Bennett, Ben Wetherill, Michael Butcher

Estelle and Mark turned up early and made a start on loosening up some spoil, but until a 3rd arrived, no hauling. Rest turned up at 7pm and hauling commenced. Estelle and Mark in the dig initially followed by Henry B & Ben, then Henry D and Mike. Lowered dig by approximately another 4-5ft and approximately 2 tonne of spoil removed. Having to leave a bit of a ledge by our 'fixed' ladder at the moment as we haven't got a longer one in place yet. Next week need temporary electron, although hopefully will get the stemple ladder in place as soon as resin dries.  Spoil getting very gloopy and sticky towards the end, hopefully if the weather remains dry, this will be easier to handle next week!

3hrs total

Wednesday 29th August

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark and Jo Denning, Mike Moxon, Leonie Woodward and Henry Dawson.
2.5hrs
Mark & Jo in first, removed quite a few skips – using 2 people hauling as skips getting heavy! Then Leonie and Mike took over for a while and then Henry and Mark. Rest of us hauling and moving the spoil heap around for the evening. Probably moved a good 1.5tonnes, if not more from the dig and down by another 2-3ft. Now need a longer ladder as really at a point where we won’t get out easily if it gets levelled off completely at the bottom… Also need to work out how we deal with the hauling as currently 2 people walk away from the pulley but any further and they will fall down another hole!

Wednesday 22nd August

Mark Denning, Stu Lindsay and Tim Large arrived at 6pm and put a pulley and bolt in place on the floor to make hauling easier and stop the risk of pulling the A frame over and Mark also secured the legs better. The 3 of them did about 20 odd skips of spoil using Stu's new digging skip until Mark broke his spade. Shortly after than Estelle Sandford & James Begley arrived (fortunately with another spade which Estelle left in the car from last week) and digging recommenced. Trevor Hughes turned up with a freebie wheelbarrow he'd rescued from a skip and repaired and took Stu with him to Caine Hill while the rest of us carried on digging and hauling. Similar amount of spoil removed, guess around 80 buckets but with only 4 people, it really is relentless on the work involved! Lowered the dig by approx another 3ft and rescued a baby newt which was relocated to nearer the pond for safety.
Dig time 3hrs.

Wednesday 15th August

Estelle Sandford, Stu Gardiner, Mark Denning, Mike Moxon, Stu Lindsay, Henry Dawson & James Begley with a visit from Paul & Tiggy from SMCC.

We had a look at the new hole (which is roughly half way between the really big hole nearest the hedge and the one the digger was by last week) and it looks interesting, but decided to carry on digging where we started last week. Mark and Stu G went down into the dig first with Stu L and Henry on hauling duty and  Estelle on bucket emptying until Mike turned up and assisted with the hauling - few problems with the angle of hauling and the A frame nearly being pulled over so need to haul directly under frame which meant it was essential to keep the weight of the skips down, so we opted for Stu L's newly designed skip as it was smaller. A large number of skips were removed from the dig and there was signs in two places on the side walls of passage heading off before they came out and swapped. Kevin kindly brought us coffee over to the dig and soon after James turned up with Paul & Tiggy to show them the site and James then assisted on hauling for the rest of the evening as he hadn't brought caving kit over. Estelle and Henry went in to dig next, around another 20ish removed and then Estelle came out and Stu L went in for a dig. Floor across the entire dig being cleared of mud and rocks and we have lowered the dig by a good couple of feet. They came out and Mark and Stu G went back in for another go. The mound of spoil we've created is nearly half the size of the pile Kevin had created digging the other one with the digger!!! Roughly around 70-80 skips removed - we lost count somewhere along the way! We were forced to stop and retreat to the pub when the digging bucket broke (a bolt came out and was lost in the mud) and the heavens started to open after just under 3hrs digging.

Looking good and planning on being there same time, same place next Wednesday evening! 

Wednesday 15th August - to confirm...

spoke to Kevin tonight to confirm all ok for Wednesday (which it is) and he advised me that since we were there last week, he's dug open another hole and he thinks he can see rounding at the bottom and reckons it might be quite easy to dig open...
Will see you all over there around 6:30ish... 

Wednesday 8th August - A frame in place...

Estelle Sandford, James Begley, Mark Denning, Mike Moxon, Henry Dawson, Stu Lindsay, Tim Large and Trevor Hughes went over to White Pit to retrieve the capstan winch and A frame for relocation to Cutler's Green. Good job there was 8 of us for this job as that winch is very heavy. We used slings and 2 of the A frame legs to spread the weight between us carrying it across the field. After loading it into Mark's van, Stu, Trev and Tim went to Caine Hill and left us to take the winch. Thanks to them for diverting from important bag hauling exercise to help us out tonight!

The 5 of us then went over to Cutler's Green and after Mark, Mike and Henry had a good first look around at the holes, we made the decision to put the A frame over the hole nearest the top corner of the field, which appears to have the most solid walls and the A frame fits neatly across. The one quite large loose boulder at the top was dislodged by Mark into the hole to make safe and we proceeded to get the winch / A frame set up. Our reasoning for not setting up over the big hole that the pond had disappeared down was that would require more engineering to get started so we can plan to get a platform set up and built over the forthcoming weeks/months, but at least we can start digging immediately on the hole we've chosen.

The winch and A frame were ably put over the hole and Henry then dropped down into it and we removed the rock, plus a little more spoil before heading to the pub - a massive 4 skips of rubble! But we're started and that's the important bit.

Kevin was unavailable this evening and next digging session is planned for next Wednesday evening - meet at the dig around 6:30pm onwards. 

Initial visit to Cutler's Green Sinkholes

Saturday 4th August, 2012

Through a post on facebook diggers group, we obtained information regarding Cutler's Green Sinkholes via Phil Hendy, which is over at Chewton Mendip. http://goo.gl/maps/oBHHL shows the google maps view, which was taken at the point (2006) where he had cleared the surface of the land, the gorge and much of the area now is grassed over. The history of the place is that 12 years ago a large carp pond was swallowed overnight by one of the shafts and the landowner Kevin, has been trying to get interested parties (mainly geologists and archaeologists via museums/universities) to come and dig it. After spotting an article on digging in the Mendip Times, he got in contact with Phil Hendy who passed the information out as 'diggers wanted'.

Trevor Hughes, Stu Lindsay, Stu Gardiner, James Begley and myself visited the site yesterday afternoon and had a chat with the landowner about digging the site. He showed us the shafts and talked at length about the history of the area and that some of the shafts have been dug reasonably deep with a digger and there was a gorge there as well at one point, and that the biggest and deepest of the shafts he had to fill in before it swallowed the fence and upset his neighbour! He has removed a number of finds of bones, fossils, petrified wood, coral and interesting rocks and has quite a large collection and is clearly quite passionate about his holes in the ground! There is at least 6 shafts looking worth attacking, although chances are they would potentially all meet up underground, which makes this the ideal project for any number of people wishing to be involved. Kevin has said he will deal with spoil removal with his digger, so we don't have to worry about that, we just need to get digging basically!

We are proposing to take over an A frame and winch on Wednesday night to get the ball rolling and also install a log book at the site so all digging at the site can be recorded. This blog will also be used for recording information and linking images and planning digging evenings/days. We would like this to become a nice project for anyone interested in digging and leaving the politics at home within any of the caving clubs, so if anyone is interested, point them in the direction of the diggers. I have given the regular White Pit diggers plus Stu, James and Trev rights to post here and will add anyone else as they join in.

With regards to photos, there are a number of free upload sites available, so any taken, please upload somewhere and post a link or pass to someone with more technical nous if you aren't sure how to!
I'm intending on using my google account for my photos and the ones taken yesterday by me of the site and some of Kevin's finds are to be found here - https://plus.google.com/photos/104708662744792505290/albums/5773157977179467425