Sunday 18th February 2024

John Cooper and Trevor Hughes. John took across 2 bags of sand and a bag of cement, bringing back 3 of the scaffold poles which have been left in the digging shed at Upper Pitts. There are still 5 left on site. Trevor used p&f on the large rock ahead whilst I ferried some rocks out to the surface. 2½ hours. John.

The dig face  after yesterday’s session. Photo TH.

The top rock has been reduced in size, then split in half vertically and the right hand (slightly smaller) half reduced to spoil/walling stone. The left hand half has been turned 90deg with the sheared face uppermost ready for the next visitors to further reduce. The debris from yesterday is somewhat haphazardly stacked adjacent to the new wall and needs to be climbed on cautiously. Rather splendid open voids can be seen ahead and the whole area draughts well. A lot more work needs to be done to 1) reduce the residual top rock and 2) demolish the lower rock - which does move slightly. All this took 2 1/2 hours with JC nobly acting as my assistant and spoil remover. A decent pile of rock was brought out to the surface and the concreting stocks replenished by John. Trevor.