Notices
Annual Barbecue. This is being held
this year on JULY 4TH. Note: NOT
Saturday nearest midsummers day. Tickets are price 6/- and are obtainable form
Caving Meets. The trip to Derbyshire
has been arranged for the weekend 28/28th June. There is SOME accommodation at the Eden Pothole Clubs hut. Otherwise camping. All interested should get in touch as soon
as possible with the Caving Secretary Mo Marriott. There will be a trip to Giants Hole and
possibly Nettle Pot as well.
Change of Address. The Editor has
moved. His temporary address is: - S.J.
Collins, c/o Mr & Mrs Reade, Homeleigh, Bishop Sutton,
Personal. Bob and Mary Price have a new
addition to the family, a baby girl, as yet unnamed. Congratulations to you both.
Annual Dinner. The Committee are
already staring to plan for this (they have to, to make sure of a
booking). If YOU have any grumbles, or
suggestions for the venue, or for things to do at the dinner itself, get in
touch with any committee members as soon as possible.
Caving Log
Edited by
On the 10th May, a trip was made to Primrose Pot by Kevin
Abbey and six others. From Kevins
report in the log, everyone got though the squeeze at the head of the pot
except himself who, due to physical and psychological reasons, decided to
abstain. Apparently the rest of the
party managed to bottom it without much difficulty and the total time for the
trip was nine hours.
On the 18th May, Mo Marriott and Oliver Lloyd took a close
look at the proposed rescue route from September Series in St. Cuthberts. Oliver considered the route to be quite
possible, but tedious in places.
Two trips were made to Swildons IV on the 20th and 31st of
May. On the 20th by Pete Sutton and
party and on the 31st by Dave Smith, Alan Williams and party. The practice rescue also took place on the
31st and Mo reports that excellent progress was made and that more will follow
in a later B.B.
Swildons
a short account by Phil
Townsend.
Editors
Note: In view of the totally erroneous
reports of caving accidents and the subsequent rescue trips which have been
know to appear, unfortunately, in the press on occasion, it is the policy of
the B.B. to print a brief account of the facts as soon as possible after such
an event.
Two club members; out for a walk late at night, brought the
news back to the Belfry that there had been an accident in Swildons and got
everybody up at 3am on Sunday morning 7th June. By 3.15 the first party of five, including a doctor, entered the cave. They found the patient twenty of thirty feet
downstream of the end of Barnes Loop. About fifteen minutes later he was moved to a convenient ledge and put
in a goon suit which was then blown up to keep him as warm as possible. The first report to reach the surface on the
condition of the patient stated that he had a suspected fracture of the skull
and his pulse was weak. The second party
entered the cave at about 4 oclock with the carrying sheet and ropes and
reached the spot as soon as possible. While this party and the first began the task of moving the patient
upstream, a third party put a heavy hauling rope of the Twenty Foot Pitch and
arranged a pulley at the top of Suicides Leap with another hauling rope.
The patient was semi-conscious and was successfully moved up
to the twenty, where the carrying sheet had to be readjusted. He was then hauled up both pitches with
comparative ease. A new party had
meanwhile assembled in the Old grotto, where a rescue kitchen with hot soup and
horlicks tablets were also set up. The
patient was taken from the Old Grotto up the
The Symonds Yat Area
From caving to climbing. The last B.B. seemed to have been written
mainly by Mo Marriott. This month it
is Phil Townsends turn!
by Phil Townsend.
Nearly the entire climbing section both of us joined the
Bennetts and set off one Saturday morning from
After a very pleasant run through the beautiful countryside,
we arrived in the region of Symonds Yat. In seeking a campsite, we encountered a strange being who was obsessed
with half hour trips up the river to see the beautiful local scenery. We eventually found a campsite a little
further up the river, where we could stay only if we had no dogs, so I found myself
smuggled in, in the boot of the car. After pitching tents we donned climbing gear and set off, heading in the
direction of the nearest pub, which we PASSED, crossing the river (by a bridge)
and then walking n miles (where n lies between 1 and 2). This brought us to the somewhat derelict Symonds
Yat Station. We waited for ages, but
alas, no train. In a desperate attempt
to encourage it, Barry was tied to the rails by his hair and the climbing rope. Even this failed. Despondent, Steve Tuck, Barry, the Bennetts
and I set out along the track towards a distant pinnacle, a distance of some
twenty yards. We left Mrs Tuck holding
the baby at the station determined to catch the train.
We climbed up through the woods to the pinnacle, which was
on the hillside above the railway track. According to the guide book, the route up this pinnacle was V.diff, but
two attempts at it perhaps through lack of determination failed. Turning our attention to the cliffs behind
us, we found some nice climbs of short duration. The rock here was very firm with good holds,
but quite vertical.
Descending to the railway once more, we followed it in the
opposite direction through a long curving tunnel (Caving as well, then?
Ed.) Unfortunately this led us directly
away from our intended direction so we dropped down to the river and followed
it to our campsite. The next day, we
decided to go to Wintours Leap which is not far from Beachley on our way home,
so we packed up and left Symonds Yat for the tourists. The weather wasnt so nice and it had rained
in the night. We stopped and looked at
Yat Rock on the way. This is an alleged
500 precipice, but the climbing is limited and the rock not very safe.
Wintours Leap is very similar in appearance to the Aven
Gorge. The female contingent went off
walking with the baby, which was a boy (I could tell because it looked as if it
ought to have had a blue hat on). The
men (applied loosely) split into two parties to tackle a v.diff. on the main
wall. Steve climbed with
WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO
THE CLIMBERS?
Letters
23128511, Pte. Dell
Ord. Dep.,
To the Editor if the B.B.
Five months ago, I left
Today, I received my January and February editions of the
B.B. which I instantly tore open and scrutinised. Upon reading On the Hill by stalagmite in
the February number, I was reduced to a condition of acute hysteria at the
mention of and I quote A strange Orange Squash Cult which seems to be in
evidence at the Hunters.
What has happened to the club in the last few months? Is it the new influx of young members from
Garth
(Fighting for the
right to drink good English Beer.)
Mathematical Puzzles
by Sett
Here is the answer to last months problem.
A. Simple measurements on a thin toilet
roll will show that the diameter of the core is half the external diameter
whilst the core of a thick toilet roll is a bout a quarter of an inch less than
the diameter of the roll halved. The
answers are thus simply, None left and Time to buy another roll.
M. Measure the diameters as indicated above,
remove and count a measurable decrease in diameter. The ratio of the squares of the diameters,
allowing for the core, gives the required answer. A second method is merely to look on the
packing. One firm quoted 500
sheets. Thirdly, ask the shopkeeper or
ring up the manufacturer. Fourthly,
weigh say ten sheetsa, divide the weight of the roll less the core, by this
weight and multiply by ten for the answer. At a last resort, count the sheets.
This months problem. In a fictitious cave on Mendip, there is a
vertical wall rising from a horizontal floor. Against the wall is a stalagmite bank, four
feet wide by four feet high. A party of
cavers take down four sections of steel ladder each four feet long which bolt
together with a four inch overlap, in order to climb the wall. The ladder is placed on the floor and rests
against the stalagmite bank.
A. Using any method you like, find the
height up the wall, to the nearest inch, the ladder reaches.
M. Calculate the
height to the nearest tenth of an inch
Please note: I shall
not be on Mendip for a few weeks, so will accept the first POSTAL solution.
The
Mendip
Cave Registry
From time to time, mention is made in the B.B. of the Mendip
Cave Registry. It has been felt however,
that members are probably not really certain of what the Registry is, what it
does, how it works and what it is all in aid of. This article will attempt to answer a few of
those questions.
The object of the Registry is to produce a book, which is
under a continuous process of addition and revision, which lists every known
reference book, which exists at present, that are to be found in the Bristol
Public Library (Reference Section) and in the Somerset County Library at
Wells. There may, at a later stage, be
more copies of the Register deposited in other libraries or with bodies connected
with caving or allied studies.
The Register is not a large scale of a guide nook to Mendip
caves. It is true that a small amount of
descriptive matter will be found under each entry preceding the actual
references, but this has been included to give the stranger to the district a
rough idea of the vital statistics of the cave in question rather than as a
guide to the actual cave itself. You
will still have to but a copy of
The Register is primarily for the benefit of anyone doing or
contemplating any serious work on caves in the area. It will enable the user to find every word of
importance that has ever been written on the cave in question. This will, of course, involve an additional
search for some of the textbooks mentioned, but at least will save the initial
process of raising a bibliography.
Complete instruction as to how to use the Register are
included in each copy, so it is not worth repeating them all here. It is, however, of interest to note that the
caves are all indexed by map references and that the appropriate maps are
included actually in the Register books. Thus, if you happen to be wandering over and unfamiliar part of Mendip
and see a likely looking depression or hole, reference to the appropriate map
in the Register will provide the map reference and it is then a simple matter
to ascertain whether any previous mention of the site has ever been made or
whether any work has been done in the past. The Register can thus be of use to the general caver and nobody need
feel that is just a reference work for experts only. Since a brief description of the nature of
the reference is given with each reference quoted in the Register, it is
possible to say, trace the growth of exploration of Swildons directly from the
Register without going further and reading all the references quoted. A visit to see one or the other of the books
at present in existence is thus well worth while.
I hope that this short description has shown that the
Register can be of interest and use to the average caver. Equally, the average caver can contribute
usefully to the work of the Registry. He
can attend the Annual General Meeting either as an individual or, by prior
agreement with his club, as a representative. In either case he can help to formulate future policy, and perhaps be
elected to do one of the jobs necessary to the running of the Registry. Without going to these lengths, however, he
can still help usefully. There is, for
example, a lot of field work still to be done. The existence of swallets and depressions is not yet completely
recorded. For the more armchair minded,
there is the continual combing of literature published for new references to
work in caves and the discovery of new caves or extensions to existing
ones. Any members who feels that he can
contribute in these ways to work on the Registry should get in touch with the
Secretary, Bryan Ellis either at the Shepton Hut or by post. (His new address appeared in a recent
B.B.) Any of the other officials of the
Registry may also be contacted with offers of help. The Mendip Cave Registry is the most
comprehensive scheme of this nature ever to be tackled in a caving area and is,
in addition a fine example of the way in which caving clubs can
co-operate. Its eventual success will
depend to a large extent on the amount of use that the average cave makes of
it, and the help that he is prepared to give.
S.J. Collins
Chairman,
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Caving Reports etc. are available from Bryan Ellis. Write for Prices.