Contents
Rash Prophesies Department
We made ourselves look pretty silly last month, didnt
we? Bragging about the new cover and
stapling machine when it turned out that neither were ready for last
month. In fact, we had to hold last
months B.B. back but even so, the printers let us down. Anyhow, after a false alarm, here actually is
the new cover. We hope you like it
because youre stuck with it for at least eighteen months.
Cuthberts
When a caving incident receives national publicity, we feel
bound to follow with a description of our own, if only to let absent members
and other cavers know what actually did happen. In this particular case, the knowledge is first hand, and the account in
this months B.B. is largely that given to the M.R.O. by Marriott, who led the
party involved.
Once again, we sadly note the numerous errors and the
distortion of the facts towards melodramatic indulged in by many of the
national dailies. In particular, the bit
about communication not being established, which appeared in at least one
account, can be refuted by Ken, Prew, and myself, who were in touch with one
another by means of a writing pad in a tin, for the whole time.
Silver Jubilee
This is the clubs Silver Jubilee Year. In this issue is a letter by Tony Johnson on
this subject. It would be a good thing
if some of the older members could give a bit of thought to any sort of article
describing the early years of the club! Alfie
February Committee Meeting
The February meeting of the committee was held at the Belfry
on the 7th. The following new members
were elected and we take this opportunity to welcome them to the club. M.H. Evans, B.G. Clark, R.C. Hawkins, R.J.
Roberts, W.F. (Jug) Jones, and George and Shirley Weston. The last two are Joint Full members and all
the others full members.
Other business dealt with included a discussion on the
recent incident in Cuthberts, and suggestions for further increasing the
safety aspects of this cave, the provision of fluorescent lighting in the
Belfry, the proposed film to be made of the B.E.C., and the usual monthly
reports given by the officers of the club.
Cuthberts
(A report on the incident in St. Cuthberts Swallet on Sunday, 24th
January, 1960)
The party consisted of thirteen members of the Gloucester
Speleological Society, plus K. Franklin and myself acting as guides.
The party entered the cave at 1.00 pm, noticing a small amount
of water running into the entrance rift, which caused two of members of the
back and return to the surface. The
remaining thirteen of us pressed on, meeting a party led by Mike Palmer when we
reached Mud Hall. Since one of the
experienced some difficulty in negotiating the Wire Rift, he decided at this
stage to return to the surface with Mike Palmers party.
The remainder of our party, now reduced to twelve, went on
and did the usual Weegee trip. On the
return journey it was decided to split the party at Upper Mud Hall, and since
three of the
people had previously visited the cave, they went ahead with two others while
K. Franklin and myself followed with the slower people. The object of this move was to avoid the
delay which accompanies a party of this size at the bottom of the entrance
rift. When this point was reached by the
slower portion of the party, at approximately 6 pm we found that two members of
the first party had succeeded on climbing the rift against a considerable
volume of water while the others were waiting for us, owing to lack of and
non-functioning electric lights.
I then offered to climb the rift next and give the rest of
the party illumination and assistance with the rope if necessary from the
top. This suggestion was agreed to, and
I then climbed the rift. On reaching the
top, I began to encourage the next chap who, by this time, was nearly halfway
up by giving him a heave on the rope. At
this stage, his light went out and he became to be a trifled worried. It became obvious that he would have to
return to the bottom and be assisted by fresh people on the line. I therefore advised him to return while this
could be organised and meanwhile get out of the water.
Meanwhile, at the Belfry, the first members of the party had
reported the heavy water flow down the Entrance Rift and Rowena offered to
change and go as far as the bottom of the Rift, to let the rest of the party
know that assistance was available if required. Rowena met me at the top of the Rift, and volunteered to go down to
check if the second man had got down all right. I then returned to the Belfry to call out assistance.
Alfie was getting into a Goon Suit as I arrived, and
informed me that he had contacted Ken at the Shepton Hut by phone, and that Ken
was standing by and changing. As Alfie
left for the cave, Prew arrived and was put in touch with events. He immediately formed a party to attempt to
make the dam more effective, but it was soon agreed that little immediate
reduction of water was possible by this means. Ken and Alfie then entered the cave, and, on reaching the top of the
Rift, Ken went down after agreeing a code of signals on the rope and promising
to come straight back and report on the condition of the rift and the party
below. He soon returned and reported
that the party were in good hearty, but that it would not be advisable for them
to come out just yet, as they were a little tired after their trip and rather
wet. He suggested that he return to the
bottom to reinforce the party there. Alfie returned to the Belfry and, with the others, got hot tea, dry
clothes &c together to be lowered down the Rift. This was done and the M.R.O. called out. They brought enough Goon Suits to equip each
caver still at the bottom with one, and organised the Fire Brigade to come up
an pump the pond out into
swallet. The M.R.O. call went through
about 8 pm.
Prew, Mike Holland, Alfie &c then started lowering the
supplies down to the people below. Contact with the party at the bottom was originally carried out by Ken
and Alfie shouting to each other, but this was soon replaced by the use of a
message pad and pencil which could be lowered up and down on the rope. A point to note here. Light articles, such as clothing, will not go
down the Rift easily in polythene bags and a bag full of stones was improvised
to give the bags enough weight. The
supplies ware organised form the Belfry and the Shepton Hut were soon
reinforced with Goon Suits by the M.R.O. and supplies of chocolate, cigarettes
&c which Brenda and Jill organised from the local shop.
The M.R.O. arrived on the scene very quickly, and also the
Fire Pump which, by 9.45 was pumping the pond out at a very impressive
rate. At about this time, a veritable
horde of reporters, photographers (moving and still) and general hangers-on
descended on the site like a swarm of locusts. By 10.45 the water flowing down the entrance rift had considerably
decreased and the first of the people below came out. Further pumping stopped the flow completely
& the last man form the
party reached the surface by 1am.
Kit was then recovered from the cave and taken to the
Belfry, where utter confusion appeared to reign, owning to the fact that thirty
or forty people plus a vast amount of kit were all crammed into the
building. However, this was all gradually
sorted out.
One unfortunate aspect of this affair is that it was not
discovered until we were actually in the cave that two of the party were
novices (from a caving point of view) although one was an experienced climber
and the other had had considerable experience in old iron workings. It was one of these people who failed to
climb the Rift on the first attempt. In
view of this, it would have been inadvisable to have encouraged him to make a
second attempt immediately after his failure. Fortunately, and perhaps due to this prudent attitude, the situation at
no time got out of hand and, thanks to the prompt assistance of the M.R.O., the
Police and the Fire Brigade, the whole operation was carried out very calmly
and smoothly.
From
an account by C.A. Marriott.
Letters to the Editor
Dear Hon. Ed.
Reading the Christmas number of the B.B. which has just
reached me by a rather roundabout way, I see a notification for change of
address. Here is my present one, but
please keep the one which is at present on the books as my permanent address.
Although my copy of the B.B. is not quite hot off the press,
I find it very interesting. I see from
the address list that Tony Rich is now in
inhabited by frogs; and
is only 5% English speaking. Thus I am
trying to learn French as fast as possible on the principle of when in
do!
I have a job with Shawinigan Chemicals in the Technical
Service and Development Department on Vinyls and other plastics. Only a few of my fellow technicians can speak
English. It is rather like living in a
sort of Americanised France. In the
hills near here (locally termed the bush) there are many lovely lakes
surrounded by forest. They are wonderful
for boating; swimming; water skiing or fishing in the summer. At the moment, most of these lakes have many
inches of ice and in the north where the temperature drops to -40 of -60oF,
several feet of ice are formed.
There is plenty of snow here. We had the first of it in the middle of
October. I have been skiing every
weekend since before Christmas. Ive
been to
twice and seem My Fair Lady the last time.
Hows the dig on Priddy green? Still draining the cowsh from
Swildons? Whilst the rest of you are all
draining the Hunters dry, I suppose!
John
Pegram
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To the Editor, B.B.,
Dear Sir,
Where are they now? Where are the people who have helped over the years to build the B.E.C.
up to what it is now? Some of us are
still circulation, some tragically are no longer with us, but very many have
just disappeared into the shadows.
I wonder where Andre is now. Before the B.B. was ever dreamed of, way back
in the early 1940s, Andre was by way of being a club chronicler in
cartoon. Unfortunately, few of his
efforts survive. What of Johnny half
Pint Dwyer that cussed but intrepid pillion rider of the Cantle motor
cycle. What of Roger himself? I believe he is to be found rushing round
Gloucestershire in a radio controlled car a respectable married man. Thinking of climbing and North
where that diminutive Merseyside dynamo Bob Crabteree is yarning these
days. Others of the climbing fraternity,
Ron Holler-in-the-Night Newman and Johnny Menace Morris more fortunately
have not completely gone and may still be seen at club now and again.
John Bindon is another to have departed, and his
exceptionally fine tenor voice is no longer heard in the Hunters. Of similar vintage, who can remember Tim
Kendrick flying into Cuthberts depression one summers day? This would go on forever. Postle and Dizzie and their famous chariot
Sue, Tony Bamber, Foulmouth McKee and many more.
Luckily some of these old stagers ate still going
strong. Dan Hasell springs to mind at
once. I dont think he would like to be
known as the wise old man of the B.E.C., but his experience has been invaluable
to us on more than one occasion. He probably
doesnt remember, but he was the first to take me up on Mendip and the
Hunters. Sett seems to go on and
on. Sett, for whom Hal Perry once wrote
(after one of his prangs which he indulged at the time)
Now theres Sett of battered face
Likes to fester on apace,
Taking corners over faster
Often leads him to disaster.
There are dozens more. Some known to the present population, some rarely mentioned names,
stretching back almost into prehistory; when the B.E.C. was vastly different
form its present prosperity. I can
remember long discussions during those happy evenings with Harry at
when in fear and trembling we decided to sink everything and bog (was it £25?)
and buy a hut to use as a Mendip Headquarters. How this hut is no more and a stone one is rising in its place.
As a gesture on the Silver jubilee of the club, I wonder if
it would be possible to send a complimentary copy of the B.B. to those old but
lost friends whose addresses are not too out of date. Even if some never find their final
recipient, I feel that some at least might be glad to know that the old club is
still alive and kicking and perhaps renew their acquaintance. You never know.
Tony
Johnson
Editors
Note. At the risk of a wildcat strike
in the Postal Dept, I think this could be arranged. We do owe these members quite a lot, and this
would be a nice way of reminding then that they are not quite forgotten.
British Overseas Caving
Expedition.
A preliminary notice appeared in a recent B.B. We have now been sent more information. The expedition will be arranged for 1961 and
it is desired to know a little known caving area in
so as not to duplicate the work of earlier such expeditions. If any member has any definite knowledge of
an area fulfilling those conditions, he is asked to get in touch with: –
Alan
Fincham
The University,
Or via the club secretary. Further notices will appear in the B.B. on this subject from time to
time.
Subscriptions.
It seems absurd to suggest it, but there are still some of
this years subs outstanding. Why not
astound the secretary abet actually paying them?
Use of a Barometer
Roger Stenner has written to point out that the conclusions
printed at the end of the article Use of a Barometer in Cave Surveying which
appeared in the recent Christmnas B.B. were not these which, in fact, he
supplied. This is true and we should
like to may it quite clear that this is not our usual practice. There are, however, reasons which will be
sent to the author. Should he not agree,
a further article on this subject will be printed in the near future.
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The Hut Warden would like to remind you that kit is left at
the Belfry at YOUR OWN RISK. Old caving
and other gear is liable to be turned out periodically and may be
destroyed. Dont let this happen to you!
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THE BELFRY BULLETIN. February 1960. No. 144.
Secretary, R.J. Bagshaw,
Road
Editor, S.J. Collins, 33
8.
Postal Dept, B. Prewer,
Road