Hon. Sec: A.R. Thomas,
Westhaven
School, Uphill, Weston s Mare,

Somerset.
Temporary Hon. Editor: – S. Collins, Lavender Cottage, Bishop Sutton,

Bristol

During the Temporary Editorship.

Articles may be submitted to the temporary Hon. Ed., or, as
previously to D. Irwin,

23 Camden
Road,
Bristol 3 or
give to any committee member for onward delivery

Editorial

Mike Luckwill

Readers will find in this B.B., a tribute to Mike Luckwill,
whose tragic accident in
North Wales has
robbed us of our new editor for the B.B. Mike had great plans for our club magazine, and the fact that he will
never now carry them out is our loss.

Situations Vacant!

As you have probably guessed, I have agreed to go back to my
old job of B.B. editor for a short period, while we find a new permanent
Editor.  Dave Irwin, after two years of
showing us just how good a magazine the club can produce, now finds that the
volume of work on our other series of publications – the Caving Reports is
taking up all of his time.  You don’t want
me for another spell of eleven years, and so I am appealing to members to think
seriously about becoming new permanent editor of the B.B.

You don’t have to be able to type, although learning is not
as bad as you might think.  What you DO
have to do is to produce a regular monthly B.B. by getting the material in from
club members and others.  You have a
reasonably free hand with layout, contents, etc., but you must be prepared to
do the job for a few years.  How about it
blokes?  Somewhere in the club, a budding
editor lurks – come out into the open – fame awaits you!

Caving Ethics

After the letter from John Riley, and the Editorial in the Christmas
B.B. on this subject, the Committee have decided to express their official
views on the allied subject of access to caves. The Committee feel that a policy of gating, provided that this is
coupled with a system of providing ready access to all accredited cavers, is
the only policy which makes sense these days of mass caving.  The need to reduce accidents due to sheer
inexperience; to preserve underground scenery and, in some cases, to allow
scientific work to be carried out, all require some form of controlled
access.  This is the policy which the BEC
have adopted in Cuthbert’s attempting to throw the cave wide open to all
interested cavers is consistent with the above aims.  We seem, whether we like it or not, to be
entering a decade in which ‘cave politics’ will play an increasing role in the
affairs of cavers.  We hope that men of
common sense will draw a reasonable dividing line between complete anarchy and
over rigid control.

“Alfie”

 

Notices

Annual Subscriptions.

PLEASE let the Hon. Treasurer, R.J. Bagsahw,

699 Wells Road,
Knowle,

Bristol
4, have YOUR subscriptions as soon as possible. It has been a tradition in the BEC to delay payment of subs, but, in
building the new Belfry, WE ARE DESPERATELY SHORT OF MONEY and every sub
received makes a difference!

Gift of Rope.

The Committee would like to acknowledge the gift of rope
from Garth Dell.

New Belfry.

Our fine new hut is almost complete.  Have YOU made any special contribution
towards it?  Every type of contribution
is welcome;  Money;  Furniture (see Alan Thomas);  offers of help (see Jok or John Riley) or
ideas for raising money (see any committee member)

January Committee Meeting

The meeting, which was attended by Bob White, discussed club
insurance at some length.  Progress on
the New Belfry, and on the financial state of the club was also discussed.  Arrangements were made for continuing the
B.B. in the absence of Mike Luckwill.

Alteration of Survey Price.

The survey of O.F.D. mentioned in Monthly Notes No.30 is now
30/-

Wookey Hole.

As most members will know, on Jan 3rd 1970, during a C.D.G.
meet, John Parker and Brian Woodward entered 2,000 feet of very large new
passage rising some 2  – 300 feet and ending
in a boulder choke.  This passage is well
above the two main systems feeding Wookey – Swildons and St. Cuthbert’s.  Further developments are awaited with extreme
interest.

 

Little Neath

River
Cave

by Colin Priddle

Friday night after diving practice.

Pete: “Do you want to come down to Little Neath on Sunday to
do some surveying and exploring afterwards?”

Colin: “Yes, I’d love to. Where shall I meet you?”

“Outside the Spelaeo Rooms. 8 o’clock.”

“8 o’clock! Well…..er…..oh…..O.K. then, 8 o’clock.”

Saturday night at the Hunters.  Thinks. ‘8 o’clock!  That means getting up at 7 if I’m to have
some breakfast before I go.  That means
sleeping in

Bristol.  It’ll be quite impossible to get up before 6
on Mendip.  Suppose I drive back
tonight.  That means I can’t get drunk
now.  Daft of me to say that I’d go.’

The Spalaeo Rooms. Ten past eight Colin turns up.  By
twelve minutes past, we were loaded up. By ten past nine we had collected John in
Pontypool
and by ten o’clock we were at the cave.

The river was ‘a little high but O.K. for divers as long as
it does not rain, should be O.K. for sherpas.’ After putting a block of fluorescence in a stream about a mile from the
cave entrance, we went back to wait for the sherpas.  They came. Nine of them.  Three sherpas per
diver!

With Pete hurrying everyone up, we were all in the cave by
11.30am with each of us carrying a bag and hurrying towards sump II.  The Canal Bypass was used although it was
much longer than the duck (1500ft instead of 300).  The Canal had only three inches of airspace –
good enough reason for going the long way.

Soon, Pete, John, and Colin were crawling into Sump II, each
still carrying a pack.  One of the packs
was huge; it contained six caving boots and a large line reel containing about
900 feet of line.  After a hundred and
thirty feet of large sump, we appeared in a sizeable passage which however
disappeared after a few yards into another sump very similar to the first but
two hundred and thirty feet long. Emerging from Sump III we made our way (weighted down, wearing fins and
walking over boulders in a passage with a fast flowing river is not easy) to
sump IV which is similar to the others and a hundred and seventy feet
long.  Then we were in Little Neath River
Cave V.

John took his diving kit with a spare bottle through Sump V
and left it at Sump VI for a dive there later in the day.  Returning from Sump VI, he joined Pete and
Colin who had made their way into the high level passages (it should be pointed
out that the high level passages bypass Sump V so that John did not have to
dive Sump V again).

We then started surveying a small dry passage which led to a
stream passage.  We were apparently the
second party into this particular passage and only the tenth party beyond the
sumps.  After we surveyed the stream
passage downstream to a sump and upstream to a boulder choke, we looked at a
couple of side passages for easy ways to find new cave.  These side passages all had one pair of boot
prints (Dave Savage’s) in their sandy floor. The passages were about two feet wide and six feet or more in height and
were very twisty.  At one point we saw a
large black space at the end of a small passage, and, after moving a couple of
small rocks, we were able to squeeze into a huge passage only to find that we
were about sixty feet from where we started surveying.  Somewhat disappointed by our ‘huge
discovery’, we went off to look at another passage off recently surveyed stream
passage.  This virgin passage split into
two (no comment – Ed!).  We went left for
sixty feet to a large aven which Pete climbed for sixty feet.  He did not, however, get into a passage.  Pete then decided it was time for him to get
into another inlet passage where he expected to see the fluorescence that was
going to be put into the stream at 3pm. We arranged that John and Colin would look at the left hand path of the
passage and then try diving Sump VI.  After
this, they would go back to meet Pete who wanted to look at some passages above
Sump IV.

Leaving Pete, Colin and John went along this passage to a
chamber.  One way on led to a stream
passage about fifteen feet long, ending in a sump both ways.  It was thought that the upstream sump was the
sump to which we had surveyed earlier.  A
couple of short passages led off from the chamber but all closed down.  One passage, going up at about eighty degrees
led into a small horizontal passage and, after about forty feet, to a rift
fifteen feet deep.  It looked easy to
slide down but going up would be a different matter.  It was proved to be possible, however, for
one to get back up after going down.  The
passage left went for fifty feet or so to a difficult looking muddy tube going
upwards, so we went back to the right. We went along a winding passage about two feet high and fifteen feet
wide.  A fork to the right led into a
chamber about thirty foot square with no easy way on.  To the left, the passage got bigger and
bigger until when it came into a chamber it was ten feet wide.  Up over a few boulders and another chamber
was found after a short passage.  From
this chamber, fifty feet by twenty feet by ten feet high, one small passage
though boulders was found which led to another two large chambers.  We must have been fairly near the surface as
we were going upwards quite rapidly.  All
the chambers and passages we had been in were quite dry with fine sandy
floors.  We reckoned we had explored
nearly a thousand feet of cave, but as the time was now short we returned to
where we had started the original survey and where we has left some of the
gear.  Pete had left a message saying
that it was after five o’clock when he left (he was now two hours late) so we
decided to miss diving Sump VI and hurried off down a passage to collect the
diving gear at the terminal sump.  Near
the sump, John realised that as there was only on set of diving gear, it would
be easier for one to dive back through sump V to Sump IV instead of going over
the high level route with diving gear. The plan that was that Colin should go back to the gear left in the high
levels and I meet John at Sump IV.  Colin
got lost!  After an hour or so, John, who
had been in the cave several times before, got a bit worried while waiting at
Sump IV.  Pete dived through the sump to
the sherpas and told them to wait.  It so
happened that the sherpas were an hour and a half late and so didn’t mind
waiting.  John easily found Colin who had
failed to find what John called the obvious way on, and eventually we all met
the sherpas.  Colin and John were only
two hours late.

The sherpas who had stayed in the cave had surveyed their
time away, 3 of them waiting for John and Colin to arrive whilst earlier
sherpas had taken Pete’s diving gear out, so we were able to make good time to
the entrance.  After the really gruelling
entrance passages, everyone was out of the cave by 10.30pm.  An excellent day’s caving.

The excellent sherpas were all U.B.S.S. members.  Many thanks. The divers were Pete Standing (C.D.G. and U.B.S.S.), John Parker (C.D.G.
and Cwmbran) and Colin Priddle (C.D.G. and B.E.C.)

Some data on the cave follows: –

Found originally by diving (U.B.S.S.)
January 1967.

Dry Way in found.

Sumps II, II and IV passed March
1967.

Estimated passage before sumps
15,000 feet.

Estimated passage after sumps
9,000 feet.

Number of trips through sumps.
10.

Total length of cave.  Over 4 miles.

A sketch survey of the portion of the cave described in the
article is below.  This has been
reproduced from the survey and is published by kind permission of the C.D.G.

 

Monthly Notes Number 30

by ‘Wig’

The 1970 C.R.G. symposium is on the important subject of
cave surveying, and is being held at
Vaughan
College,

University of
Leicester
on March 7th.  The programme is as
follows: ‘History and Practice of Surveying in Northern England’ (D. Brook);
‘Speed Surveying in O.F.D. II’ (P.O’Rielly); ‘The Surveying Unit – equipment in
use on Mendip’ (B. Ellis); ‘Presentation of Surveys of Complex Systems’ (D.
Irwin); ‘Maps to assist the Caver’ (S. Collins); ‘Radio Location as an aid to
Surveying’ (B. Smith); ‘Underwater Surveying’ (Dr. O.C. Lloyd); ‘Computer use in
Surveying’ (J. Wilcock and K. Hanna); ‘ Survey interpretat on and uses’ (A.
Waltham).  More details later.

Ogof Ffynon Ddu Survey

The survey, accompanied by a 66 page booklet, has been
published by the South Wales Caving Club. The survey is on two sheets each measuring 48” x 24” and drawn at a
scale of 1:1250.  The survey is available
coloured or uncoloured.  The booklet
contains 18 photographs; numerous diagrams, and a pullout diagram of the
area.  The vertical depth of O.F.D. is
870 feet and it is over 20 miles in length. Cost: uncoloured £1 post free; coloured £2 post free and the publication
may be obtained from P.M. O’Riley, 1 Le Mayals, Owl Lodge Lane, Mayals,
Swansea, South Wales.

Latest From Cuthbert’s

Since the end of November, Cuthbert’s II has been sealed off
to cavers and little further exploration has been possible other than two very
short trips made late in November to maypole the high level holes above the
streamway.  Although they had looked
extremely promising, the vast majority were simple phreatic pocketing, and only
went for a few feet before sealing off completely.  The temporary dam and pipes that that were
laid through the sump in an attempt to keep the system open worked in
principle, but unfortunately the dam leaked so badly that the amount of water
flowing through it swamped the soakaway. However, a permanent dam is being constructed and should be finished
early in the new year, so it is hoped that time will be on the side of the
explorers.  An early attempt is to be
made on sump II and two digs started again. One is just inside the new passage on the left and the other to the left
of Sump I itself.

M.R.O.

In an attempt to ‘fault find’ the M.R.O. exposure bag made
by Paul Allen, a practice rescue was held in Swidlons II on November 8th
1969.  Various people were wrapped in the
bag and taken through Duck II and Sump I both as practice for the divers and
also too observe the condition of the ‘victims’.  A full discussion of the rescue is to be
found in the December issue of the S.V.C.C. newsletter (copy in the B.E.C.
Library).  Surprisingly good material for
such a juvenile publication.

Amendments to the Club List of Member’s Addresses

(See October 1969 B.B.)

619	Kevin Barnes	24 Missile Regiment, R.A. Paderborn, B.F.P.O.16
336	A. Bonner	14 Monkseaton Drive, Whiteley Bay, Northumberland
715	D.M. Bryant	The Shakespeare, Lower Redland Road, Bristol 6
713	D. Byers	301 Cressex Road, High Wycombe, Bucks.
716	J. Carter	149 Finch Road, Chipping Sodbury, Bristol
620	P. Coles	2 Eastfield Road, Cotham, Bristol
684	A. Cullen	68 Stoke Lane, Patchway, Bristol
609	I. Daniels	Hansworth, Pilgrims Way, Chilham, Canterbury, Kent
405	Frank Darbon	Apt. 4, 4706, St. Vernon, British Columbia, Canada
232	C. Falshaw	23 Hallen Grange Crescent, Lodgemoor, Sheffield
468	K. Franklin	Flat 5, 234, Kent Street, New Farm, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
660	P. Godley	AOTS, R.A.F., Church Fenton, Nr Tadcaster, Yorkshire
373	S. Hobbs	Hokertsone Cottage, Townsend, Priiddy, wells, Somerset
150	P. Ifold	The Cedars, Blackford, Wedmore, Somerset
285	U. Jones	Marsh Farm, Askam-in-Furness, Lancs.

 

On Climbing

‘VICTIS’

One piece of information, shared by climbers and cavers
alike, is the whereabouts and name of the local ale house.  Frequently the name of an inn will  give one a good indication of the type of
district one is in, even if it does not tell one exactly where one is.  One thinks of “The Hunters” and “The Miners
Arms”.  Obviously their proximity
indicates a country mining area.  Using
this sort of deduction, the reader should have no difficulty in placing the two
signs on this page, and he should be able to place them within a few square
miles. A black mark if you can’t even guess the guess the country
correctly.  Many readers will, in fact,
have frequented both these pubs, as they are situated in an area which,  a few years ago,  used to be a regular rendezvous at Easter and
Whitsun.  Whilst the Belfry was temporary
inhabited by “foreigners” from Yorkshire,
South Wales
and the like, the “regulars” set up headquarters in the upper storey of a large
barn.  The pride and joy of this barn
were a large mattress and a double bed spring: usually these were ‘bagged’ by
“someone on the committee”, but occasionally an early arrival established
ownership to someone else.  I have no
doubt that several readers are not likely to forget those sleeping
arrangements.

“The Tinners Arms”

 

More Amendments to the Club List of Member’s Addresses

(See October 1969 B.B.)

260	J. Lamb	Broadmeadows, Padstow Road, Wadebridge, Cornwall
659	J. Laycock	41 Woodlands Park. Quedgley, Glos.
	G. Moore	17 Elmsgrove, Redland, Bristol
308	K. Murray	17 Barrington Gardens. Kensington, London SW7
610	H. Oakley	45 Groveway, Stockwell, London SW7
624	R. Orr	School Farm House, Chew Stoke, Nr. Bristol
722	A.E. McR Pearce	5 Colmer Road, Yeovil, Somerset
637	J. Pearce	6 Lyvenden Road, Blackheath, London, SE3
708	Miss D. Ranford	c/o Homewood, Plantanenstrasse 8600, Dubandorf, Zurich, Switzerland.
672	R. Richards	704 Helderberg, Joel Road, Berea, Johannesburg, South Africa
714	G. Rowles	27 Wedmore Vale, Bristol BS3 5HQ
240	A. Sandall	43 Meadway Avenue, Nailsea, Somerset

 

Stream Passage Pot

by Martin Webster

The main entrance is situated some three hundred yards south
west of the gaping Ghyll main shaft in a small depression with a stream sinking
in one corner.  It was Saturday the 29th
of November when a party consisting of Martin Mills, Bob Mayhew, Tim Large,
Dick Tye, Brian Woodward and myself descended this pot hole, which is one of
the entrances to the Gaping Ghyll System.

A Sheet of snow lay in a thin layer over the wind swept moor
as we struggled over the fells with our heavy loads.  The entrance was eventually found and, after
a quick look at the G.G. main shaft, we started off down the tight entrance and
were very soon in a small chamber with a tiny stream flowing through it.

The first pitch is found a short way down a tight rift and
is only twenty feet deep although it has an awkward take off.  The drop is part of a small chamber which has
two waterfalls entering it – one from the entrance rift and another larger one
from the far wall of the chamber.  Both
waterfalls had diminished somewhat since our last attempt on this pot hole in
April 1969, when the first pitch was almost impassable and the second pitch of
eighty five feet has so much water going down it that the trip was abandoned.

From the twenty foot pot, a meandering stream passage was
followed for some way until the eighty foot pitch was reached.  The best way of tackling this by traversing
up into the rift passage which overlooks the pitch.  This means however, as someone found out, a
rather strenuous climb on the return trip.

The bottom of the climb is a large water worn chamber.  A quick climb across boulders brought us to
the head of the next hundred and ten foot pitch.  As there was a small ledge some twelve feet
down, the laddering was done from there rather than direct from the top.  The climb turned out to be quite easy and it
was possible to climb most of the way without the ladder.  The bottom was a vast spray-swept rift with a
passage leading over loose boulders.

The final pitch is seventy five feet deep and can be done in
a number of places.  Finally, a drop
which seemed a little direr than the rest was selected.  The pitch turned out to be quite different
from expectation, as the ladder tended to be caught behind large flakes of
rock.  The team were soon down, and we
set off along the stream passage and suddenly emerged into a large tunnel-like
passage.  The main Gaping Ghyll System
had been reached.

Of out travels in G.G., little need to be said except
that  a lot of passage was visited in a
comparatively short time, and the huge main chamber with its waterfall
cascading down from the moor is still as awe inspiring as ever!

The return trip was carried out without too much difficulty
except for some tiredness towards the end. It was dark and very cold when we eventually staggered out of the cave,
so little time was lost in starting back to the van.  Unfortunately, we got lost!  Just as we found the track again, one of the
tackle bags was dropped and of course, rolled down a slope, so more time was
wasted while the offending article was recovered.  The final problem came when we were getting
changed.  We found that our caving gear
had frozen solid so, after a lot of tearing of wet suits and cutting of
bootlaces, we all piled into the van, heading in the general direction of the
pub, drove off into the night.

 

Fatal Accident

A brief account of the trip which resulted in the death of
Mike Luckwill follows, written by his companion on the trip – Tony – with
additional detail kindly supplied by his wife Val…

We arrived at Bettws-y-Coed at 7.45pm where we had coffee in
the local coffee bar.  We got to
Pen-y-Pass at 8.30 and erected the tent and sorted out our gear.  When we set off at 9pm, the weather was clear
and fine, with a little wind.  We set a
course at 260 degrees along the pyg.  At
first we tried to adjust our course without using our lamps, but we found it
impossible to do this as we were well down in the valley.

It also proved inadequate when walking with just one of our
lamps going and our concern was that our batteries would not last the
trip.  However, Mike had a spare set of
batteries and we agreed to use the batteries in rotation.  This proved highly satisfactory, and it was
only when judging depth over long distances that our power of sight was
impaired.

We arrived at the junction of the pyg and horseshoe routes
(M.R. 633553) at 10.45 approximately. The going had not proved too difficult, but care had to be exercised in
following the track, which had become a little vague in places.

Compared with the pyg, the way over Crib Gochb was
abundantly clear, and at no time between M.R. 633553 and
Snowdon
summit was any difficulty in route finding encountered.  Indeed, Crib Goch and Crib Yddysgl ridges
were accomplished without any delays. Snow and ice lay on the flanks of the ridge, but the ridge itself was
ice free.  The night was cold and still
clear and the wind blew hard in occasional gusts.  There was no moon.  A few black clouds which presented themselves
on the horizon made us fear that snow was coming, but we were well prepared
and, indeed, expected snow.  No snow fell
that night, however.  Excepting for the
lack of moonlight, conditions were perfect, and by the time we reached
Snowdon at 2am, we were feeling very pleased.  The seed of overconfidence were beginning to
germinate which were in my opinion, to lead to tragedy.

At the summit, we stayed for fifteen to twenty minutes, and
Mike recorded the temperature as being -8 degrees C.  We sheltered by the hotel and enjoyed a
chicken leg each, with chocolates and biscuits with coffee brewed on my primus.  We left the hotel at 2.10.  We were in fine, confident mood and felt that
the hardest part was behind us.  We were
slightly chilled and anxious to get moving again.  We were both quite familiar with the Watkin
Path from previous summer experience and so we elected to leave the summit and
to cut across diagonally to join the Watkin. The initial downward slope did not give the impression of steepness,
there was considerably hard packed snow and we took our axes out for the first
time.  The slope began to increase in
steepness, but there was not thought of crampons or roping up.

About two hundred feet down from the summit, we were
travelling side by side, about ten feet apart. I turned round to adjust my mittens, I think, when I heard a slight
scuffle but no cry.  I turned back
towards Mike but there was no sign of him. I stood and shouted out but heard nothing.  It was then that I assumed that Mike had
fallen.  I advanced a few paces with the
intention of going down to him.  In front
of me, the slope became even more steep, so I crossed the snowfield for some
distance horizontally and then started descending.  In my attempt to descend as quickly as was
possible, I slipped and fell something like two hundred feet.  I came to rest on broken scree, cut and very
bruised, and almost immediately began to stiffen up.  I called again for Mike but heard
nothing.  As a result of the fall, I had
lost my axe, map, com pass and torch batteries. I realised that my only course now would be to climb back up to the summit
which I managed to do with great difficulty and then followed the railway track
down to Llanberis and alerted the police at 5.30am.

_______________________

The Mountain Rescue went out in a helicopter, and the body
was found and taken to the
Caernarvon and
Anglesey Accident hospital.  Tony later
identified the body and, after being X-rayed and treated for cuts and bruises,
was discharged.  No treatment for shock
was given and, in fact, Tony then returned to get the tent and drive Mike’s car
back to his own home.  After coping with
all this, delayed shock took over and he was a few days recovering.  Tony missed the inquest as a result, which
may account for some of the coroner’s remarks. It is thought that Mike’s fall was about 300 feet.

_______________________

Mike Luckwill commenced caving in the mid-fifties in
South Wales until introduced to Mendip, where the caves
appeared small.  He joined the B.E.C.,
became a Cuthbert’s Leader and regular contributor to the B.B. on many varied
subjects.  He discovered Canyon Series
and was a member of the Anneschacht expeditions 1967 – 69.  He caved in
Morocco
with Alan Thomas, and climbed in the Alps, Snowdonia, Skye,
Ben
Nevis and many other places. He was interested in cave photography and surveying; particularly in the
subject of survey accuracy, where his interest and skill in mathematics led him
to work on the establishment of the survey accuracy of the St. Cuthbert’s
survey.  He was a member of the Ian Dear
Memorial Committee 1966-1969; elected to the B.E.C. committee 1969, took over
the editorship of the B.B. in 1970, which he planned to improve in many
ways.  His interest in so many aspects of
caving – geomorphology; geology; surveying; photography and exploration made
him an all round caver.

 

Cuthbert’s Leaders Meeting

Roy Bennett; Bob Craig; Bryan Ellis; Jim Hill; Tim Hodgson;
Dave Irwin; Tony Meadon; Brian Prewer; John Riley; Steve Tuck and Dave Turner
were present.  Dave Irwin was elected a
chairman.  John Riley and Dave Turner
were elected as leaders.  It was agreed
that the Mud Hall Pitch ladder should be removed, repaired and replaced by John
Riley before the end of the year, as had been done for the Arête ladder.  The stal pitch hand line was to be replaced
in its original position by Tony Meadon before March 1970.

Steve Tuck and Brian Prewer agreed to replaced missing
drainpipe in the run to the bottom of the concrete entrance pipe before the end
of the year.  The pipes at the start of
the run are to be raised three inches to minimise the ingress of silt.  Steve Tuck and Brian Prewer agreed to make
contact with Mike Calvert and arrange dates for bug hunting trips in the
Maypole Series.  These dates will be
published, and anyone wishing to see the series can join in.  If nothing is arranged and takes place
within  a reasonable time, the matter
will be dealt with by the club committee.

Dave Turner agreed that, before the end of the year, he
would provide protection to the stal flow at the top of Chain Pitch, and for
the flow above Continuation Chamber and would place a wire across the passage
at the start of the Snowflake Pool to ‘prevent’ access.  He also agreed to try to clean the flow above
Chain Pitch.  It was agreed that leaders
should remove all pieces of telephone wire found lying in the cave.  The desirability for a permanent telephone
installation was again agreed.  Bryan
Ellis agreed to supervise the installation. Details to be agreed by Bryan Ellis, Brian Prewer and Steve Tuck.  Jim Hill, Dave Turner and Tim Hodgson agreed
to assist.

It was reported that further work was required to make the
sump safe.  For at least three months
tourist parties should not be taken into II. Leaders visiting II should do so in company with those conversant with
the dam system.

It was agreed that legal difficulties regarding insurance
had been raised.  When this has been
sorted out, there would be no difficulty in opening the leader system to all
clubs.

More Amendments to the Club List of Member’s Addresses

(See October 1969 B.B.)

359	Mrs Sandall	43 Meadway Avenue, Nailsea, Somerset
	R. Sell	51 Swiss Road, Ashton Vale, Bristol 3
60	P.A.E. Stewart	11 Fairhaven Road, Redland, Bristol 6
711	M. Thomas	5 Woolcat Street, Redland, Bristol 6
718	A.P. Tringham	North Longwood, Beggar Bush lane, Failand, Bristol
382	S. Tuck	27 Woodbury Avenue, Wells, Somerset
635	S. Tuttlebury	24 Victoria Road, Fleet, Aldershot, Hants
652	R. Wallin	174 Bryants Hill, Bristol 5
592	E. Welch	18 Station Road, Filton, Bristol
549	A. Williams	34 Crossways, Roggiett, Newport, Mon.
	G. Wilton-Jones	17 Monkhams drive, Walton, Thetford, Norfolk
553	R. White	9 St. Cuthbert’s Villas, Haybridge, wells, Somerset
666	P. Allen	7 Westbourne Place, Clifton, Bristol 8
	Miss S. Bowden-Lyle	P.O. Box 15, Iganga, Busoga, Uganda

Just another reminder about paying your subs.

 

Book Review

by Tim Hodgson

‘Pioneer Under the Mendips’ – Herbert Ernest Balch.  A short biography by W.I. Stanton.  Published by Wessex Cave Club Occasional
Publications Series 1 number 1.

Without doubt this biography deserves a place on the
bookshelf of caving on Mendip.  No doubt
it will also appeal to many others who are interested in B.E. Balch the
archaeologist and man.  It is
outstandingly well produced, containing many very good photographs and drawing
which have hitherto not been published.

The author of this short – and one must emphasise short –
biography, quite rightly devotes much more space to B.E.B.’s work as an
archaeologist than to his caving activities. He also provides us with much fascinating information about his early
and private life.  Most people know that
B.E.B. was a man of many interests, but perhaps it is not generally realised
that his interest were quite so diverse, what with the church, gardening and
his other more publicised pursuits.  It
would seem that B.E.B. never had a dull moment.

As I said in the previous paragraph, most of this biography
is devoted to Balch’s work as an archaeologist, and constantly criticises
it.  This is one of the points about
which I take issue with the author. Generally, the criticism is valid in the light of present day knowledge,
but we must remember, as the author himself points out, that B.E.B. was an
amateur archaeologist.  Even so, his
methods were similar to those of the professional archaeologists of his time and
indeed, he worked very closely with Prof. Boyd Dawkins, who must have exerted a
tremendous influence on him.  Because of
this, I think it is unfair to labour on criticism of his methods which were
only common practice at that time.  No
doubt, future archaeologists will criticise present day methods, but I hope
they will not be quite so hard on our generation of archaeologists.

The author is also critical of B.E.B.’s caving methods.  Again, this is justifiable but, in my
opinion, carried too far.  To be fair to
the author, he does point out that B.E.B. was a most cautious man, who insisted
upon taking vast amounts of unnecessary equipment with him on his caving
expeditions and that if present day caving parties were similarly equipped,
they would quite possible achieve no more that B.E.B.

More than half the book is devoted to five appendices, and
an index which was compiled by Howard Kenny. I was slightly disappointed by this arrangement as I would have
preferred more space to have been devoted to the biography.  However, these appendices are all interesting
and worthwhile, particularly the fifth, which is a facsimile of a previously
unpublished (in this country) by B.E.B. entitled ‘The Caverns and Subterranean
Waterway of Mendip’.  I can understand
the excitement of the opportunity to publish an almost unknown work by B.E.B.
written in 1904, but in my opinion, it would have been better to have printed
the manuscript.  An example of B.E.B.’s
very good handwriting is no doubt interesting, but 47 pages of it is hard
graft.  The manuscript has also had
corrections and footnotes added to it by Dr. B.A. Baker.  Unfortunately, his handwriting is not as
clear as B.E.B.’s and for this reason, and also because the reproduction is not
as good, the footnotes are almost impossible to read.

Despite these few failings, I am sure that most people will
agree that this publication is well worth the 12/- asked for it.