QUODCUMQUE FACIENDUM : NIMIS FACIEMUS
By Tim Large
New members:
948 Axel Knutson Jnr.,
Address changes
933 Di Beeching,
Bob White, Cedar Hall,
CHARTERHOUSE CAVING- COMMITTEE
At the recent annual, meeting improvements to the indemnity
chit and permit system was agreed. To
overcome the constantly increasing files containing the application forms a
revised form will be produced which incorporates the permit as well as a tear
off slip. In the case of temporary
permits one of these will be completed at each application. For club members the complete form will be
completed once every 5 years. In this
way the files can be greatly reduced. From the issuing point of view we can be sure: that an application
(indemnity? - Ed) has been signed. Whereas before we have often taken a persons word for it.
G.B. LADDER DIG
The UBSS have now informed us that the new bolting
arrangements are complete. They write,
We have now re-bolted the Ladder Dig with two new bolts with removable
hangers. The lowest of these is about
two metres above floor level an the next is a reasonable distance up and to the
left. From the second the series of
existing three eyebolts and chain can be reached.
"The bolts are TROLL punch-bolts. Take with you two hangers having
3/8"holes and an open ended spanner. Eventually the club will provide these for members use. More details when they are available.
ACCESS TO CLUB TACKLE
Following the concern shown over the new tackle arrangements
some modifications to the system have now been made. The box in the Belfry which holds the tackle
store key has had its lock changed. In
the past, the lock was the same as the Belfry door and so the Belfry key would
fit this lock. Now this has been changed
and a security lock fitted. The key for
this is available to members on personal application to the committee. It is intended particularly for those caving
mid-week as the key can be obtained from any committee member at the
weekends. I would stress that by
mid-week etc., it means on a regular basis. The number of keys being issued will be kept as small as possible, so if
you are a once in a blue moon mid-week caver, it is doubtful that you will get
a key. Also if there are two or three
members who normally cave together, then only one key will be issued under the
names of the three, so that anyone of them could use it. The cost of the key will be the cost of
having a key cut. Currently it is £1.00
MAKE
A NOTE OF THE DATE SATURDAY, APRIL 7th 1979 at 7.00pm.
An
illustrated talk by Jack Culvert entitled
.
A
YEAR IN THE ANTARCTIC
The talk will last about
an hour and a half, so there will be plenty of time for the pub. Jack says that he has about 300 slides. This should be a good evening. REMEMBER 7.00pm at the BELFRY, 7th APRIL.
Cuthbert's Insurance
Some concern has been expressed by leaders and members
regarding this topic. The Committee have
enforced the recommendation made by the 1976 AGM but when the matter was
discussed again at the March Committee Meeting some points were raised which
should be seriously considered.
(Ed. I must point out that though Tims the Club Secretary,
this column does not represent the official view of the Club Committee and are
Tim's own reports and thoughts on any Club matter).
To discuss the matter of insurance for Cuthbert
leaders
.
SUNDAY MAY 20th AT THE HUNTERS AT 2.30pm. Any member, leader or not, is welcome to
attend.
Dear Sir,
I would like to draw to the attention of readers of the B.
B. to a joint project by the Council of Southern Caving Clubs and
It has long been thought by several people on Mendip that a
permanent collection of caving equipment etc., relating to this area, should be
gathered before they become dispersed and lost.
We are therefore planning two phases:
1) A large exhibition in the Museum Lecture room
for about a month, opening for Easter this year. This will include donations and short term
loans of equipment.
2) A permanent display at the exhibition of those
items donated on long term loan.
Would any readers who can assist, either with exhibits or
information please contact Chris Bradshaw at Wells 74382 (evenings) or Mr.
Cooke at
Yours sincerely,
Chris. Bradshaw. Feb. 1979
As everyone will know only too well, there is always work
needing to be done at the Belfry and for those with a few minutes to spare, Mr.
N has produced the following list. If
every member gave up an hour of his time the task could be finished by the
A.G.M.
a) Old
Stone Belfry - rear wall to be made up to roof and sealed up.
b) New
steel frame/mesh door to be made up and fitted inside main entrance door.
c) Store
to be cleared and re-fitted.
CG is still in the throes of house building are managing to
get some work carried out in the oxbows in August hole. Apparently the perched sump is now a
suspended duck giving free access to the far ends.
Willie Stanton is at long last revising the Swildons survey
probably due to Milchs continual prodding!
Refuelled
after the Christmas blow-out Graham Wilton-Jones and Tony Jarrett set off to
tackle the longest cave system in
An account by Graham
Wilton-Jones
Its J-Rats fault. He asked if I would go to the Hölloch. Then Milch explained that it was a Shepton trip and everything was
arranged. As it was only two Shepton
members were going (Rich Kemplerer and the Block of Wood). Additionally there were two
Fore a mere £280 a minibus was hired and a multitude of
forms and certificates filled in or collected to please the EEC
bureaucracy. On Boxing Day, Block and I
drove the bus on a circular tour of southern
The Hölloch is situated at the head of the Muotatal valley,
near Schweitz (Schwyz) which is 27 miles south of
We were aroused for continental breakfast at 9am and then
began the hassle to actually go down the cave. It seems the same as elsewhere in Europe you arrange everything in
minutest detail, preparing for every contingency and when you arrive ees not
posseeble (the weather too bad, the guide in drunk, theyve heard of your
club, no way can you go down. And what a
string of excuses we had this time: too many people in the cave already (35,
though the NSS Euro-region Grotto newsletter, suggests that 300 to 400 cavers
at one weekend in the cave is not unusual) bivouacs 1 and 2 full up; bivouac 3
no longer in existence (true) and a dangerous site anyway; the great deity,
Prof. Bogli in residence at Bivouac 1 and not wanting to be disturbed (why not,
we wonder?); the weather warming up and set for a thaw. Finally we persuaded the landlady, Frau
Suter, who controls the access to the cave, to let us go in as far as the
Wasserdom and then return, which we did.
From the Gasthaus a walk over, the river and then on a path
criss-crossing a small ravine and zigzagging up its sides takes you to the cave
in a few minutes. The gated entrance is
at the head of the ravine. The first
kilometre of the system was once equipped as a show-cave and much of the roof
is marred by the decaying remains of cable insulators. In places the floor is of level concrete and
there are many concrete steps on the main route and around some of the
oxbows. Rusting and rotten steel cum
wooden steps, with the odd wire handline, lead eventually down to the Sandhalde
and the bottom of the first phreatic loop. Up to this point much of the beauty of the cave, apart from some
excellent potholes, has been obscured by the show cave fitments. There are no formations worth speaking of
anyway and it is not surprising that the show cave venture failed.
Many of the upward flowing phreatic slopes, like the
Sandhalde (Sand Slope) are littered with debris, particularly gravel and
pebbles. On the other hand most of the
downward flowing slopes are broken only by large scallops and sometimes single
vadose runnels, very useful for climbing up. The passages in the next section are frequently wide, arch bedding
planes as the loops zigzag within their narrow band of limestone. Names like Zimmermanns Angst (Dread) and Bose
Wand (Evil Wall) with its 114 rung steel fixed ladder, reflect the danger of
delaying in this flood pone section.
Several ups and down and another fixed ladder later we
reached the next danger point the bottom of the second phreatic loop at the
Keller (Cellar). Like most of the region
of this cave it was nearly dry. Climbing
the Alligatorenschlucht we found the Aquarium dry, a healthy indicator. Entering the Seengang (Lakes Passage) we at
last began to climb away from the entrance passage. A small steam chattered form the two lakes, Langensee
(
The Hölloch is formed, basically, in the lowest of three
bands of tilted limestone, each band being interspersed with impervious layers
of rock. At a very few points an
independent vadose system within the middle limestone band has broken through
into the lower phreatic system. Here at
Wasserdom is one of these points. The
top layer of limestone is the surface lapiaz, in which there are many shafts,
including one which could provide access to the middle layer vadose system via
a wet, loose boulder choke.
From the Wasserdom we slithered and slipped our way back to
the entrance. The cave is noted for its
slippery smooth rock Hölloch is alleged not to mean Hell Hole as some suppose
but Slippery Hole. Four and a half hours
after entering the cave we were changing in the warmth and comfort of the
Gasthaus. Not many caving huts can boast
a bar and restaurant among their facilities. Wiener schnitzel and beer to round off the day became a catching habit.
The following day it still did not look as if we were going
to manage a long trip and bivouac in the cave. The weather being reasonable, a small group of us set out to scale the
cliffs behind the Gasthaus, while the remainder went down to the sumps of the
resurgence series, accessible from just inside the entrance to the
Hölloch. First of all, by mistake, they
travelled round into the next valley to the narrow slot of a resurgence which
has no accessible passages. We ran into
bother too. The cliff, about 1,000m high,
proved to be covered in nasty slippery grass, loose boulders and rotting tree
stumps, and we only made it about halfway up. Besides, there was no beer at the top.
Day three found us all in the Hölloch again. This time route finding was no problem and we
were 2km into the system in about one third of the time. There was now more water in the cave a
stream flowed into the now full Aquarium and the reason for the ladder over the
Drahtsee was abundantly clear. Just
short of the Wasserdom we turned into the Domgang. This passage is more the size one would
expect of a cave such as this. Domgang
can be compared with Aggy Daren Cilau for size (the 1,000ft crawl? Ed.). At Glitzertor (Glittering Gate) were the
passage is coated with Aggy like encrustations of selinite, four Swiss were in
bivouac, undertaking the exploration of a new access point into the upper
series. One of them showed us the route,
via Hexenkessel (Witchs Cauldron) and Regenhalle (Rain Hall) to the Himmelgang
(Heavens Way) where we lifelined Alison up an awkward little climb beside an
exposed shaft Todesschlund (Death Hole). The Himmelgang was of normal size, three metres high and wide. In a smaller passage, just off one corner, we
found the Ruebli (Carrot) one of the Höllochs few formations, a 30-40cm long
translucent orange stal. Just around the
corner of this beautiful, if lonely stal, was a pile of festering filth
carbide, poly sacks, tin cans, old batteries, etc. There was a similar dump in the Riesen
Saal. So many of the continentals do not
seem to care about their caves in this respect. In search of the Galerie des 1001 Nuits we became confused in a maze of,
believe it or not, crawls, so we headed out. We had promised Frau Suter that we would be no more than six hours, and
so we were.
Day four New Years Eve was warm and blue. Though the dreaded Fohn was not blowing from
the south, a high pressure pocket had developed just over the Muotatal and this
was holding off the European snows, so they told us. Several of us decided on a tourist visit to
the Eiger while Jim and the Grampian hard men prepared to wade through the
lakes and bivouac in the cave regardless. In the Hölloch the waters flowed even more strongly and the happy
campers were repulsed. Other bivouacees
were seen making rapid exit from the cave, many having made extra long detours
to avoid the flood waters that were now creating sumps in various sections of
the cave. Meanwhile, at the Eiger, three
of us managed to reach the Nordwand station, braving blizzards and spindrift to
do so. Others walked to various heights
on the approach walk to the face according to their whims. Using low, devious cunning I avoided much of
the blizzard by walking through the railway tunnels but none of the drivers
would offer me a lift. J-Rat, using even
lower cunning, kipped in the van all day!
Then came New Years Day proper. Before too much alcohol had been consumed we
decided to head for home the following, travelling via the odd show caves to
make up for what we had missed in the Hölloch. We brought in battery and cassette player from the minibus and saw the
New Year in to the wail of pipes. Actually we did this twice once for New Year local time and an hour
later for New Year White Mans time. Frau Suter presented us each with a bottle of Neujahr wine, while J-rat
shared round the whiskey and tried the Highland Fling. Someone loaded the alcoholic, somnolent Rich
with half full glasses and bottles, then disturbed his humour with a nudge,
much to the delight of the landlord and the company.
The sore heads of New Years Day found it difficult to grasp
that it was snowing hard and Dave was trying to drum up enthusiasm for a three
day trip in the Hölloch. However,
eventually the Grampian contingent plus J-rat, Jim and I headed in towards
bivouac 2 with packs and three days supplies. We began to realise that the Swiss spared no expense or energy in
equipping the cave for the seasons explorations. Just short of the Riesen Saal we took a short
cut to reach the
On our first two visits to the Hölloch there had been a
reasonable draught. On this occasion
there was a howling gale, making a noise like raging floodwaters at one
constriction, and more powerful than anything I have seen emitting from the EDF
Tunnel of the
In the late morning, as we lazily breakfasted, the
Just above the Schuttdom we left the SAC gang for a low tube
where we actually had to drop down onto hands and knees. This was to cut out a large loop of the SAC
gang and big Jim really lapped it up, soon learning that Zwerhstollen had
something to do with a dwarf. A cold,
clear pool, almost invisible, smooth, white rock, stretched right across the
passage and some distance along it. Everyone now got wet feet and blamed me for leading them that way. We climbed up through the mud banks of the
Lehmtal (Clay Passage and back to the Doline in the SAC gang. It was decided to try and return to the
bivouac via the Lehmschollengang (
On the 3rd day we all headed out, enjoying a most
exhilarating slide down the Innominata. Water levels were low everywhere. Two and three quarter hours later we blinked at the snow and the
sunshine from among the long icicles of the entrance, after just over, 48 hours
underground. The next night we were
struggling through the artic wastes of
*****************************************
Ed. note: For those wishing to see a survey of the Hölloch
should refer to the W.S.G. Bulletin
For a change from the regular
Belfry Bulletin scribe here's a report of a caving trip by Stu Lindsey's eight
year old lad David.
In December I went to the Belfry, and it was cold
outside. On Saturday dad took me caving
down Swildons Hole. We went over the top
of Jacobs Ladder and comes out at the wet and the dry way. After then it was a pretty part of the
cave. We came out at the wet way.
In the afternoon mum cooked the diner, and while my dad
painted the doors. I helped run around
the table making Belfry Bulletins. We
went to the pub at night I slept in the car and drunk lemonade. I slept in the little room. In the afternoon John Dukes and Sue took me
down Manor farm Swallet. First we went
down a 58ft ladder climb, and then some passages, and down a 20ft climb, and
then we seed a curtain, and down another climb. I slipped so John lowered me down. Then through Alberts eye, up through a passage to a beautiful bit. Then we went up through a hole in the seeling
into NHASA gallery. It was hard climbing
out. I think my stay at the Belfry was
mint, and I am going to come again.
*****************************************
That was
While other members of the BEC
were spending their New Year Celebrations in
We, my wife Susan and I arrived at the Helwith Bridge Hotel
2 pints to closing time on Wednesday night. The drive up the M5/6 being a rather hectic though exhilarating
experience in the adverse weather conditions. My battered 101 in its three and a half hour jaunt negotiated the perils
of gale force winds, torrential rain and zero visibility when overtaking
convoys of monstrous, mist spreading, juggernauts.
Thursday, the 28th, greeted us with howling winds, more
rain, sheets of it pulsing the Ribble to a raging torrent of foaming, peat
stained, water 5ft over its norm! Yet 72
hours later this destructive force was relegated to a small, gentile stream,
gurgling effortlessly amidst a million snow capped rocks
alas! to day was
caving day, UGH, the prospects of attaining one or more of the goals in
Easegill (together with
Setting off from Bull Pot Farm an hour later, twelve one
time keen, eager souls were being slowly whittled away by the sudden drop in
temperature. The rain became noticeably
heavier, driven relentlessly by the increasing wind, stinging
chilling
..BBBrrr. It was crossing the top of the Fell that it
really hit us with a vengeance, the open moor offering no respite from a
million stings a minute, snowflakes, gentle snowflakes, frozen into needle
sharp missiles, projected by force 9 winds, yes, these violent, poundings in my
left ear were being caused by frozen snow
..Painfully, eyes squinting and teeth
chattering we covered the final half mile to find the Beck a 2ft deep and 12ft
wide torrent
yeh!
Entry into
SELL GILL - With the Bar Pot trip being cancelled due to
weather problems, the 29th was taken up with a dinner time session and a walk
to liven up the system for a renewed attack on the evening guzzling record.
So to the snow covered 30th, when four of our intrepid
little band set off intent on doing Sell Gill. In normal friendly conditions one can imagine how pleasant the walk up
from Holm Farm must be. But on the day
my fortune took me up to savour its delights; the snow had drifted, drifted and
drifted
.thus making the simple walk really hard graft. Yet for the second time in two days I was
caught with my wet suit exposed
.the delights of being battered, frozen and
fatigued crossing Casterton fell had taught me nothing! A cagoule protects those parts other wets
suits do not
.YOH! The perils of caving
the blizzard swept the fells in sub-zero, howling winds are manifold, so be
prepared and do not underestimate the weather.
Eventually we reached the Pennine way track so I was told
as it lay under a couple of feet of snow. Huddled behind a wall enjoying a brief respite form the wintry breeze
the harsh realisation suddenly dawned, we were light on tackle. One of us was guilty of forgetting a couple
of ladders, so Neil R
peeled off his tackle and bolted off down the hill like a
spring lamb, diving into large snowdrifts en-route, he soon disappeared from
sight. Progress to the hole was achieved
regretfully demolishing a number of fine snow formations, the wind having
moulded the drifts into arêtes and cornices.
Rigging the First Pitch proved to be very hazardous indeed,
Alan T., at one time appeared to be standing on a snow bridge, it was in fact
the bar belay. The ladder rigging was
completed as Neil came bounding over the rise with the missing ladders and a
rosy glow to his cheeks! In contrast,
the lifelining job I had undertaken was becoming desperately uncomfortable, the
cold wind blowing down the beck cutting into my neck like a razor sharp knife,
the rigid, ice covered rope proving more and more difficult to manipulate it
stuck to everything including my gloves! Once inside the entrance, the warmth of the cave soon had us tackling
the second and third pitches. Pitch 2,
an easy 12m, is mostly a gentle free hang, the first bit against a well broken
wall, the third pitch follows straight away, the 14m broken by a steep cleft at
the top while the remainder of the climb being a superb lightly fluted shaft. The floor of the chambers below the pitches
are of the cobbly type so beware when ascent/descents are being made! Left, down cave, a roaring 23m waterfall is
encountered; this enters the big shaft about half way down and marks the start
of the main chamber.
Huge, mud choked blocks litter the floor of this 40 x 40 x
30m (est.) chamber. The stream follows
the left wall down into a walking side passage that gradually reduces in size
to force the caver to a series of wet crawls under stalagmite bridges and ends
at a sump very promising oh! for a Mendip dam and
. Not much exploration
was carried in other parts of the cave due to obstinate failure of a
Mendipians magic eye when photographing the Main Chamber. Nine times the slaves on two guns
failed
oops. So it came to pass, an hour
later, poor Mike B. was chipped from his perch by the waterfall, and thawed out
under a handy carbide. A rapid exit of
the cave was then accomplished, the undaunted photographer trying to salvage
his pride and previous efforts, by snapping some candid action shots on the
pitches.
At the First Pitch it was found that more snow had been
blown in, the top half of the ladder was frozen into the ice around the top of
the entrance making the last four or five feet extremely tricky. The final climb up onto the dark, cold, snow
swept moor, in the face of an icy wind, on an iced up electron ladder (sticky
with a dry ice effect) was quite enthralling. To me both trips were great fun
never having experienced such extreme conditions before. The walk back was far from an anti-climax,
the snow drifts now deeper and more spectacular in the mellow glow of our cap
lamps acted as ramps to propel powder dry snow particles, at bullet speeds,
into our cold stinging faces. The final
coup de goop was not the frolics of the ten foot drifts but the task of trying
to pack sticky, stiff tackle into the car! Have you even seen the old comedy sketch trying to get rid of toffee
paper?
Unfortunately the next few days were enforced non-caving
day, the weather began to get bad, the wind was dropping and the snow storms
becoming more intense, but shorter, interspersed with clear blue skies and
sunshine. Yes, the sun does shine on the
dales (in 4 days throughout 1978 I saw sunshine about 5 times!)
After the New Years Eve festivities, black pudding and
polony with your ale in the pub and savoury baked taties at the party
afterwards it was with long faces, that a number of sleepiness bodies out into
the crisp dawn air to start the flaming car! Thirty minutes of wasted sleep time was spent in trying to open the rear
engine compartment of the offending VW. THE
That night we celebrated our close escape with a few pints
of Darleys Ale at the The Rook, the YSS local boozer. The snow had stopped, it was freezing and
time was, we should be heading home
south, the centre of the universe.
The following account of a wet
trip into St. Cuthbert's only to find that the entrance rift was impassable is
given by Martin Grass
.
At approximately 0200 hours on Saturday, Feb. 3rd, Jim
Watson and I entered St. Cuthbert's for a night time trip, the weather was
freezing and Mendip was blanketed in snow. Although the stream was cold it was not particularly high for winter
conditions. The party exited at about
0700 hours, just as the sun was rising.
At 1000 hours a walk to the entrance showed the water rising
rapidly as the sun was quickly melting the snow and by 1200 hours the
depression was completely flooded with a pool about 60 feet across in the
bottom of it. The dams were out and
completely submerged. I laddered the
entrance rift and tried to descend but could get no more than three rungs down
the ladder before I started swallowing large amounts of water as it was not
only going down the rift but shooting horizontally across it. Water was even entering at the base of the
entrance pipe. Graham put the dams in to
see if the water would subside and although submerged, a considerable
difference was made to the rift, in fact enough to get a party who were down if
the need had arisen. By 1700 hours the pond
had disappeared and the swollen stream was following its normal course. It was interesting to note that a visit to
Swildons on the same day showed the water was only slightly higher than the
normal winter level.
Editors note; This is the first time for several
years that a report of the cave being in spate has been recorded. The last I know was in January 1974. The rift is passable by experienced cavers
under these conditions. Breathing is
difficult but the entrance series to Mud Hall is worth seeing under these
conditions. The water entering at the
foot of the entrance pipes sweeps across the passage from the pipe and forms
about a 6"-8" deep stream along the entrance passage. The top of the entrance rift is swilling in
water and about 6 feet down from the top of the rift, a large jet of water
streaks across the rift from a stal hole in the wall. The waterfall in Arête is large by any
standard and the Ledge Pitch stream sweeps across the rift hitting the far
wall. The Wire Rift steps are not
visible as the water forms a white foaming streak down the passage, so loud
that you cant hear anything else.
APPIN CAVE GUIDE
Edited by Ivan Young
Published by Grampian Speleological Group. Special Publication Number 1 (Oct.78). Price 50p + p&p from G.S.G., 8
Appin peninsular lies west of Glen Coe. Many of the caves having been opened by the
G.S.G. in the last couple of years though they were not the first to explore
in the area. Though not many of the
caves exceed 1,000ft they are said to be able even the most demanding caver
some good sport. This concise booklet
gives a brief description of each cave together with surveys of the larger and
more important systems. Each cave is
located by an eight figure grid reference and is graded numerically, similar to
the northern cave guides. One
occasionally jolts at the use of Americanisms, for example Speleothems.
Apart from my old platform where the surveys are un-graded,
though they look well drawn though a little cluttered making the detail
difficult to read clearly, the main criticism must be at the size of type. Six point is too small to read comfortably
and would have appeared much better had the type been 8 point, this would not
have increased the area of printed matter much and it could have been easily
accommodated in the same number of pages. Still, one should not moan too much when the booklet only costs 50p.
recent digging and breakthroughs.
Again this month we have another
episode in the fight to extend the latest B.E.C. discovery
by Tony Jarrett
Since the breakthrough of 28th December 1977 (B.B. No.359)
most of the work at the site has been in the nature of solidly shoring the
entrance shaft by means of stone and mortar walls, and of constructing a secure
concrete capping for safety reasons (see Stu Lindsays article in B.B.
No.368). The wisdom of this move has
been amply demonstrated by Lord Waldegraves delighted thanks to the team and
his offer of any other digging sites on his estates. Thus, as a public relations exercise this has
been more successful than we had hoped and it is essential that all visits and
further digs in this area are continued in the same tradition. Incidentally, anyone wishing to visit Esker
Hill and Buddles Wood mining areas should arrange permission first via the
Estate Office at Chewton Mendip. A
refusal is now doubtful, allowing for the shooting season.
Once the engineering section had been completed their noble
edifice it was suddenly and sadly realised that we may had to go back
underground! During the early part of
the year various visits had been made to the end, including Wig, Graham W-J
and Martin Grass's surveying trip and odd digging visits by Ross White, Claire
Williams, Chris Batsone, Trev Hughes and others. These investigations had shown that water
sinking at the far end of the terminal chamber could be heard flowing under the
boulder floor in the far left hand corner. Partial removal of these boulders had been attempted but it was
suggested that any further work would require a good dollop of Irish
marzipan.
On 14th October the writer went for a recce dig at this
spot, accompanied by Chris Batstone, Chris Smart and John Turner. A vast quantity of mud and rocks was removed
leaving a low black hole with a view into open passage and a sofa sized rock
precarious balanced above said hole. A
good draught could be felt (a peculiar thing about this dig is strangely that
the normally four letter word men, burst forth with amazingly long and
intellectual words rarely heard before!
The following morning, accompanied by Alan Thomas, I went
back to the offending boulder, which was duly demolished and an afternoons
work by Simon Woody Woodman. Steve
Plumley (the Apprentices) Chris Smart and myself enabled the debris cleared and
a better look at the way on obtained. Unfortunately three more boulders just prevented access, though some ten
feet of clean washed bedding could be seen.
On the 17th, the writer directed
More clearing trips on 20th 22nd drastically altered the
height of the passage and amount of hairy roof and wall at the end. Diggers and sledge haulers were Stu Lindsey,
Chris B., Trev, Tim Large,
On the 28th November, Trev Hughes, Tuska Morrison (WCC)
Rich Maskell (hijacked matelot) and the writer cleared a further four feet of
collapse to reveal an open section of tunnel. This was entered by the two B.E.C. men two days later after gardening
the roof and walls. The crawl here is
low but wide and after some twelve feet is obstructed by a large slab. Work continues-
WIGMORE - The formation of the cave.
The writer has a theory on the formation of this small but
interesting cave which he would only be delighted to have further informed
opinions on.
He suggests the initial development began with the local
drainage following a weakness in the mineral vein down which the entrance shaft
was excavated. This relatively major
joint continues below the vein to the head of Christmas Crawl, being
intersected in hesitation Chamber by several cross rifts, forming minor inlets
from further along the vein.
Reaching the softer marl (?) bed of the crawl, the drainage
gradually eroded this material, following the dip of this bed. Initially the passage was very low, though
fairly wide in places. Weakening of the
roof caused collapse into the passage as is at present happening in places.
A junction of small oxbows and inlet in the Santas Grotto area
created a much wider section, considerably enlarged by roof collapse to create
a fairly roomy chamber. The combined
drainage leaving this area once again is concentrated in a single conduit and
the collapse in Pinks and Posies may be due to a continuation of the entrance
joint again reaching the crawl.
It is suggested that the cave will continue its gentle dip
along the bedding being still a low passage until it meets the limestone
junction and then
who knows?
WIGMORE notes on the survey
by Wig
The survey was carried out on a single trip during April
19768 and the field notes gathered by Martin Grass, Dave Irwin and Graham
Wilton-Jones using Suunto compass and clinometer and a 50ft fibron tape. Both the clinometer and compass were
calibrated to conform with the BCRA Grade 5 requirements.
Due to the constricted nature of the lower passage
(Christmas Crawl) the bearings were always forward through leap-frogging was
carried out from the top of the climbs to the entrance shaft.
The extension from the chamber (Santas Grotto) was surveyed
by Tony Jarrett et al (Pinks and Posies) soon after it was opened up. The original is drawn at 1/120 and prints
will be available through the Mendip Survey Scheme.
Total length 237ft; depth 78ft; BCRA grade 5c-d
some of the 21 issues that are in stock at the Belfry or at
Wigs at Townsend Cottage..
Caving Reports have not appeared regularly since about 1972
although there has been plenty to publish - mainly parts of the Cuthbert's
Report. Though we had access to two
printing machines people are not apparently prepared to prepare the plates or
stencils for printing the mass of material in the stock pile. The last part of the Cuthbert's Report to
appear was the Rabbit Warren Extension (Part H) in 1972. Parts on the stocks include Cerberus Series,
Maypole Series September Series and the complicated Long Chamber Series. The New and old Routes and Rocky Boulder
series surveys are complete and await the hands of the printers. This leaves the Main Chambers and the overall
plan and elevations. The plan is
virtually complete - a copy can be seen at the Belfry and the elevation is currently
undergoing its fifth redraw in an atternpt to produce a clear and uncluttered
appearance.
The reports that are available-are:
Report No. 14
Balague 1970 by Roy Bennett. This reports the club trip to a little known
area in the
Report No.3A
The manufacture of Lightweight
Caving Equipment by Bryan Ellis (1962). Though ladder manufacture has progressed to the use of epoxy resins and
other forms of swaging or crimping the rungs to the wire the method employed in
this booklets still the most popular form of ladder construction. 23pp illustrated. Price 30p.
Report No. 15
Roman Mine by Jill Tuck. This unique mine discovered by the Tucks in
the mid-sixties is a superb example of a Roman excavated lead mine just
Report No. 13
Part F St. Cuthbert's description
of Gour Hall area photos, survey
Part E similar to Part F of the complicated Rabbit Warren
Part H similar to Part F of the complicated Rabbit Warren Extension
Part A Discovery and Exploration currently under revision.
Report No. 17
Burrington Cave Atlas by Chris
Howell, Dave Irwin and Doug Stuckey was one of our fastest selling publications
(just under 500 in under one year!) The
Atlas has just been revised by Wig and is only awaiting the survey of
Lionel's Hole. If all goes to plan (!)
the revised edition should appear (A5 size) about June this year.
Report No. 16
Mendip's Vanishing Grottoes is a
unique collection of photographs of the now destroyed
March 11th: Lancaster/Easegill; April 29th: King Pot and May
5th: Disappointment Pot & Far Country.
These trips are being arranged by Dave Metcalfe and his
Northern Speleos, who offer a cordial invitation to any BEC member who wants to
join than to just turn up for times and further details phone Dave at
March 10th: BCRA One day symposium
on Limestones & Caves of
March 17-18th: Peak Cavern and
Wynnat's
March 23 M.R.O. Annual General
Meeting, 8pm at the Hunters.
Easter Weekend: Yorkshire -
staying at the
NEW RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED BY SWISS CAVERS - cavers intending
to visit
Societe Suisse de Speleologie,
Bernard Dudan, President Central, Les Chapons 2, CH-2022 Bevaix, Suisse.
For full details see Vol. 72 British Caver (Spring 1979) in
Club Library.
Copy of 1978 Current Titles in Speleology now in Club
Library.
The
The views expressed by contributors to the Belfry Bulletin,
including those of club officers, are not necessarily the views of the
committee of the Bristol Exploration Club or the Editor, unless so stated. The Editor cannot guarantee that the accuracy
of information contained in the contributed matter, as it cannot normally be
checked in the time at his disposal.
Horrington Hill Mine (Tims Retreat) and survey. An important discovery of a 1829 Caving
letter.
QUODCUMQUE FACIENDUM : NIMIS FACIEMUS
April 28th 1st
May
April 29th
April 30th
May 1st
|
Bank
Holiday
O.F.D.
2 numbers limited contact Zot
Otter
Hole. time dependant upon tides - contact Tim Large.
Agen
Allwedd Summertime Series and Southern Stream round Trip. Contact Tim Large
|
Tim writes: Some of us propose to camp or stay at the hut. If the weather is fine I shall certainly camp on the tram road near Aggie on Sunday night. Will try to book the hut if anyone is interested.
May 12th
May 14th
May 27-28th
May 29th
June 10th
June 17th
|
Dalimores (Friday niters trip)
Contact
Martin Grass for details of
Symposium
on Cave Exploration in Northern Spain at
B.E.C.
Mid-Summer BUFFET see page below for details.
|
arranged for Saturday 1st June 1978 at Hunters
Lodge Inn at 8.00 p.m.
Members and close friends only. Limited tickets £2.00 each
Tickets available from Tim Large, 72 Lower Whitelands,
Radstock,
MONEY WITH ORDER PLEASE. Make a note in your diary NOW!!
by JIM SMART
Roughly half the size of Europe, the
Since most of the country's more important caves are formed
in dolomite, only two of the four provinces provide any real speleological
interest: the Transvaal in the north, and
Oudtshoorn, the capital of the Little Karoo region, is a
pleasant, prosperous, tree lined town and the centre of
Generally, landowners and cavers enjoy a friendly
relationship. I guess both secretly hope
to discover a system as extensive and commercially viable as the
After about three hours we'd all had enough. So the digging team was dismissed and the
farmer and I descended
Prospects for new discoveries around
One of the first areas to receive SASA's attention was
Further south
I hitched the 1,400 km from
Luckily caving in the Transvaal has not suffered too much
under these restrictions, as it is still comparatively easy to make new
discoveries near the heavily populated
South African cavers are very safety-conscious. The first cave we discovered entailed a seven
metre abseil on which lifelines were used, and when I spotted another cave,
with a large walk-in entrance. I had to curb my enthusiasm until the entire
party, about nine people, had caught me up before going underground. Even below ground short solo explorations of
side passages were taboo and we were split into groups of twos and threes. But the cave turned out to be an intricate
three dimensional grovel and chaos followed the frequent meeting and passing of
other confused small groups.
These 'Fissure caves' mazes strongly influenced by jointing
- are the most common type of development in the
About 250 km from
Before I went to
From D.C. Nigel (plod)
Dear Bertie,
1) Firstly,
let me state that the following views are purely my own and not those of the
club committee; - But I feel after reading the Feb. B.B. that there are a few
personal views that I should like to express. Viz, Chris Batstone, our esteemed Hut Warden, appears to suddenly have
opened his eyes to a problem that has been with us for many years, even before
my reign of terror as Hut Warden in 1971/2. As a search of the Belfry books show, present weekend bednights are
the same as they were then - yet I feel that 'Chris' new problem' is one that
he can easily solve by saying "No" to interlopers and those who buck
the system as opposed to playing the Mendip Hardman and charging £1.00 per head
for those unfortunate enough not to be able to supply reciprocal accommodation
- remember there has always been a welcome for all at the Belfry. Untidiness and misuse at the 'shed' is for
the Hut Warden to prevent and control, backed up by the members present. In my experience it has often been these
themselves that were the untidiest! Let's hope that this new 'policy' does not bite the one who wanted to do
the biting, for if we were to turn up at places distant it would be a shame
indeed to overhear That's one of those unsociable. bxxxxxs from Mendip - you
know, no booking, no bunk! Let's not
build ourselves a paper empire and start up weird and wonderful systems for
booking, deposits etc. You're a good Hut
Warden Chris, but think carefully.
2) With
reference to Graham's article on Manor Farm's possibilities and my infilling of
the sink - this was dons, primarily, for safety reasons as on our first
exploratory entry into the lower sections of NASHA Gallery this area was a
large unstable boulder pile which I deliberately demolished with 4½lb in 1974
with the intention to stabilise it then and dig it at a later date. This date has now come! With my new licence the Mendip Chips Ban and
Chisel Company is officially back in life - all assistance welcome!
3) Cuthbert's Fixed Tackle - Hasnt enough been said.
Yrs. Nig Taylor.
G. Wilton-Jones
Last spring Buckett phoned me up saying that a chap out at
Lane End had found a mine in his garden and would like us to investigate
it. Lane End Common is apparently
riddled with abandoned mines, and, quite naturally, the locals were full of
tales of the old miners. 'Three men at a
time would take a skin of beer down with them and spend several days
underground. 'Interconnecting mined
passages once honey-combed the common.' However, on-one was related to or seemed to know any of the old
miners. Earlier this century 'Old Man
Nix' had been lowered on a rope down the mine in question, and his B.D.I.
revealed caverns measureless containing tools, wheelbarrows, buckets, etc. The mine was capped soon afterwards and a
rockery built on top of it. One
semi-alcoholic night the present landowner decided to find the mine, which he
did. He dropped lighted newspapers into
the shaft, Casteret style, and saw passages at the bottom and one part way down
the side. He plumbed the depth, finding
it to be about 60' to a pile of garden refuse at the bottom.
Investigation of the mine took a matter of minutes for
us. It is clear from the survey that the
mine is very limited in extent. The
shaft was just over 60' but there was no passage part way down the shaft. Nor were there wheelbarrows, buckets or
tools. There was one, interestingly
shaped, smooth, wooden wendge, a few iron spikes in the walls, and some old
tin-plate oil lamps. A few other
artefacts probably fell down the shaft, and are therefore not worth
mentioning. We reckoned that Old Man
Nix' wan probably scared out of his wits on the end of a rope, with his
flickering candle in his hand, and did not even untie himself from the
rope. Candles may not cast treacherous
shadows but the ones they do cast can be very misleading to the uninitiated in
strange places.
It was not at all clear what exactly the miners were after:
the mine shaft drops first of all through the
The shortest gallery had suffered a roof fall from a sand
pocket, and had been filled with deads - in this case, chalk pieces of fist
size and less. Other galleries had odd
piles of deads, while two had pits in the floor. Some of the floor was grooved with
wheelbarrow marks. At the end of two
parallel galleries a fault had. stopped progress. Black mineralization had oozed down the
fault, presumably from the sand beds above. Only one gallery had any drip, and there were small drip pockets on the
floor there.
During two further trips the mine was surveyed and
photographed. We learned little more
about the mine, except that the owners house used to be a brick works. I decided to try the
According to Collins Field Guide to Archaeology' in
I began to cap the local knowledge in the guise of one
'Bert Ginger', who lives over the road from me. He confirmed what my landlady had rumoured - that there was a chalk mine
right here in Naphill, not a hundred yards from where 1'm sitting to type
this. Bert was not around while the mine
was still operational. He came to the
village in the early 1900's, and the mine had been closed a few years by
then. He referred to it as a chalk
mine.
CHALK MINE at LANE END, CHILTERNS. Scale 1:168. Elevation WSW EWE. BCRA Grade
2.
Most fields in the area at that time had their own marl
pits.
The chalk itself does not generally outcrop anywhere in the
Chilterns except on the scarp slope. Even here, us I often notice in an M40 cutting, the chalk may lie at a
depth of several feet beneath the surface. Chalk, however, can be easily burnt by a simple process into excellent
lime, for use both on the fields and for making mortar/cement. In places where the top soil and marl are of
such a depth to preclude quarrying opencast, then chalk was obtained by mining.
When Bert Ginger was a lad there was no main drainage in
Naphill, so most people had a cess pit. This was emptied at regular intervals by a man with a horse, a tank and
a stirrup pump. One man, fed up with the
charges for emptying his pit (several pence at a time!) and knowing that his
house was built near the abandoned chalk mine, called in the help of the only
surviving chalk miner of the village, Jack Free. In minutes Jack had located the capping on
the old shaft and a pipe was soon installed to convey the necessary into the
very bowls of the earth. According to
Jack, at the bottom of the shaft, some 60ft. down, passages ran off like the
spokes of a wheel, rising higher the further they went from the shaft, until
they reached the top of the economical layers of chalk. He gave no indication as to the length of the
galleries.
Others in the village, also decided to use the mine as a
vast cess-pit, but one was quite by accident. He had done the old trick of burying bottles in the concrete base of his
septic tank when he made it, and had climbed down into the apparently large pit
on a ladder to poke the holes; with a steel spike. Unable to find the bottles he poked harder,
and one corner of the pit completely gave way, leaving the ladder and the
errant gentleman hanging over the void. Bert saved the man from the
. you know what. Just as well the mine roof didnt collapse
while he was making the pit. It must
have been directly over the upper end of one of the galleries. Since then the man with the horse, the tank
and the stirrup pump faded away from old Napton, out of a job, maybe.
Various parts of the mine have collapsed on occasions; one
collapse occurred in Berts schooldays, early one morning. He saw it on the way to school - a pit with a
pile of earth in the centre and two passages leading off on opposite sides at
the bottom. By the weekend, when he
thought he'd go down it and explore, the pit had been filled and levelled;
another collapse was right beneath a damson tree. The tree survived for many years after, and
the owner would pick his fruit from the top of the tree by reaching across from
the edge of the pit; quite recently two new bungalows were put up near
here. They began to subside into the
mine for the surveyors had note taken this into account. A week was spent pouring concrete into a hole
under one of the houses. There is
supposed to be another mine next to this one, and I see that six luxury
dwellings have been built over it. I
wonder how long they will last?
Overheard at the Belfry: When discussing details of the Austrian trip,
later this year, a well known Belfryite (J.D.) made it known to one and all
"I dont care what we do in
Weil's Disease has struck again in
This is the second time that a caver has been struck down
with it; the first was our own Oliver Lloyd some 12 years ago. I've spoken to Don Thomson about this and he
said that there is no real protection because the virus will penetrate through
the skin, whether it is cut or not, as well as the usual way into the body via
the usual orifices. So, be careful,
dont drink cave water, wear gloves and possibly hoods may help in the Stoke
sump areas.
Longest Dive. An Australian cave diver has broken the world record for the longest
cave dive. Paul Hadfield states that it
was over 2 kilometres in a cave in the Nullaber Plain in
Mike Boon, well known to older members of the club,
has at last published his book relating highlights of his incredible caving
'career'. He tells of diving in
Swildons Hole, discovery of large sections of the Lokva and Grapa rivers by
diving in
Still on the subject of bocks - Karst in China
(150pp) published Shangai People's Publishing House, is one of the finest
'coffee table' caving books yet published. Contains magnificent photographs (mainly colour) of the worlds largest
karst regions in southern
News in Brief. Border C.G. and the Cerberus S.S. seem to have patched up their
differences that caused the split a few years ago. Talks of merging the two clubs seem to be on
the way. Possible a marriage of
convenience CSS have a cottage, Border cannot afford to buy one. Alan Mills (WCC) has abandoned Pitten Stree
because of continual collapse. Caving
lectures entitled Caving Sport and Science at Geology Theatre commencing
25th April details from Dept. of Extra Mural Studies, The University, 32
Tyndalls Park Road, Bristol, BS8 1HR. National Caving Centre (No.2 if Whernside is No.1!) proposed for
Water Tracing. Willie Stanton has carried out more tests at Cuthbert's and records
times to Wookey of 10 hours. This agrees
with the 1967 tests when the time was given as being 11 hours. However, the 1967 times are not very accurate
as the lycopodium spores had reached the resurgence before the 11th hour, so
ten hours would appear to be reasonable under high water conditions. Also, Wigmore was tested over the weekend of
4th - 5th March. This involved the
Belfry regulars in 6 hourly sampling trips to Wookey, Rodney Stoke, Cheddar and
Rickford. Wigmore was traced to Cheddar,
taking about 43 hours.
Space Blankets
A medic from the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine carried
nut some useful work back in 1971. Details of which have been published in the March, 1978 edition of
Climber and Rambler (see copy in club Library).
Basically, he claims that the advantage of the aluminium
coated plastic space blanket is that it can be seen from a distance but has no
added advantage over the other forms of materials commonly in use for
protection against the cold and wet such as polythene or woven nylon.
Testing the space blanket under various conditions it was
found that the skin temperature was no different using the blanket than when
using a poly bag. It was concluded that
heavyweight space blankets are of some value as a water and wind protector but
other materials such as polythene or rip-stop nylon are equally robust.
The lightweight space blanket is too fragile for most
survival purposes. Bags are much better
than blankets in windy conditions.
The reflection of the body heat (infra-red) by a space
blanket is prevented by the layer of condensation and at sub-zero temperatures
by frosting. In this situation space
blankets 0ffers no advantages over cheaper and stronger alternatives. Lastly, space blankets are of no value as a
radar location aid in survival.
Stoke Lane 4. Alan Mills (WCC) has negotiated with the landowner to open up the aven
in Stoke 4 to the surface. A radio
location the site was carried out by 'Prew' last year. The landowner has a condition that the
opening should be done within a weekend and it must be gated.
More on the Stoke Lane Weil's Disease
The following is reprinted from the Yeovil Caving Club's
Newsletter 'SUMP' - No.5: -
The following letter is from Benny Bainbridge and gives this
own personal report on how he caught Weil's disease and also the treatment he
received: -
It started as a normal caving trip one Friday night last
October (1977). The trip had been
brought forward from Sunday so that I could go on my first trip to Stoke Lane
Slocker.....There were four of us in the party~ all experienced. However, on the return trip after Sump One I
began to tire, so the entrance tube was a bit of a struggle. It was in the entrance tube and again outside
that I made my near fatal mistake and swallowed some of the water. The first time was accidental, the second
time it was done quite deliberately to quench my thirst.... Nothing happened
for the next week or so. Ten days after
the trip
. that I started to develop pains in my back and 'flu-like
symptoms. On Thursday I went to see my
doctor and he gave me some pills to ease my back ache. However, I began to feel even worse, so on
the Sunday I was admitted to the sick bay at my naval base at Yeovilton,
It was at this stage that I started by dramatic colour
change from normal pink to a bright yellow ...my doctor discussed the
possibility of me having caught Yellow Jaundice. On the Wednesday I was transferred to the Royal
Naval Hospital at Plymouth, where blood tests done on the Thursday found me to
be suffering from Weil's Disease leading to acute renal failure (i.e. both my
kidneys has ceased to function some 24 hours earlier).
As the Navy has no artificial kidney machine to deal with
Renal Failure, I was transferred by helicopter to the R.A.F. Renal Unit at RAF
Halton, Buckinghamshire, where I underwent haemo-dialysis (the cleaning of the
blood by the use of a kidney machine).
While I was at RAF Halton, samples of my blood were sent to
the Leptospirosis Reference Laboratory in London who confirmed that in fact I
had caught Weil's Disease which is caused by the virus Leptospirosis and is
transmitted to humans in the urine of rats. Fortunately, for us, only 10% of the rat population carry the virus.
I spent a total of four and a half weeks in hospital, two of
which were spent in the intensive care unit ... six hours a day for 10 days
hitched up to a kidney dialysis machine and for 12 days I was fed by an
intravenous drip. At the moment I still
have to undergo checks on my liver and kidneys, but the lasting effect of my
illness is the fact that I cannot drink alcohol because of the damage done to
my liver.
Or Just a minute with our hon. sec!
by TIM LARGE
CAMERA
RAFFLE CAMERA RAFFLE CAMERA RAFFLE CAMERA RAFFLE
The club possesses a S/L
Camera which it proposes to raffle to members only. The value is approximately £50.
DRAW
TO BE MADE AT THE MIDSUMMER BUFFET
TICKETS
AVAILABLE FROM MARTIN BISHOP - telephone Priddy 370
CUTHBERTS TACKLE FEES for tourist trips organised
by the Caving Secretary or privately, the fee will be 25p. It may appear to be a 'Large' rise (50%) but
it is long overdue and only comes up to standard charges for access to other
caves. Perhaps 'tackle fee' is the wrong
title and 'access fee' would be more appropriate.
Hut Engineer Martin Bishop has resigned from this post,
but not from the Committee. Martin Grass
has taken over and I am sure will appreciate your help one immediate task now
the fine weather is coming is to paint the outside woodwork of the Belfry.
The new soak-a-way for the shower water is nearing
completion and should solve our sewage problems.
CHANGES OF ADDRESS
Christine Greenall - Minster
Lodge,
907 Karen Jones, Room 63, New End Nurses Home, New End Hospital, Hampstead,
London WN3 1YE.
Ross White,
NEW MEMBERS - welcome to the mob!
Teresa Rumble,
SOCIAL: It's
nice to see Tony Corrigan out and about again caving as well in the company
of 'Zot' and Tom Gage. Recently Tony
went down GB and as far as the '20' in Swildon's. Hes currently thinking up ideas of how to
fit an attachment on his foot to climb ladders.
MORE CHANGES OF ADDRESS
Helen Fielding,
Roger Sabido,
Tony Jarrett
While holidaying on the
Situated on the ten mile long island of Antiparos, access to
the cave is gained by taking a hour and a half motor boat trip from the town of
History of the Cave
At around the same time as the original exploration of Pen
Park Hole and Lamb Leer were taking place, the Grotte d'Antiparos was fully
explored by the Marquis de Nointel, French ambassador to the Turkish Empire
then ruling these Greek islands (though graffiti on formations indicated
partial previous exploration by the early Greeks). The audacious Marquis descended on 23rd
December, 1673 armed with ropes, rigid wooden ladders, a large group of
servants and sailors and even a couple of artists to record the event for
posterity (and for his King, Louis XIV). The party explored deep into the cave, discovering en route the large
well-decorated hall some eighty meters down. The Marquis was so impressed that he spent three days underground and
during this period celebrated Christmas Eve mass attended by over five hundred
people! The cave was illuminated with
hundreds of lamps and wax tapers and a novel innovation was the firing of
several mortars and cannon in the entrance followed by a wild clamour of
assorted musical instruments (shades of the Hunters backroom!) This incredible pantomime was followed by the
removal of tons of formations for display in a
In contrast to this first visit, the scientific
investigations of the naturalist Tournefort in 1700 were far more subdued,
though even this episode has its humorous side. Tournefort - a botanist - formulated a theory of vegetative growth to explain
the development of the formations, doubtless due to the resemblance of
stalagmite growth rings to those of a tree! He published an elaborate description of his visit and also of that of
de Nointel.
A further description was provided by the next distinguished
French visitor in 1780, the Count Choiseul-Gouffier.
From this date on visits became more frequent though the
upper classes seem to dominate the scene. The Greek king Othon was there in 1840 and another French ambassador,
Gobino, in 1865.
Particularly unwelcome visitors descended on the area in
1770 - 1774. These were Russian
occupation soldiers who followed in their predecessors footsteps by removing
many formations for a
Now protected by a stout gate and operated as a show cave
for some years the situation has improved - though it is noticeable that one of
the main attractions pointed out by the guide is the vast amount of historical
graffiti covering nearly all of the accessible formations. Despite three centuries of vandalism the
remaining stals, though generally dry and old, are plentiful and
impressive. Vast pillars, stalactites
and curtains proliferate and there are a number of the curious palette or
shield formations only found in the caves of warm climates.
The cave itself is formed in a steeply inclined rift or
fault with wider sections forming the heavily decorated chambers. Its 100 meters of depth is descended on
spider-web like concrete steps hanging in mid air. These are only some two feet in width and
provide great sport were the handrails are missing and visitors at the bottom
are trying to pass those going down! The
cave ends in a rift blocked with stalagmited boulders and breakdown, though a
short pitch in the floor some way back up the passage possibly goes
further. The writer had neither the time
nor equipment to investigate this. The
spirited lecture provided by the guide halfway down was unfortunately all Greek
to me.
In conclusion I found this a really worthwhile visit - made
especially enjoyable by the novelty of mule transport and the remoteness and
lack of commercialisation of the cave. A
"must" if you are ever in the area. Incidentally there are many other
caves on Antiparos and other islands. Little exploration seems to have been done in the islands and the
climate, vast quantity (and quality) of naked foreign females on the beaches
and cheap wine make this an English cavers paradise.
Refs (from the writer's library only)
Famous Caverns and Grottoes -
W.H. Davenport Adams 1886 pp. 78-84 Antiparos - the Island with the
La Conquete Soutterain. - P.
Minvielle 1967 pp. 15-21
BCRA Trans. VoL 1 No.1. - J.R.
Shaw Cohort History of Speleology)
by D.J. Irwin
By now the reader will have read one of the several accounts
dealing with the breakthrough and exploration of this new Mendip system. As an aid to exploration a BCRA grade 5c survey
commenced on the 26th February, 1977 and during the course of the next few
weeks the survey was completed except for Aardvark and Bertie's
The equipment used is of some interest to surveyors. Basically it consisted of the Suunto compass (KB14/360)
and clinometer (PM5/360) coupled together in the form of a handheld surveying
unit. This eliminated the problem of
handling the separate instruments and in low, awkward passages this was a great
advantage. Details of the connecting
bracket is being prepared by Chris Batstone. In use this combination of instruments enabled rapid readings to be
made. The tape was a Chesterman 100
The instruments were read to the nearest 1O and the tape to
the nearest 0.1 ft. The leap-frog method
was adopted. The data assembled was
reduced to co-ordinates using four-figure logs and the survey, plotted and
checked on graph paper. Due to the scale
(1/480) no detail of the deposits could be shown on the drawing.
The instruments were not calibrated in the conventional
manner due to influences from steel wire and half buried farm implements in the
area. Instead, a fixed bearing was
obtained from the compass station near the farm entrance at the start of each
trip; any variation in magnetic deviation enabled each section of the survey to
be so corrected. Thus, the survey
figures were corrected to compass north. With the help of Brian Prewer et al, a radio transmission was made on
March 12th 1977 from the base of Pyramid Pot and the point located in the field
above. A surface survey then commenced
radiating lines to the cave entrance and the corners of the field. By checking the 6 O.S. map of the area it
was then possible to rotate the survey to grid north. The mismatch of the surface point located
from the survey line and the signal point was less than 20 feet giving a
closure error of approximately 1%.
Due to the complex plan form of the upper series and the
general pattern of the main passage the idea of a projected elevation was
abandoned and an extended elevation produced. The drawings were then transferred onto a nylon drawing sheet to produce
the master original. This is to be sent
t8 B.M. Ellis for inclusion in the Mendip Cave Survey Scheme.
The surveyed length is 4,000ft + 200ft. un-surveyed (1,335
metres + 60 metres) and 433ift. (131.97 metres) deep.
The following table records the dates and personnel involved
with whom this survey could not have been produced: -
?.8.76
|
Entrance to dig. (1 hour)
D. Irwin & C. Batstone.
|
26.2.77
|
'A Day' to Pyramid Pot (3
hours) D. Irwin, G. Wilton-Jones, N. Halstead and C. Batstone.
|
5.3.77
|
Pyramid Pot to Breakthrough
and
|
11.3.77
|
Transporting radio locating
gear to Pyramid Pot C. Hawkes; B. Prewer, T. Reynolds (W.C.C.) and P. Smart
(U.B.S.S.).
|
|
Drunken Horse Inlet: D.
Irwin and T. Large.
|
12.3.77
|
Surface survey: D. Irwin,
J. Batstone, B. Prewer and R. White
|
20.3.77
|
|
20.3.77
|
Velcro Passage: P. MacNab
& D. Turner.
|
14.4.77
|
Sheep's Jaw and misc. side
passages: D. Irwin, P. MacNab and R. Halliwell.
|
The cave became choked with mud below the second pitch during May, 1977 leaving Aardvark and two small side extensions un-surveyed. These have been sketched in on the plan.
*****************************************
The views expressed by contributors to the Belfry Bulletin,
including those of club officers, are not necessarily the views of the
committee of the Bristol Exploration Club or the Editor, unless so stated. The Editor cannot guarantee that the accuracy
of information contained in the contributed matter, as it cannot normally be
checked in the time at his disposal.
QUODCUMQUE FACIENDUM : NIMIS FACIEMUS
By Tim Large
Summer has arrived, albeit a bit late and wet. The only complaint beside the weather heard
around the Belfry has been that there is too much going on and everybody cannot
attend everything as dates clash!
Over the May Day Holiday there were club trips to
On the Committee scene business is booming and the problems
eventually being overcome following the advert for our new treasurer, two
nominations were received from Sue Tucker and Claire Williams. The outcome was that Sue is elected to carry
on from
The other advert was for a new Hut Engineer - nominations
being received from Bob Cross and " Zot' - Bob being co-opted to the
Committee.
The membership list has now officially closed so if you are
reading this BB, you must .have paid your sub - if you have not - then you know
what to do (£3.00, full member; £4.25, joint members - cheques payable to the
B.E.C.) The number at the close of play
was 167 members. This is about 30 short
of the list as at January 1978.
Alan Kennett has kindly donated a small number of caving
helmets which will be kept at the Belfry for use particularly by newcomers,
novices etc. as there is always a shortage in these cases. Our thanks too, to Alan Thomas and Martin
Grass for donations to the Club Library, including the useful CRG publication
of Aggy. Our thanks to all.
The Committee has agreed that we purchase a quantity of
caving boots. They should arrive in a
few weeks, so enquire at the Belfry or via me, price about £8.75/pair.
The Annual Dinner has now been booked at the Caveman,
Cheddar costing £3.50 and including Roast Beef, Yorkshire Pud., wine and a free
pint or glass of sherry before the meal.
CHANGE OF ADDRESSES:
795 Pete Leigh, 5 Armoured Workshops, BFPO 106
Graham
NEW MEMBERS:
933 Dianne Beeching, 8 Seymore Close, Wells,
934 Colin Williams, Whitestones
Farm, Cheddar Cross Roads,
935 Lynne Williams, address as
above.
DON'T FORGET THE, MIDSUMMER BUFFET Still tickets available
- £2 a head. 8p.m. at Hunters Lodge Inn
on Saturday 17th June 1973. Also a
working weekend at the Belfry June 17th-18th - free accommodation for members
helping.
The club has been invited to a buffet/skittles evening by
Yeovil Caving Club on Saturday 1st July at Glover Arms, Reckleford, Yeovil. Anyone interested in going please let me know
as soon as possible so tha I can book numbers.
REMEMBER: My new address is c/o Trading Standards Dept,
Cheers, Tim Large.
by Graham Wilton-Jones
The 1976 extension to Ogof Craig y Ffynnon (Rock and
To begin with I shall refer to Wig's article in B.B. No.
356, December 1977, to comment on Ogof Craig y Ffynnon. The small rising (IP 2) is not the main
rising for the cave, which is actually Ogof Capel (see also IP 8). This is situated at the bottom of the Clydach
Gorge, 500 yards west-south-west of Ogof Craig y Ffynnon entrance. On my visit to Ogof Craig y Ffynnon the cave
was wet. Between the boulder chokes were
deep pools concealing flooded lower passages which can be entered in summer. These carry Ogof Capel water. The entrance to Ogof Craig Ffynnon is a
rubble rift, the sides of which show superb scalloping, and must once have been
part of an impressive streamway approaching a resurgence in the Clydaoh area,
or does this section of cave pre-date the valley (see below - Clydach
rejuvenation)? The limestone continues
below the coalfield south of the Clydach and I believe that some caves there
actually head under the coal. Ignoring
the scarp outcrop to the east, the next place the limestone is seen is in the
coast districts, close to sea level.
The lower stream series (IP 4) is not that difficult, and is
reminiscent of the more complex parts of O.F.D. One of the streams we pushed (at least, J.D., the wellie-booted worm
did) to a choke. This was under a
dripping aven in the other passages of this series. The sources of the streams down here have not
otherwise been traced, but I would venture to suggest that the Ogof y Darren
Cilau stream deserves further attention in this respect. Dye tests have been made, but it should be
borne in mind that negative results are not indicative of no connection
hydrologically.
The end of Ogof Craig y Ffynnon (IP7) lies after two miles
of fairly straight passage (with obstructions) equidistant from Agen Allwedd
terminal sump (I or IV, I don't know) Eglwys Faen and the end of Ogof y Darren
Cilau. It is in the same beds as Agen
Allwedd, i.e. the Oolitic, having risen up through the Dolomitic (IP 7 and 8)
and is similar in character to Agen Allwedd, especially Main Passage,
I will return to the subject of Ogof Craig y Ffynnon.later. What of Ogof y Darren Cilau? For those who do not know this cave, and no
doubt, you are many (sensible people) a brief description may be useful (then
you won't have to go yourselves).
At the base of the cliff, behind the old limekilns above
Whitewalls, is a low, wet entrance, one of eight at the base of the outcrop
between here and the valley be the old sheep dip. It is a taste of things to come. The lowness and wetness, and narrowness
continue for a thousand feet. One
thousand feet of very technical, grovelling, with only a few short stretches of
walking. Finally this small streamway
breaks into larger passage, and the stream disappears under the edge of
this. The larger passage leads to a
fault guided rift with stal, some old and massive, at this end, and a grey,
shaly conglomerate breakdown at the other end, several hundred feet away. This breakdown is also the end of a huge
phreatic passage: remarkably similar to Agen Allwedd Main Passage, but almost
immediately filled to the roof with mud. However, a further passage leads from here, zig-zag rift which goes to
the final chamber. This chamber is
several hundred feet long and tens of feet wide, formed entirely of collapse
(into what would be interesting to know) and floored with boulders and
glutinous mud. There is one similar, but
smaller chamber off to one side.
Several interesting thoughts come to mind:
What are the relative altitudes of the caves mentioned? Unfortunately Caves of Wales and the
Several passages run in from the escarpment - Ogof Pen Eryr,
Ogof y Darren Cilau stream, Aggie entrance passage - on the strike apparently,
or is the dip at the edge of the hill west instead of south?
What is the relationship between the large passages so far
known? Are they parts of the same cave, did they undergo similar conditions of
formation, or is it simply that they are formed in the same rock? Ogof y Darren Cilau seems to be too high up
in the beds to have any relationship with the other caves, but is it? The entrance altitude suggests it is. So does its breakthrough into shale. However, in the entrance series of Ogof y
Darren Cilau and in the long (crawl in Ogof Craig y Ffynnon there is a band of
green limestone. Are these the same
beds?
The final chamber in Ogof y Darren Cilau is totally
dissimilar to the big chambers in the other caves, though perhaps it is a large
phreatic passage. Why does it have such
wet mud in it? Is it because there is no
draught to dry it out - we noticed no draught here or because it has an
occasional humid draught?
Why should Ogof Craig y Ffynnon be thought not to be a
fossil part of Aggie? (IF 8). I would
have thought that that is just what it is. It rises eventually from its entrance (250' above the Clydach) into the
Aggie beds. Why should it not, perhaps,
be a continuation of Aggie Main Passage? It has not yet reached near there according to the surveys
available. Pete Bull has done a great
deal of sedimentological work in Agen Alwedd and this, more than anything else,
seems to be helping to date the passages of Aggie, and to demonstrate the
relationship between them. Similar work
in Ogof Craig y Ffynnon to show a comparison would be invaluable here.
Was the Clydach Gorge a product of rejuvenation following
glacial deepening of the Usk valley? Cave streams seem now to be the major erosional influence in the
gorge. Could a fossil extension of the
present Aggie streamway exist somewhere above the base of the Clydach, possibly
on a level similar to that of Ogof Craig y Ffynnon, but maybe to the west of
this?
What happens beyond Aggie terminal sump IV? It would seem that there must be pitches, or
at least ways down like those in Ogof Craig y Ffynnon which take Ogof Capel
water, except that these for Agen Allwedd would still be taking all the
water. Only a small stream actually goes
down those in Ogof Craig y Ffynnon.
How much do the Llangattwg system pre-date the present
topography? Projecting the northern end
of Summertime takes it straight out of the hill.
The questions and postulations are endless. Several of the former can be answered easily
by a geologist or someone with more access to relevant information that I
have. The reward for the studious could
another Key to Llangattwg - or have written (as we say in my
*****************************************
All members are reminded that it their responsibility to
ensure that the Belfry is always kept locked - remember there have robberies in
the past. Will all members make a
special point to ensure that the Library is kept locked at all times, certain
items in the collection are quire rare and extremely useful for reference purposes. Library keys are obtainable from any
Committee Member.
*****************************************
Time is going on again The AGM 1977 AGM Minutes will be
included with the B.B.
by Oliver Lloyd
Joe Tasker the mountaineer held, an audience of four hundred
in the palm of his hand for two and a quarter hours. He was delivering the Seventh Paul Esser
Memorial Lecture in the
The mountain is well over 23,000 feet in height and was
clearly to be the most difficult climb, either of them had undertaken. Neither would admit to the other that he had
any doubts about the possibility of success, but it was not until after 25
days, when they got to the "half-way" snow field at 20,000 ft.; that
they knew it was possible. I think most
of us would have given up before that. At
that height climbing is exceedingly arduous. It was only possible to go up five to ten feet at a time before stopping
to get ones breath. They were averaging
four hundred feet a day. The whole climb
lasted 40 days and not unnaturally they ran out of conversation.
Their technique was to establish a base camp at 16,000 ft.,
to which they would return from time to time for more gear. Their return from camp to camp was
facilitated by leaving a fixed rope and abseiling down. They had two other camp sites on the way up,
each being made by cutting a narrow platform in the snow. The outside place was not an enviable one,
but they belayed themselves to pegs, in case of rolling over. Repeated journeys to and from these camp
sites was necessary to get all the necessary gear up. Leading was, a very tiring and responsible
business, so they took it in turns. Finally after spending a day at Camp 2 they made a dash for the summit
with light leads.
The descent was not without incident. There was the piton that got bent to an
uncomfortable angle; while Joe was abseiling down a rope belayed to it. Pete was not sure whether to remain belayed
to it or not. Each of them had an
occasion when he lost the rope on the way down. For Peter it left him in a very difficult position, attached to it
upside down by one foot in a sling. You
have to be quite good at single rope work to be able to rectify a position such
as this.
After they had got down they were called upon to assist in
sorting out four fatalities, which had just occurred in the next valley. It was necessary to establish the identity of
the victims and to bury the bodies.
(Zot - the man who doesn't need to stop at Motorway Service
Areas!)compiled by Graham W-J
In the beginning there were sent forth into the north
western wastes of
We reached Chapel Stile, in Langdale, at various times on
Wednesday night and Thursday morning, and took over five of the Lingmoor View
cottages, which are summer holiday homes in an old terrace.
Thursday saw us en route for Patterdale, via devious routes
designed by Alis and M.A.P. (they were
lost). Everyone of us set off on the
path climbing Grisedale Brow, with X Bob and Zot making a cracking pace towards
Helvellyn. 'Whereupon some fell on rising
ground', and these persons, who shall remain nameless, went to the pub. The snow lay in patches quite low down, but
was continuous above 1500 feet; and much of it had a hard, icy coating. We met with very little snow on top of ice,
as had been reported. Four of us put on
crampons which made life a little easier.
I wish I had a pair
of crampons said M.A.P., not for the first or last time. At the Brow Bob had stopped to chat with
three other walkers, so we managed to catch up. Sue and Miss Piggy, coming upon ice ground did return, taking with them
the faithful hound, Bec. In spite of
advice, John and I decided to have a look at Striding Edge and the 15 foot high
cornice leading onto the summit of Helvellyn, and a group of us moved up to the
crags. While everyone else, including
M.A.P. (I wish I had a pair of crampons") descended and crossed the
frozen Red Tarn towards Catstye Cam, John and I traversed Striding Edge. Compared with Crib Goch last winter, it was a
cinch and we didn't even rope up. The
final slope was straight forward, and the cornice seemed solid enough. We watched a couple of walkers managing with
one pair of crampons. Apparently one of
them fell on the steep slope ahead of us, but seemed OK when we reached
him. The top of Helvellyn was icy cold
and windy. The previous weekend's
footprints stood out above the surrounding snow, whose soft crystals had been
blown away, a peculiar sight. Visibility
was fair under the low, scudding clouds, but the ominous looking darker patches
in the distance came to nothing. We
moved quickly off the top, down Swirral Edge and up to Catstye Cam, where we
met up with "I wish I had a pair
.." again. From there we glissaded down to Red Tarn
Beck.
Later on we were discussing with the crampon wisher how to
use an ice axe in a fall I demonstrated but he replied, I don't think Id have
the presence of mind to use the axe properly, I assured him he would,
whereupon he fell on the steep slope and lost his presence of mind!
That evening we visited the
..at Outgate, where they sell
Hartley's Best Bitter (beer and water) and straight bitter (less beer and more
water). It did affect Zot enough to
cause him to remark, Oi avent 'ad me 'ole for four years. We were all suitably sympathetic.
Guess where M.A.P. went on Friday morning. Youve got it. He is now the proud owner of a pair of Simond
crampons. Strange he couldnt remember the
episode in the
Meanwhile X Bob, Sue, John and I had set off up the stream
that flows off Wetherlam. There were
some magnificent frozen waterfalls in the Gorge, with enormous icicles. It soon became impossible to continue along
the frozen stream, but there is an obvious path following an old miners track
to the north of the gorge. Most of the
walking was on grass, with only patches of snow and ice, but as we climbed up
Birk Fell the snow became continuous. We
put on ice gear and traversed very hard, icy snow to the summit of
Wetherlam. A strong, cold wind tried to
whip us from the top while we hung around to admire the view, and to consider
the irresponsibility of a walker without ice axe or crampons up there. He said that he was unaware of conditions, in
spite of so much publicity about recent accidents.
Bob and Sue decided to cut short their walk because of the
ice, and descended directly from Wetherlam. John and I carried on round to Coniston Old Man. From Swirl How to the Old Man the ice surface
was an unbroken convex sheet sweeping right down to Seathwaite Tarn, but the
going was very easy in crampons, Michael.
At this time the said M.A.P. & Co. were in the pub in
Coniston thinking of using the new gear to go up the Old Man. They eventually set out and rushed up Church
Beck and did a gully to the summit. They
arrived there just after John and I left. I understand they did not use a rope for the ascent. "You only need a rope if you're going to
fall". (M.A.P. - again). We descended
via Low Water to the Youth Hostel in Church Beck, where Bob met us with the
car.
In the evening Fred, Thros, Mick, Griff and John of the
Valley Caving Club arrived while we were in the Old Dungeon Ghyll. Johp Manchip and family turned up from
Early on the Saturday morning, very early, seven of us were
off along Mickleden with the intention of reaching Scafell Pikes. We climbed into the snow, and occasions,
patches of ice, and soon stopped to don crampons. Rossett Gill gradually closes to a gully,
steepens, and then suddenly levels into a wide col between Rossett Pike and Bow
Fell. Spindrift was being blown across
the frozen Angle Tarn and up to Esk Hause. Here we met a couple who had camped the night on Scafell - I thought we
did. things to excess! We climbed onto
the back of Great End and walked the ridge to Scafell Pikes, which was just out
of the low cloud most of the time The
final climb up and down was fairly difficult without crampons, and plain daft
without an ice axe, yet we came upon plenty of walkers without either. It almost made us feel we were being
over-cautious when met two blokes with cheapboots, plastic bike jackets and
very little else. How they managed I
dread to think. From Scafell Pikes to
Great End the wind, from the east, was really vicious. At one point, past Broad Crag, it knocked all
of us down simultaneously.
Back at Angle Tarn, after Id persuaded J.D. that he and I
should forgo a desperate crag traverse on Hanging Knotts (maybe it wasn't that bad)
we traversed the easier Rossett Crags and descended to
Mike's wagon was at the Old Dungeon Ghyll; while Bob's car
was still at the New DG. As we walked to
the Old DG we met the bus, carrying Bob and Zottie from the Old to the New, all
of ¾ of a mile. "Best 6 pence Ive
ever spent," said Zot.
And so a good weekend was had by all. With news of blizzard and drift from Mendip X
Bob & Co. set out early on Sunday for home, but the rest of us found time
after a leisurely morning for a few jars in the New DG. Greg and Miss Piggy spent most of the morning
devouring the rest of their food, before joining us and eating yet more. How does that Midget manage them both?! Finally we were away, leaving Fred; to spend
his day rescuing the foolhardy hordes from Bowfell - that was his story anyway.
Not mentioned before, but they were there, were Pat and
Paul, Patti and Co., Keith Newbury, Glenys and even Andy Nichols and attachment
for a while. There must be a pub or two
in the Lakes that they didnt visit!
P .S. Buckett and I went up to the Lakes again the following
Saturday, to find the Snow undergoing a rapid thaw, and there was minor
flooding in the valleys. We walked the
path up Stickle Gill, which was really in spate, and did not meet snow until we
arrived at the
We met a party of lads who had turned back from the Ghyll
because the path was hidden beneath a steep sheet of snow. This traverse was quite hairy, especially
since the mist began to clear. There was
evidence far below in the bottom of the Ghyll of recent avalanches - great
blocks of snow and large boulders, and the canyon echoed with the rushing of
melt-water.
Once over the traverse we glissaded down the wet snow slope
to the stream, but, by staying level from here we eventually left the stream
below us again as we headed for the end of the narrow ridge that divides
Dungeon Ghyl from Stickle Gill. Who
should we see as we descended to Stickle Gill, but three men and a dog, once
more. These hills are small.
P.P.S. There was one
other Quote, again from M.A.P. "Im glad Peak Cavern's on a Saturday. Well be able to talk about it in the pub
afterwards! As it turned out Mike did
not come to Peak, and not a word was breathed about it in the pub on Saturday
night.
Graham Wilton-Jones
Buckett and I recently visited this fine system, and I felt
it would be useful to offer a brief description in the BB, since 'Caves of
Wales and the
The location can be found on the 2½" O.S. map, SN 81,
at SN 837165, but this map shows and the book description mentions a path from
the Haffes. This path no longer exists,
but one starts from the Dan yr Ogof caravan site, past the sheep pens, to a point
overlooking the Haffes, and thence onto the path leading over the moor towards
the Giedd. The path follows a wall to
the left until it has climbed up the steepest section of the hillside, and then
divides. One part continues beside the
wall running towards the dry valley above Dan yr Ogof, and the other branch
turns sharply right towards Waun Fignen Felen. From this junction one does as the book says, almost, climbing up to the
The entrance shaft is virtually all mined, square section at
the top and spacious, and is 35 feet deep. A 30ft ladder belayed directly to a railway line at the top is
sufficient, the bottom of the shaft being narrower and climbable. 12' down there is a firm railway sleeper
platform all round the shaft. At the
bottom the pitch breaks into natural rift at the Courtyard pitch. After a short piece of horizontal passage, a
bolt above and exposed ledge takes a 25' ladder into Cascade Aven. The Second Cascade (the system was explored
from the bottom) is a steep, stal slope littered with bang debris, steepening
further until it finally overhangs the First Cascade, which comes in from the
other end of the rift. I found a
handline useful on the Second Cascade, descending to the Wire Traverse on the
right (looking downwards) having belayed to a eyehole in the right hand
wall. This required about 60' of
handline, but 120' as the book says is needed if it is belayed at the bottom of
the Courtyard. The wire on the traverse
is fixed, and I belayed 100' of handline to the bolt on 'the far
side". This was also far too much,
about 60' being sufficient. However,
this First Cascade is steep smooth, and the handline here is invaluable. Leading off from these avens are a few
passages which constitute the Cascade Aven Series. At the bottom of the stal slope, the rift is
choked up with gravel and and stal but a small draughting passage is the route
on downwards. A twisting hands and knees
crawl leads to a couple of 15' climbs down. After the first climb the passage enlarges. At the bottom of the second is the way into
Paul and Barnabas, concealed between the boulders and the wall. This is the passage leading to the numerous
pearls. Ahead the route continues down
to a sandy chamber, but the way on is a climb up just before this. The passage is now a winding rift dipping at
about 10°. By traversing horizontally we
ended up in the roof tube, and this is the obvious place to be for route
finding since the draught here is dispersed. There are one or two places where the passage is too wide to traverse,
and it is necessary to descend and climb up again on the other side, but the
route is not as complex as the book would have us believe, nor is any of the
cave technically difficult. Normally
wherever a decision has to be made the wrong route is a cul-de-sac, and the
draught can occasionally be felt. Eventually a stream is reached and soon after is the grille with the
show '
Returning up the passage the first major opening on the
right is East Passage. This is much
easier than West Passage, the route to the top entrance. Cross Passage on the left starts as walking
but soon degenerates to a crawl over sand to emerge in West Passage. East Passage continues, passing the way to
Xmas Grotto on the right, up a climb into a large phreatic tube and into the
high Steeple Aven. We did not continue
here, but the passage goes a little further to reach Final Chamber.
The whole of our trip took four hours, during which we
covered much of the cave twice - in and out. Next time we shall rappel in, visit Paul and Barnabas and Xmas Grotto,
and leave via the show cave beside Dan yr Ogof.
Useful references:
BCRA Trans. Vo1.4, Nos 1 & 27
Mar, 77. (Survey p.296, plus several
other notes)
Caves in
Descent
CRG pub. No. 7
Ed. note: I hear, through the Mendip grapevine, that a new
Welsh caving guide may be underway.
complied by Niph
Mendip news and notes - Don't forget the Midsummer Buffet on
June 17th and the working weekend at the Belfry on June 17th and 18th. No further extensions have been found in
Lionel's Hole but according to Andy Sparrow there are a number of digging points. On a recent trip in St. Cuthbert's by Wig,
Stuart Lindsey and Tim Large, Pillar Chamber Extensions was visited. Several unex¬plored sites and possibilities
were examined, particularly in a de¬corated rift at the top of the 54ft
Pot. In the top chamber of the
extension
amid much 'hanging death', Stuart dug through a gravel choke
under a low arch to find another small decorated chamber - a bedding chamber
some 30ft long by 12ft wide. A few
broken curtains lie on the floor. At the
upper end of the chamber there's a gravel choke that appears to be heading
towards the Far Chamber area. Pillar
Extensions make an interesting trip but its not for those of a nervous
disposition!
*****************************************
Another B.E.C. Extension is on
On the 21 of January Andy, Steve Short and a couple of midgets from other clubs returned to the site. Alison Hooper (the wee midget, took the lead. ..at the point reached on last weeks trip. It proved passable without further work and followed by Andy, she pushed on through another 50ft of tight rift crawls and' Z' bends. 'Termination of the cave is now a boulder blocking the way on. Cave length now about 90ft.
June 9th
|
Longwood (Friday niters trip)
|
June 10th
|
Symposium n Cave Exploration in Northern Spain at
|
June 17th
|
Midsummer Buffet Hunters lodge back room 7.30. Tickets for meal £2.00 each or free for
those wanting to drink only. Tickets
for Buffet from Tim Large.
|
June 17/18th
|
Working weekend at the Belfry come along and give your active
support.
|
June 23rd
|
Swildons Hole CANDLE ONLY! (Friday niters trip).
|
July 7th
|
|
July 21st
|
North Hill Friday niters trip.
|
August 4th
|
Stoke Lane Slocker Friday niters trip.
|
September 9/10th
|
BCRA National Caving Conference,
|
Editor: D.J. Irwin, Townsend Cottage, Priddy, Nr. Wells,
Editors Note:
The paper used for this issue and
future issues of the BB is thinner and not of such good quality as the
gestetner paper we've been using. I hope
that members will not be too displeased, but when duplicating paper has risen
from £2.65 in November 1977 to £3.60 in April 1978 one can realise the cost of
the BB to the club. Also, 22 pages in
the BB will mean a further postal increase. With the thinner paper we can increase the BB to well over 20 pages
without any postal increase.
QUODCUMQUE FACIENDUM : NIMIS FACIEMUS
May 12th
|
Dalimores (Friday niters trip)
7.30 pm
|
May 14th
|
|
May 26th
|
G.B. (Friday niters trip)
|
May 27-28th
|
|
May 29th
|
|
|
Contact Martin Grass for details of
|
June 9th
|
Longwood (Friday niters trip)
|
June 10th
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Symposium on Cave Exploration in Northern Spain at
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June 23rd
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Swildons Hole CANDLE ONLY! (Friday niters trip)
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June 10th
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Symposium on Cave Exploration in
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DONT FORGET!
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The Mid-Summer Buffet at the Hunters. Members and close friends only Buffet limited to 70 tickets but there will be plenty of time to drink and chat if you do not want a meal. Buffet tickets £2.00 ea. Time 8p.m. in the 'new' backroom Tickets from Tim
Large, c/o Trading Standards Office,
Money
with order!!
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Don't forget to buy your raffle tickets for a camera, worth £50. Tickets are available now from MARTIN BISHOP, tele: Priddy 370. Tickets 10p ea. The draw will take place during the evening of the 17th June.
THE Club Dinner will take place on OCTOBER 7th - 7.30 for 8p.m. at the Caveman - make a note in your diary NOW!
The BELFRY BULLETIN is published monthly by the B.E.C.
Hon. Editor: D.J. Irwin, Townsend Cottage, Priddy, Nr.
Wells,
FREE TO MEMBERS NON-MEMBERS ---- PRICE 15p
Sunday 6th February Swildons Hole
A party of twelve including eight novices were led down the
cave by S.P. Tarran from St. Edmund Hall,
Sunday 3rd April Manor
Farm Swallet
Martin Bishop received a call from the Belfry at 8pm regarding a party from Bath 18 Plus group two hours overdue. He went to Charterhouse with Andy Sparrow and found a very tired and lightless party at the foot of the entrance shaft. They were lifelined to the surface and it was not necessary to inform the Police.
Saturday 4th June Buddles Wood, Chewton Mendip
Howard Kenney and Richard Stevenson searched old mine shafts in the wood for a golden retriever dog missing from nearby Grove Farm. The dog returned home on its own during the evening.
Saturday 11th June Stoke Lane Slocker
A party of eight from the Cambridge Climbing and Caving Club entered the cave at 12.30pm On reaching Sump I, all but one went through, the remaining caver staying in Cairn Chamber to await the return of the main party from Stoke II. During the time they were visiting the upper chambers, the stream rose so that it was impossible to get within a safe diving distance on the downstream approach to the sump when they returned. They remained on the far side for about four hours until the water level had dropped sufficiently. By 6.30pm the farmer became anxious and contacted Frome Police who checked the cave entrance and then called M.R.O. at 7pm. William Stanton alerted Brian Prewer who went to the cave. Richard Stevenson and Alan Mills led a small rescue party into the cave at about 8.30pm and met the trapped cavers safely negotiating the dive as the water had fallen. All were out of the cave by 9.50pm. All cavers are urged to note that the quarries upstream of the village have installed automatic pumps which now exaggerate the effects of local floods in the system. The water level was significantly reduced after the quarry company had been requested to switch off their pumps during the alert. A helpful resume of the situation appears in the Cave Diving Group Newsletter No. 46, January 1978, pages 3-4.
Monday 11th July Swildons Hole
Christopher Bowden, an 18-year old student from
Saturday 6th August Swildons Hole
A party of four descended the cave at about 3.00.m. They did not have wet suits and were using
carbide lamps without spares. Only two
had any previous experience and had travelled to the area from
Saturday 27th August Lamb Leer
David Getterling and Paul Lydon from
Sunday 11th September Reads
Cavern
A party of four youths went down the cave during the afternoon. After leaving one of the party in the Main Chamber, the rest found their way into the Browne-Stewart Series. The lad left behind panicked when the others did not return so he left the cave and asked a passer-by to contact M.R.O. Frome Police received the call and alerted Brian Prewer at 5.45pm reporting that two cavers were stuck. Dave Irwin, John Dukes and Chris Batstone went to Burrington to assess the situation followed by four cavers from the Belfry. Alan Thomas was stood by. The rescuers met a Police Patrol there and reported that the overdue party had surfaced. A brief chat ensued about under-estimating the times for trips and about not leaving novices alone in caves! All were stood down at 6.30pm.
Saturday 24th September Ham
Rising, Derbyshire
Martin Bishop called from Derbyshire to stand-by a caving team to help retrieve a body from Ham Rising if required. Richard Stevenson was contacted to alert local divers. In the event, Derbyshire rescuers recovered the body. (See Cave Diving Group Newsletter No. 46, January 1978, pages 17-18)
Wednesday 28th September Swildons
Hole
Frome Police contacted M.R.O. and reported that a Mr. Trig
from
Saturday 29th October Eastwater Cavern
A call was received from Bridgwater Police by Briar Prewer at 10.00p.m. They were concerned about a call from a woman in cheddar who said that she had arranged to her husband there at 6.00pm after a caving trip somewhere on Mendip. She thought they might be using a blue 1100 Estate car but was not certain about that either. Prewer contacted Chris Hannam at Priddy and the latter met a local Police patrol. They made a tour of the most obvious sites but could not find the car. Meanwhile Andy Sparrow checked at Eastwater Farm and was informed that a party of four were still in the cave and now overdue. The blue car was parked in the farmyard. Sparrow and another caver went down Eastwater Cavern straight away and located the missing party at the bottom of Baker's Chimney. They had taken a long time to reach the bottom of the cave and had lost their way on coming out. Otherwise, they were all right and were brought but of the cave by about midnight. It transpired that Corporals Keith Loti and Brian Rawcliffe of the R.A.F. had gone down the cave with Mrs. Barbara Rawcliffe and Alan Whitehead from Henton at about 3.00pm. Two of the party were complete novices. The incident highlighted yet again the problems faced by both Police and M.R.O. when insufficient information is left about the exact location and duration of a trip. It is important that accurate details are given to people preferably cavers, who know the area and its caves. This saves much time and frustration should an emergency arise,
Sunday 20th November .
Cuckoo Cleeves
Brian Prewer was contacted by a Mr G. Samways of Yeovil
Caving Club at 3.15pm who reported that two of his party were stuck, in the
narrow tube approach to
Sunday 20th November .
Swildons Hole
After the Cuckoo Cleeves call-out, Brian Prewer received a message from Frome Police at 8.30pm reporting that a girl was unable to climb up the Twenty Foot Pot. The informant had left the Priddy Green call box when Prewer tried to get further details, so he contacted Martin Bishop there and asked him to locate the caller. Meanwhile, a party consisting of John Dukes, Chris Batstone, Andy Sparrow, J. Kirby and N. Weston joined Bishop with hauling ropes and the Revival apparatus. On reaching the Twenty, they pulled the girl up and assisted her out by about 10.00pm. She was given a hot bath. The girl, Sharon Gorman aged 21 from Yeovil, was on her first caving trip and only had light clothing on.
Saturday 3rd December
Dr. Oliver Lloyd received a call from the Belfast Police
requesting him to stand-by a team of divers for a rescue in progress there
being organised by Dave Drew and Jeff Phillips. Two cavers had been trapped by floods. The local Fire Service was pumping out the entrance series, the Army
were building a dam and Dave and Jeff were the divers. Lloyd consulted with William Stanton straight
away at 10.30pm and proceeded to raise local divers whilst
Sunday 11th December Burrington Combe
Brian Prewer was contacted by Weston-s-Mare Police the previous evening regarding the whereabouts of unknown youths missing from an abandoned tent on Burrington Ham. It was agreed that the area would be searched on the Sunday during daylight. Several cavers gave the Police assistance in combing the surface throughout the day and parties visited the caves. Nothing was found except a set of drums! The Police informed M.R.O. later that they were concentrating future enquiries elsewhere.
By Paul Christie
Thats a rather grand title for a meet which for a number of reasons bordered on a total washout.
Needless to say the problems started on the day up when the
car carrying
The rest of us arrived safely in the small hours of Good Friday morning and found bunk space easily. It wasnt until the Cerberus arrived over the next ten days that the place began to resemble a sardine tin.
We got up Friday morning woken by the phone call of the stranded car calling out the BEC Relay service. Graham Nye put on his patrolman's uniform and set off leaving his passengers Breakfast locked in his trailer. Martin Grass, Graham W-J and myself had our breakfast and set off to go caving.
We had decided to go down Tatham Wife Hole which is near
We then set off for the third pitch discussing a possible bypass to it and also who was going to be first up the second pitch on our return. It was obvious that it was going to get wetter and we decided that even if it didn't it was going to be a desperate climb. About half way to the pitch Grahams light went out so with only two lights working and the possibility of more water we turned round and made our way back. What we did not know at, this point was that it had rained on the surface. By the time we reached the pitch Martins light was working on dip only but he bravely volunteered to make the first ascent. My light was now the only one working properly, Mike Palmer please note! Graham was next to go, followed by myself. The water was now very unfriendly and the ladder hung in the water. The water came down and hit you on the head rather like a lead weight. I climbed most of the way out of the water by pushing one leg against the wall and climbing while the ladder was swinging out of the water. The top pitch was a bit easier but we were glad to be up as the water had increased since our descent.
We returned to the surface and began our long walk back to the car. While descending the scar, a hazardous job with boulders rolling around, I dropped the three ladders I was carrying and they ran off down the hill. However, the high spot was when a boulder leapt up and bit Martin's leg. Graham was nearest and comforted Martin after this brutal attack and helped him limp off down the hill while I chased after the escaped ladders. When we met back at the car and looked at Martin's leg we found that the boulder was indeed guilty of grievous bodily harm and that the resultant hole in his leg might need sowing back together. Having packed everything into the car we set off to the nearest Hospital.
The first Hospital we found was a mental/geriatric Hospital who declined to treat Martin as he was not yet geriatric. Instead, we were directed to the local surgery where the Doctor had been on duty most of the afternoon stitching up fell walkers and such like. The Doctor put Martin back together while he wasn't watching and sent him back to the car where we were waiting. I gather that Martin was not very happy with the sight of a needle going into himself.
Naturally Martin had now provided us with an excuse, as if we needed one, to spend the next day in the pub as it was open all day. Some of the others went caving but as the thaw had now turned to rain we felt we were safer in the pub.
On Sunday Graham and I were going to explore parts of the Red Moss cave system but Saturday's rain had turned to snow on the high ground and was again thawing. We went over to the resurgence and saw the amount of water coming out and felt the temperature of it and decided to go for a walk instead. We returned to the hut, put on our walking gear and persuaded my wife to join us. We left Martin plating cards with the Cerberus and set off up Pen-y-Ghent. Funny, I thought the Cerberus were keen cavers these days.
The path from Brackenbottom was well trodden and consequently very muddy. As we got higher the mud gave way to snow and the wind got stronger until on the final climb up the wind was whistling round the crag which was covered in ice. The only time we were able to stand up we were nearly blown over the edge. Pat and I were much slower than Graham who had chosen to walk up a gully rather than the crowded path. We met again at the top where Graham told us that the gully had been easy because the wind had blown him up it. On the way down we left the path and slid down the snow covered slope straight across to Hunt Pot which was taking a large stream. We rejoined the main path until we were nearly into Horton and then cut across the fields to look at the normally dry Douk Ghyll which had been transformed into an impressive waterfall by the rain and melting snow. When we got back to the hut we found the card school still going strong 4 hours after we had left. We changed out of our wet clothes and after tea went off to the pub where for the first time in three evenings we actually got a seat.
On the Monday morning we decided to make an early return home as Martin was still unable to use his leg. The Doctor had told him not to get the wound wet which also gave him a great excuse not to have a bath. It took Graham and two Valley CC members an hour to get my car going and we sat off home.
There was some other caving done by Gary Cullen and friends so maybe we could have another account of the weekend.
Or just a minute with our Hon. Sec.
Tim Large
Dont forget the Midsummer Buffet at the Hunters on June 17th - see details on page 1 (Diary of Events).
Don't forget the raffle for a S/L Camera worth £50. Tickets are available from Martin Bishop.
The working weekend went well and quite n lot of useful work was done. The new soak away has been completed thanks to Nigel Taylor, Ross White, Martin Bishop, John Dukes among many others. Inside the Belfry ceramic tiles replace the formica above the sinks, outside woodwork has been sanded and cupinol'd ready for the fine weather and a painting session. The track from the road to the cattle grid is to be tarmaced, the club sharing expenses with Walt Foxwell. Cost to the club is about £150.
DON'T FORGET THE NEXT WORKING WEEKEND - the weekend of the Midsummer Buffet - JUNE 17th. Come on up and give a hand. John Dukes has requested that those turning up to work bring up any tool that they feel might be useful, electric drills, paint brushes etc.
Address change: PLEASE NOTE THAT MY ADDRESS WILL BE, FOR THE TIME BEING:
Tim Large,
c/o Trading Standards Office,
Wells,
The Committee have agreed to buy 100 reams of paper suitable for the both B.B. and Caving Reports at £1.12p per ream + Vat of 8% The price of duplicating paper per ream has risen to £3.60. The B.B. consumes about 35 reams per year so this purchase at £120 is a Good investment and should keep the BB going for the next couple of years or so. Our thanks to Tony for getting it for us.
It is good to see Chris Smart back from the Middle East and John Riley, back from Aussieland, rejoining the club and swelling the numbers of active Cuthberts leaders.
Dear Dave,
I was very interested to read Dave Metcalfe's description of the entrance series of Pippikine (B.B. No. 358). He's quite right to say that most of the entrance series is totally dry, indeed I would say that most of the entrance series is totally dry, indeed I would say that Pippikin entrance series is quite a suitable choice as a 'wet weather' alternative. Now having said that, readers may be interested to know what happens to Pippikin in torrential flood conditions.
At about midday on Tuesday the 14th June 1977, I entered
Pippikin with four other
We were following the group of four
Little did we know at the time, but wed been luckier than
we thought. We caught up with the
Although not quite of the scale of the Great Flood on
Mendip, the freak storm of the 14th June in the Ingleton area was still very
significant. The rain gauge at High
Centham recorded 1.7 inches of rain between 6pm and 8pm, and it is conceivable
that even more than this fell in other areas. The water level recorder installed in
Good Caving, Nick Thorne.
P.S. Further information on the storm of the 14th June,
191'7 can be found in BCRA Bulletin No 17 August 1977, p 6 - Ric Halliwell
The Ingleton Storm and
By Nick Thorne
The floating cam is a subtle innovation in prusiking methods. It was first introduced by American, Kirk Macgregor for the purpose of speeding up a ropewalker ascents. The modification enabled him to set several records. The floating cam takes the form of a length of elastic from the shoulder to the knee ropewalker, as shown in figure one. The knee strap, previously used to raise the ascender, is then discarded, and the ropewalker lifted by contraction of the elastic. This idea seemed fine for prusik racing, but was perhaps thought of as being a little remote from caving. Experience has shown this not to be the case. With judicious attachment of the elastic to the ropewalker, several distinct advantages over the knee strap method arise, in addition to the convenience of the lifting mechanism. These advantages, of which I will explain later, make the floating ropewalker far superior to the fixed knee variety. Although racing rigs deal mainly with ropewalkers, for caving purposes, sprung earn ascenders are justifiably popular. These too can be floated in suitable systems (e.g. the Mitchell method). The floating operation with sprung earn ascenders is much simpler than with ropewalkers, and again, is very effective.
A discussion of the setting up of a floating ascender obviously centres around the elastic. For materials, it is worth experimenting with most types of elastic fibre. Ordinary rubber bands work well (1). These may be tied in parallel and end to end, and this allows for convenient alterations to the elastic length and tension. The major disadvantage is that the bands wear out and break quite easily. They have recommended thick surgical tubing, despite its vulnerability to cuts (2, 3), and I have even seen inner tube rubber used with some success. The best material however, seems to be shock cord. (1, 2, 3) 5-7mm thickness seems to be the most appropriate diameter. The elastic properties of the shook cord are perdurability makes it the best choice. Some makes of shock cord have sheaths that expose the underlying rubber when under tension. These types would be less suitable for caving, I think, due to abrasion of the rubber.
Once a suitable material is chosen, length and tension considerations occur next. The two main properties of the elastic that are important are the tension at full working extension, and the slack threshold, i.e., the upper limit of the ascender movement. The tension at full working extension can be as high as eight to ten pounds force (1). This may seem a lot and certainly a straight vertical lift of the ascender can be performed with a much smaller force. Problems arise however on sloping pitches, where only a component of the elastic tension pulls the ascender up the rope. Consequently, for general purposes, the tension mentioned above is recommended. This tension is not difficult to judge, but for those who cannot estimate what feels 'right', the tension can be measured quite easily using a fishermans spring balance.
The other important consideration concerning the float elastic is the slack threshold. The elastic should come just slack when the foot using the floating ascender is raised well above that involved in normal prusiking. This makes for a good, clean lift, entirely within the linear region of the elastic.
Some experimentation will be required to obtain the optimum properties of the elastic. In addition to length variations of the elastic itself, tension and slack threshold variations can be made by altering the position of the upper and lower attachments of the elastic. This may seem obvious, but a few qualifying statements need to be said. It is nice to have the upper attachment of the elastic. This may seem obvious, but a few qualifying statements need to be said. It is nice to have the upper attachment of the elastic within easy reach when the time comes to de-float. An attachment to the front of the sit harness therefore provides a very convenient attachment point. Unfortunately, the resulting length of elastic will often be too short to supply sufficient tension. This in turn can be slightly offset by placing the ascender lower down. This obviously leads to shorter steps, which may be undesirable, and it may also place the ascender effectively out of arms reach, which may prove awkward at times. Alternatively, the upper attachment of the elastic can be raised to the shoulder as mentioned earlier. This involves a longer length of elastic and is still convenient from a handling point of view. For some elastic materials however, the resulting length of elastic may still be insufficient. If this is the case, then the next step is to pass the elastic up and over the shoulder and attach it to the back of the sit harness. This attachment may be more awkward to reach, but the ascender can be temporarily de-floated by slipping the elastic off the shoulder. This action may prove adequate for short sections of cave between pitches, instead of a complete removal of the elastic. The elastic can be prevented from slipping off the shoulder accidentally by placing the attachment more in the middle of the waistband, at the back.
Passing the elastic over the shoulder does however raise a subtle complication the resulting tension in the elastic becomes a function of the friction between the elastic and the clothes worn. On one surface practice, whilst wearing one of a well known Mendip retailer's plush 'boiler' suits (low friction) I set up the precise length of elastic required for an 'over the shoulder' attachment. Because of the low friction between the elastic and the suit, the elastic was fairly evenly tensioned along its length. However, on the first underground outing with this particular set up, I was of course, wearing a wetsuit (high friction). Consequently an uneven tension in the elastic resulted. The elastic from the shoulder to the back of the sit harness was almost slack, and that from the shoulder down to the ascender was very highly stressed. It didn't take long for the lower attachment to fail. The solution to the problem seems to be to sheath the elastic with some flexible hose. This I have found does not add to the practical complexity of the set up, and it does make the float elastic performance independent of the clothing worn.
The actual type of attachment mechanism for the elastic at its upper end is not critical. Any hook and eye arrangement should do. I have found the hooks from standard car top carriers to be quite suitable, especially after bending over the end to make a more secure, barb type of structure. Less likely to unfasten accidentally would be some form of snap link arrangement, but the potential increase in awkwardness of operation should be borne in mind.
The lower attachment of the elastic i.e. that to the ascender, is unlike the upper attachment inasmuch as it must be totally secure. Failure of the float elastic at its upper end is generally fairly innocuous as far as physical injury is concern. If the lower attachment gives however, the elastic is nicely primed to flick up into the face, bringing with it whatever hooks and the like that may be tied onto it. Total security I have found, is only genuinely obtainable by actually tying/or lashing the elastic to the ascender. As well as being extremely unlikely to fail, this mechanism avoids any extra metal or other parts that may be potential projectiles. The method does however, have certain difficulties associated with its permanent nature. If the ascender were to be used for other purposes (such gear hauling) the elastic may be a bit of a nuisance. The permanency of the attachment also makes replacement by a spare more impracticable. Consequently, many practitioners again use some sort of hook and eye or ring and snaplink arrangement just like the upper attachment. This seems perfectly suitable providing that it can be made secure enough.
As for the exact part of the ascender that the elastic should be tied to, then this obviously depends on the type of ascender. For all slung cam ascenders commonly available (i.e. Jumar, Petzl, Clog.) All have krab holes conveniently placed at the top of them. The only point to note is that with the Petzl ascender, only one of the two top holes should be used. Any hook placed through both would mean that the ascender would have to be de-floated in order to remove it from the rope. This is an unnecessary procedure, and should be avoided.
With ropewalkers such as the Gibbs, the ideal attachment position is less obvious, and is subject to several considerations. These are:- the spring loading of the cam; the attitude of the cam when the ropewalker is disassembled (assuming an a attachment method is used that avoids de-floating to dismantle the ropewalker) and a possible increase in cam wear. Consequently several attachment positions are possible, but here, I only propose to outline what I consider to be the best method. Other methods of attachment are given elsewhere along with discussions of their various pros and cons. (2, 4). The discussion essentially hinges on whether the elastic lifts the cam directly or indirectly via the body or the pin. The former is by far the better method. Lifting the cam directly is the only way to spring load the ascender (i.e. make the cam action like that of a Jumar) whilst, at the same time, not critically increasing the cam wear. This can be achieved by the attachment show in figure two. The cam is sprung onto the rope by the couple of the foot pressure down, and the elastic tension up. (The weight of the body of the ropewalker is small enough to be ignored.) When foot pressure is released, the upward travel of the ascender is accompanied by some release of the cam pressure on the rope. This effect is more marked than with other attachment methods and so it leads to lower cam wear. (Particularly suspect for cam wear would be the attachments to the pin or body of the ropewalker.) This attachment method also has the added advantage that the cam is held nicely poised in space when the ropewalker is dismantled. This means that the cam accepts the other parts more readily and so a faster on/off time for the ropewalker is achieved.
Finally, a few words of warning are needed to those who wish to set up a floating cam system. Firstly, check the attachment methods, particularly the one to the ascender. Before 'Kitting up' test the attachments under loads well above those expected in normal use. Practise on the surface first-this should go without saying, and be able to cater for an elastic failure. With sprung cam ascenders this is no problem. The hand that was freed by the use of the elastic simply comes back into action. With ropewalkers, a spare elastic or knee strap should be carried. When it is necessary to de-float the elastic, do so from the upper end first. The other way could be dangerous if the elastic is stressed and it slips out of the hand.
In conclusion therefore, I hope I haven't deterred any prusiking cavers from trying this innovation for fear of getting a black eye! To put elastic failure into context, then with a carefully set up rig, it is an extremely rare event. Once this is appreciated the full advantages of the floating ascender can be enjoyed. Ropewalking cavers can ascend faster than before. Gone will be that flicking motion required to make the cam bite, and gone too will be those annoying holes on the inside of the knee of the wetsuit. With sprung cam ascenders, the freeing of a hand will be found most welcome. There will be no tired upper arm any more, as the hand pushing the upper ascender can be alternated, or both hands can be used in combination. Additionally, on those sloping pitches, there will be no need to have your nose rubbed into the rock as the free hand can be used to 'fend off'. Make the initial effort to set up a floating ascender system, try it, and you'll be convinced.
References:
(1) Macgregor, K. - Personal communication, I.S.C. September 1977.
(2)
(3) Halliday, W.R. -
(4) Thorne, N. Floating Cams for Prusiking.
compiled by Niph
The greater part of Jottings is taken over by the latest Mendip discovery by members of the club.
Extension in Lionel's Hole
On Saturday, 22nd April 1978, about 300 - 500ft. of new passage was opened up in Lionel's Hole, Burrington Coombe. A series of stream and high level passages were explored that can only be entered via two ducks - making it the severest undertaking in the area; certainly thin men need only apply at the moment and Burrington novices should stay clear.
SKETCH PLAN OF THE EXTENSIONS IN LIONELS HOLE- see next page for details.
Another BEC extension in another cave will be reported next month!!
Early in February 1977, 'Wig' and Bruce Bedford, working on 'Mendip Underground' heard a sizable stream in the 'Pit' area. Willie Stanton knew of no stream. Thus things rested until 'MacAnus' and Ross White went and took a look for themselves early in April 1978. They went on into the Traverse and entered the East Low Level and found the stream at the lowest point. A week later Ross and Andy Sparrow with an un-named Scot went looking for the strewn again but descended the West Low Level by mistake and found a continuation of the same stream with a way on. This was on the 15.4.78. They pushed the Scot through the duck only to find another a few feet further on. The following day the second duck (Bird Bath) was passed by Andy Sparrow who followed the streamway for some 60ft where he could turn round. The stream sank into a soakaway but the passage flattened to a low crawl. Andy felt lonely and so made a brave retreat leaving the crawl for another day! On the 22nd April Andy returned with an 'army' of thin 'men' - Alison Hooper, Pete Moody Chris Smart et al. The streamway was pushed for a further 40ft to a diggable choke. Above Andy's turn-round point a tight rift in the roof was climbed for about 15ft. leading into the high level series of chamber and passages, some of which are extremely muddy and which are thought to flood. Alison pushed a rift and entered a large rift passage some 40-50ft high and 8ft wide leading down to a small chamber followed by a succession of roomy phreatic rifts terminating at a divable sump. Andy will be writing in the next issue of the B.B. giving all the latest details as there are a number of unexplored passages to be pushed.
The rifty nature of the passages shows that the cave is
trending to the west. It is possible
that this stream is the same as that heard by the unfortunate Joe Plumley in
the late 19th century at the bottom of Plumley's Hole, just below Aveline's
Hole. Is this stream the same as seen in
East Twin or is it, more importantly that sinking at Top Sink at the upper end
of the
A sketch survey compiled by 'Wig' based on a sketch by Andy Sparrow
News in brief.
Derek Ford is back again on Mendip and has been down
*****************************************
Mendip's veteran caver 'Trat' recently suffered a heart
attack. He was rushed to hospital into
the intensive care unit. I'm pleased to
report that he's making a good recovery and planning has visit to
*****************************************
A mine shaft opened up on the top of Cadbury Hill back in February when members went over to explore it at the invitation of an old BEC member. John Dukes and Rog Sabido went down. Its 150ft deep. More later.
QUODCUMQUE FACIENDUM : NIMIS FACIEMUS
The views expressed by contributors to the Belfry Bulletin,
including those of club officers, are not necessarily the views of the
committee of the Bristol Exploration Club or the Editor, unless so stated. The Editor cannot guarantee that the accuracy
of information contained in the contributed matter, as it cannot normally be
checked in the time at his disposal.
Editor: D.J. Irwin,
Townsend Cottage, Priddy, Nr. Wells,
Tim Large (Hon. Secretary) 72 Lower Whitelands, Tyning,
Radstock,
Chris Batstone (Hut Warden)
Mike Palmer (B.B. Postal) Laurel Farm, Yarley Hill, Yarley,
Wells,
January 14th (note
change of date)
March 11th BRCA
Symposium Cave photography. UMIST,
June 10th or 17th Symposium
on Cave Exploration in Northern Spain at
February 15th West
Face of Changbang Joe Tasker. Details
on last sheet.
Friday Night Trips:
- Richard Kenny (Tel, Meare Heath 296) has sent the following details.
January 20th Manor farm
February 3rd Eastwater
February 17th Cheddar
March 3rd `
March 17th
March 31st
October B.E.C. AGM and Annual
Dinner details later.
To ensure that members get their BB's in the early part of
the month of issue would contributors
please send their material to the Editor the middle of the preceding
month. Material for future issues is
building up nicely thus enabling the editor to produce each issue with a good
variety of reading material. The BB
consumes a considerable quantity of material so keep writing its the best
advert for the Club we've got! It has
been suggested by one member that we publish the Caving Report material in the
BB - what are members views on this suggestion? Let's air it in the BB.
Tim Large
Recovered from the Christmas excesses yet? I Hope everyone had an enjoyable time in our
usual manner.
The Committee cogs are churning away and at the December
meeting the position of the Trustees of the Club were discussed. Although we only have three Trustees now,
this does not affect any agreements previously made, but it is desirable that
the responsibility is well spread should a problem arise. We have been advised that 5 is a good
number. (See article later on).
At the Belfry we should have a battery charger operating
later this year at last, many will say! A soak-a-way, for the showers, is to be dug as it appears to be the
waste water from these that is overloading the sceptic tank. Zot has been at it again the alpine bunk
in the mens room has been completed by his fair hand. All it needs is a door on the front and we
have an ideal cooler for Saturday night excesses!
The B.E.C. is possibly going into the film business. Russ Jenkins is investigating the
possibilities of hiring a cinema to show good quality climbing films. Watch this space for more news!
The new Lamb Leer Access Agreement between CSCC and Somerset
C.C. was accepted at the recent CSCC meeting. Details of the agreement will be published as soon as the Club receives
a copy from CSCC.
The Wessex have seen the light at last - all in one month
they have written us a letter - yes, they can actually write and they also have
a Wessex Cuthbert's leader, namely Paul
Hadfield - welcome.
The new Cave Rescue Scheme, operated by CSCC is preparing to
reopen Flower Pot and Hollowfield Swallet. At present the materials are being organised. As our club was largely responsible for the
opening of Flower Pot, I feel that we should make ourselves available to help
with the work, particularly the original diggers. I an sure that Graham Price (CSCC
Conservation and Acess Officer) will be pleased to hear from you with any
offers of help or supplies of suitable materials. He can be contacted at 31
I hear through the grapevine that the Peak Cavern trip was a
washout slightly damp conditions were met in the show cave section ever
tried walking down steps under water! It
is hoped to arrange this trip again later this year.
For your diary will be the Mayday Bank Holiday, when a trip
to Aggy will be arranged. Names to me if
interested. One of the round trips is
suggested.
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NEXT MONTH IN THE B.B. - Pippikin (the entrance series) a
report on the
'Wig'
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As the Club who has found the two largest systems on Mendip
in the last twenty five years, one wonders what 1978 holds for us Wigmore,
Cuthberts Three, Tynnings Barrow Swallet Two who knows? What ever it is.
A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR
TO ALL OUR MEMBERS AND CAVERS EVERYWHERE.
The resignation of 'Alfie' as a trustee of the Club raises
several of importance to club members.
The Club Committee believes that the Constitution should be
altered at the next AGM to be brought into line with other similar
organisations whereby the mechanism of election of Trustees, resignation,
removal, length of term as Trustee, indemnifying of Trustees, refunding of any
expenses arising out of the agreements they have signed etc. The whole clause should be written in
accordance with the Trustee Act of 1925. Up till Alfies resignation there were four trustees (2 being the
usual minimum) but Martin Cavender has informed the Committee that 5 is a
sensible number. Bob White, the Clubs
insurance broker is also being informed of the situation.
From SUE LLOYD
Dear Chris and other Belfry inmates!
Ain't this paper posh! A collectors piece, you know - they only printed 50 sheets or something
incredible like that! (Ed. note. The
paper is headed ASOCIACION MEXICANA DE ESPELEOLOGIA A.C.) As for their motto, well, they do less caving than the ... (mm, who
shall we be rude about ... )
So summer is ending - I guess the cooler evenings will be
driving you to the Hunters at a more decent, earlier hour now! For us, the rains have stopped and the sun is
really good. I'm talking about the
weather - sorry! You can tell weve got
more British teachers out here to influe¬nce us! About ten young people came out for the
beginning of the term - socially, life is much better this year - they're a
good lot of beer swillers. Do you know,
after a year of rejecting it, I've at last got the palate for Mexican beer, so
life is worth living again!
I haven't written for a while because I wanted to tell you about an important find. We had the luck to discover four burial pots in one of our Cuetzalan caves and I was trying to avoid mentioning it until it was all in the hands of the museum. Mexican laws with regards to archaeological finds are really tough. We were caving with three eager Mexicans from the club when one of them insisted on pushing a squeeze. Pete and he got through into a metre wide, metre and half high streamway and followed it to the site. Farther downstream is a boulder choke - there must have been an entrance there once as there's no way anybody would have shoved their dead through that squeeze.
The four bowls are about half a metre wide, unpainted and
all intact. Inside is a black soil which
we presume to be cremation remains, as it is so rich, which covers an
incredible collection of jade and onyx pieces. The most impressive are the 30 or so funeral 'masks' which are typically
Most of the other pieces were relatively smaller and of
Mayan origin (see smaller sketch) - many of them are made in beautiful green
jade. Hundreds of beads also filled up
the pots.
So, it was all pretty exciting! We decided to keep in with the law, so
arranged with
So, what else. Pete
spent 36 hours in jail recently! A woman
smashed into him when he was driving at 15kph! The policeman on the scene watched the women creating in Latin style at
Pete, who wound the window and ignored her. Pete unfortunately had no bribe for the policeman, who ushered Pete off
to the police station - now 9.00pm. at night. When he wasnt back at school time next am, I started to wonder where
landed himself. The school lawyer
tracked him down, and had bailed him out by evening. Though not Petes fault, he ended up paying
this woman just to shut her up!
Looking forward to hearing from you
Love, Sue
Teotihuacan funeral mask (100 600 A.D.)
Jade Mayan Figure
For those of you with a collection of rotting
Once upon a time there were several caving lamps quietly
rotting away in the garden shed. There
was probably not enough life in the whole lot of them to last long enough to go
down to Swildons Sump I and back. Then
one day came along a good fairy called Ni-Cad who was able to grant them one
wish which was to provided light again for some lunatic caver.
Now, lets get to the point of this article. Ni-Cad cells have been around in the caving
world for quite a while now and those who have used them all have different
stories to tell. As might be expected
from a cell with similar make-up to the old faithful NiFe cell these will
certainly give as many years service, unlike an
I will deal first with the question of storage, as far as I
am aware the cells can be stored either charged or discharged. However if stored in a charged state at
either a high or low temperature a fairly dramatic loss of charge will occur
which will have some relationship with the extreme the temperature is. I keep my cells indoors at normal room
temperature which seems to be about right. This loss of charge is of course reversible, but it is important that
you should not overcharge this type of cell. When fully charged the cells will make a whistling sound through the
vent holes on the filler cap between the two terminals. Overcharging will permanently reduce the life
of the cell.
One minor problem occurs in use. The cells are used in pairs and no two cells
have an equal charge capacity, so that one wilfully discharge before the
other. As the cells are connected in
series this will cause a reverse voltage from the cell with some charge left in
it through the other discharged cell. This has the same effect as overcharging in reducing the life of the
cell so that it is wise when your light starts to dim to turn it off and leave
it off.
Having weighed up the pros and cons of converting your
dead Oldhams or even that decrepit old Patterson you had forgotten you will
probably come to the same conclusion that I did which was that it would
certainly save you some money and be worth the small effort involved. To remove the old cells from their casing
simply place the case in boiling water for about 20 minutes and then start pulling
the terminal with a pair of pliers. Do
not use a good saucepan for the boiling as it will stain with some of the black
colouring from the casing and obviously remove the cell from the water before
trying to remove the cells. The guts of
the cell are kept in place by a half inch layer of pitch which makes the
initial tug a bit difficult but once past this thin layer the cell comes out
without any difficulty. The liquid left
in the casing is acidic and should be treated with care, do not use the water
used for boiling the cell to dilute the acid.
Now that you have the empty case all you need to do now is
to make a small slit in the central partition to accommodate the connecting
wire between the two cells.
Should you decide to use the smaller 10 amp hour cells the
casing is about twice the depth you need to accommodate the cells
comfortably. The 20 amp hour cell fits
almost perfectly into the case. The
headset of the old cell may still be used as the only change required is the
voltage of the bulbs. The dip bulb is a
2.5 volt flashlight bulb available from most hardware shops, but the main bulb
will have to be obtained from the usual stockists of caving equipment. Some sort of insulation should be placed over
the top of the cells because they will move about slightly and if brought into
contact with the metal cover will short out and produce a foul smell from
inside the case. A small strip of
neoprene is quite handy for this purpose.
The 10-hour cells can be used in fours to give 20 amp hours
but the casing has to be altered a bit further. I decided against this and decided to cut the middle section out of the
case (see diagram). This leaves you with
the top section so that the headset can still be attached and the bottom
section to be used as a base. Araldite
is the most successful glue with which to stick the two pieces back together
again.
Paul Christie
The next item in this issue is a
letter from Jim Durston which is bound to cause more than a little disturbance
on the apparently smooth waters of the Cuthbert's Leaders:
In most respects the B.E.C. may be proud of the way in which
they have acted as guardians for the plum find of St. Cuthbert's Swallet. The cave has been quite well preserved, while
at the same time the leader system allows access for responsible and
experienced cavers. One matter however
should be a source of shame to the Club and to the leaders who actually
administer the physical control of the cave. I refer to the disgraceful amount of quite unnecessary fixed tackle that
litters the cave.
Why must we suffer these rusting iron monstrosities that
demean the cave by reducing its natural appeal? Is rigid tackle really indispensable on Ledge Pitches and Mud Hall, or
are we breeding a race of cavers (or leaders?) who are too bone idle to carry a
few electron ladders?
I will admit that fixed ladders speed the progress of the
inept and inexperienced to the more vulnerable parts of the system, and allow
him to reach parts which flatter his true ability. This has the effect of increasing the rate of
deterioration of the cave. Per¬haps I
consider this aspect to be of more importance than it is, but I seriously doubt
whether a 'caver' for whom a 25ft. ladder pitch is too much, should be allowed
into the cave at all. At least normal
tackle will help to reveal inadequacies towards the beginning of a trip.
'Normal' caving tackle allows the average caver the
satisfaction 'of completing a 'normal' caving trip, without the feeling that he
has been given a tourist trip around some artificially improved second rate
show cave.
I have heard the argument that flexible tackle makes for a
tired caver, which makes for more damage. I cannot accept this. With fixed
tackle the onset of tiredness may be delayed until such time as he is say
stumbling around Victory Passage. With
flexible ladders he should realise that he is in a cave a little sooner. He should also appreciate its sporting merits
in addition to its decorative appeal.
These fixed 'aids' were originally placed to assist the
preliminary explorations of the new find, explorations which seem to have taken
almost twenty five years. Their
usefulness (and in some cases usability) must now be at an end. The cave must
no longer be equipped to take tourist overspill from Wookey Hole and Cheddar. We must clear out this junk now~ and again
make St. Cuthbert's a cave to be proud of.
If you feel as I do, act now! Bend the ear of your nearest lead¬er and tell
him. Yes, even your Editor.
Jim Durston
Ed. note: There you have it straight between
the eyes. Get your pens going for the
next issue of the BB with your comments and reasoned arguments!
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SUBS ARE DUE AGAIN!
Please send your subscription to Tim Large, 72 Lower
Whitelands, Tynings, Radstock,
by Ted Humphreys
Building sandcastles can become boring if done to
excess. So, since we just happened to be
within ten miles of the sea cave described by Graham Wilton-Jones in the B.B.
(No.343) we decided to investigate. We
chose a day when low tide was at 3pm and got to St. Govan's Chapel (NGR. SR
967929) shortly after mid-day. It was,
of course, raining and blowing a gale which made changing at the top of the one
hundred foot cliff somewhat masochistic. Once we had our wet suits on, however, we felt better dressed for the
weather than the inevitable tourists, who seemed fascinated by our attire (we
even had our pictures taken!).
On reaching the base of the cliffs we headed west, under a
rock arch, towards G.W-J's cave but found that the tide was not yet low
enough. After a conference, we decided
to explore to the east of the chapel whilst waiting for low tide. Passing the chapel and going under another
rock arch we found ourselves in a small cove containing one large and one small
entrance. The large entrance was at the
head of the cove and was about ten feet high by twenty feet wide. When we entered it we were disappointed to
find that the roof gradually des¬cended and the pebble floor gradually rose
until they met after some fifty feet. Switching on our lights and inspecting the cave more carefully we found
two small side passages on the west side. These both came to an end after about fifteen feet of flat out crawling
and were interesting only in that there was some stalagmite (partly dissolved) at
their far ends. Natural cave! Something must go! We thought, and proceeded to the smaller cave
entrance a few yards to the west.
At first sight this seemed to consist of two small chambers
hollowed out by the sea but pointing a light upwards in the second chamber
showed a natural chimney. Climbing up
this for about ten feet revealed a horizontal passage going westwards as far as
a fault plane (about a further ten feet away) and then apparently continuing
along the fault. This horizontal passage
was only about seven inches high and about two feet wide. Its floor seemed to be of powdered limestone
(grey earth?) and would be easily removable to permit access. We decided not to proceed because of a small
stalagmite column halfway along and because the west side of the chimney was
formed of stones only loosely bound by some very fragile looking stal ( we got
scared off!) Returning down the chimney to shouts of 'Mind
where you are dropping those stones' (gist only) we headed east to the next
cove but found no more caves and so returned westward again to G. W-Js
cave. This time the way was clear and we
were able to get into the cave. The
entrance chamber was all sea worn with one or two short side passages and an
interesting looking hole about twenty feet up the roof. Going through the squeeze into the second
chamber we found it was again sea worn with one side passage containing some
stale flows. About six feet up in the inner
wall was a hole leading to a third chamber which was natural cave (that is, not
worn by sea water). This hole was,
however, too tight though some gardening might pay dividends.
Returning outside we continued westwards to a final cave
along another fault plane. This looked promising but just fizzled out after
about sixty feet. It contained some nice
formations (little ones) that could be seen by poking ones head through a hole
in the roof which was an old false floor by the look of it. Having washed out wetsuits in the spray - the
ten foot waves were breaking against a rock shelf and throwing spray up to
thirty feet in the air - we returned to the top of the cliffs.
We had noticed that the cliff path through the army range
was open and decided to have a look at the caves marked on the O.S. map about a
mile to the west (NGR. SR953936). We
thought that, since it was pouring with rain and blowing a gale, no-one would
notice wet-suited figures leaving the footpath. When we got there we found some magnificent scenery, huge rock arches,
lots of cave entrances and depressions in the ground leading away from the
cliffs. Unfortunately, the cliffs were
vertical and up to one hundred and fifty feet high and there was no way down
(obviously a job with ladders and ropes). While we were looking for a way down the army arrived (they seemed to
think we were invading frogman who had levitated up the cliffs!) and said that
climbing their cliffs was not allowed. We thus made a tactical withdrawal thinking that if were again in South
Pembrokeshire on a calmer day with a rubber dingy, we would know exactly where
to go!
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SUBS ARE DUE PLEASE
SEND THEM TO TIM LARGE ADDRESS ON PAGE 1
By Paul Christie
The weekend of November 12/13th was finally chosen as the
one on which a select group of B.E.C. members would visit a couple of areas not
too famous for their miles of underground passage. We met at Botley, near
At the pub we split up the keen ones going off to see the
'caves', while the rest waited in the pub for the Palmers. Pau1, recently released from plaster, decided
that his newly mended right arm would get more exercise lifting pints of
beer. The Palmers complete with dog and
Keith Newbury arrived mumbling apologies and wittering complaints about the
lack of tackle in the Belfry Tackle Store earlier in the day. Having sampled
the not very good local ale the gang made its way to the 'caves'.
After a couple of hours of digging and dam building on the
surface we all piled into Oxford to Jane's house for some refreshment and
respective and then went our respective ways.
Mike, Paul and Martin, plus wives, returned to Paul's flat
in
Dinner was served and washed down with quantities of wine
and after the customary Saturday night visit to the pub, where they seemed to
have mixed up the ordinary and special bitters, we returned to the flat. Cheese and biscuits was served accompanied by
more alcohol in the form of Harry Wall bangers. Martin, by this time, was finding the pace too much and retired to bed
while Graham, revitalised by more alcoholic beverage offered to show the two
Pats all the different positions (didnt know Graham had taken up horse riding
- Ed.). Needless to say everybody slept
well after all the drinking and eating.
In the morning, Graham acted as Belfry Boy by bringing the
tea round and after breakfast and more games with the intercom; we set off to
look at some Hearthstone Mines near
We parked in a lay-by on a dual carriageway and began
changing. Encouraged by the others,
Martin frightened all the passers-by with his streaking. We made our way to the mine entrance, which
proved to be in true Mendip style, 55ft of concrete tube. Descending the tube in a variety of ways
using ropes, a mixture of ordinary and lightweight ladders, we had hoped to
experiment with the new technique for descending pitches known as M.D.T. but we
were lacking certain items of equipment. The dog was carried down in a rucksack on Keiths back and for the next
four hours spending its time running around the passages keeping the party
together. The mine is a maze of passages
5 8 high, of varying width once used for mushroom growing in the 2nd World
War worked by about 200 Portuguese labourers. In places the floor is still covered with peat and mushroom fungus. Pit props abound but these are so rotten that
they serve no useful purpose. It seems
that everyone enjoyed the trip including Pat Palmer on her first caving trip in
12 years and, so it seemed, did BEC, the dog. Everyone changed, we returned to Paul's Flat by Grahams route, which
was no better than the way we had come. Anyway a good fester was had by all!
Following the initial report (B.B. No.356) the Company are
pleased announce the success of their project. To continue the Tale from where we left off in September
..
At around 35ft. the initially loose ends of the rift begun
to stabilise into a relatively solid vein of assorted iron ores and
calcite. Various odd bits of steel
ladder were begged, borrowed or stolen and welded together into one 30ft.
length - creating some problems when transported to the site on the roof of Mr
N's car (lucky there were no coppers about!) and installed in the shaft.
Banging continued, courtesy of Alan Thomas, and in early
November, a rift was opened at the western side of the shaft. Though only 6" wide it appeared to be
reasonably deep and draughting strongly with varying weather conditions. The vein material at the side of the rift was
chemically removed to make it accessible.
On the 9th November, the dry clad diggers were to have mixed
feelings when it was found that a small stream had begun to pour down the
entrance shaft and disappear into the rift. Dubious surface work by persons unknown enlarged this trickle to a much
more impressive size - much to the disgust of Steve, Pru and Jerry who were instantly
'drowned-ratted'! Co-incidentally,
McAnus had joined the team.
Spurred on by the instant swallowing of the stream and its distant rumbling, the rift was dug for some 10ft., with Tom Temple and George Dixon(?) representing the R.N. contingent. During this time, much of the unstable back wall was faced with stone and cement 'ginging' as permanent shoring with an aesthetic touch. The late November/early Dec¬ember period saw a lull in excavations - partly due to the need for manpower on the Tyning' s Reopening Dig (YOU ARE ALL WELCOME TO ASSIST) and it was not until 11th December that further serious work commenced. Bob X and Stuart Lindsey spent a day at the site, and the latter opened a small hole in the rift into which he poked his head - promptly receiving a nice piece of roof on the back of his neck. He hesitated!
The following day he returned, accompanied by Jane Kirby
(MCG) and J. Rat. An hours clearing of
boulders revealed a view into a sizable chamber. Stuart studied the roof, walls, floor and his
beer-gut and hesitated again pausing only to poke in J. Rat with a forked
vermin stick, in order to clear the loose stuff from the far side. A low crawl over sandy stream debris and
underneath extremely loose vein material was passed into a roomy chamber. The roof of the crawl was gently tickled with
a crowbar producing fine sound effects when some ½ ton of it fell in. After clearing this, the others came through
and exploration continued. The chamber
proved to be some 15ft. long by 4 - 8ft high and -12ft. at its widest. It is formed in a junction of the vein with
various cross rifts and has a most unhealthy appearance of loose cherty blocks
liberally stained with red ochre. There
are several small, choked inlets. A
small hole in the floor was gardened and Stu. descended a relatively solid rift
some 12ft deep to a blockage of large boulders. Photographs were duly taken and the diggers exited for a celebratory
pint. Snab and Anita joined them the
folloing morning for a quiet trip and ginging session and in the evening
Backbone, Clare, Ross and Andy Sparrow arrived on a Wednesday Night
Sortie. More cementing was undertaken
while the
Length: c. 100ft; depth: c.65ft.
Tony Jarrett (J. Rat)
THE WEST FACE OF CHANGABANG - Lecture given by Joe
Tasker
The lecture will be given in the Arthur Tyndall Memorial
Theatre in the Physics Dept., '
Oliver Lloyd
A few more details are now available about the BCRA
Symposium - anyone interested contact Jerry Wooldridge, 9 Chelsea Court, Abdon
Ave., Selly Oak, Birmingham.
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A new guide book appeared on the caving market early in 1976
entitled "GUIDE TO THE SPORTING
CAVES, POTHOLES AND MINES OF DERBYSHIRE" by Jim Ballard. Price
£1.00. This book is available from many
sports shops. Purchasers should be
warned that there are serious reservations placed on this book by Derbyshire
cavers. It is notable for its
inaccuracies.
The following descriptions are so inaccurate that they are
mentioned here: -
The description is not that of
Dr. JACKSONS CAVE
This, cave is regarded as the
most severe in the, and is underestimated in the description. The cave is tight, a number of exposed
traverses and is liable to sudden flooding blocking sections of the entrance
series.
MASKILL MANE
6th pitch is 40m deep NOT 28m and
lands in
ODIN MINE
This mine is regarded as one of
the foulest places in the
The book is cheap - so is the information - so be warned.
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English Cave Depth .Record broken. East Canal Sump in Giants Hole, Derbyshire
has been dived and a vast rift followed downwards to a depth of 100ft. This makes the depth of the Oxlow/Giants
system as being 675ft - the deepest in
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AGEN ALLWEDD A bypass has been dug around the first
sump at the far end of
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TYNINGS BARROW SWALLET: Bish, Snab and many Belfryites gathered at the entrance and began sinking a second shaft hopefully to break into Dragon Chamber some 60ft. below. This is the first time that a Mendip cave survey has really been put to the test! Wigs got a sinking feeling!