Editorial

Although the Belfry Bulletin has appeared regularly, if
perhaps a little late in the month at times, the same thing cannot be said of
the rest of our club’s publications.

The Caving Reports series were designed to form a record of
the more serious work done by the club and the original scheme was to publish
them at the rate of approximately two per year, depending, of course, on the
amount of such work carried out by the club. This system is still humorously kept going; by the dates printed on
their covers, which bear no relation whatsoever to the actual dates of
publication.

Up until a short while ago, the reason why these reports
were anything up to a year behind the announced date was merely that
stencilling them took too long.  We now
have an arrangement with the firm that does the covers for the B.B. to get them
stencilled and both Caving Reports No 4 and 5 are now being printed.

In addition to this, Bryan Ellis has done a fine job of
editing and printing a B.B. Digest.  You
will find an advert enclosed with this B.B. The price, incidentally, is 3/6 (not 3/-) and about six have already
been ordered.  There are only thirty, so
get your order in as soon as possible if you want one.

” Alfie. ”

Caving Log

June Committee Meeting

At the June meeting of the Committee, Len Dawes, Phil Davey
and Jim Simonds were elected to membership of the club.  Mike Palmer was made a Cuthbert’s
Leader.  It was agreed to carry on with
creosoting the Belfry, obtaining mains water and arranging a slide carrier for
the club projector.  Dave England has
agreed to carry on as M.R.O. representative for the time being.  Arrangements for the 1959 dinner have been
started.  Ian has delivered two blocks of
Portland Stone for the Memorial Tablet to Don Coase.  Bob Price and Chris Falshaw have resigned
form the committee.

Emborough Swallet

On Saturday, June 6th, a B.E.C. digging team entered the top
of what we hope will prove to be a cave system at Emborough.

Little is known at present about the previous history of the
swallet.  It has, almost certainly, been
entered before but possibly not by cavers intending to penetrate further.  Certainly its presence has not been known by
active cavers for some years.  It does
not appear in

Barrington’s
book and neither the swallet nor the stream which sinks into it are marked on
the Ordnance Survey maps of the area.

About five years ago, I was taken to see the swallet by Les
Browne and we did a ten minute investigation of the entrance at the tine.  On several later occasions, I tried to find
the swallet with no success, and in the end I had to go and see Les who gave me
exact directions as to how to get there. I revisited the swallet with Jill on the 30th of May.

During a visit the next day with Frank Darbon, Colin and
Jill, we pulled a few rocks away and decided that it should be possible to open
up the entrance quite easily.  Permission
was obtained from the farmer for the B.E.C. to dig out the cave on Sunday 31st
May, and the next day, Jill and myself having the day off, we removed a very
dead dog from the entrance and did a further bit of rock moving.

On Saturday, 6th June, a gang consisting of Frank Darbon,
Colin, Prew, Alfie and Jill arrived and began to dig out the entrance.  A couple of hours later, we entered through a
squeeze between a boulder in the roof and a large rock and found ourselves in a
small, low chamber about ten feet long by five feet wide by three feet high,
going to the right.  The floor becomes
lower at the far end of the chamber, which is in relative solid rock and has an
amount of dried mud present which does not seem to get disturbed by the stream.
 This part of the cave has a rather
stagnant smell.

To the left, another squeeze under a detached bed leads over
a small hole between boulders.  This hole
drops about six feet and has a washed gravel floor.  Crawling over the hole, another small chamber
is entered.  This is part of a boulder
ruckle and drops about eight feet down. Digging is at present barred at the bottom of this by a large rock which
must be removed.  All the rock in this
side of the cave is very clean and water worn. 

On Sunday, 8th June, a rough survey and some photos were
taken, during which time Chris Falsahw, Roger Stenner, Colin and Jill dug and
probed down in all the most likely places. It was noticed that daylight could be seen in the chamber to the left,
so we came out and started to re-construct the cave, pulling down a whole lot
of semi-detached rocks at the side of the entrance.  It is hoped to get a direct access to the
chamber where we hope to continue digging.

We have left the cave to stabilise after our rock shifting efforts
and we must now remove the rock at the bottom and continue digging.  In spite of the unstable appearance of the
cave, the chances of further penetration look quite promising.

Alfie

Important

FREE BEER will be provided at the Hunter’s Lodge, according
to the usual Mendip custom on the 19th June, when Chris Falshaw will be
celebrating his forthcoming marriage to Vivienne Hudson.  A further TWO BARRELS will be on tap, on the
evening of July 11th.  These will be
provided by Mervyn Hannam to mark the occasion of his recent marriage; and by
Jill Rollason on her tenth anniversary of caving (known in then club as a
‘decadence’).  All are welcome.

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Apologies to all whose April and May issues of the B.B. were
rather late in coming.  A series of
misfortunes too complicated to describe overtook the staff of the B.B. and
resulted in some of the postal deliveries being all haywire.  We hope you all got the right B.B.’s in the
end.

Letters

To the Editor.  B.B.

Dear Sir,

The Caving Report on St. Cuthbert’s Swallet is now very much
out of date, and rather than publish another Caving Report on this subject, I
believe it may be best to publish an altogether grander affair, somewhat on the
lines of the S.W.C.C. report on O.F.D.  I
have in mind a thick volume mounted in loose leaf from.  This is more expensive than a Caving Report
but is a more satisfactory way of providing for alterations and additions.  As a suggestion, I put forward the following
structure, more or less an enlargement of caving Report Number Two: –

1.                  Introduction, including a brief description and
history of cur club and a tribute to Don Coase.

2.                  The history of the cave, including a brief
history of digging in the area, and the relation of the cave to the rest of
Mendip.

3.                  The discovery of the cave, not whitewashing or
condemning the delay in widening the entrance rift, and the chronological
history of exploration.

4.                  A complete survey – small scale.

5.                  Description of the cave, series by series, each
section accompanied by a large size map.

6.                  Geology of the cave.

7.                  Flora and Fauna. (Overprinted small scale
survey).

The report could also include a loose folded large scale
survey, and various photographs.

Although a lot of the necessary work has not yet been done,
a start on some of the sections could be made at once if such a publication
were to be planned for the not too distant future.

Incidentally, Don Coase wanted to see such a bock as the
above published, and it would thus would make a fine tribute to his memory.

R. Stenner.

Editor’s
Note.    The compilation of a ‘Cuthbert’s
Atlas’ as a tribute to Don was suggested at the tine of his death and discussed
by the committee.  It was agreed at the
time to wait until an accurate survey (on which the bulk of any such book
largely depends) was produced.  When this
has been done, the subject will automatically come up again and I am sure your
remarks will also be discussed.

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To the Editor, B.B.

Dear Sir,

I feel that I should write and clarify the mystery of
“Bertie Bat”.  In the early
pre-war days of the B.E.C., it was felt that some sort of distinctive emblem
was needed for the club; after all, the Wessex had their cave exploring dragon
(or Gryphon) complete with candle, so why shouldn’t we have something similar?  The committee put their heads together and
after an awful lot of brain fag, hit upon that which should have been obvious
from the start – a bat.

Bertie – the name was coined about or just after the end of
the war – as he was originally drawn, no longer exists.  He died when all the earlier club logs etc
were lost during the blitz, but I made an almost exact copy, which, as Tony
Johnson states in his letter, was fitted to my car.  This badge, by the way, is still on the car.

From this original, which was in the form of a hybrid bat in
flight, have descended all the various versions of Bertie.  The next in line was the original block from
which the club notepaper was printed, supplied to us by Gerard Platten.

Tony’s bat is, I feel, somewhat different to Bertie Mk II
(The car badge) and is nearer to the cloth bat cut out some 14 or 15 years ago
by Ken Dobbs, who also made quite fair metal Berties of moulded wood’s
metal.  These last, however, varied
considerably from mould to mould.

I have also a partly completed outline of “Super
Bat” suitable for a car badge.  This
bat when complete will be six to eight inches across the wings and is more or
less a faithful copy of Mark II.

Some years ago, it was the thing for each member to paint
his own bat on his hat, but these varied so much that it was anyone’s guess as
to what they actually were, varying from flying foxes down to
pipistrelles,  few of which resembled the
unfortunate bat they were supposed to be copied from.

Incidentally, as will be apparent, the Belfry being a later
addition to club assets than Bertie, the Belfry was named after him as being
the congregating place of members and not vice versa.

            T.H.
Stanbury.

Editor’s
Note.     Thank you, Harry.  The degree of authenticity of the various
bats is now revealed!  The car badge bat,
which we have just commissioned, is a version of Tony’s loudspeaker cover bat,
which is about half way between the older and newer versions of Bertie (His
wingspan gets longer as the bats get progressively newer).  We hope this ‘Halfway’ version will please
all, in the tradition of British compromise!

Note to New Members. T.H. (Harry) Stanbury is the founder of the B.E.C. and thus an authority
on its early history.

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To the Editor, B.B.

F.G. Drainpipe,
Dept. of Drains,

Elsan Street,

Dear Cur,

It has come to my notice that you have a large amount of
movement of holes in your vicinity, and this prompts me to enquire whether you
have, in searching for moving caves, come across any of my drains (particularly
the ten inch variety).

Should you find any, I shall expect you to send them back to
the above address as this will save us from shifting any further items to lay
our ten inch drains.

Yours Hopefully,
F. G. Drainpipe

Editor’s
Note.     F.G. Drainpipe is, of course,
our old friend F.G. Darbon.  I hope he
will forgive me for altering his letter a bit to get it into this space.

Lady Chatterbox’ Cover

The second of a series of articles on the Stately Homes of
the B.E.C, by Anne Gardner.

On Sunday 24th May 1959, a more or less intrepid band of
idiots in steamingly clean clothes descended upon the new Thomas
Residency.  This motley crew consisted of
the Henrobel Hobbs, Spike, Digger Gardner and the writer.  It appears that one dark night, under cover
of two old tarpaulins and assorted ex-army blankets; the Thomas’s crept into,
and proceeded to squat in

Clifton.  What is the world coming to when the L.M.F.O.M.
is allowed (reformed as he is) to live in the part of

Bristol which houses the elite of the
B.E.C.?  At least twelve sane and
sensible members of the club are going to be forced to search for new homes if
this new should leak out!

However, as the second Lord Thomas has installed him¬self
and his charming wife, I must keep to protocol and tear his home to
pieces.  I have already given Mr.
Collin’s palatial home and Mr. Hannam’s penthouse the treatment and tradition
must be adhered to.

After wending a weary way up 42 steps which went round and
round and round, we arrived at a door. Not unusual, you might say, but in the case of the B.E.C., you
might.  A half dressed Lord Thomas met
us, and in his somewhat boisterous manner, bade us welcome.  The exact words he used cannot unfortunately,
be printed.  The rather small hall opens
onto all four rooms and proceeding clockwise they are as follows.  The very necessary, containing a barf, a
washbasin, a bog and a gleaming highly polished water hotter upper (the
Thomas’s have not yet decided to have a matching floor covering or mundane
lino).  Next door is the kitchen, rather
large but without room, I am sad to say, for the Rolls Royce usually kept in
most Clifton Kitchens.  The living room
is rather larger than at their previous address and had a most pleasant black
and gold leaf motif wallpaper.  Next to
this is the bedroom and, by squeezing past the bed, a marvellous panorama of

Bristol is laid out
before your eyes – if you have any.  The
upper part of the wall is glass, and any enterprising person with a soapbox
could also enjoy the view by standing on it in Lord Thomas’s hall.

I did not venture to enquire if, like Mr. Hannam, they have
tried to enjoy the view by sleeping vertically as I feared L.M.F.O.M.’s reply.  During the visit, cheese and biscuits were
produced and much appreciated.

Special points of note: – You can stand anyone you don’t
like on the top step and retire into the bathroom.  By belting out of there at a rate of knots
similar to that to get to the Hunter’s first, one can knock the said person
flying out of the downstairs landing window. Good fun! – what?  A most
interesting decoration was a bottle of milk, and in a B.E.C. household
too!  The cupboards in the kitchen are
absolutely magnificent affairs capable of housing 22 Poles or 58 Jamaicans
(according to Mr. Hobbs, anyway) and we understand that Lord Thomas is
seriously considering this.

The Thomas conveyance, carriage or diligence was parked
neatly just under the mews entrance to the house and presented an awe inspiring
spectacle.  In the absence of further
persons to call on, we went our ways homewards. Will any other members intending to reside in this area please let the
selection committee know in advance so that detailed plans for sightseers can
be made and all that should be hidden, hidden.

Sonnet

For many years, within the
Hunter’s bar
You’d find him; with a pint of rough or beer
Within his mug, while outside stood his car
Which into drystone walls he’d sometimes steer.
Yes, many pots of ale he’d often sink.
No teeth had he which would impede the flow
Of rough and orange.  T’was his favourite
drink,
While in his hand a Woodbine oft would glow.
Alas!  His pot is missing from the shelf
And dentists fashion teeth for him to wear.
‘Tis said that he is seldom by himself.
He’s neatly dressed, and tidy is his hair.
Quite soon confetti, wedding bells and rice
Will doubtless all command a fancy PRICE

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Don’t forget that LAMP SPARES are on sale at the
Belfry. 

Apply to the Hut Warden.           Cash
on the nail!

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The Belfry Bulletin. S.J. Collins, 33
Richmond Terrace,
Clifton,

Bristol
8.
Secretary.  R.J. Bagshaw,

699 Wells Road,
Knowle,

Bristol
4.