The
Editor: Martin Torbett
Committee Members
Secretary: Nigel Taylor
Joint Treasurers: Chris Smart, Mike and Hilary Wilson
Membership Secretary: Roz Bateman
Editor: Martin Torbett
Caving Secretary: Rich Long
Tackle Master: Mike Willett
Hut Engineer: Toby Limmer
Hut Wardens: Vince Simmonds, Bob Smith
Letters and articles published in the club magazine do not necessarily represent the views of the Editor the Committee or the club in general
Club and Caving News
I have received a letter from Jack Lambert reading as follows:
Mummy (Fi) and Ivan Sandford are getting married on Saturday 24th March in a private family ceremony, but everybody is invited to join us in the backroom of the Hunter's from 7.30 pm onwards to help us celebrate!
Signed Ivan, Fi and Jack
This week saw a general re-think for active people who cave, climb or mountain walk in the countryside. An outbreak of foot and mouth disease has led to measures restricting access to many areas. The NCA sent the following message:
Deep
Cave ,
Deep
Cave ,
Deep
Cave
The following information was recently received from UAYCEF
member Daniel Filippovsky of
Now ...
Denis Provalov came up to the surface from camp -1200m on 6 January 2001 to tell the world of the news:
The Expedition of Ukarinian Speleological Association
(leader - Kasian) achieved a new world record depth of 1680 meters in
The Expedition members were as follows:
Yuri Kasian (Poltava) Nikolay Solovey (Kiev) Julia Timoshevskaya (Poltava) Oleg Klimchouk (Kiev) Denis Provalov (Moscow) Konstantin Moohin (Moscow) Sergei Zoobkov (Kiev) Vitaly Galas (Vzhgorod) Anatoly Poviakalo (Poltava) Dmitry Sklyarenko (Moskow) llya Zharkov (Sverdlovsk - Pensilvania)
Address Change
A late message from James Smart with a member address change re: Ron Wycoll
Hi Mr Editor the above named asks me to tell you his new
address is: EXMOUTH,
Devon
A big thank you once again to all contributors. I struggle less each time! Please keep the articles coming in and keep sending them by email if you can. Ed.
FOOT & MOUTH DISEASE UPDATE
The situation has deteriorated rapidly during the past few days with twelve cases now confirmed in various parts of the country. In view of this very grave situation, everyone is requested to immediately stop all caving and associated activities until the crisis is over. Indeed all unnecessary visits to the countryside should be avoided. Many clubs have closed their headquarters to visitors and have cancelled bookings.
Graham Price
Conservation Officer
National Caving Association
http://www.nca.org.uk
Your committee has decided that the Belfry will be closed in line with this advice.
2001 Foot & Mouth Disease and BEC Policy to comply with prevention.
For your information, ALL VISITS TO THE BELFRY ARE TO BE CANCELLED. St. CUTHBERTS SWALLET ACCESS IS CLOSED. THE MINNERY FOOTPATH AND BEC/INVERESK LEASED LAND IS CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE BY ORDER OF THE B.E.C COMMITTEE,
We regret taking these measures, but hope that you will all agree that in order to be both seen to act responsibly, and to show support and solidarity to local farmers upon whom we all rely on their goodwill for cave access - and, also to other caving clubs who are also taking similar action, we have closed the BELFRY and site as detailed above.
The Belfry Drive/Car park will be physically closed on Monday 5th March to ensure that no one visits the site until further notice. The Committee have agreed to liase on a regular basis to review this action. No further BEC Committee meetings will be held at the Belfry until further notice. It was also agreed that the point of contact for any queries should be through the Hon. Secretary - Nigel Taylor on either 01934 xxxxxx or 07860-xxxxxx.
You are strongly requested to comply with this action, and should be aware that the local Authority has indicated that breaches of Footpath Closure orders will result in legal action with £5,000 fines mentioned as penalties.
Please be patient during this troubled time,
Kind regards to all, Nigel Taylor
Hon. Secretary.
On Behalf of the BEC Committee Saturday 3rd. March 2001
Stock's House Shaft View during the week of 9th March.
"so near and yet so far .... " See main article on page 20
Cheddar
Cave Club find Skeleton
A group of cavers from
Local expert Chris Binding is reported to have been amazed as to how the severely crippled man could have got to the site at the top of the Gorge, above Goffs Cave. Chris said, the finding of this fossil, along with many other artefacts dating from the culture associated with Homo touristensis, is strong evidence that this type of human roamed the gorge centuries ago.
The skeleton was found alongside a number of contemporary
cultural artefacts. One of these, an old
crisp packet yielded enough material for carbon dating, showing the skull and
the site to be 3500 years old making this one of the oldest Homo touristensis
finds in
Local trader, Huge Cornfield said "This amazing find lends strong support to the idea of a chair lift to the top of the Gorge. If we can re - introduce this sub species of humans to the area above Goffs caves, they will create their own ecological habitat, thus saving millions of pounds in conversation measures."
The find is sure to fuel the controversy as to how long ago it was that people first came to Cheddar as tourists.
Reservoir Hole Meet
by Kangy King
If you travel in the Orkneys you can visit marvellous prehistoric chambers constructed by man; some say over a long period of time. The sides are tidily made of stones neatly fitted together, the roofs are corbelled and finished with great slabs.
Why, you might ask, go to Orkney when with little effort you
can visit Reservoir Hole in the Cheddar Gorge? This had been entered in 1951 by
I was there because Rich Long was kind to me and lent me a rollerblade elbow pad for my bursitis and when my old NiFe cells went dim, a smart modern cigarette packet sized lighting set. The Irwin and Jarratt Guide gives their usual precise factual account of this cave with a little star indicating restricted access. Martin Grass was the answer to that. We met him by the reservoir.
We started promisingly enough with Martin leading us on up the muddy bank above the reservoir. 'Ah, sorry, we need to go back.' 'Ah, sorry, we seem to be too high.' 'Ah, sorry, I'm sure it was here last time but they've cut the trees down.' 'Ah sorry - Oh here it is!' Low on the ground, out of sight behind a rib of rock, was a tiny crevice. It was blocked with a star shaped plate gate and was secured by the usual gritty lock which was difficult of access. Martin applied the magic penetrating oil spray and we were in.
It was a head down job through the spiders until the tunnel steepened past the horseshoe bat dangling from the ceiling. The passage became steeper and seemed totally man made with neatly stacked deads. Martin said that Willy Stanton had spent years digging this out. Original passage was not obvious but the climb down, through stones lining a spiralling shaft stabilised by stemples and perhaps concrete, was cave like and interesting. The passage we were following entered a much bigger rift at right angles which must have been an exciting find for the digging man. Following this through small chambers linked by tunnels through infill, led to a 'final' enlargement in the rift. With so many alternatives it was not obvious that the way on was through a small dug passage at the lowest point.
The extent of this speleological masterpiece began to dawn upon us. What a hero! Willy Stanton had dug this cave for years. He must have lived in it.
When we finished going down - we started going up. Neat walls of stones lined the way. Steps had been constructed up the steep bits and were contained between these walls. It was hard to see where the small spoil was hidden. Everything was so neat. It reminded me of the tidiness of a show cave. And more. I began to have the feeling that I had been here before. Orkney I thought. There is an amazing new find about 10 miles south of Kirwall in the Orkneys. A farmer had broken into a most unusual underground prehistoric man-made chamber. From the entry point at the top of a mound he had entered into a substantial stone staircase spiralling down. After two turns of descent, it stopped on a flat stone slab. That was it. A monumental staircase in stone.
Willy Stanton's steps continued up through the magnificent rift feature of the cave. It had that big cave feeling. Higher still I thought I saw steps cut into solid rock. Perfectly possible if you are removing rock split along the bedding plane but amazing to see in an open passage where rock need not have been removed. Everything had been done to facilitate the safe passage of the cave visitor. Rope handrails eased our way. Neatly arranged tapes mounted on little cement pyramids protected vulnerable formations. On each side imposing vertical slabs formed the rift. There was perhaps evidence of silken sides on one of the walls and in the same area there was damage caused by boulders dropping out of the stunningly high roof and impacting with glancing blows on the walls below.
Eventually the rift ended as the floor steepened into a wall and a ladder invited us to climb to a higher level. A fixed rope eased the considerable exposure. The party assembled on a balcony and climbed around the back to find a wide path. We walked back towards the rift which, even though we had climbed high into it, still soared above us. Wider at the top, the black walls of the rift plunged for a couple of hundred feet into the gloom below. We savoured the extensive view in silence then turned back to examine the path more closely. It had been built up out of excavated material. The disturbing thought was that this implied hard work; the need to shift many tons rock from one place to another. Many of us might regard this as the unattractive face of exploration. Here however, it became an aesthetic way and created a naturalistic feature; an interesting part of the scenery.
An anthropologist would also have recognised the site as showing signs of lengthy human habitation. Water management was the main preoccupation with various gauge tubing, cans, tanks and cement channels guiding water to its appointed quarter. A small rock basin, with a curious sediment and a thin polythene tube supplying water from a higher reservoir, was identified as a cement mixer. A rusty spade stood patiently by.
At the end of Reservoir Hole only a muddy pit remained.
Or is it the end? Perhaps Willy Stanton is planning more banging digging, stacking? When are you coming back to finish this
Meet participants; Martin Grass, Rich Long, Stuart Sale, James Weir, Zot, Kangy,
Kangy 28th November 2000
Travels in
America
Part III
By Rich Long
I'd been in a
Well, as my luck would have it Stan Allison of Carlsbad Cavern and Lehuguilla got me fixed up on a dig in Big Man Hole, along with my new pals Aaron and Gus, both extremely bad influences on a poor Englishman, I'm glad to say.
We arrived up at the meeting place in the Guadalupe's at about 9.30. Already there was lots of activity with about 15 people strolling around on this already very hot morning.
Jim Goodbar with whom we had already caved greeted us. Jim was the co-ordinator of todays dig. In typical cowboy politeness he took us around the group, introducing us to people I had seen on the Discovery Channel and read about in books. Firstly there was Dr. Mike Queen, he was the guy who helped Ronal Kerbo fix up the parachute line and kiddy's helium filled balloons to snag stalagmites in the Big Room in Carlsbad and then ropewalk up into the Spirit World, some 230' up. Now anyone who goes up that height on an unknown rigging point deserves a pat on the back and an appointment with a psychiatrist as soon as possible. Next guy was Dave Belski, as we approached he was talking to a group of people and his wife, "Get off this Goddamned mountain woman and take that goddamned dog with you!" I don't think Dave and Germaine Greer would have got on too well.
So, introductions over we trekked to the cave mouth, it is
very similar to the entrance to Lechuguilla, a small slot on the anti-cline of
the mountain. It is situated not to far
from
Dave Belski rigged while we made friends throughout the group and while we were waiting to rappel in, Mike Queen invited us on another trip later in the week.
Well, it was Gus's turn to go in, the abseil was about 80' through the slot, when you went in you were actually right in the middle of the roof of a big egg shaped chamber about 60mtrs by 35mtrs.
In the midst of these top-notch cavers you didn't want to appear twerps, unfortunately Gus and I both failed. Gus was on a borrowed rack instead of his usual figure of eight and miscalculating took out a bar instead of adding one, so while we watched from the top he began a very swift rappel and to compensate he whipped his rope down and behind him, i.e. Fig. of 8 style. As you can imagine this didn't help and he proceeded to descend at about a hundred miles an hour, yelping like a ten year old girl, whilst contracting a severe case of abseiler's hand. He corrected about 10 feet off the ground to much applause and cowboy hollering of "Rock and Roll!"
Unfortunately as some of you are well aware, any cave with a nice straight down abseil is not only frequented by cavers but by non abseiling animals and this one was no exception.
Big Man Hole had porcupine, rabbits, calves, etc., the latest acquisition was a ring tailed cat and a big one as it had tended to puff up a bit while it had been lying there, waiting for Gus to abseil right into it. Whew, did that cat stink!
It was now my turn and I wasn't going to make a fool of myself, famous last words. Rigged on with my cows tails, then check my trusty Fig of 8, no problem, Jim was the last in behind me, "See you in there Jim." Down I go. About 2 feet, then nothing, jump up and down on the rope, nothing. Check I'm not hooked up, no, clear, just dangling with Jim watching and chuckling.
"I should unhook your long cows tail Rich." Smiled Jim, helpfully. "Christ!!!"
O.K. down I went red faced and
We soon split into two teams, one filling a previous shaft and one digging towards the void. I knew which one I wanted and scuttled off with my new friend Dave Belski. The rule was you did 15 minutes and no more, digger goes to the end of the line and wait to dig again.
I was third in line, the first guy did his dig, second, after about 10 minutes, hit through and there was the most enormous blast of air. It kicked up dust out of that hole like it was the Intercity 125 blasting through.
Now it was my turn, I never really knew what Gold Fever must have been like until that minute. I dropped into that small shaft and I went at it like a man possessed. Dust, rock, wind blasting, I had only been this excited on the outside of a cave before!
All to soon 15 minutes raced by.
"O.K. Rich, times up!" Dave called. I chose to pretend I didn't hear him and continued frantically as I could now get my hand and most of my forearm into a cubby hole I had made.
"Rich come out!" called Dave.
"Carry on Richie boy!" I thought, this is it.
"Goddamned Limey B*****d! Come out, NOW! Or you won't go in again!" Dave bellowed.
Common sense prevailed!
We dug all day and the wind continued to howl, sometimes sucking and then blowing. We made about four feet and we were getting to the point of whole arms being thrust up the tunnel and being able to move them and loose rocks around, it was definitely going.
We all got out around 6.00pm. Said our good-byes and went home, Jim told me that even if we had broken through we wouldn't have been allowed in. Apparently NASA has first shout, as they believe there could be organisms, fossilized or otherwise that may be similar to life on Mars or Titan, one of Saturn's moons.
Ah well, it had been a good day.
I guess that will do for now, time for my medication! Oh, Nurse!
Danger Brock's May Fall At Anytime!!
Greg Brock & Mike Alderton
I will start by apologising for the disjointed nature of this report, as we are writing this after a Friday night at the Hunters.
Our Christmas time adventure started on the 22nd of December, when I arrived in Essex to meet a disorganised and hungover Greg, slowly getting ready for a couple of weeks of camping and walking in Scotland. After a hearty meal, we packed up the car and headed north through the night.
The drive went very
quickly for me as I spent most of it hungover in the passenger seat while Mike
drove most of the way to
The Saturday was spent wandering around
We consulted the guide
book for the last time before heading up towards Tower Gully. After crossing all the boulders and rocks at
the bottom we were soon on snow and ice where we were able to try out our
crampons for the first time. Slow
progress was made up the gully as we were carrying quite a lot of stuff and our
feet were hurting from new fully stiffened mountaineering boots. After a while Mike, who was leading at the
time, stopped at a conveniently placed boulder.
I was just stopping for a quick drink from my frozen water flask while Greg climbed up to join me. I turned to speak to him, when instantly he disappeared from sight. 'Flip!' I thought as I watched him vanish from view over drop-offs and round comers, 'he's dead and I'm stuck half way up a mountain, this is not good.' I rapidly learnt to down climb, desperately trying not to go the same way as Greg.
As soon as I felt my
feet slip away and I started sliding I did an ice axe break which as soon as I
hit the ice the axe was ripped out of my hands and down I went in my
uncontrolled descent. People keep asking
me what was going through my mind but everything went so quickly that the only
thing I can remember is landing in boulders at the bottom realising I wasn't
dead. Then doing the automatic check of
seeing if I had broken any bones.
Thank God for mobile phones eh? Greg managed to phone me on my descent to say he was still alive which was quite relieving, so I carefully continued down and soon was helping Greg back round the mountain to the CIC hut where we were kindly allowed in to enjoy warmth and a cup of tea.
We struggled back to the
car and finally ended up at
We had some superb trips in Yorkshire, and plenty of
hard-core bar room mountaineering all the way to new years day, where a heroic
Greg drove back to
The caving in
Western Australia Spelio Group Conservation Appeal 2000.
This article has been published in Descent, but I felt that
many people do not buy Descent on a regular basis and would therefore miss this
serious conservation issue. I would like
to add that this is not the only issue in
At this moment in time, a Mining Corporation LEARMONT
LIMESTONE is applying for licences to mine 82 sq. KM of the
WASG and other organisations are trying to oppose the lease using Court Action; "the hearing opened on the 3rd August 2000" but this will be crippling financially to the club and others involved.
The Lawyers are advising a softly, softly approach to the
problem and WASG do not want this to become a blazing issue until the sensible
method has been tried. At the moment an
alternative site for mining has been proposed by the conservationists. However, the caving club and all the groups
are desperate for financial help and I appeal to all the clubs in
At the moment the information I have is that cheques should
be made out to CAVCARE which is the WA cave conservation fund set up for this
purpose . You can send the cheques to my home address and I will forward them on
to CAVCARE or they can go direct to WA at CAVCARE 27 BECKENHAM ST, BECKENHAM
WESTERN
My address is Keynsham,
Please help fellow Conservationists in their struggle to
keep the
To illustrate this appeal, Mr. Wilson has sent me an article written some while ago which describes some of the delights of caving in this threatened area- Ed (see next section)
Caving Down Under
by Wendy Short
Taking a deep breath, I crouched in silence. My powerful light beam cut a white arc across
the cave ceiling dripping with pure crystalline soda straws. The air had a different smell underground
here than the caves on the top side of the world. I was totally fixated as the four of us
paused to admire the beauty of
When I was planning my trip to
I was under the impression that
After kitting up in the parking lot of
As we came upon the first chamber we saw pair of pure white calcite straws of extraordinary length, one of which is the largest straw found in any show cave in the world at 5.5 meters in length. It has grown 3.5 cm since the cave opened, Boxing Day 1959. For the majority of tourists, the most memorable section is the jewel cask cavern. The size of a small room, the walls and ceiling are profusely decorated with intertwining stalactites, straws and helictites. It's so intricate and extensive that it is hard to find the tiniest space not covered. The jewel casket is a sparkling cluster of cave crystals.
We followed the tour for a bit, then nicked off (headed off)
down a crawlway away from the artificial lights. The wild section of the cave is called the
Flat Reef Extension. Each room was full
of soda straws, cave coral and helictites of varying length and
thickness'. I was just awed by the
beauty, which rivals any cave in
The next cave we visited was Moondyne, located in the same park as Jewel. We just happened to time the end of our lunch with the beginning of a wild cave tour, and my hosts convinced the guide to let us tag along. Moondyne is only about 300 meters long, basically just two large rooms. The main feature is walls and walls of stunning white cave coral. I was not real impressed with the "wild cave" tour and glad we were not asked to pay for it. It was just too easy. Walking and constant stopping as the guide explained and showed points of interest proved somewhat anti-climatic. The two hour trip could have been done in a leisurely 45 minutes.
We had time to explore another short cave, and met up with others from the caving group, including Fran Head and Ian Colette. The cave was located a short walk through the bush. About 10 of us entered Deepdyne through a broken entrance gate. This used to be a tourist cave in the 1920's my hosts thought. I wasn't too impressed now; the entire cave was only about 150 meters long and 20 meters high. The formations were very old, dried and dead looking. I could see in its prime it must have been stunning, as it had the same formations as the other caves I had just been in, with the addition of huge old rimstone dams. It was apparent that the water levels in this entire area have been dropping. I asked around .... does anyone know why? Not really, only a stray theory or guess, none of which bode well for the future of these caves.
By the time we left this third cave it was getting late, a
swim in the Indian Ocean was in order at
The next morning Jay, Ross, Mike and I got an early start and
headed back to the park where
There was no entrance gate at Easter, the entrance being a
10 meter drop through a hole in the ceiling of the cave. A cable ladder and belay were rigged and we
each descended one by one. I climbed
down carefully, not having been on a cable ladder in over ten years. Rappelling sure seems easier.
Our destination was a formation called "The Question", which Ross wanted to photograph. I relaxed and listened to the echoing drip drip drip of a live formation as the shot was set up. The trip out did not seem to take as long as going in as we did not stop for pictures on the way out. Still, because you have to be so careful not to touch anything, it was pretty slow going. I did not mind, it gave me time to memorize all the beautiful things I was seeing. And I believe that my presence left no impact on the cave that day.
I would like to thank Jay and Ross Anderson, and the WASG
for making it possible for me to experience some of the finest caves in
Mike Wilson
I Don't Want To Push It - It Might Go!
The exploration of C33
By Mike Alderton
I had just returned from a three day trip in G5 and settling down with a few beers started looking forward to a couple of days of rest and recovery - but Joel C and Tim F had other ideas. Waiting until I was well lubricated with wine and beers they proceeded to tell tales of a promising cave left at the head of a 15m pitch, bound to drop into Hirlatz and only ¼ of an hours walk from the Wiesberghaus! This is how their log book write up actually went. ...
Anyway I had been convinced it was going to break through and persuaded Tim L and Peter Hubner to join me on this exploration.
Armed with survey kit, rigging gear, SRT kit and Sam of discarded climbing rope we reached the present survey limit. Peter was not impressed by the tortuous passage we had now entered and headed back to the surface just before Buffalo Breech.
From this point the passage started to get quite committing, with desperately tight squeezes, sharp corners and no possibility of tuning around for about an hour - a real delight for us Mendip cavers.
We reached the pitch found by Joel and Tim and I soon descended it, dropping into a steeply sloping chamber in beautiful white limestone with fluted cascades in the floor - Awesome, virgin passage to explore!
Within no time, Tim was down the pitch and off we headed along a typical Dachstein meander, but easy going and peppered with easily climbable cascades. We threw ourselves along the passage, barely able to take it all in, until instead of breaking out over an unfathomable pitch the cave deteriorated to more desperately tight twisting passage. With our hearts rapidly sinking we followed this for a while until leaving the remainder of the climbing rope we headed back out. Our progress was speeded up after noting the clean washed nature of the floor, wall and roof - this place must flood like a beast when it rains ...
The return was uneventful, cold and slow, but when we had passed Buffalo Breech, smiles returned to our faces - we were finally going to escape from this incredible cave. Climbing up the 40' pitch, through the entrance meanders, up the entrance climb and we were out, heading back to the Weisberghaus where our companions were waiting with a crate of Zipfers.
After a few of these, Tim wrote in the logbook ...
The Hirlatz survey shows that C33 has all chances of dropping straight into the master system, so for next years expedition we are looking for young, flexible, skinny young cavers with a limitless supply of oversuits. Are you interested?
Dachstein - Austria 2000 (The Overall Picture)
By Greg Brock
"I Cave Mostly in
Our Austrian expedition started the week before in
The following week passed quite quickly and before I knew it
I was meeting up with Snablet, Annette and Pete Whitaker (WRCPC) at
"G5 Its a classic!............A real fu**ing
classic!.............
Not sure if I like it though
.. Rich Hudson
G5 - Einsturner Hahle (Ice Gymnast Hole) was my first Austrian cave. The rock was extremely sharp, hard on gear and as the name suggests very cold. This was to be the place of three weeks worth of continuous pushing & exploration. The first couple of trips were quite easy going but soon turned into 24 hour trips, and when the camp was set up they turned into 3 day trips. It soon got to the stage where rest days were needed between trips. On one particular rest day it was decided to do a Dachstein pub crawl, but this turned out to be a bit more adventurous than planned and was summed up by Tangent once back at the Wiesberghaus .
"Now I need a rest day to recover from my rest day. " Tangent
Eventually last years limit of exploration (explanation) was reached and new cave was starting to be explored, albeit very slowly. The rift was getting harder to traverse along and in places traverse lines were rigged because of the walls being covered in a horrendously slimy mud. After pushing trips being hindered by bad weather the higher level fossil stuff was decided to be our only hope of finding a significant amount of passage.
"Only One Can Hold Me - You're our only hope." Rob Garrett
In the remaining week before de-rigging, "only one can hold me" and another passage by High Flyers were looked at but neither were fully pushed. "Only one can hold me" was seen to continue but realistically who wants to go back and push it?
"Is there a carnival like atmosphere on the glacier" Tangent
Apart from G5 which was where the majority of the expedition's resources and efforts were focused there were other sites to push and other things to do. The glacier, surrounding cliffs and the other mountain huts provided things to do on rest days from G5. Some excellent climbing was had not only up by the glacier but also on bolted routes by the Wiesberghaus. When resources like food and gas ran low there was always the reluctant option of walking back down to Halstat and collecting provisions.
Greg and Mike on the glacier - picture Greg Brock
After this years' exploits in
Moving gear through G5
Tim Lamberton in "insane worms" - Greg Brock
Two Combes Walk
O.S. EXPLORER 4 MENDIP HILLS WEST (ORANGE SERIES)
by Vince Simmonds
Start from West Harptree village and follow Ridge Lane,
found next to the village stores, uphill and just beyond the last house take a
footpath on the right (west) waymarked for the 'Limestone Link'. Head west across fields to Cowleaze Lane,
which can be rather over grown, take care at the end of the lane where you will
meet the road that goes up Harptree Hill. Go up the hill for a short distance and another path is met on the right
proceed west towards Compton Martin. From the fields good views can be seen of both
On passing the cottages almost immediately on the left is the path leading up to Compton Martin Ochre Mine NGR ST55/5419. 5670 which if you have picked up the key from the Belfry and brought with you a helmet, lamp and some caving grots is well worth the visit. Even if you don't feel the desire to venture underground there are some interesting surface features and relics of a bygone age to keep you amused for a while. Take care on the slope if it's wet it can be extremely slippery.
For a full
description and survey of the mine refer to Mendip Underground, D.J. Irwin
& A.R. Jarratt.
Follow the path up through the combe past the disused
quarries, the combe has some interesting karst features but they are rather
small. In the spring it can be an
amazingly green place. At the top of the
combe the path leads along the drive of Whitegate Lodge to reach another
lane. Turning left (south east) here
takes you to a crossroads, go straight over into
For a full
description and survey of these mines refer to Belfry Bulletin March 2000 Vol.
51 No.1 "An excursion to Harptree combe and mines" by Vince Simmonds.
You may also wish to have a good look around
The castle stayed in the hands of the de Harptree family,
but around the time of Henry III, Sir Robert de Harptree assumed his mothers
name of Gournay. Sometime between the 12 and 15 century the two Harptrees split
the Gournay family took control of West Harptree while the
By 1540
There was also the belief that the castle walls covered
valuable mineral deposits, it was around this time that a strong brass industry
flourished in
The presence of shot-holes in some of the mines would
suggest working of a later date possibly late 1600's or the 1700's. An interesting fact is that in 1728 Sir John
Newton, who owned the biggest part of East Harptree, also owned several coal
mines in Kingswood (
When reaching the bottom of the combe turn right (west) to
cross the stream and stile and crossing fields will lead back to
Allow 3 hours for the walk more if you plan to explore the mines and the castle.
Acknowledgements:
Worle, Woodspring and Wallop: The Calamine Connection, Nick
Corcos;
Stock's House Shaft - Towards the Hundredth Ton.
by Tony Jarratt
Continuing the series
of articles from BBs nos. 502, 504-509.
BB 508 article - correction: The drawings of the bronze bearing liner and "timewaster" were not, as stated, reproduced at the correct scale but had been reduced in size by the printers. The length of the latter is 154mm, width of blade is 60mm. The bearing is 60mm x 39mm x 27mm.
For a couple of weeks in November only Alex visited the Upstream Level on one occasion, 'flu, work and idleness having wreaked havoc on the rest of the team. On the 3rd of December the deep rake near the tumulus c.110m north of the Shaft was investigated for possible dig sites in the hope of by-passing the flooded terminal choke. The floor of the rake is composed of loose boulders but major excavations would be necessary to open up any underground workings.
Back at the Shaft work continued on clearing the Upstream Level and the bag pile in the Rat Trap and Greg's Level. 51 loads were winched out on the 8th. The Treasury of Aeops stream diversion was still working well - to the extent that Five BuddIes Sink was found to be almost sumped just before the initial choke breakthrough point. With this Autumn being the wettest on record this was hardly surprising but at least the stream in the Shaft, though sumping up the terminal choke, was not backing up to any degree. This bodes well for open passage beyond.
On December 11th a visit to Pipe Aven revealed another roof fall which had again luckily occurred during our absence. The large spur of rock supposedly held in place by the long Acro-prop had come down, prop and all. Just beyond it the hanging death once supported by Old Mens deads had also come down and the Level was again partially blocked. This was actually very good news as these Damoclean "Henries" had been a continual source of worry to diggers passing warily beneath them. The enormous boulders hanging in the now spacious void above will also undoubtedly come down in the near future and should hopefully wedge across above the Level to provide a relatively stable ceiling.
A map of all known cave and mine passages along the road
between the Hunters and the Miners was given to the civil engineers putting in
roadside trenches for fibre optic communications cables. They were very grateful as no-one had
informed them of possible dangers and one of their planned sites for an
underground junction box was exactly on the site of an "old trial
shaft" - now lost and not marked on recent O.S. maps! (Incidentally this road is referred to in
Gough's Mines of Mendip as
The 13th saw a three man team clearing all bags and rocks from the Upstream Level and then leaving it severely alone as further extensive roof falls in the Pipe Aven area appeared imminent. 113 loads came out on the 17th and many of these were wheelbarrowed onto the Reserve where they were used the following day to construct a temporary dam at the head of the flowing stream behind Stock's House. It is hoped that this will divert the water from the Upstream Level and into Five BuddIes Sink. The remainder of the spoil was used to level the ground between the Shaft and Forestry car park in order to make winch access easier. Another 124 loads came out on the 20th making a total since the start of this dig on the 25th August 1998, of c.7,6S0. At an average, probably under-estimated weight of 251bs this works out at 78 tons brought to surface so far!!!
The surface drainage trench into Five BuddIes Sink revealed another interesting relic of the 19th century washing operations on the 22nd of November when a rusty iron bolt was spotted in its floor. A few minutes work with a spade showed it to be just a tiny part of a section of cast pipe with a "flow diverter", broken but otherwise identical to one previously found in the wheel pit, rusted solidly onto one end. The total length being 1.148m - see drawings appended.
The Christmas week saw very few diggers, lots of hangovers,
much clearing of the Loop Level, Treasury of Aeops and the deposited silt in
the start of the Upstream Level. By the
end of the year another 105 loads had reached the now frozen and snow covered
surface. At last the continuous rain
seemed to have stopped (or at least turned lumpy) and it was hoped that a good
freeze would dry up the inflowing streams. A note in The Pew (Priddy,
On the last visit of 2000 a short length of rigid aluminium ladder was erected in the Treasury in an attempt to avoid climbing over the huge and unstable boulder partway along. Suddenly it proved to be very unstable as it slid towards the ladder during tidying up operations. The digger was prepared for this and rapidly retreated to the Shaft to plan a future banging project! In the meantime this level should not be entered.
New Year celebrations took their usual toll and it was not until the 3rd of January that a return was made to bring out 101 bags of spoil. A return was also made to the awful, depressing wet weather. 11 more bags came out on the 8th when the Upstream Level collapse was utilised as the base of a dam for future water retention. A 6" plastic pipe was installed here on the 14th and the dam further built up the following day. Another 85 loads emerged on the 17th when surface and underground water levels were noted to have dropped considerably.
A banging trip on the morning of the 22nd of January disintegrated two boulders in the U/Level collapse, two at the Shaft bottom and obliterated the front of the huge "Henry" in the Treasury. In the afternoon much of the resulting debris was bagged up by Alex. The rest was cleared on the 24th when Trevor poked the looming remains of the "Henry" with a long bar then left it to hopefully slump down to floor level. On this occasion the standing water level in the Downstream Level was found to have dropped over a foot.
On the 28th another 71 bags came out and the winch was removed to the Belfry. All the rock dumped at the roadside was transported to the Mineries dam for repair work. This continued on the following day when Stock's House Shaft was tidied up on the surface as the writer was off to Meghalaya to find some REAL cave. During the next three weeks only Alex could be bothered to turn up on six solo clearing trips in the Downstream Level. The current foot and mouth scare has now curtailed all work on the site for the foreseeable future. Total amount of loads out to date is c.8023 about 82 tons!
Additions to the Digging Team
Clare Thomas (
The search for Pant - y - Crac or Fun adventures up the gorge
About 5 years ago, I decided to have a good look at the
plant life in Cheddar gorge that grew in all the places inaccessible to the
usual plant recorders. My reason for
this was because of a faint grumbling in the air about tree cutting and rock
damage caused by tree roots penetrating rock and levering them off (onto the
heads of unsuspecting passers by). Well,
I began at the top end of Cheddar Gorge by Black Rock Gate and gradually worked
my way down (and up) the gorge so to speak. At the time of my investigations, the flock of Soay sheep would retire
each night to a series of ledges on both sides of the upper gorge. These ledges were protected from view by
dense tree growth. As most if not all of
the caves or cave entrances in the Gorge had been used at some time by sheep,
goat or man, I felt it a necessary part of my investigations to check these out
at the same time. It was whilst on one
of these forays that I came across a deep cleft in the rock face high up from
the road on the Showcaves side. Many a
strange sight has greeted me on these excursions, sleepy sheep, bottles filled
with dead mice and piles of rubbish in most unlikely places. This one, however, was one of the strangest
finds to date, for there wedged in the crevice was a collection of women's
clothing. Most of the items seemed to be
old, although one or two were obviously recent. My first reaction was to look around for the body or what was left of
it- remembering a similar "lost person" incident not that long ago
that was discovered by a club member .... Anyway, to my great relief, there was
no visible body and as I made my way across the narrow ridge of rock, a few
more items appeared, mainly of the ladies under dress type of garment. Well, shortly after this I discovered a superb
specimen of a once magnificent male Soay sheep, complete with curved
horns. This I eagerly dragged down to a
safe spot where I managed to cram the skull into my rock bag, and promptly
completely forgot about the earlier strange find. The skull now graces my front room and has
been used on many a talk about the Gorge. Now, I am getting off the track a bit but, some 5 years or so later,
which takes us up to last December, I happened to be talking to a
This was about 800 metres vertically, looping up and down, often using a rope for support, often stopping on a ledge to look in and never discovering our original site. We finally made the road by descending the scree slope to the left (uphill) of Sow Hole. Disappointed but exhilarated by the dangers, we agreed to meet again later the following week, with an aim to explore the upper section of the area.
Our second trip began from the path that rises from Black Rock Gate to meet the top tourist route from the pinnacles. As the path bears right near the top there is a series of buttresses running to left and right of the path. Our route was to the right, working along the steep slope above the road. There are about twenty or so of these small climbable rock faces. Many of them are deeply fissured, covered in trees, moss and so on. A few are bare enough to boulder climb, but the rock is pretty loose in some sections, deeply cracked by ice heave and plant erosion. This trip took us on a diagonal path down to the road in an area that we both felt from our earlier memories was "about the right place." Nothing! We finished off by descending a 50-metre scree slope - using a rope to add to the fun - down to the bend in the road opposite to and just below Bone Hole. By this time, doubt was creeping in - although we were having a great time in the Gorge, discovering all sorts of fun adventure routes for the fun adventure types - maybe the place had been tidied up by the benevolent workers of Lord Bath's Estate! Undaunted, we returned to my house for tea, cream, jam and scones (or is it scones?) and had another think. We agreed to meet again the following afternoon, and to fit the trip in with a check on the lid to Bone Hole which was rumoured to have been "banged.
Below: - An old map of the area, showing our routes
Below: an unknown (to me) phreatic tube some 15 metres from the top of the Gorge, left (facing downslope) of the Pinnacles.
Trip three picked up from where two finished, for we felt it sensible to cover the ground thoroughly (looking for holes). This was the trip above the buttresses that run up from road level, rising some 30 metres as the road nears the final bend before Reservoir hole. The going here was very tough - mainly vertical, and often crossing the previously mentioned bottomless gullies. My companion on this trip (son Edward) was not quite as intrepid as he thought, and we covered the ground slowly in some regions, using the (now essential) rope on some sections. Disappointed again, we descended Shoot gully to the road.
A change of plan was called for as we were getting nowhere and it was looking like the wrong area was being searched. Our next and most ambitious trip took us right to the top of the Pinnacles, starting at road level at the bottom of Shoot Gully. This is the steep scramble just beside the "Showcaves bus turning circle". For cavers, just below White Spot cave! I won't bore readers with details of the climb up, suffice it to say, at the last section about 40 metres below the top, a sheep path goes right and left from the gully. Right facing (downslope in the gorge) the path leads to a magnificent viewpoint but no caves and no way down or up except on a very long rope! Left along the sheep path however, leads soon to the caves shown in the photos. Doubtless, these have all been seen and recorded before, but new to us, it was fascinating to find phreatic tubes at such a high level in the Gorge. It must have been very wet once. Some idea of the age of the caves can also be gauged from their height. Perhaps one or two might just lead down to ..... great site for a dig .... ! The trip ended with a superb sunset as we came down - certainly for me a great buzz coming off the hill at dusk - so no disappointments and we had discovered some caves.
Looking back at our trips, we decided to leave things for a while. We were obviously trying too hard. A bit of lateral thinking as to what we were looking for and how it might have formed led us to think that Pant -y -Crac might be quite easy to get to, but well hidden. Whoever had or had not been there before us probably wasn't a caver, although he might be a diver looking into tight places!
Anyway, rain for a week or so and then work, more work then suddenly one Friday afternoon an excited phone message on the machine from Chris. "I've found it! Details in the White Hart tonight, we visit tomorrow".
Saturday came, my hangover was cheered by the lack of rain, and Chris called at 12.30 that day and up we went. Our second trip along the path from Black Rock Gate had passed very close to the spot that Chris now took me to. We had dropped down too quickly, or started too far to the right, however, suddenly there it was. Chris had carefully marked his way back to the path with small piles of stones and (with difficulty for there are many stones in this area!) I followed his trail and there on the ground, a spotted mouldering half buried dress? Further on and there it is at last, Pant -y -Crac, complete with at least five bras, three sets of tights, another dress and then as we slid down the slope after recording the crag, more dishevelled remains. It was difficult to know what to think as I skidded down the scree slope to the road. The remains certainly spanned a number of years, five? ten? Had the den more than one visitor? Was it where I had imagined? Anyway, the outcome of the search was that we had discovered some brilliant scrambles and hairy walks in the Gorge. We had systematically familiarised ourselves with a huge section of largely un-peopled terrain and into the bargain had a bloody good time. Anyone know of a better way to have some fun!
Martin Torbett and Christopher Binding Photos by the writers. February 2001
Pant -y- Crac, Cheddar
Meghalava 2001 - Exploration in the Jaintia Hills and the Discovery of
India 's
3rd Longest Cave
by Tony Jarratt
PARTICIPANTS; Austria; Peter Ludwig, Switzerland; Yvo Wiedmann, Germany; Christian Fischer, Daniel Gebauer, Herbert and Christine Jantschke, Thomas Matthalm, Anja Renner, Harald Kirsamer, En~land; Julie Hesketh, Tony Jarratt, Mark Brown, Simon Brooks, Tom Chapman, Tony Boycott, Rob and Helen Harper, Stuart MacManus, Scotland; Alan Jeffreys, Roger Galloway, Fiona Ware, Dan Harries, Fraser Simpson, Wales; Rhys Williams, Paul Edmonds, Amanda Edgeworth, Meghalaya; Brian Kharpran Daly, Lindsay Diengdoh, Gregory Diengdoh, Neil Sootinck, Betsy Chhakchhuak, Allard Harris Diengdoh, Sanjay Choudhary, Tiewlin Kharsati, Sasha Nongsiej, Vivien Warjri, Gerard Khonglah, Larsing Sukhlain, Shelley Diengdoh.
STAFF, GUIDES, PARTYGOERS, ETC; Myrkasim Swer, Asif Khan, Almas Laloo, Amzad Khan, Ngait Bareh, Marlon Blien, Bung Diengdoh, Sunny Diengdoh, Bobby Moore Paswat, Dominic Sawdong, James Fancon, Karlin Pyrngap, Nonkin Dkhar, Dilbhadur Subedi, Kunga Darna, Churchill Sukhlain, Rud Sukhlain, Elias Bareh, Forestar Pajah, Pyntyngen Bamon, Wesley Rupon, Holding Bamon, T. Mannar, Jonah Dichan, Pyubha Suja, Mulda Rupon, Condrick Dkhar, Spindro Dkhar, Co!. Fairweather Mylliemngap, Maureen Diengdoh and the Khasi Ladies, the Gentlemen of Shillong, the villagers of Sutnga, Tong Seng, Shnongrim, Sakhain, Lakadong, etc. And last, but by no means least, Ronie Mawlong.
This year's expedition to Meghalaya, N.E. India was swelled
by the unexpected addition of Rob Harper's
The main team arrived in Shillong on the 2nd February and split into two groups. Simon led a recce. party to Borsora in the Garo Hills where they were to survey some 6kms of impressive caves and later join the rest of us at Sutnga in the Jaintia Hills.
Here we had established ourselves at last year's base - the Inspection Bungalow about an hour's bone jarring drive from the main caving area on the Nongkhlieh Ridge. On arrival we found that the Meghalayan Adventurers had done a fine job of preparation in making the place comfortable and secure with a huge meal bubbling away in the outside, tented kitchen - courtesy of Master Chef Swer and his assistants. To wash it down there was a seemingly unlimited supply of bottled beer and rum. Its hell in the jungle ....
Daniel had failed to arrive which was very worrying as he
was known to have been prospecting in the
On the 5th caving started in earnest with parties tidying up
leads in Krem Wah Ryngo and Krem Kermit. I joined an optimistic group who were hoping
to resolve the access problem at Shnongrim village so that we could extend our
explorations into this area which the Jaintia Adventurers were trying to keep
for themselves - a misguided policy as they do little caving and no surveying
or recording of data. After lots of tea,
biscuits, fags and betel nut with the headman and his cronies we had got
nowhere so, leaving Brian to continue the discussion the rest of us walked back
along the ridge recceing areas that we had permission for on the way. This almost instantly paid off with the
discovery of two new caves - Krem Risang
(
When leaving Krem Risang one day we were accosted by an old chap, Churchill Sukhlain, who presented us with sweet potato and betel nut before proceeding to show us the easy scramble down which avoided 20m of the 25m entrance pitch! Roger was best pleased as he could, in return, proffer one of his American fags with the classic phrase "Care for a Winston, Churchill?" He also took a team over the ridge to the hidden Tong Seng village where they were shown a plethora of huge, undescended pots and told of many more. The locals were very friendly and helpful and soon most of the expedition work was taking place in this attractive area.
On the 10th the 81m deep Krem Khlaw Lakhar (Lakhar Forest Cave) was bottomed by Tom, Mandy and Fraser, the incredibly strongly draughting Hairdryer Hole looked at (and left for next year) and a 20m+ deep pot, Krern Urn Thloo (1) also visited by Goon, Brian, Daniel and myself.
Our superbly efficient guide, Pyntyngen, had indicated that
this was easily accessible but we found it to be an SRT job for which we were
not equipped that day, being in a decidedly horizontal frame of mind. It was left for the younger
"tigers" and the old gits continued their walk through the forest for
a couple of hundred metres to be shown an Eastwater type entrance almost
totally choked with rotting bamboo. This
was an obvious flood sink and was also known as Krern Urn Thloo (2) (Water Hole Cave). A short climb down led to a reasonably well
decorated, spider infested series of chambers with a horrific looking vertical
boulder ruckle in the floor. With a
chance of bagging 100m or so surveying commenced while the writer, being spare
man, attempted to find the way on. At a
depth of c43m a solid walled phreatic passage was found which soon closed down
but was at least horizontal and safe. This was surveyed and feeling reasonably pleased with ourselves we
started out, pausing briefly to insert Allard, our token small boy, into a
grotty little dry sink in the floor. This soon opened up and we followed him through into slightly bigger
passage which now had to be mapped. The
whole cave was hot and draught free and held little promise until I suddenly
found my feet in a metre of slowly flowing water with a howling draught
disappearing through a low duck on the left. Things were now looking up and we continued downstream in walking sized
wet, then dry phreatic galleries. With
time running out we were about to stop surveying when Allard pointed out the
sound of falling water ahead. On
rounding a comer from our already impressive passage we were stunned to walk
into a 6m diameter "
The main upstream passage was later pushed for a couple of
kms to a high aven with a possible high level passage part way up and climbable
with aid. Several kms of wet and dry
passages lead off from this, generally in a northerly direction and towards the
crest of the ridge, beyond which lies Krem
Shynrong Labbit, Krem Labbit and Krem
Risang. Daniel informs me that the
limestone goes right through the ridge so there may be potential here for
connections and the longest cave in
Downstream was surveyed through lots of spectacular passage (which I never got a chance to see) and a side entrance found by Goon and team in a jungle filled doline. They were found by us sitting on an obscure path in the pitch black early evening, completely lost. We were on our way back from Krem Ticha (Tea Cave) located at the edge of the flood plain a long way below Tong Seng village and luckily guided by the redoubtable Larsing - caver, guide, ladies' man, Caroom champion, etc. The cave behind their lower entrance was apparently of continental show cave grandeur and proportions and ended in a boulder choke where they thought they had heard voices. Our resurgence cave had started as a magnificent tunnel but had deteriorated into flooded maze pas ages with boulder chokes above. If we had climbed up instead of staying in horizontal mode we would probably have met them and connected the two caves. This was to happen the following day.
Other caves later connected to the system via surface potholes were Krern Urn Thloo (1) - where Tom had halted his survey at a low, draughting duck unaware that one of our stations was a mere 1.5m away on the other side, Krem Lyngkshaid, Krem Moolale and Krem Myrlait. The latter dropped some 50m straight into a small chamber previously reached by Tom and Rhys by digging out a crawl from the main system. They had only found this because of the strong draught issuing from a tiny hole in the floor. Once they had both squeezed into the chamber they realised that they were not alone - a small but wide awake snake was beginning to take an interest in them. Alas, that was the last interest it ever took as they could not afford to let it get into the crawl behind them.
By now Pyntyngen and his fellow guides had established a fine tradition of building a raging bamboo bonfire for our return from the depths. Not content with that, and with an increasing amount of time on their hands, they also built bamboo clothes drying racks, a rain shelter for our kitbags and on one memorable occasion a complete shed with a banana leaf roof, indoor bonfire and signpost stating (in Jaintia) "Krem Myrlait - very deep cave". We repaid them with fags, biscuits and beer.
The Krem Urn Thloo System was also remarkable for its wildlife, much to the joy of our speleobiologists Dan, Fiona and Christian. Thousands of blind fish, crayfish, shrimps and freshwater crabs live in the streamways and pools. One large crab got its own back on Roger when he foolishly picked it up. If he hadn't been wearing thick gloves his tin whistle playing would have been severely curtailed!
Dan also became a speleoarchaeologist when he surveyed up an inlet deep in the system. About 100m before the foot of a 30m aven he came across masses of broken pottery water vessels which he assumed had been swept in from the surface. They have been left in Shillong for possible dating but may only be 50 or so years old. Even so, their presence indicates a habitation site on the ridge above which may be traceable. There are many other unclimbed avens in the system awaiting exploration next year, either from below or by descending the virgin potholes from the surface. At the bottom of one of these Dan also found the grotesque skull of a Hanuman monkey - a baboon like creature, sacred to Hindus and now absent from this area.
To sum it up - a superb system with a great variety of passage, spectacular caving, lots more potential and bonfires at every entrance! We will return.
The other main triumph of this part of the expedition was continued exploration in the equally spectacular Krem Iawe - situated in the next spur to the north east and probably the lower section of a similarly sized system draining the Shnongrim area. Partly explored last year it consists of a massive stream passage ending in a choke but with an amazing labyrinth of canal passages rising gently to another section of now fossil bore tube. There are many fantastic formations including foot high mud stalagmites and bright orange gours. Its current length is over 1.7km with plenty of leads. The only problem is either finding it or, conversely, finding one's way back again over flat paddy fields in the dark. A GPS is a very useful item in these circumstances but a Simon or Daniel are definitely not!
Other notable caves surveyed in the area were Krem Churchill - 302m, Krem Pakse -716m, Krem Ka Tham Thyrsin (
Other useful expedition work included photography (Yvo, Simon and Fraser) video (Fraser and Paul) collecting cave legends (Brian, Larsing and me) PR (everyone), international joke telling in an Austrian accent by a one-eyed caver wearing edelweiss braces (Peter) and mooning unintentionally for the camera (Herbert). The conservation minded Ronie thoughtfully collected over 500 beer bottle tops (!) which we found very commendable - until we realised that the little sod got 1/2 a rupee each for them!
Great trip, caves, company, food, booze, Khasi Ladies, guides, weather (until the last day) and, despite a few minor illnesses, I believe that a good time was had by all. Yet again our thanks must go to the stalwarts of the Meghalayan Adventurers and all the local people who helped us in so many ways.
Surveys and photographs will hopefully appear in a future BB. A report covering the last few expeditions is intended to be produced this year and Simon's slides, together with Fraser's videos will be shown at this year's BCRA Conference in Buxton. We are planning to provide the Meghalayans with a Sked rescue stretcher so a slide show may be arranged on Mendip to help with funding. Any donations will be gratefully received!