Editorial

As you will appreciate from the heading, page one of this
B.B. has had to be scrapped.  It
originally did things like wishing you all a Merry Christmas, but perhaps in
view of the ill fortune that has dogged the production of this very belated
Christmas Number, it might be safer to wish you a Happy Easter (or in, the case
of members who get the B.B. by post, Whitsun).

Not to bore you unduly, but what has happened is a temporary
breakdown in the printing department of the B.B. also, as a result of changes here,
it will not be possible to implement the plans for producing the B.B. by the
Offset Litho process – at least not in the near future.  So it is a case of ‘as you were’ and perhaps
that’ll finally teach me not to natter on about the future any more!

You will however, find some forms about the M.R.O. and the
continental trip in this B.B. and also you are being asked for your comments on
the subject of next year’s dinner. Please try to answer all these if you possible can as various
arrangements depend on us knowing what you want and what you are prepared to
do.

In spite of the delay, the editor would like to wish all
club members and cavers everywhere a very Happy and Prosperous New Year and
good caving in 1965.

 “Alfie”

The Sequence of Development of St. Cuthberts [Part 2]

Re-examination and Vadose Erosion.

The great plug was finally broken, possibly by the simple
pressure of the water that it impounded, possibly by the fall in the water
table at the Wookey end of the system causing the choke to be sapped from
downstream.  The first re-excavating
streams came down the Arête route and from the north east corner of Upper
Traverse Chamber.  Both cleared much of
the fill in the central chambers and the western part of the

Warren before re-opening the gravity favoured
channels down Everest Passage and The Fingers and so clearing Main Stream
Passage.  A comparatively small stream
removed the top six feet or so of fill in the
Lake
– Cerberus Hall section of the rift, flowing into the Main Stream through the
Dining Room.  Southeast of the Dining
Room Junction the rift remained choked. The streams cleared it again at end below their final points of entry –
Beehive Chamber.  The gours for which the
rift is named are thus stalagmite deposits on to a wall of fill left standing
immediately upstream of the Beehive Junction.

In the highest parts of the cave, there was little fill to
clear.  The streams instead expended their
energy on the erosion of the cave.  At
the south end of the Wire Rift a great stream pothole was drilled by the water
on its way to Pillar and Boulder Chambers. The drilling struck an extensive low-angle thrust which guides most of
the Pulpit route from the second pitch to Lower Traverse Chamber.  Water was diverted down it, tearing the
bottom out of the pothole and opening a primitive route across Lower Traverse
Chamber and out into Main Stream Passage at the lower Everest Passage
Junction.  This route (proto Pulpit) thus
passed under Upper traverse Chamber without connecting with it during the early
stages of formation.  The ruptured
pothole is Upper Mud Hall, now further modified by a hefty rock fall.

Stream flow in the cave then ceased and another stalagmite
phase began.  The principal remains are a
great false floor – up to 24 inches thick – which has to be ducked under when
passing into the Dining Room

It was built onto a gravel floor sloping from Cerberus Hall
down to the Main Stream Passage.  Only
the lower part of it is left now and it is s good site to look at stream eroded
stalagmite.  There are even some
anastomoses.

When the streams started up again, they entered the cave via
new routes.  During the stalagmite phase,
the earlier surface sinks must have been infilled.  The Arête – Wire Rift route was abandoned and
a small stream found its way down through the big aven at the bottom of the
descent from Pillar Chamber to Kanchenjunga Boulder level.  It went on through Boulder Chamber to Main
Stream passage, continuing the work of clearing fill.

A larger stream followed a great vertical fault down onto
the northwest side of September Series. When it hit the shales, it burst a new route to the west, into Upper
Traverse Chamber.  The fault guided
pitch, apparently the biggest vadose feature in the cave, is High Chamber.  Another stream from

Lake
Chamber
cleared another six feet or so of fill in Cerberus Hall, undermining the Dining
Room stalagmite floor and leaving it hanging in the air.  The combined streams cut shallow trenches in
the rock floor immediately up and downstream of plantation Junction.  Half of the upstream trench remains as a
muddy ledge followed along the bottom of the Sewer.

Another stalagmite phase followed.  Remains are again seen at the Dining Room,
where a thin floor is preserved on the north side descending the 24 inch
one.  When the stream recommenced, they
brought in a unique fill of sand and silt which had evidently accumulated above
ground during the stalagmite phase.  For
a while, many parts of the cave were clogged with this, until the surface
supply ran out and the streams began to move their dumpings further downstream
into the unknown cave.  Sand from High
Chamber Stream can be seen on the Upper Traverse, banked against the remaining
course fill in the Tunnel and all over the Fingers.  There it buried stalagmite and built up at
least fifteen feet deep, spilling into the

Warren. A lot of sand remains north of the Kanchenjunga Boulder, indicating that
the stream from the aven there brought its share.

In Cerberus Hall, there was a rock fall onto the stalagmite
and then six to eight feet of sand was laid. It is the flat floor material in the centre of the hall.  At the northwest end it can be seen burying
big stalagmite bosses of an earlier phase. There are remains of the sand in crevices all the way down Main Stream
Passage and great bank of it at Plantation Junction.

At the close of the sand phase, High Chamber lost the
principal stream.  It has only been a
trickle since, which cut a prominent trench to the mouth of Maypole
Series.  It was this series which
captured the water.  This created the
most northerly passages, then joining the pre-existing rift.  This was entrenched, creating some of the
finest stream potholes on Mendip.  One,
which follows vertically plunging shales, is a must for the collector of
spectacular geology.

On entering Upper traverse Chamber, the Maypole Stream used
a sequence of routes.  First, it cleared
sand down the old course through Cascade Chamber and The Fingers.  Once this was out of the way a route was
opened through the solid rock floor down to the proto-Pulpit Channel, which had
been inactive since the first phase of re-excavation.  The new route was Sentry Passage.  Before this had grown very big, it was
abandoned for the more direct course that the trickles from the Maypole Series
now follow.  This course culminates in a
thirty foot vertical drop to the proto-Pulpit cave.  The greatest pothole in St. Cuthbert’s was
drilled at the base of it.  This is Lower
Traverse Chamber.  From the pothole, the
water first exited on the west side, the modern crawl through the boulders to
the lower parts of the cave.  The trench
it cut here left Sentry Passage hanging eight feet up the wall and caused the
boulder fall.  Later, the lower route cut
through the south wall of the pothole was developed.  The stream follows this to a choke today.

Then the Maypole Series was robbed of its water in
turn.  It was diverted, immediately below
ground, into the

Arête Route.  Fill was cleared in the Wire Rift and the
series of little capture channels between Upper Mud Hall and Waterfall Pitch
(the last and biggest of the captures) were opened.

Rockfall in the Arête Pitch diverted the water into some big
joints in the northwest.  These opened up
into Pulpit Pitch, the last great vadose trench was cut down to the Lower
Traverse pothole.  This, of course, was
out of action because the water from Maypole was gone.

In this phase of erosion also, a stream re-entered September
Series and the Extension.  This area had
been inactive since it was choked in the Main Fill Period.  The new stream opened Catgut which had not
existed before, and then cleared Extension Passage down through Helictite
Passage.  It switched its course and
began clearing the modern

Plantation
Stream Route. Fill in Continuation Chamber could be flushed into Extension Passage via
the Sausage Machine.  Further downstream,
clearance was more difficult and most of the coarse material in the choke
remains, though the finer stuff has been filtered out.  Flood waters in the clogged passage built up
quite a head of pressure, which caused water to burst from the Tin Mine and
erode a channel, through fill, into the top of the Sewer.  This is why it is necessary to climb to enter
Helictie Passage and use a chain to scale stalagmite 10 feet to the north
(entrance to Upper Extension Passage). One is climbing the walls of the flood channel, since mantled with stalagmite.

Since the Sand Phase, there has been no big stream flowing
from Curtain Chamber into Cerberus Hall. At
Lake and Mud Hall Chambers, local
drips have washed the fill down into the soak ways in the floor.  The soaking water may emerge somewhere in the
Sewers but I think it more probable that it goes straight down the Great Rift
to seep under the Gours.  The
Lake level thus fluctuates because the heavy wet weather
drips have to filter out, on a shallow gradient, through more than 250 feet of
stream gravels.

The mainstream (Pulpit) was reduced in size at the close of
this last major erosion phase.  It cut
slot trenches through its potholes and then could only deposit its load of
pebbles and gravels.  The deposit built
up to 4 – 5 feet above the modern floor at Lower Traverse Chamber, where many
residuals of it can be seen.

Cavers, however, are the most active cause of erosion of all
kinds at the moment.  There is plenty of
evidence all over Mendip to indicate that falls most frequently occur in much-travelled
boulder chokes, even if there is no deliberate displacement of material.  Gravel and clay deposits have taken a heavy
beating.  As they may be of significance
to the kind of historical reconstruction given above, it is well to avoid
trampling over those that have escaped the boot so far.  Please don’t dump carbide anywhere near
buried stalagmite deposits.  In the
future it may be possible to get dates on these, but they will look pretty
queer if the calcium ratios have been affected by seeping calcium carbide.

Derek Ford

Los Angeles
May 1964

The sequence of development in st. Cuthbert’s swallet.

Phreatic Period	Phase 1.	Phreatic Erosion. – Bore Passages.
	2	Phreatic Erosion. – Expansion –
		Disintegration of Bore Passages.
		Cave Drained of Phreatic Water
Main Fill Period.	Phase 3a.	Stream Deposition.  Coarse deposits, followed by finer sediments.
	3b.	Stalagmite Deposition.
	4a.	Stream Deposition.  –  As in 3a.
	4b.	Stalagmite Deposition.
	5a.	Stream Deposition.  –  As in 3a.
	5b.	Stalagmite Deposition.
	6	Stream Deposition.  –  As in 3a.
	7	Stream Deposition.  –  As in 3a
Re-excavation Period.	8a.	Vadose Erosion.  Mud Hall’s Pothole
	8b.	Stalagmite Deposition.
	9a.	Vadose Erosion.  –  High Chamber.
	9b.	Stalagmite Deposition.
	10	Stream Deposition.  –  Sand Phase.
	11a.	Vadose Erosion.  –  Maypole & Pulpit.
	11b.	Stream Deposition.
	11c.	Recent Stalagmite.
	12	Vadose Erosion.  –  Recommencing.  (modern phase).

 

Cuthbert’s in 1964

For the last few years, the Christmas B.B. has included an
article on St. Cuthbert’s giving outlines of new discoveries found during the
year.

On one of the main trips to the Coral area this year,
several interesting chambers were found giving, I hope, a new interest to the
would be explorer and those who are under the impression that S. Cuthbert’s is
an explored cave with no further discoveries of interest to come!

Following the discovery of Chandelier Passage and Upper Long
Chamber (This should not be confused with Long Chamber Extension which is the
chamber reached by traversing the bedding plane of Long Chamber and which was
also known as Upper long Chamber.  Due to
the duplicating of chamber names, Upper Long Chamber is now the chamber noted
by John Cornwell – although it was probably discovered in December 1963 when
Nick Hart and Phil Davies maypole the hole in the wall opposite Kanchenjunga)
by John Cornwell in March, a rough survey was commenced with a view to
obtaining a clear picture of what existed in this comparatively little known
area of the cave, and to attempt to catalogue all the known chambers and
passages.

On one of these trips, accompanied by Bill Smart, Dave Smith
and Olive Tomlinson, a visit was paid to a passage off the ruckle mentioned by
Mike Luckwill on the 1963 Christmas B.B. This rift passage, some fifty feet, was explored both in the roof and
the floor for any extensions.  I found a
small hole at the bottom end of the rift that led to a tight rift leading to a
small boulder chamber which was the terminal point of a visit by Roy Bennett
some years ago.  Several holes were noted
under the only solid wall which showed to be another narrow rift with a chamber
below.  Several feeble attempts were made
to remove a key, medium sized, boulder but we couldn’t get sufficient leverage
to get it out.  The only way left to us
was to remove the pile of boulders at the side – at first carefully, but
gradually increasing in speed until they all avalanched to the floor of the
chamber with an almighty crash!  In doing
this, they blocked the keystone, but revealed a choked rift.  By digging through the fill, we broke into a
lower chamber.  This chamber tapered to a
stal. choke and, as I was looking at it, Bill Smart noticed a small hole in the
floor near the limestone climb.  We threw
stones in to the hole and by the way they fell sounded extremely
promising.  Just able to squeeze my head
and shoulders through, I saw what appeared to be a very large pot with huge
slabs balanced against the sides. Extracting myself, we started moving a slab of rock giving sufficient
room to squeeze through.  I landed on a
ledge in the chamber some twenty feet above the floor level and saw at once
that it was not a pot, neither was it circular! The chamber was about forty feet long and some twenty to twenty feet
wide and about forty feet high.  The
right hand wall was absolutely smooth for the full height of the chamber,
giving the impression of height far more than it really was.  The climb down was accomplished by the party
gave us a chance to look at the chamber. It appeared we were in the upper reaches of the Lake/Gour fault.  This time we were looking at the fault in its
original unwaterworn state, although some mineralization has taken place on the
vertical wall.  It was noted some time
later that it was rather strange to see the bedding on the left ‘wall’ broken
into large boulders and the complete absence of any bedding on the fault wall.  The ‘white limestone’ we had climbed down was
an eight foot wide band of breccia.  On a
later trip, when we lit the chamber with magnesium string showed horizontal
slickensliding, which has given a clue to the type of fault we are trying to
cross.

The following day, accompanied by the same party except Dave
Smith, who had an argument with the Mineries Pool the evening before, plus Mike
Palmer, Mike Luckwill and Tony Meadon, scoured Marble Hall for any further
passages.  A series of such passages were
found below the chamber reached by climbing down a rift; but were all choked
with coarse infill.  The interesting
point was that the bedding appeared to be all but vertical (the normal angle
for the cave is 38 -400) but this is presumably due to the disturbance caused
by the fault.  Before leaving we
discussed a suitable name for the chamber and arrived finally at Marble Hall
for two reasons: – Large white calcite banding was a feature in the fault wall
resembling marble and the high narrow rectangular section of the chamber looked
very much like an impressive hall.

During a photographic trip with

Barry Lane and Tommy Thomas (Aug 9th) I
had a further look at the stal. choke in the chamber above Marble Hall, and saw
that it was comprised of small boulders with a thin coating of flowstone.  Stones were dropped through the small
openings and indicated a space below. The following Saturday armed with hammer and accompanied by Phil Kingston
and Mike Luckwill, we smashed

the choke and entered a very small but well water worn
chamber, the only way one being a very tight tube leading almost vertically
downwards.  At first sight it looked
almost impossible, but I managed to slide through to the top of another rift
chamber about fifteen feet deep.  This
led to another squeeze in the floor and a shaft (climbable) some three to four
feet in diameter and once choked with a coarse infill.  Parts are quite well stalled over.  This dropped away for nearly thirty feet,
ending in a choke.  A tight squeeze led
to a side chamber that only Phil could get through.  On the floor, a tight phreatic tube was
noticed with several fist size holes leading downward from it.  Small stones were dropped down and indicated
a space below once again.  On a later
trip with Roy Bennett,

Roy
noticed a small chamber at the bottom of the fifteen foot rift.  This has not been entered to this date, as it
is proposed to photograph the stal. flow before it is soiled when entering a
tube on the far side.  On the 25th August
we (Bill Smart, Alan Williams, Geoff Bull and myself) explored the ruckle
again.  Much work will have to be done in
the future as many promising holes have yet to be probed.

Another interesting area that has been found this year
(although great care needs to be exercised) is off Pillar Chamber.  We (Alan Thomas and myself) entered a hole in
the roof to a small chamber with bat guano on the floor that led to a rather
shattered passage after a short climb, entered a chamber about twenty feet five
feet high.  This was probably the feeder
to Rocky Boulder Passage as the floor below shows a well developed pot some six
feet in diameter and blocked with boulders. An interesting pitch of about twenty five feet may be made through the
eyehole to Rocky Boulder Passage.

Alan climbed a rather dodgy looking lot of boulders to find
a large chamber above and to the left of this (looking north).  This chamber is formed along the same plane
as Upper Long Chamber and bedding planes. A much more sporting way to connect the two chambers is via a 54’ pitch
that is reached from the large chamber via a squeeze (The Thrutch).  This leads to a wide rift some 25 to 30 feet
high with an unclimbed aven at the end. At the floor of the aven are fine formations with several crystal
pools.  A thirty foot maypole will be
required to climb the aven and avoid the stal. The rift was entered and the left hand wall climbed to a height of about
eighteen feet to a point near the stal. floor (Saturday 10th October – Alan
Coase, Bill Smart, 2 W.S.G. and myself). Although Alan was tempted to climb a bedding plane, it proved too dicey
without ropes.

As we were about to leave the rift, I had a look at a hole
at the end of a restricted bedding plane and could see a ledge some ten to
twelve feet down.  As I was halfway
through the hole, a stone crashed away telling us that it was more than ten to
twelve feet.  The ladders were fetched
and belayed to boulders in the floor. Alan, the only one handy with a Nife, as water supplies were about out,
bottomed the pitch to say that the forty feet of ladder that we had got was
about ten feet short.  Climbing down the
rest, he found himself in a bedding plane leading to Long Chamber.

This then is a brief description of some of the new areas in
Cuthbert’s with a very great deal still to be probed.  Perhaps 1965 might be the year the B.E.C.
cross the fault.  Who knows?

Dave Irwin.

 

M. R. O.

As many of you will know, the B.E.C. operates a rescue
call-out system as part of its co-operative effort with the Mendip Rescue
Organisation.  This involves having an up
to date list of active members, with their telephone numbers and addresses, so
that in the event of a rescue call-out a suitable number of people can be
brought to the scene of the rescue as quickly as possible.  This is particularly important at time when
few cavers are on Mendip as for instance in a mid-week call-out.

Over the last few years, the list has become out of date and
a questionnaire has therefore been included in this B.B.  From the answers received, a short list of
thirty or so people will be drawn up. The term ‘most Mendip caves’ in the questionnaire means the major
systems of Mendip; Swildons, Eastwater, Cuthbert’s, G.B.,

Stoke Lane, etc.  The term ‘special Knowledge’ includes
features such as the Long Chamber area of Cuthbert’s, Pine Tree Pot, Cow Holes,
etc.

C.A. Marriott.

Crossword

	1		2		3		4		5			X WORD Across.   1. Mendip Cave (9).  6. Any Other Business (3).  8. Used by learner cavers to find their way out (6).  9. I get into a broken bell (5).  10. A devilish metal (6). 11. Allow to become a lord (7).  13.  If rocks do this, it could be dangerous (7).  16. In the Chinese vase, that is broken (6).  18. Bird, wrapped up in a towel?  (5). 19. Electrical power supplies (6). 21. Van Gogh cut his off!  Would you do the same? (3) 22. Logically when Alice should have had the jam? (9).
									6		7
8
							9
10
					11	12
13		14		15
						16		17
18
						19				20
21
		22

 

Down. 

1. Consume (3).

2. Stir a stump, or for that matter
the B.E.C. and the result is this (5).

3. TWISTED? (7)

4. Edible form of Egyptian writing?
(6).

5. Natural caver? (6).

7. See 14 down (9).        8. Rock from underneath the limestone
(9)

12. Neil and egg beaten up to give a
film garnet (7).

14 & 7. Read by bats? (6 &
9).

15. Buries (6).

17. Sulky transport (5).

20. Plaything (3).

Sett

 

Extracts from the Caving Log

Edited by Barry lane

On the 4th October, Bob White and Dave Irwin inspected a
rift in the large chamber off the “Pillar Extensions” in St. Cuthbert’s and
found that an aven near the entrance to the chamber connected with passages
above Upper Long Chamber.  The aven is a
fairly easy climb of thirty feet but care is required near the top due to loose
scree.  On the following day, Dave was
accompanied by Alan Coase and Bill Smart. The same region was explored and another rift off the same large chamber
was climbed but became too tight to follow at the top.  A hole in the bottom of the rift was entered,
which led to a passage similar to Fracture Rift in size, but unfortunately only
about twenty five feet long.  Another
twenty five foot climb revealed a fine stal. flow, and behind this a six foot
passage leads back to the fifty foot pot mentioned frequently in earlier caving
logs.

On the 11th October, Tony Meadon, Bob Craig and

Barry Lane looked
at

Lake
Chamber and found that the water level
was so low that an archway was passable into an adjacent chamber.  This chamber has a large aven in the roof
which looks very promising.

Cannington
Cave was entered on 22nd
by Noel McSharry and Sett.  Lots of bones
were found, ranging from rabbit to cave bear. The trip was thought to be very worth while for the student of caves but
not for the ‘tiger’.  On the 31st, Tony
Meadon and Chris Harvey carried out work on the dig under the gours but found
conditions rather muddy as the dig quickly became filled with water due to its
position being lower than the stream.  On
the same day, Geoff Bull and Bill Smart were digging at the bottom of the
Railway Tunnel in Hunters Hole.

Alan Thomas and Steve Grime helped Willy Stanton at his dig
in Goughs on 7th November.  Their report
states that they have broken the digging record which now stands at three
hundred buckets day.  However, on the
following weekend only two hundred and fifty buckets were removed in six
hours.  This was said to be a rather poor
effort.  On the 21st, an even greater
gathering of B.E.C.,
Wessex
and

Sidcot
School people broke the bucket record in
Goughs once again, by removing there hundred and thirty three.

Trips to Swildons and Eastwater were made this month but
were mainly tourist.  Cuthbert’s seems to
be out of the news for November, with nothing of interest happening there.  Where has Dave Irwin been?

Mathematical Puzzles – by Sett

The problem asking for the number of patterns appearing has
a large number of solutions.  Almost all
of these depend on the fact that odd and even numbers occur on alternate
squares and hence diagonal lines, also that squares and squares with additions
and subtractions occur on diagonal lines. No solutions were sent in for this problem. Tiny Meadon again sent in
the only correct solution to the problem about pints of beer.

If the last digit of the original number is 4, the last
digit of the new number (and the second digit of the original number) must be 6
(4 times 4).  Similarly, if the second
digit of the new number (and the third last digit of the original number) must
be 5 (4 times 6 plus 1) and by repeating this process, we find that: –

                        102,564
times 4 = 410,256.

This mathematical answer could have a decimal point added or
could be repeated depending on an intelligent guess of the true number of pints
actually sold.  If we assume an average
of 50 cavers each drinking four pints per weekend, we obtain 10,400 pints per
year.  Thus the correct solution will be
10,256.4 pints.

A party of cavers decide to do a round trip in Cuthbert’s
which will take 20 hours.  Nowhere does
the route cross and it can be considered as a circular course starting and
finishing at the entrance.  The route
chosen is so tight that they decide to use acetylene lamps in which a single
charge will last fours.  They also make
up spare four hour charges in sealed tins which they include in packs with four
hours worth of food.  They can only carry
one pack each at a time.  When a carbide
tin is opened it must be all put into a lamp as a part empty tin will not
keep.  There is a large stock of spare
charges at the entrance.  What is the
smallest number needed for the trip? This problem is not really as difficult as it might seem, learners are
as likely to obtain the correct solution as experts.  There is no proof that the minimum number
assumed to be the correct solution is in fact the best solution.

 “Sett”

 

Climbing Meets

North Wales.
23/24 January.
North Wales. 27/28 January.
North Wales 20/21 March.

Accommodation on all these weekends will be in huts and
early booking is thus essential.

Wye
Valley.  10/11 April. This trip will involve travelling over on Saturday morning and camping
on the Saturday evening.

There should be sufficient private transport for all these
meets.

Bookings to: – Roy Bennett, 3 Russells Cottages, Backwell
Common, Backwell,

Somerset.

Caving Meets

January
24th.  Pine Tree Pot.  Meet at the Belfry at 11am.

February
21st.  Cow Hole.  Meet at the Belfry at 11am.

March 14th.
Eastwater.  Balch memorial trip.  Period dress to be worn.  Meet at the Belfry at 11am.

April
16/19th.  Easter in
Yorkshire.  Gaping Ghyll. Several members have expressed a wish to ladder the main shaft of gaping
Ghyll (365’) and, as the club has not yet paid a visit to this area for some
time, Easter this year has been arranged for the visit.

To those who gulp at the thought of laddering G.G., there
are numerous other caves and pots in the area to suit all tastes, Alum Pot and
Bar Pot being amongst the more popular. It is hoped to visit a northern caving club hut, but if this does not
materialise, then it will be camping at the Flying Horseshoe.  Will all those interested in the Yorkshire
trip at Easter please contact the Caving Secretary, Dave Irwin either at the
Belfry or at 9
Camden
Hill
Gardens,

London, W.8. as
soon as possible to book accommodation and to let him know if they require
transport or if they can help with transport.

The St. Cuthbert’s Leaders meeting will be held at the
Belfry at 2.15pm on January 17th 1965. Any interested cavers in addition to the St. Cuthbert’s Leaders will be
very welcome.

Digs.

Castle Farm, Nine Barrows Swallet, Hunters Hole and several
places in St. Cuthbert’s (Mud Ball Chamber, Mo’s Dig, the Mud Sump behind the
Dining Room, and below the choke in Traverse Chamber) are all actually being
dug.  As you can see, this is quite a big
programme so come along and give a hand. Remember that St. Cuthbert’s, G.B., August-Longwood etc. were all found
by digging.  All those interested in
helping contact Keith Franklin, Kevin Abbey, Roy Bennett or myself (Dave Irwin).  We can accommodate you all – wet or fine –
indoors or out!

 

Notices

As from the first of January, 1965, non members may only
stay at the Belfry on THREE occasions annually without applying for membership
unless obtaining special permission form the Hut Warden prior to their next
visit.  This does not apply to bona fide
visitors from clubs offering the B.E.C. reciprocal facilities.

Will members who leave cars in the Belfry car park and
intend to be away from the Belfry for some time, please ensure before departing
that their car does not prevent other members from leaving.  If this cannot be avoided, please leave your
car out of gear and with the handbrake off or (preferable) unlocked.  If you do not do this, your car may have to
be bounced or slid and this will not do your tyres or springs much good!

It has been brought to the notice of the committee that the
Tackle instructions are not always being adhered to.  Tackle has been found in the changing room
from the weekend before, unwashed and left lying about.  The committee are prepared to deal severely
with any members not respecting club tackle – on which other members lives may
depend.  All ladders which are used for
St. Cuthbert’s, where one party may require to use ladders taken down by an
earlier party may be rebooked by the original signatory to the leader of the
later party (with his consent).  It then
becomes the second leader’s responsibility. Should the occasion arise when a party having a late E.T.O. (normally on
a Sunday) suspects that there will be nobody possessing a key to the Tackle
Store when they return, the leader should make prior arrangements to obtain
one, so that the tackle can be properly put away.

The committee would like to record their thanks for the
donation of £5 to be added to the Ian Dear Memorial Fund sent in by ‘Ex-Young
Member’.

*****************************************

The Hut Warden and Belfry Engineer would like to thank
Maurice Iles for his gift of a settee for the Belfry

Some time ago, a short synopsis of the business conducted at
committee meetings was published regularly in the B.B.  It has been agreed to start this again,
especially in view of the very great amount of business at present being
tackled by the committee.  A resume of
the January meeting follows these notices.

January Committee Meeting

Matters being dealt with by the committee and brought up at
the January meeting included the drainage scheme for Cuthbert’s, the provision
of a shower for the changing room, The Annual Dinner, The Ian Dear Memorial
Fund (The Committee of which has now been arranged as follows: R. Bagshaw, Hon.
Sec. & Treas., R. Bennett, Climbing Sec., D. Irwin, Caving Sec., R.A.
Setterington and M. Luckwill).  The
provision of photographs of Balch Hole for the club library, the planting of
trees on the Belfry Site, the provision of suitable photographs of Jack Waddon
and Ian Dear to be hung in the Belfry alongside that of Don Coase, the
provision of Flush Toilets at the Belfry, the election of new members (J.V.
Manchip and P.E. Rouse being elected) the provision of a new stock of carbide for the Belfry, the care of
Belfry blankets and tools, the Changing Room drainage, Tackle, a charging bank
for Nife cells and Belfry arrangements.

Book Review

The Speleological Yearbook and Diary.

The 1965 Speleological Yearbook and Diary has just been
published following a barrage of pre-release publicity.  Externally, the appearance and standard of
finish is similar to that for 1964, except that it is now considerably slimmer
and the price has been increase to 14/6 (I wonder if the change in government
prompted the change of colour from blue to red?)

What of the content? The index show extensive coverage of subject matter ranging from the
Caving Areas to cave fauna, but in general I feel the standard is much below
that of the first edition.  At a quick
glance one sees that the diary section has been condensed, now getting two
weeks on to one page.  The pages for
personal notes and addresses have been omitted this year.  Why? Perhaps the answer is purely a financial one, if so, why has so much
useless material been included in the reading matter section?

The extraction of the club A.G.M.’s and principal meet dates
from the diary section has taken up an additional page and most people will, I
feel, want to rewrite them back into the diary section in any case.  Why, oh why must we have THREE useless pages
on cave physics?  I would assume that
most scientifically minded cavers know the area of a rectangle or how to
calculate simple bending moments, further, why must we have NINE pages devoted
to a caving glossary when many books are on the market (and in club libraries)
which include such glossaries in their appendices?

The news items from the caving areas I would have thought
are more suitable matters for the ‘Speleologist’ when it appears.  I was however, pleased to see three
photographs, but why must the frontispiece be the only one not to have details
of cave and photographer?

These criticisms may seem rather lengthy, but perhaps a
yearbook can be produced that can be used as a small pocket sized diary
including perhaps C.R.G. survey gradings and symbols, illustrations of shoring
cave entrances, descriptions of the common varieties of British bats, details
of major British caves with data such as whet to do in the case of flooding
etc.  In conclusion, one of the selling features
of this year’s diary was that it was slimmer, but a smaller format is surely
needed – it will not go all into the average anorak pocket.

Dave Irwin

Belfry Working Weekend.

The Belfry Engineer and the Hut Warden wish to thank those
who, in spite of the approach to Christmas, still found time to turn up and
work hard so that the Belfry will not fall to pieces through neglect.

 

On the Hill (Nearly)

The Editor is pleased to welcome
back – even if only for a ‘flying visit’ – the correspondent whose identity
remains the best kept secret of the B.E.C….

by ‘Stalagmite’

The September B.B. really surprised me, not only did I get
it in September but there were two references to past articles by your
scribe.  I’m sure that it will please you
all to know that by my retirement form the Belfry scene is not permanent though
I confess I had hoped that a Stalagmite junior might have sprung up into being
by now.

This year’s dinner, as you know, saw a change of venue, the
Cliff
Hotel
being declared redundant and the B.E.C. annexing the restaurant of Fairfax
House,

Bristol
– this being only a reasonable stagger from the A.G.M. site.  It was more expensive, but this was easily
offset but the more pleasant surroundings, though I did miss the sound of
Cheddar rising in the background and having nowhere to sub my fag out.  The bar did not run out of beer and if thus
was due to poor drinking on our part, it was not noticeable.

It pleases me considerably to see the old (careworn) faces
each year.  People who seem to go into
hibernation for a year after the round of dinners is over.  Amongst the representatives for the other odd
organisations scattered like snowflakes over Mendip, I noticed Frank Darbon,
Mike Thomson, Dave Percival and half the M.C.G. Next year, it might be an idea to find someone who is a member of all
clubs and invite him only – free suggestion to the Hon. Treas!

The September B.B. did a (probably factual) report on the
candidates for the forthcoming election for this year’s committee.  Maybe it was less inspiring than mine of the
year before, but I realise how easy it is to be merely derogatory.  Kevin Abbey was re-elected and at the Dinner
presented with an anagram set of the strength of his misspelling of TTENNEB.

Dave Irwin was also elected and Alan Thomas, both of whom
are new to the Committee.  Speaking of
Alan, one of the highlights of the dinner this year, was his toast to our
absent friends.  Unfortunately the radio
engineering was not at its best, but we did hear Clare and the New Australian
and Tom and Rusty the new ‘dammed colonial’ the sound of their voices
contributing greatly as far as I am concerned, in making the 1964 dinner one of
the most pleasing for a long time.  I say
well done the committee for taking the plunge and changing its siting.

There’s no more now, but who
knows?  Once you are all lulled into a
false sense of security again – whammo – he’ll be back!

 ‘Stalagmite’

*****************************************

The Editor would like to assure the contributors whose
articles have not yet appeared, that this has been mainly due to the breakdown
in printing arrangements which have resulted in this B.B. being somewhat
smaller than had been planned.  Amongst
the main articles which will be published as soon as circumstances allow are,

“Bats” by R.E. Ball.

“Some thoughts on the Logistics
of Cave Surveying” by Mike Luckwill.

“Exposure” by Steve Grime.

*****************************************

The editor would like to thank Steve Grime for his very
useful gift of stencils for the B.B.  If
any member is in a position to donate paper (duplicating variety) this will
also be very useful.

Annual Dinner

Each year, the committee have the unenviable task of trying
to please as many club members as possible with arrangements for the annual
dinner.  It has been agreed that, while
the last dinner was still fresh in people’s minds, an appeal should be made for
as many members as possible to send in (to any committee member) their views on
dinners generally, so that attention can be paid to all the points raised long
before it becomes necessary to make a firm booking for next year.  Below are some suggested questions you might
like to answer and send or give to any committee member…

1.                  How many B.E.C. dinners have you attended?

2.                  What, in your opinion was the one you enjoyed
the most?

3.                  Where would you prefer the dinner to be held?

4.                  What price do you think is reasonable?

5.                  Are you satisfied in general with the food?

6.                  The service?

7.                  The wine list?

8.                  The drinks generally?

9.                  Do you like entertainments?  If so, what do you prefer?  How much of the evening do you think should be
spent this way?

10.              Have you any other comments not already
mentioned.

Please use theses questions as a guide and add anything else
you wish.