Tuesday 26th April 2022

John Cooper and Andrew Thompson. Started by hauling clatch out. Then a bit of boulder breaking to create walling material for 2 mixes of cement. During the hauling of clatch a boulder was dislodged from somewhere in the shaft which fell hitting John’s helmet and left shoulder. A bruise is now developing from the rock which was about the size of 2 house bricks. Later on the empty bucket came down on its own! I really don’t trust the hook on the hauling rope, needs to be a closed one so it cannot fall off accidentally. Depth was 10.4m to foot level. 2½ hours. John.

Wednesday 20th April 2022

John Cooper, Mark Helmore and Andrew Thompson. Started by hauling clatch out. Then 1 mix of cement and a bit of boulder breaking, just hammer. Depth was 10.4m to foot level. 2 hours. John.

Monday 18th April 2022

John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis and Andrew Thompson. When we arrived the winch setup was a real mess. We reset it up and later watched as one of the sheep had another go at demolishing it. The sheep went under a scaffold leg and lifted it up as a means of scratching its back. With no weight on it they were able to move the legs several metres rotating the winch itself at the same time! With Andy and Mike at the bottom a steady stream of debris, rocks and clatch, came out. A half hour lunch break was an opportunity to take one of Mike’s batteries back for recharging. Continued after lunch using my batteries before finally going to get the newly charged one to finish off the day. One mix of cement done in the morning session and a second mix in the afternoon one. Depth now 10.2m. 5 hours of work. John.

Friday 15th April 2022

John Cooper and Andrew Thompson. Started with 1 mix of cement which was used cementing the boulders left from last time. Then hauled some clatch out. Then a spell breaking up the bigger boulder on the solid wall side. Still 10.1m to bottom. 2 hours. John.

Tuesday 12th April 2022

John Cooper and Andrew Thompson. Started by hauling clatch out. Then 1 mix of cement and a bit of boulder breaking. Depth was 9.8m to top of talus cone, 10.1m to foot level. Winch bearing died at end of session. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 9th April 2022

John Cooper joined Mike Kousiounis and Dave Morrison for the last part of the session (Mark Helmore having already left). Mike was breaking up rock with plug and feathers when I arrived but soon switched to clearing. Loads of rock and a bit of clatch hauled up before calling it a day. 1 hour for me. John.

Thursday 7th April 2022

John Cooper and Andrew Thompson. Plug and feathers used to create wall building rocks. 2 mixes of cement then used to build wall. There are 4 bags of sand and 1+ bags of cement remaining. 2 hours. John.

Tuesday 5th April 2022

John Cooper, Mark Helmore, Dave Morrison and Andrew Thompson. Quite a bit of clatch removed. Plug and feathers used to break up a few boulders. One mix of cement used to build wall. Measured depth 9.7m but did fill up the hole again so probably 9.5m now. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 2nd April 2022

Mike K, Andy T and Mark H. Removing the large boulder and clatch. Surprised how low we are after John’s sessions. Roof looked very suspect towards Wookey so cemented 2 bags of sand early for support, Chris W joined us and so did John later. 6½ hours. Mike.

John Cooper took over from Mark Helmore for the last cement mix of the day. Others were Mike Kousiounis, Andrew Thompson and Chris Williams. They had been there all day whilst I only joined after I’d finished in Dave Mitchell’s Dig. Mike had removed the big pointy boulder but decided more support was required before proceeding further along. 1 hour for me. John.

Friday 1st April 2022

John Cooper, Dave Morrison, Geoff Newton and Andrew Thompson. Quite a bit of clatch removed. Spent some time working on the pointy boulder but it just splintered when drilling the end. Eventually it wouldn’t release a plug and broke the tip off the drill bit. Dropped the boulder so it is now possible to drill the top of it. Depth at end of session was 9.4m. 3 hours. John.