The voting form which is included in this B.B. is for the
election of nine members to form the club committee for next year. There are upwards of a hundred and thirty
members in the club, which gives a ratio of one committee member to some
fifteen or so members. Nevertheless, all
nine members who form the committee are usually voted on to it by some thirty
to forty members who feel public spirited enough to actually vote.
We realise that many members live a long way from
thus hardly know some of the people who put up for the committee, but this
still leaves many members who have no such reason for not voting. Let’s try to have a record number of votes
this year.
The closing dates for the dinner competitions are now
drawing very close indeed. There is
still time to send your entries for the PHOTOGRAPHIC competition to M.J. BAKER,
“Morello”
Wells,
FRIDAY 21 of SEPTEMBER and entries for the SONG competition to S.J. COLLINS,
33, Richmond Terrace,
Finally, the A.G.M. and dinner will be on Saturday, OCTOBER
6th. The Dinner is at the
Cheddar.
Letter
To the Editor, B.B.
Dear Sir,
In the august 1962 issue of the B.B. a query was raised
regarding certain
in St. Cuthberts Swallet.
Several cairns were built in this cave by human agencies
some eight or nine years ago. Most are
situated several yards downstream of the Dining Room. During some of the lengthier of the early
exploration trips, it often happened that one or other of the party had to
retire to a quiet corner for a certain purpose. Since the decomposition of organic matter is highly attenuated in the
anaerobic conditions prevalent in argillaceous cave deposits, it became
customary to mark the spot by building a small cairn with a few stones as a
precaution against subsequent disturbance during future defecatory operations.
Although the cairn in question might have an entirely
different origin, may I, Sir, humbly suggest that it be treated with the
respect due to all such tumuli, and scheduled as a site not to be excavated?
Jack.
Editor’s
Note: The
above erudite letter was sent in by Jack Waddon. The practice he refers to was certainly
prevalent during the similar early discovery phase of Stoke Lane Swallet. The Crypt – off the Pebble Crawl – had one
such cairn, and got its name from the occasion when Don Coase crept into the
crypt etc.
The
Bradford Pit
An account of a recent visit by B.E.C. members to
investigate an underground rift at
A gathering of B.E.C. members occurred at
Wilts on Sunday, 15th July at 3.15 pm (the fact that they arrived nearly
simultaneously, at the same place, three quarters of an hour later than the
appointed time indicates consistency if not punctuality). The object of the gathering was to
investigate a “150 foot” rift at the request of Mr. Gorton, in whose
garden it existed. Much speculation regarding
the nature of this rift had been aroused mainly along the lines of a gigantic
crack across the lawn, or a rather exaggerated trench for the celery.
However, this illusion was dispelled as soon as the help of
a neighbour who “knew where the cave was, all right” had been
enlisted. Mr. Gorton being out with his
family when we arrived. The garden
consisted partially of a disused quarry of which a number of workings ran quite
extensively underground, the former owner – a stone mason – had built delicate
arches and gateways at the entrances (one could not help imagining that at
least one of them would have taken a turnstile and a ticket window without much
modification).
A preliminary shufti around the two mine workings with the
most prominent entrances resulted in the discovery of a small passage behind a
heap of old bed’s (empty) etc, leading downwards at a fairly steep angle,
terminating after about 20′ or so, and consequently not of much interest.
Owing to the speculation mentioned above, and to the fact
that the cave was in inferior Oolite and hence would be ‘cleaner’ than the
Mendip variety, many of the ‘gathered’ were ill equipped for what eventually
revealed itself.
Another reconnaissance revealed, behind what appeared to be
a well strawed but roofless stable, a working of considerable dimensions, being
between 15 and 20 feet in height and between 20 and thirty feet in width, with
a firm floor composed most probably of small chippings and quarry dust, pressed
down by the passing of many feet and cemented by the action of sufficient water
to keep it moist.
At the far end of the working, which was mainly in the form
of an L and sloped gently downwards, was THE RIFT!
A considerable quantity of tackle had been brought, which
included all the ladder which the B.E.C. could muster at the Belfry, plus a
couple of thirty foot lengths of lightweight ladder borrowed from the S.M.C.C.
together with a hundred and twenty feet of full weight nylon lifeline belonging
to the B.E.C. and Roy Bennett’s ‘120’ half weight climbing rope – all of this
was assembled at the entrance to the rift, which appeared as a vertical gash in
the end wall of the main tunnel.
On a level with the floor of the main cavern, and running
more or less horizontally into the rift, were a number of large boulders to
form a serviceable platform from which the tackle could be lowered. Initial inspection of the rift revealed that
it went “up”, “down” and “on”. In the “up” direction it was
blocked after a few feet by loose looking boulders. The “on” direction was limited by a
wall after about fifteen feet due to some form of internal faulting which had
caused the line of the rift to have been shifted some three feet to the
left. This piece of information was
obtained painfully by Roy Bennett, who, having got his head and chest through a
vertical slot at the fault plane, became stuck lower down and had to be
relieved of his sufferings by means of a sharp kitchen knife, causing a mixture
of consternation and amusement amongst the “gathered” still assembled
in the cavern above.
The down” direction was, of course, the one which we
had come to sort out, and after a tether of rope had been secured to a large
rock at the entrance of the rift, we lowered the ladder into the pit, relying
more on hearsay than on common sense; this being done from a small ledge about
six feet below the platform – a point where the rift was about four feet wide,
descending for about ten feet at an angle of about ten to fifteen degrees from
the vertical to a point where it appeared to get somewhat narrower and to
continue along a more vertical line.
Each undulation on the wall, being matched by an impression
of complimentary dimensions on the other, the general view was that the most
promising track for the ladder would be vertically downwards rather than
running over any of the chocked boulders which occurred from place to place in
the rift, whose lateral extent appeared to be about thirty feet, running some
ten feet or so under the floor of the main cavern.
The ladder having been installed, and with the Franklyn
Fraternity deftly plying the lifeline, Roy Bennett descended the hole. He soon reported that the ladder was all on a
heap oh a ledge and that there was enough room at that point for more
people. Garth followed him down, and
after a period of apparent loss of contact, a request that some of the ladder
be pulled up was made “some” turned out to be an understatement. I have no idea of the total footage of ladder
which had been lowered, but it nearly all came up again, leaving, however, some
fifty feet of S.M.C.C ladder in position – which just reached the ledge.
After another brief silence below, I descended the ladder,
to find that, as the depth progressed, the rift tended, to get narrower. The two who were already down were on a ledge
of small stones bounded on either side (laterally) by steeply sloping banks of
earth and stones. Along the rift in one
direction, was a well defined hole into which one could crawl which had a
steeply sloping earthy floor and apparently petered out after a short distance. The other side of the ledge looked more promising,
as the rift, although very narrow from here onwards, appeared to go on. The way in looked a bit hair raising, as
there was a Bennett sized gap full of Bennett who was busy gardening, but from
where I was situated he appeared to be removing the support from an otherwise
unsupported section of wall which might easily have sealed his doom.
However, after removing a few more chunks of rock, it became
obvious that it would only go on as far as chunks could be lifted out – and
then we would have to get him out, so we surmised that this represented the
limit of rational human penetration and must for all intents and purposes be
regarded as the bottom of the rift. On
the way up, we had a good look at the rift and it appeared to be bounded at
either end by a T junction. The end
rifts were neither as deep nor as wide as the main one. No sign of water activity was apparent
anywhere.
We were met about fifteen feet from the top by the owner of
the property, equipped with a rather fine bat wing flamed acetylene lamp and a
recently quite immaculate pair of trousers. He declared on ascending after having been about half way to the choke that
the ladder was considerably easier than the muddy rope which he had used on a
previous occasion, which must have been conducted practically in darkness, his
torch having spent a large part of the trip in his pocket.
On finally emerging, and having rolled up the tackle, we
were very grateful for being provided with buckets of hot water with which to
wash, and for the tea and biscuits with which Mrs. Gorton regaled us.
Notice
B.E.C. Caving Reports.
Our other series of Club Publications – the Caving Reports –
have recently taken on a wider scope with the publication of a report in the
series written by a non member of the club. For these who wish to collect these reports, their Editor, Bryan Ellis,
has sent in a complete list of available reports.
Report Number Nine Some Smaller Mendip Caves – Volume
Two” is now available, price 2/6 or 3/3 including postage. It contains descriptions and surveys of
several
Loxton; Ludwell; Coral and Denny’s Hole.
The following earlier reports are also available: –
No 4. “The Shoring of
Entrances”
No 5. “A survey of helmets &
lighting available for Caving”
No 6. “Some Smaller
– Volume One”
All the above at 2/6 or 3/3 inc. postage.
No 7. “A second Report on St. Cuthberts
Swallet” at 3/-
No 8. “A preliminary Survey of St.
Cuthbert’s Swallet at 3/6.
Caving Report No 3, “The Manufacture of Lightweight
Caving Ladders is being rewritten and should be available in a revised form
shortly.
caving clubs for sale, including surveys of several Mendip caves, and will
gladly send anyone a list. Material for
future Reports in this series should be sent to him direct. His address is:-
B,M. Ellis,
BRIDGWATER.
*****************************************
The Axbridge Caving Group & Archaeological Society would
like to invite any members of the B.E.C. who may be interested to a lecture on
by Mr. B.R. Collingridge at the town hall, Axbridge on Saturday, 22nd September
at 7.30 pm.
*****************************************
DON’T FORGET the A.G.M. and Dinner! 6th October at the
Cheddar. Apply to Bob Bagshaw for
reservations for the dinner.
Dinner Preview
Being a bit short of material for this month ‘s. B.B. (Yes,
I know there’s always the Caving Log to fill up spaces with, but I have also
been on holiday and that takes much longer to type) I thought it might be a
good idea to let some of the B.B. readers who are a little out of touch with
club goings on have an idea of what to expect if they decide to come to the
dinner this year.
It is. never possible to guarantee that an amazing time will
be had by all at a club dinner, but the indications are that this year’s dinner
should rank with last year’s as being amongst the best that the club has
held. The photographs; to my mind a
great attraction, should be even better than last year and may even include
some not taken in Balch’s Hole or the Ladder Dig in G.B.
Rumour has it that at least one of the speeches should be
rather unusual, and no doubt the usual presentations, will occur. A rather vaguer rumour hints that perhaps we
shall also have a repetition of the very successful mannequin parade which we
had a few years ago.
Later, for any musical masochists present, the song
competition will be held, while boozing and nattery continue in the other
bar. Three songs have already been
received and we are still hopeful of entries from the Giles,
quantity of free ale will be provided by Sett and Alfie – who may be joined by
others similarly qualified – to mark their Twenty years on Mendip.
With luck then, the dinner this year should have something
for everyone, and should be very worth attending. See you there!
*****************************************
The Belfry Bulletin. Secretary. R.J. Bagshaw, 699,
Editor, S.J. Collins, 33,
8.
Postal Dept.
7’8, Muller Rd, Eastville,