Sunday 7th June 2026

Ed Ford, Mike Kushy and Mike Waterworth.

MK met EF at the Wessex for 10am, where we loaded 4 scaffold poles, 2 Darren Drums of sand and 1 of cement. All of this was lowered down the entrance shaft and left in the old route in the tunnel. Done by 11am. MK then left for TempleTwin, meeting MW as he arrived to join EF. Mike K.

MW met EF at the car park after he'd already been down once, shuttling bags. We had a natter about the plan and decided to start off with Ed's Bet - the boulder ruckle directly below Cement Dig. We carried some additional metalwork and sand into the cave and quickly reached Ed's Bet where I hurriedly squirmed through some tight squeezes into the current end. From here there were a couple of obvious ways on, straight down or heading back towards the light connection but 2m lower. I started off with straight down and opened up a couple of new small chambers, seeing what looked like a water worn flat passage directly underneath the initial chamber. This also gave access looking back into the boulder ruckle. A number of human-sized voids around.
We needed a hammer to make further progress and so Ed went to TPC to pick one up. His voice got quieter, and then louder again.
"Mikey".
Hmm.
"Mikey"
Yeah?"
"I'm in Tea Party Chamber underneath the light connection. Shine your light around!"
I crawled over towards the noise and could easily see Ed's light. The third connection we've found through to this chamber! Nice to have ticked this off but It'd need a lot of work to make it safely navigable.

We decided instead to turn our attention to Mad Hatter Hall. The dig here is 12 inches of mud and then an unknown thickness of calcite. We started on either side of the cake formation before both switching over to the right hand side, taking it in turns to work through the calcite. This is proving to be extremely thick but is suspected to be hollow, or at least porous underneath. Our meagre tools of a 2.5lb hammer, crow bar and small chisel made slow progress through this and more industrious tools will be required next time!

Underground 11:15 - 15:00; MW.

Wednesday 3rd June 2026

Ed Ford and Stuart Jelliss. EF arrived a bit later than expected due to temporary traffic lights. SJ had just arrived, also later than expected. After unlocking the entrance we headed straight to Tea Party Chamber with two Darren Drums of sand (there's about half a Daren Drum's worth left in lockbox). We took a look at the scaffolding work, then headed to Mad Hatters Hall where we both took a dig, SJ to the left and EF to the right. SJ confirmed that the roof and floor meet with no obvious draught or way on. EF focused on the small trench at the end of the calcite sheet working left towards the middle of the wall. This was found to start widening and on closer inspection it looks like the sheet used to sit higher on the wall. Started excavating this gap and started finding sand rather than clay. The wall also starts undercutting at this point. There is a draught but this could be the hole which connects above. There was a steady drip of water coming in above the formation with no sign of it running in to either dig either side. Hammer drills to break calcite will be required next time.

We were both out by 20.45. EF headed to the Hunters'. Ed.

Tuesday 26th May 2026

Mike Kushy and Mike Wise. We headed into the cave at 1400 armed with 3x 6ft scaffold poles, 2x Daren Drums of sand and tools. Really hot day today, cool cave and the strongest draught in TPC. Once here we set about installing the scaffolding frame, which will help retain the chamber floor and allow us to dig down through the rocks. We opted for a triangle frame for now, with MK chiselling out a crack in the rock to get a lovely secure pocket for 1 end of the bar to sit in, with the diagonal bar sitting in a natural recess. This can be adapted later as necessary once we start removing material & things are a little more stable. Some stone work was cemented in to start the process of securing the couple of huge slabs at the head. All materials in the cave used up, bar 1/2 a bag of dust and a container of water, empty bags and drums brought out and left in the lockbox. A good day in starting to secure the boulder floor & giving us access downwards, all we need now is to get as much sand & cement material down there to enable this to continue ;-) . 

Bang wire tidied up & left in inclined rift

On the surface for 1830. Mike K.

MK evaluating.

MK building.

Wednesday 13th May

 Quick trip to look at the dig in Mad Hatters as I hadn't got around to visiting the chamber so far. Kushy was planning to dig but had to cancel. MHH was dry at the dig end and muddy at the entry point, definitely not flooded. The intermediate chamber had a puddle at the Hookah Pipe exit. Two impressive chambers and a lot of mud to shift. The air seemed OK although I did feel hot and sweaty from the end of the Hookah Pipe. Below the entrance and all the way to the now drained Puddle Dig, it looked like a lot of water had come in from the previous wet weather. 

No photos taken 

1 hr 45 minutes  

 Mike Wise 

Saturday 2nd May 2026

Mike Kushy and Ed Ford. Met at 1030 and headed straight to MHH. This time we both worked the dig to the left of the formation. With EF at point and MK close behind we burrowed to the corner within a couple of hours. We then stopped for lunch for 10 minutes. MK went and furtled at the end of the left hand route  which gets constricted by the flowstone boss towards the end. It is possible to keep following the bedding down dip though so it will get wider again. EF spent the rest of his time digging out the right hand dig, which like the other side could do with some chiselling and pf work to dig out the calcite floor. Back to the cars for 1600. You could tell it had been raining and become cloudy whilst we were underground because at one point MK remarked about the drips getting faster and within another 5 minutes EF pointed out the mist filled the chamber. Strange echoes all over the place when cutting into the mud. Mike.

All photo's by MK.

Left hand dig sharp end.

Left hand dig tunnel.

Right hand dig.

Right hand dig sharp end.