The A.G.M..
This went off very well, and a goodly number of club members
turned up. You will find an account of
some of the proceedings later on in this B.B. It was agreed by some members that the contents of the B.B. have tended
to be below standard of late, and we hope that this will result in more members
sending in articles, letters &c so that we may even be able to edit the
B.B. What is wanted mostly are articles
of a serious climbing and caving nature.
Club Membership.
At first sight, the figures given by the Hon. Sec. did not
seem to add up. He told us that we had
34 new members during the year. This
squares up with the increase in the B.B. during the year we are now printing
180 copies a month. However, he then
went on to say that the total membership had dropped by 7 to 112. Could it be that nearly a third of all club
members have only been in the club a matter of months? The mystery was soon solved. It appears that nearly fifty of you who may
be reading this have not yet paid your sub. We are most reluctant to stop the B.B. going to old friends, but a
sordid financial note must be struck. How about an associate membership at 7/6 if you are no longer as active
as you were but would still like to keep in touch with the club? If you are amongst those who mean to keep
paying their sub but forgot, why not get the whole thing over once and for all? 5/5/- seems an awful lot to fork out all at
once, but where could you invest this to bring you services worth 12/6 per
year? Its not at all bad from a
business point of view. Anyway, if your
sub is outstanding, please get in touch with Bob.
1961 Committee and Club Officers.
R.J. Bagshaw Honorary Secretary and Treasurer
R.A. Setterington Hut Warden and Committee Chairman
S.J. Collins Editor, Belfry Bulletin
N. Petty Tackle Officer
A. Sandall Committee Minutes Secretary
C.H.G. Rees Belfry Engineer
G. Mossman Climbing Secretary (see under)
B. Prewer (See under)
J. Ifold Honorary Librarian
N.B. Owing to
domestic commitments, Pew has not taken one of the main club offices this
year. G. Mossman has had to resign from
the 1961 committee owing to heavy demands on his time. The committee have co-opted Tony Dunn, who
has agreed to take his place as Climbing Secretary. The 1961 committee thus consists of: Bob
Bagshaw, Sett, Alfie,
1960 Dinner
Although a few complaints about the service were heard, the
1960 Dinner of the B.E.C. went off reasonably well at the Star Hotel,
Wells. It was particularly gratifying
for older members to see so many old friends who, unfortunately, can rarely get
to Mendip. An interesting feature of the
dinner was the fact that it was not considered necessary to debar any
particular persons from attending. The
high spot of the proceedings was undoubtedly the speech of Alan Thomass in
which he proposed the health of absent friends. The early Victorian potato peeler which only Alan Thomas could have
worked into such a speech was particularly effective in operation when it was
later put to peeling an apple. At a
later stage of the proceedings, a man recited a poem.
W. Spoon.
Formations in Cuthberts
This account is not intended to be a detailed description of
all the dripstone formations in this magnificent cave, but a record of some of
the more outstanding features and impressions that a newcomer to the cave
noticed on his first visit.
It cannot be too highly emphasised that the sheer wildness
of the cave contributes greatly to the settings of all the formations, which
are lovely and interesting. There are
huge blocks and slabs plied on all sides of the boulder chambers; great bedding
planes sloping steeply into the gloom and smooth water washed tunnels in the
lower sections.
The most striking feature which applies to many of the
formation; stalactites, stalagmites, curtains and floor deposits is their
translucency. This becomes nearly
transparent in some small curtains at the back of Pillar Chamber. They are so clear that it seems almost
impossible that they are made of calcite.
Many of these translucent formations have a very large
crystal growth. Sometimes almost
complete crystals have grown at the edge of the curtains, giving them an
irregular notched effect. This should
not be confused with the regular serrations of a coxcomb curtain. This large crystal growth may also be seen on
stalactites, especially those that are webbed to the roof. It also appears to some extent on
stalagmites, when they present a somewhat knobbly outline. It is probable that these formations grew
very slowly out of very pure material. The almost complete lack of large straws from formation groups of this
type would also indicate a very slow rate of growth.
Pride of place must go to the stalactite curtains which
attaining great size and beauty in this cave. The small transparent examples in Pillar Chamber have already been mentioned. There are larger example in
There are several large stalactites and similar formations
in the cave. There is the huge Tusk
about five feet long in Everest Chamber and a nicely proportioned group known
as the Fingers. These are all normal
carrot shaped formations, but the Cascade contains many translucent
stalactites and stalagmites which have notched edges and formed large
crystals. These occur where the massive
flow of The Cascade pours over a large step in the bedding plane.
Shapely stalagmites accompany The Fingers stalactites, but
on the whole stalagmites tend to be dumpy and not at all spectacular. Some of the smaller ones, however, are
translucent and very pretty. One group,
under a ledge of suspended floor are flat topped with crystalline hollows at
the centre. There is one giant at the
bottom of Cascade Chamber about seven feet high, but not very shapely.
Floor deposits abound, and vary from a deep ochreous colour
through pure white to the semi-transparent. The Cascade is a fine example of this type, but there are masses of
stalagmite flooring in various chambers. In the Rabbit Warren series, there is a small flow of translucent
stalagmite which appears to be a very pale blue. Whether this is due to included material, or
to some sort of reflection from the rock is not certain.
St. Cuthberts abounds also in the more unusual types of
calcite formations which are not often seen, especially when a cave has been
used for a long time. The control which
has been kept on access has certainly protected some of these rare types of
formation, as well as keeping the cave as a whole clean. There are pockets of cave pearls. These, although well polished are not regular
in shape and could possible be described as pistoliths. In the Rabbit Warren is a group of pockets in
milky white calcite and some appear to be cemented to the surrounding
calcite. However, it is quite definitely
a case of hands off.
Rimstone pools are numerous some full and some dry. These often contain pointed Dog-tooth saw
crystals. In one place in the Rabbit
Warren, a dried up pool has left little muddy pillars with almost cubic
crystals on top. These crystals are
between a quarter and half an inch high.
Helictites of the simple hook type are common, usually in
grooves along a crack or a minor step in bedding cave roofs. One such can be found at the top of Cascade
Chamber. Some of the finest helictites,
however, occur in the Rabbit Warren. A
group of tightly packed carrot shaped stalagmites has numerous helictites
growing from them, like fine roots from the carrots.
All the above formations and many more were noted on a five
hour tourist trip to St. Cuthberts Swallet. There is much scope for serious research and this, of course, will be
carried out in time by the Bristol Exploration Club. My thanks are due to Mr. Peter Miller who
organised the trip and to Mr. Roger Stenner who led it. It is in my opinion that every caver who can
should take advantage of the B.E.C.s hospitality and see St. Cuthberts for
themselves. It is a difficult trip for
the not so robust, like myself, but well worth it.
John H. Tucker.
Editors
Note. John Tucker also sent us a very
nice letter thanking the club and the leader of the trip. This was printed in a previous B.B.
Climbing
By Tony Dunn
On the weekend of the 21st June, Roy and Joan Bennett, Ron
King and myself spent a very enjoyable weekend in Snowdonia. We camped in the
Saturday, or rather Saturday afternoon, was spent on Dinas
Mot, a four hundred foot cliff only about ten minutes walk from our camp. None in our party had visited the cliff
before, and so there of us set out to do the cracks which we thought would
make a suitable introductory climb. Joan, meanwhile, had gone off for a walk around the Snowdon Horseshoe. The cracks did not present much difficulty
and, when we were doing it, we saw another party on our right doing something
which looked much more interesting. We
finished our climb before they did, so were able to sit at the top and watch
them do the last and hardest pitch of direct route. Roy was not too keen on returning to the foot
of the cliff to have a go at this thing, and would have preferred to scramble
up to the Crib Gogh Ridge but I was all for doing the climb, saying that it
would be much less exhausting on such a hot day and much more interesting. We agreed to do the climb and I was to
lead. Everything went well until pitch
5, the main difficulty which consisted of a nasty little hand traverse in an
exposed position. I made three attempts
at it with little success, before suggesting that
On Sunday we did a mountaineering route by way of a
contrast. Central Chimney on Lliwedd
which, with an easy route above the great terrace, gave us about 800 feet of jug
handle climbing. Like the motto of a
defunct railway Slow, Easy and Comfortable.
U.B.S.S. Christmas Term Sessional Meetings & Tutorials
Sessional Meetings will be held in the New Geography Lecture
Theatre on Mondays at 8.15 pm as follows:-
Oct. 17. Mr. D. Ingle-Smith. Introduction to limestone.
Nov. 7. Dr. Marjorie Sweeting. The limestone country and caves of the
Fitzroy area,
No. 28. Brian de Graaf. Underground diving.
Dec. 12. F.K. Anable. Cunetic and Romano-British townships.
The A.G.M.
The 1960 Annual General Meeting of the B.E.C. opened at 2.50
pm with 30 members present. The number
was exceeded by quite a few latecomers. Dan Hasell was elected Chairman and the minutes of the 1959 meeting were
read and adopted.
The Hon. Sec.s report followed. He said that 34 new members had been elected
in 1960, and increase of 50% over 1959. However, the total membership had fallen by 7 to 112. There were about 50 people still on the books
that had not paid their sub, and he still hoped that many of these would do
so. Attendance at Redcliffe Hall had
continued to be negligible. There had
been no further action to report from The Charterhouse Committee.
During questions, Roy Bennett asked if it was necessary to
continue the hire of Redcliffe Hall. The
Hon. Secretary replied that is was useful for the occasional slide show, as a
place for housing the library and that it showed a profit.
The Hon. Treasurers report reviewed the financial state of
the club. He pointed out that the
increased deficit was due to the large amount being spent on the new hut and on
the mains water installation. He said
that he would welcome more expenditure on ladders and other tackle.
Mr. C.H.G. Rees asked the Hon. Treasurer to repeat the last
statement, whereupon he did.
The Caving Secretary reported an active caving season with
162 trips entered in the log. He
appealed to members to enter each trip and to write legibly. Alfie asked if some priority could be given
amongst active cavers to the water disposal scheme in Cuthberts. This was referred to by the Chairman to the
1961 committee. Sett asked for the
The Climbing Secretary reported an increase in activity,
especially with the Thursday climbs in the Avon Gorge. 17 people had been to
At this point, the Chairman announced the names of the 1961
committee. A vote of thanks to the three
lady tellers was passed.
The Tackle Officer said that we now had seven twenty foot
ladders and two more being renovated, which would give us a further eighty
feet. We had two 120 foot nylon lines
and a good selection of digging gear. Llew Pritchard asked about the re-shafting of digging tools. It was pointed out that it was cheaper to buy
ex-WD tools than to re-shaft the old ones. Spike asked if we were constructing more ladder. It appeared that Alan Sandall was organising
more dural tube. Pongo asked why we had
no shorter lifelines. After some
discussion, Mo proposed that the club purchase a further 120 feet nylon line
and cut it into two halves. This was
carried.
The Hut Warden announced that the bed night total was 1,297
which, in view of the differing totals produced by different people counting in
the book, he proposed to call it 1,300. The water levy was now two thirds paid off. The mains water had improved washing up, but
there was still a lot of room for further improvement. The new hut was progressing and most of the
old caving junk had been got rid of. Alfie said that we should arrange a tarpaulin to cover the back
wall. Prew said he might have one. It was agreed that, if Prew could not supply
one, he should get in touch with Dan, who would then arrange for one. Jill queried the bunk situation and suggested
more bunks. It was agreed to provide
those.
The Belfry Bulletin report followed. The Editor explained our present situation as
far as stocks of covers, paper, &c were concerned. It was agreed to leave these problems to the
Editor and suggested that he contact members of the club in the printing
trade. George Honey said that he thought
that the contents of the B.B. had been declining in interest. The remedy it was suggested lay in the hands
of the club members and a few people promised to send in articles. The question of advertising was raised by
Terry Marston and others. Some
discussion resulted.
After the adjournment for tea, the Hon. Librarian gave his
report. Terry Marston suggested that a
list of club books be published in the B.B. The assistant librarian agreed to produce one and the Editor apologised
if he had mislaid the one which was apparently sent to him.
The meeting closed with a discussion on two members
resolutions, both of which were finally withdrawn. The first was suggesting the club organised
continental tours and the other dealt with the uses to which the extra Belfry
levy could be put to if it were continued.
N.B. These notes are
not necessarily exhaustive, and are not official minutes of the meeting. Ed.
Letter from
Cyprus
By Mike Wheadon
Many thanks to the editorial staff for the fact that I still
receive the B.B. out here. I also gather
that if I could arrange to write something it would be welcome, so I hope that
you might be able to use this for publication.
I have noticed from various papers, and also from the B.B.
that the mortality rate on Mendip has once more increased. I wonder if there is any possibility of
spreading even further than the club already does, the points of safety
necessary when underground particularly to the novice and restricting
access to the swallets of Mendip to members of recognised clubs. This would not eliminate flooding etc. but
perhaps might control the caves which can be successfully attempted during
adverse weather conditions.
I feel particularly grieved to hear of the Eastwater
accident, as many times I have caved all over the ruckle and never encountered
anything which I considered dangerous if one gave ten ton boulders the respect
which they deserve. The ruckle must have
changed quite a bit. Another point which
I found rather depressing reading in the B.B. is that Hunters nights are on
the decline and Fings aint wot they used tbe. This does seem a pity as it was at the
Hunters, as a beginner, that I went to try and meet the brethren of
cavers. It was also from visiting the
Hunters that I received my first impression of, and desire to join the
B.E.C. What of the young caver who wants
to get in touch with the club over a good pint of ale?
I am now stationed on the glorious Mediterranean
We also have near us the
I had hoped to be in touch with the Nicosia Caving Society
by now, as I have been here for four months. They seem difficult to locate and I do not believe there is much caving
on the island. I have found a small rock
shelter in a valley which, at the moment, is inhabited by millions of
mosquitoes and I am intending to excavate it during the cold season. The only other prospects here for the climber/caver type is
the Mid Eastern R.A.F. Mountain Rescue Organisation, who are trying to recruit
climbers from our unit to join their team for climbing training. The island is faintly volcanic and thus the
rock is a bit dodgy for the climbing of, but if there is a chance of going to
Greece, then I would not be backward in coming forward.
I should be home in January 1962 and ready to celebrate
something or other. Keep the Hunters
open for me!
GB Access
We have received the following from the U.B.S.S.: -
Two clubs, The Cerberus Caving Club and the Shepton Mallet
Caving Club, have not yet sent in information that they have taken out the
necessary insurance cover and so permission to visit G.B. cave is withheld but
dates have been allocated in the expectation that the necessary insurance cover
will be completed soon.
Clubs are asked to note a change in the arrangements. Individual days are allocated to individual
clubs instead of weekends. This change
will give each club more visits, but it also implies using the particular days
and straddling two days.
Pleas note that there has been a substantial rock fall where
the stream passage from the Devils
The dates allocated to the B.E.C. are Sunday October 30th,
Saturday December 3rd, Sunday January 8th.
MRO
Following a recommendation by the Committee of the B.E.C., a
short course of lectures will be held under the auspices of the Mendip Rescue
Organisation on the subject of First Aid in Cave Rescue.
They will be delivered by Dr. Bertie Crook at the Medical
Lecture Theatre, Bristol Royal Infirmary, at 8 pm on Wednesdays the 16th, 23rd
and 30th November 1960. The party will
assemble outside the main entrance to the B.R.I. at 7.55 pm where they will be
met by Dr. Oliver Lloyd. As access to
this lecture room is past several wards, it would be appreciated if members
would not, for once, wear caving boots.
It is hoped that as many members of this club as possible
will attend, particularly as we instigated the whole affair. The subject matter will be practical first
aid of a type which we may be called upon to use before the arrival of a doctor
a period in which a life may either be saved or lost.
K. Gardner. B.E.C. M.R.O. Representative.
*****************************************
Secretary, R.J. Bagshaw,
Editor, S.J. Collins, 33
Postal