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.

Saturday 17th February 2024

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann and Adrian Vanderplank. Carried across a new bag of cement. John pointed out yesterday’s cementing so Adrian and Pete could avoid it. Capping kit taken in and used by Adrian breaking up boulders. One mix of cement done and taken down for use by Pete then John was despatched to get his drill and more caps. Lots more breaking up boulders by Adrian as well as clatch deposited behind retaining walls. Another mix of cement then done before calling it a day. No sand left, only stone dust in 1 dumpy bag. Third of a bag of cement left. Nigel got down the ladder and back up it again but didn’t get off the bottom. A couple of boulders hauled out to show willing, however plenty of space to build them into support walls. 4½ hours.John.

Loose blocks on the floor and far side capped. Some larger boulders in the floor also capped. Cementing on the near side with the intention of building a pillar to support the rock in the roof. Also infilling gaps on the left hand side with rocks and cement. Adrian.

Friday 16th February 2024

Mike Kushy and John Cooper.

MK started at 11am, took in drill and used the batteries taking apart the big boulder, still some of it left over. Buckets of clatch were filled and emptied behind the retaining wall. At 13.30 JC arrived and came down the bottom to help move a few dozen more buckets of clatch. Cement mixes were then made. 6 decent buckets were used in total, John filling some gaps higher up and MK working on stabilising the bottom. A decent pillar was built up to an overhanging boulder and a step was created to ease getting in and out of the very bottom. Interesting holes appearing at the bottom, one deep hole in the floor and a few straight ahead. 3 big blocks to dismantle and we could be into a new area. Finished at 16.00. 5 hours for me, Mike.

MK's YouTube Video from today

The dig face. Photo MK.

Sunday 11th February 2024

Mike Kushy, David Morrison (Tuska) and John Cooper. Started with MK at the dig face breaking up rocks and filling up behind retaining wall with clatch, DM was on surface wall building. MK around 1pm being overwhelmed with rocks brought a load up to the base of the shaft. JC had just arrived and a dozen buckets were sent up to surface. MK then went back to the dig face to use up the rest of the batteries breaking up rock. The face of the very large rock came off but there is still alot more to demolish. Cement had been mixed and JC joined MK down the bottom for cement work. The retaining wall was raised further (nearly to the ceiling, but still a gap to tip buckets into). JC also cemented some more stuff higher up, there is still a small hole at the step down that clatch can be poured into. JC came down to inspect the bottom and work was done stabilising the walls at the very bottom. Some clearing out of the floor and this will need to be continued building upon next time. Strong outward draught today from new hole in the floor. Lots of fossils and some coral around. 4 1/2 hours for me. Mike.

MK's YouTube Video from today

Haven't had a photo of the surface for a while. Photo MK

The bottom after clearing, obvious big block still in place to downsize further. Photo MK.

Wednesday 7th February 2024

Trevor Hughes, Mike Kushy and John Cooper.

MK started about 10.30 and went in to inspect damage after bang. Perfect charge and took out/down just what was needed. Filled up several small buckets of gravel and emptied them in the rift above. TH Showed up just after 11 and went to the sharp end. A mix of downsized rocks and small buckets were sent up to be stashed or buckets emptied in the rift by MK. This continued until just after 1.30 when JC showed up. MK then went to the bottom and broke up more rock whilst waiting for cement mixes. With cement mixed TH left and JC came down with 2 cement buckets to help with stabilising. Once 1 bucket was empty JC went and did another 2 bucket mix. 4 x large upright buckets of mix were used in total. MK stabilising at the bottom and JC cementing some of the gaps higher up.

The bottom is quite spacious now. At some point the draught changed when TH was clearing and now blows out rather than getting drawn in. There's a constant stream running through after the hard rain. A retaining wall has been built over the stream and upwards to brace the rocks higher up. It needs a scaff pole put in place to keep drainage running.

Looking down into the way on, the ceiling could do with some steel support at some stage. A few angle brackets and tactfully placed box section steel should sort this out, but not an immediate concern because digging down you are well clear of the ceiling.

Loads of gravel/clatch to come out and a few big rocks in the passage to be downsized yet. Small spoil can go either behind the newly built retaining wall or into the ongoing rift above, so easily digging with 2...we will try to stash building rocks in the cave going forwards.

Looking cavey!

5 1/2 hours for me. Mike.

MK's YouTube Video from today

Bang debris. Photo MK.

After clearing. Photo MK.

Tuesday 6th February 2024

Evening. John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis (Kushy). Whilst Mike set the cord in the holes I ran the wire down the shaft and connected the detonator. Once complete the boulders were popped. 1 hour. John.

Tuesday 6th February 2024

Afternoon. John Cooper. Drilled 7 x 10mm holes, 400-500mm deep, in boulders ready for Mike to demolish. Needs a good cementing session. 1 hour. John.

Sunday 4th February 2024

Dave Morrison, Mike Kushy and Sam Hill to start with. SH down in the pit, MK on the step and DM on surface winching. Lots and lots of clatch cleared, MK pulling up smaller buckets on rope from SH below, and transferring directly to bigger buckets to get winched up by DM. Constant work until 1pm, then SH had some large rocks to dismantle at the dig face. DM left about 1.30pm and MK went to the dig face with SH pouring small buckets into the rift at the end of the bedding bit. Around 2ish Alex Randall and Issac Whitcombe joined us. MK in the pit, SH at the step, IW at the bottom of the ladder and AR on winch (15 minutes later John Cooper and then Rich Witcombe joined the surface team). We cleared all the pit of any loose clatch. Holes all over the place. Lots of big rocks sent up to surface too. A very large boulder in the middle of the passage seems to be blocking a decent bit of space. SH decided to squeeze around the boulder to look at what's beyond. He said there's more boulders...but all looking a lot bigger. We need to keep heading down. IW came to look at the bottom. 5 1/2 hours for me. Mike.

MK's YouTube Video from today

SH squeezing around the offending boulder. Photo MK.

The offending boulder, view looking 45 degree down, from the floor of the pit . Photo MK.

Proposed drill holes, expecting some movement from above, but unable to stabilise so happy for stuff to fall. Photo MK.

Sunday 28th January 2024

Dave Morrison, John Cooper, Jake Baynes, Geoff Newton and Mike Kushy. DM and JC on surface hauling buckets, JB at the bottom of the fixed ladder transferring small buckets into the larger ones, GN on the step pulling up smaller buckets from MK in the pit. Lots of clatch cleared for ages. GN and JB came down for a look at the bottom at some point, then GN filled small buckets at the dig face. JB left around 1ish, DM left around 1.30. Then we decided to put some cement in. One decent mix made and support put in around the pit walls. GN left around 2ish then JC came down with MK to finish off the cementing work. Would have liked to cement more but hard work with just 2. Lots of clatch left at the bottom to clear and some large rocks should come out the floor fairly safely. Cemented around the blasted boulder that's left, but we could take the face of this now to allow more working room at the bottom. A good view on down and a view up cave following a fossilised wall. It's possible to dig with 3 people. 4 1/2 hours. Mike.

The very bottom. Photo MK.

Looking down into the pit . Photo MK.

Looking 'up cave' from the very bottom. Photo MK.

Wednesday 24th January 2024

John Cooper, Pete Hellier, Trevor Hughes and Wayne Starsmore. Pete and Wayne went for a look round the old cave, Bedding Chambers and top part of Boulder Rift, recovering a tackle sack in the process. Meanwhile John kept Trevor company whilst he drilled holes in a couple of boulders. Once everyone was out the boulders were popped. 1½ hours.John.

Tuesday 23rd January 2024

John Cooper. Solo trip to survey the new bedding below the entrance. 1½ hours.John.

Saturday 20th January 2024

Mike Kushy and Dave Morrison to start with. DM surface and MK down cave. MK broke up and moved rocks from the last session to the bottom of the shaft where DM hauled them to the surface. After 20 minutes or so Sam.Hill and Callum.Simmonds came to join us. With MK at the bottom of the shaft, SH at the step down and CS at the dig face (breaking up boulders) we cleared for a while. MK then went to the lower rift area and filled small buckets with clatch, a small line of rope with karabiner is now in place and helped with pulling the smaller buckets up. All the rift and the continuing bedding is fully cleared, can now be surveyed. CS continued breaking and moving boulders from the pit, then left around 1ish. SH then worked the pit and MK transferred waste from the step. DM left around 1.30pm after a non-stop hauling session. Around 2ish Alex.Randall came to join us. MK in the pit  with AR on the step and SH on surface. SH took point for a while with MK on the step and AR on surface. Many buckets were cleared until 4pm ish. At the dig face it is now possible to look up cave (towards Swildon's way) for several metres. A solid floor can be seen dipping down towards the pit. In the pit a view over some large boulders gives sight to the clean washed solid floor that looks to be headed off towards proper cave! Unfortunately the gaps between boulders are not large enough to squeeze through. I propose a few short holes with some 20g to shape the boulders and get us into the next area. If anything collapses we will just have to deal with it. Great draught getting sucked into the 'proper cave passage'. 5 hours.  Mike.

MK's YouTube Video from today

Sam.Hill sat in the pit. Photo MK.

Obstructive boulders with proposed drill holes. photo MK.

Can look over and down to see what looks like solid floor. Photo MK.

View over the boulders, red area looks like potential cave passage. Photo MK.

Sunday 14th January 2024

Mike Kushy and Dave Morrison to start with. A big cementing session with 3 bags worth of sand, building up to the ceiling and propping natural pillars. DM left around 1.30 and John.Cooper arrived not long after. JC helped with the final cement buckets. After all cementing done MK worked on widening the bedding wall of the rift where we propose to dig down next. Should be safe to move/break boulders in the floor now. Unusual draught, air from outside being dragged into the dig, hitting the bedding passage which draughted outwards, then the draught got dragged into a void in the floor. 5 hours. Mike.

MK's YouTube Video from today

Draught cycle. Photo MK.

After plug and feathering and cementing. Photo MK.

Looking into the rift, under where we've cemented
(the top void is sucking away all the drill dust). Photo MK.

Saturday 13th January 2024

John Cooper, Billy Evans, Damon Fentham, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Billy, Damon and Jude loading spoil. John and Adrian hauling. All spoil removed BUT Damon then moved another few rocks up the bedding. 1 hour.John.

Wednesday 10th January 2024

Mike Kushy, solo trip. Again breaking up more rock and making things more comfortable. Then finished off clearing the rift some more, sat in the rift working back under the step down. I think the best place to go down is immediately at the step down. Very good draught again. Came out to meet Tuska wall building and John popping over. Too cold to make a mix. 2 1/2 hours. Mike.

Looking horizontally into the dug out rift, heading back up cave. Crowbar is 18inch. Photo MK.

Tuesday 9th January 2024

Mike Kushy, solo trip. Downsizing rock and clearing out the rift at the bottom, trying to figure out best way on down. Really cold outside and cold air being dragged into the dig and dragged into the on going bedding at the bottom. 1 1/2 hours. Mike.

Monday 1st January 2024

Started with Mike Kushy, John Cooper and Dave Morrison. MK went to bucket fill the spoil in the horizontal tunnel with JC and DM on surface. After half hour or so Monica Bollani showed up. With MB and DM on surface, JC took over the bucket filling and MK went to the dig face to break up the big boulders above the rift. After a while MK moved up cave and cleared out behind the retaining wall, passing smaller buckets and rocks up to JC. MB left after a couple of hours. After this, time was spent downsizing a large boulder at the bottom of the step down. JC came down to inspect the lower chamber and we both agreed after a good cementing session we can look at opening up the step down to make a straighter pull to surface, JC also agreed it's worth pushing the rift at the bottom of the slope. Good draught coming out at the end once the big boulder was removed. The rift at the bottom has a lot of loose clatch to come out. Could potentially be done with 3, a rope would be needed to pull buckets up the slope at the bottom though. Probably over a ton of spoil taken to surface today. Came up to a poly fram that had been constructed by DM, ready for the shelter covering. 4 hours. Mike.

Wednesday 27th December 2023

Mike Kushy and Sam Hill. Started with MK on surface whilst SH filled buckets from the horizontal tunnel. After an hour or so this was all clear, so we moved on down to the dig face. SH worked the point and many buckets of clatch were pulled out. These either went into the deep hole near the step down or behind the retaining wall (which seems to slope off into the deep hole anyway). Plug and feather work to remove larger boulders and an interesting few minutes watching Sam poke some large boulders out of the ceiling headed down cave. Most rocks have been taken up cave and stashed in the horizontal tunnel, now full again. Several larger blocks are to the side in the lower chamber and will need breaking up more. After swapping a few times at the front some large rocks were pulled out of the floor revealing a deep, narrow, solid, rift with a very cool draught coming out. Too narrow to fit down but hopefully working back in and under the chamber there will be bigger space. At least at the current sharp end it feels very solid and safe. Out of batteries we decided to retire without clearing the horizontal tunnel. With a decent team of at least 5, 6 would be ideal, the stuff to come out could be done in one. Otherwise it can be done between 2 (3 ideal) with some staging. It would be nice to bring all the loose out rather than filling up other voids in the floor. 3 small buckets in the cave at the moment but we could do with another 3 and a short length (6-7m) of rope to drag up from the rift. Some cement work would also be ideal around the chamber area, but all in all not too bad. 5 hours, Mike.

Sam at the sharp end sat above the rift. Photo MK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The continuing bedding behind Sam,about half a foot gap from top to bottom. Photo MK.

The vertical rift below Sam, about half a foot wide. Photo MK.

Saturday 23rd December 2023

Mike Kushy, Sam Hill and Dave Morrison (Tuska). We started with MK at the dig face, SH at the bottom of the shaft and DM on the surface. Small buckets were passed up to fill the bigger bucket on the winch rope. Cleared out some big blocks and lots of loose clatch, it certainly looks different now. SH went to the front for a while. Around 1pm we stopped for mince pies, kindly supplied by DM. DM then had to leave and the rest of us went to clear and break up more big boulders, these were put into the horizontal tunnel along with several small buckets of clatch, which needs clearing. SH then went to surface to mix up 3 bags of sand worth of cement. This was used to stabilise all the loose boulders opposite the bedding wall. The wall is stepping out as we go further down making digging straight down from the shaft an unlikely proposition. Nice draught. 5 1/2 hours. Mike. 

Before today's clearing. Photo MK.

SH at the dig face. Photo MK.

After clearing, and cementing the boulders on the left

 

Proposed line, showing that if we follow the open bedding at this height we're likely to end up in the boulder filled rift. Mike.

Sunday 17th December 2023

Later. Alex Hannam, Sam Hill, Callum Simmonds . Spent 2 hours breaking up boulders and removing spoil from the floor. Callum started digging then I took over towards the end. We've left the left part of the floor as you step in for now as not sure if it's structural. Opened it up a lot and now got 3 or 4 possible ways on in each corner almost. Hard to tell which way to go other than down for now. Floor needs dropping a lot more. Alex was up top on the winch. Sam.

Bottom. Photo SH.

Bottom. Photo. SH.

Sunday 17th December 2023

After his usual Sunday morning trip down Swildon's Hole John Cooper went across and watched the tidying up, after the bottom of the ladder had been fixed. John.

Looking down at bottom ladder section 😲

Bottom of ladder 😬

Looking up the entrance shaft 😏

Wednesday 13th December 2023

John Cooper,  Mike Kousiounis (Kushy). Cleared spoil, and did a lot of cementing (4 bags of sand!). No sand left on site, small amount of cement and small amount of water. All need topping up now. 4 hours.

Props. Photo MK>

Saturday 9th December 2023

Christmas Elves broke into W.R. & hung a new 10ft ladder section, bolted to the bottom of the  Galv ladder.

Thursday 7th December 2023

Broke up all the bigger rocks left in horizontal passage by me and Sam last night. All of these are now cleared to the surface. Worked on opening up the shaft ready for the next section of ladder. Next step is to put a scaff bar brace across to the boulder that looks like it's moving then cement up more. This will allow us to safely clear the build of of loose stuff. Mike.

Moving boulder that needs bracing. Photo MK.

One hole in the floor (1/2ft wide). Photo MK.

Another horizontal hole looking the opposite direction. Photo MK.

Wednesday 6th December 2023

Sam Hill started about 40 minutes before me, I arrived at 6.15pm. Sam had spent the time breaking up the bigger rocks that have been stacking up in the horizontal tunnel. Just as I arrived Sam had finished breaking up the last rock, so we cleared all the debris. After this Sam went to the bottom of the shaft and cleared out as much loose as possible, 2 big rocks stopped further progress. I joined Sam down the bottom and we plug and feather the big boulders to manageable sizes. There was enough room then for Sam to get in lower and fish out some bigger rocks, all of this has been stashed in the horizontal tunnel ready for downsizing and clearing. Lots of loose stuff to clear at the very bottom and a deep hole off to one side. Upon leaving went to make a video and had realise one boulder had dropped a considerable amount since leaving the bottom area. Alot more stabilising to do yet. Good inwards draught. 3 3/4 hours. Mike K

The boulders we're working through. Photo MK.

The boulder that started dropping, notice the gap between the boulder and cement. There was no gap at the beginning of tonight's session. Photo MK.