ramblingon

21st February 2016: with Claire Cohen. Tony Audsley was at the surface, later joined by Alice, organising the on-site testing facilities.

Our aim was to collect the detectors placed in the cave, there are no plans to replace them at this time.

Grabbed the rope and we set off to rig the 80′ pitch and make our way into the cave system below. Headed straight down to Wigmore Sump 9 to collect the detector placed there, then on the way back up the Home Close inlet picked up the detector just upstream of the waterfall. The last two detectors were placed in the inlets at the upstream end of Sandy Passage, one at the boulder ruckle and one near the gravel choke. That part of the task complete we made our way back to the surface. For some unknown reason I really enjoyed the prussic back up the 80′ pitch. Although it was just a steady in and out the trip still took the best part of three hours.

The initial tests revealed nothing positive and subsequent results suggest there might be some contamination at source probably due to the high water levels recently. We will try more testing when the water conditions become more settled.

18th February 2016: with Jake, Tav and Duncan P.

As usual a steady trip up through Chamber 20 to continue the good works at the bottom of the rift. Last weeks effort had done as required and the jammed rock was gone, unfortunately it’s remains were lying at the top of the next climb down, a drop of c.4m, and will need clearing away, a job for next session. Back at the now wider constriction Tav set about loading skips while I drilled a few more hole to make the access and movement of debris/skips even more easy. Job done we made our way out for debriefing session at the Hunter’s Lodge Inn. Not going to apply any rock engineering technology next week and will concentrate on clearing and dropping the next climb to assess our next moves.

17th February 2016: with Dave Turner, et. al.

Down the North Pot continuing with the rock engineering works to widen the rift downwards, 6no. holes and a very satisfying retort. Probably got enough to clear for a couple of sessions so my services won’t be required next week.

14th February 2016: with Nick Hawkes, Pete Hellier, Tony Audsley and Chris Batstone.

Continuing the Home Close hydrology project. An earlier 10:30 start as I wanted to get back to see the rugby – Italy v England – and Nick was also on a limited pass as he just returned from working in Serbia and was off again to foreign lands in a couple of days. I grabbed the rope from Chris and headed underground to rig the 80 foot pitch. At the bottom of the pitch we split into two teams, I went to the end of Sandy Passage to collect/replace the two detectors there while Nick and Pete headed off for northern stream and into Wigmore to Sump 9. I didn’t need to de-kit so quickly managed to complete my task and made my way out of the cave. On the way out I met up with Chris who was going to remove the 110v cable from the 80′ pitch. At the entrance I met up with Tony who was about to go and look at another potential project, we both made our way out to test the samples I had retrieved. Initially the results were negative but I got a message later to say that all 4no. samples had proved positive, this might indicate that Tor Hole is a potential feeder into the Home Close system.

Addendum: It would seem there is some uncertainty regarding the results so more testing will be required. Watch this space (updated 18/02/16).

11th February 2016: with Jake, Tav, Duncan P, Keith Savory and Rich Warmbac.

While Keith and Rich went for a tour around the rest of us went to the dig site. Last weeks effort had the desired effect and there was plenty of debris that required shifting. I cleared away the loose rock and hammered off a few flakes to enable drilling while DP cleared the spoil into the skip for Jake, then Tav to dispose off in the small chamber. I slid through the next constriction to drill a hole in a boulder jammed in the rift and then another 3no. holes in the constriction, again the aim is to make spoil clearance easier. All done it was time to wire up and move out to complete the evenings work from a safe distance and a satisfactory conclusion. Hunter’s Lodge Inn for the usual de-brief session.

10th February 2016: with Dave Turner, et al.

To the South Pot and some more engineering of the drilling platform, this should be the last one. A quick in and out trip as the hole were already drilled.

7th February 2016: with Clare Cohen and Sam Batstone.

Trip to replace the activated charcoal receptors as part of the hydrology project to establish the source of the streams in the Home Close system. The pitch was a little damper than usual after some heavy rain, but that was okay as your was cleaned on the way back up later. Went upstream first to replace the 2no. receptors there, one at the ruckle and the other at the gravel choke. Then down to Vindication Streamway just beyond Sump 9. Took some videos on the way using my Nikon Coolpix, most of which have come out rather well, just need to work out how to edit them. The last receptor is just upstream of the connection a little beyond the waterfall. A steady trip out to the surface, as I had rigged the pitch then Sam and Claire re-rigged. Still a good 3 hours or so underground.

Tests were done on the control receptors which proved negative for any fluorescence. The fluorescein will be placed into Tor Hole either later on Sunday afternoon or on Monday. The receptors placed in the cave will need to be retrieved next weekend.

To see the video click here

4th February 2016: with ‘Jake’ Johnson, Nick Hawkes, ‘Tav’ Taviner, ‘Brockers’, Tom Chapman, Les Williams and Sam Batstone.

While Tom took Les and Sam for a tour around the rest of the team headed on to the dig off the top of Chamber 20. I proceeded to the end with the drill to go about my task at the bottom of a c.3m narrow rift, Nick followed me down to start removing the accumulation of debris there, the others were placed along the passage to haul the spoil out. The requisite holes were drilled, a considerable amount of spoil removed, it was time to complete the evening’s work from a safe distance. A loud bang, then ‘kerplunk’. something moved, the wire could not be retrieved so had to leave it in place until the next session. Nick and I then hurried along to catch up with the others and all out of the cave. Most of us made it up to the Hunter’s for the usual debriefing.

3rd February 2016: with Dave Turner, et al.

Continuing to widen the rift at the present end of the North Pot. After the last session to ease the passage of the bucket, a return to forward, and hopefully, downwards progress. A loud and satisfying conclusion to the evening!

31st January 2016: Walking with Roz and Buster. Stormy weather so we decided to go where there was more shelter to be found and a walk around Rowberrow woods. There are forestry operations being carried out at the moment so a bit mucky underfoot in places. There is something about freshly felled and cut wood on the hillside, reminds me of being in the Alps where the sound of timber being cut echoed across the valleys and the aroma of cut pine was in the air. Not very many people about today which was also good. Some large swathes of trees have cleared opening up areas of the wood, unfortunately this has had the effect of exposing more trees to the strong winds and there are a lot of wind blown trees lying on the ground. I suppose these will eventually be cleared away. The shelter the trees give from the wind is noticeable as you pass from cleared hillside to were the trees are untouched – yet.

No walk around this area is complete without a visit to Rowberrow Cavern.

Rowberrow
Cavern, located at ST 4596 5802.

The cavern comprises a large archway in
Dolomitic Conglomerate that rapidly closes down with a side passage on the left. Archaeological
excavation by UBSS between 1921 and 1926 revealed Neolithic, Bronze Age, early
Iron Age and Romano-British habitation. The excavations have left their mark on the surrounding area where the large spoil heap although overgrown is still noticeable and a deep trench leads to the entrance chamber.

Human use of the cave spans a long period although probably not continuously so. The
Upper Palaeolithic appears to be represented by a few flint implements and possibly
some animal remains; the discovery of microliths and a core suggest some Mesolithic activity.
The Neolithic/Early Bronze Age was represented by a range of flint implements
including knives, as well as some Beaker potsherds. Iron Age finds included
pottery, a light blue bead, and traces of iron smelting. Romano-British finds
included potsherds, a number of coins (some possibly “British
imitations”, i.e. counterfeit), and a few pieces of copper alloy and of
lead. Some bone objects are suggested by Branigan and Dearne to be Iron Age,
while some human skeletal fragments are suggested to be pre-Roman. Some of the faunal assemblage may have been contemporary with the Iron Age and
Roman use of the cave (Simmonds, V.J. Overview of the archaeology of Mendip caves and karst. www.mendipgeoarch.net).

26th January 2016: with Tom Chapman, Nick Hawkes, Duncan Price and Paul Brock.

Good to see Brocker’s digging somewhere other than Home Close. Decided not to apply any rock engineering technology this evening and to concentrate on spoil removal instead. I had made-up a couple of skips yesterday afternoon ready for the clearing task. While TC and PB went for a quick tour around the rest of us headed down to the dig and set about getting a hauling system into place. There is only limited space available to stack spoil in so DP spent some time sorting this out while Nick and myself got the skip into action and started clearing the debris from the sloping passage floor. When TC and PB joined us the clearance progressed well and most of the loose stuff was tidied away, still a bit left for the next session to be cleared while I engineer the next constriction. A fine evenings work!

20th January 2016: with Dave Turner, John Hill and Eric Durnford.

Down to the North Pot, the plan to widen the rift to allow the bucket to fit through and make clearing an easier task. The requisite number of holes were drilled and filled – job done!