Vince and Roz.

Vince and Roz

Just me today. Some spoil management required, the morning spent trying to extricate my boots from especially glutinous mud!

Vince, Brockers, Jake, Nick. and Duncan. Boxing Day digging session, Nick and Duncan were up front, although I expect Nick did the vast majority of the digging. Jake was at the junction, I was at the bottom of the entrance, Brockers did the hauling on the surface. I did offer to rotate places with Brockers […]

Vince, Nick, Jake, Jon and Brockers. After some discussion at the entrance me and Nick went along to the “Cold Gnarly North” while Jake, Jon and Brockers returned to the “Sunny South West”. We had decided to revisit the “Cold Gnarly North” to retrieve the empty packs of bags, tools and other sundry items including […]

With Jake, Jon, and Nick. A mellow morning digging session back in the “Sunny South-West” passage. We had spent quite some time enlarging this passage only to put it on the ‘back-burner’ in favour of the “Cold Gnarly North”. Nick was poked into the rather constricted end and left to his own devices in an […]

With Brockers, Jake, Jon, and Nick. Missed last weekend (5th-6th September) as I was excavating at Bagpit with Professor Danielle Schreve and Ali Moody to extract some Pleistocene animal bones, mainly aurochsen and horse. This meant that there was nothing to clear this weekend. A bit of a re-assessment at the current end of the […]

Vince, Brockers, Jake, Duncan and, another late show by Nick (it is becoming a habit!). The usual thing, up to the end, check all was good and start clearing the debris. All the loose material loaded directly into the skip to be bagged elsewhere. Some hammer and chisel work removed fractured rock from the walls. […]

With Brockers, Jake, Jon, and a later appearance by Nick. At the end of Cold Gnarly North, all was as it should have been. To save time I got on with the clearing of debris, hammer and chiselling the fractured rock from the walls as well. The “eye-hole” has been opened enough to get a […]

It’s been a bit hectic lately and haven’t had the time to update the blog until now. 15th August 2020 Vince, Jon, Jake, Duncan, Brockers and Nick. Might be under some time pressure today as the Hunter’s has re-opened at last. As expected, the main topic of conversation at the farm was – the pub’s […]

Vince, Brockers, Jon, Tav and a late appearance by Nick. At the current end of Cold Gnarly North, checked to make sure all was good before the morning’s activities got underway, quite a lot of gravel had had been ejected along the approach and needed tidying. Tav followed me up for a gander but declined […]

Vince, Brockers, Jake, Jon, and Nick. Yesterday I had spent some time fettling a dozen skips for use in HR from six 25 litre containers supplied by Hugh Tucker, these were loaded into the van along with the rest of the kit, all prepped and packed, ready to go. At the farm, the team congregated, […]

The global pandemic, Covid-19 (corona virus), that is spreading at an alarming rate requiring various Governments around the world to take draconian measures to protect us all, well that’s what they want us to believe, has in a roundabout sort of way, affected our activities in Hallowe’en Rift this week too. Earlier in the week, […]

With Jake

Due to
circumstances, some beyond his control, Jake hasn’t been to An Unexpected
Development , 28th July 2019 was the date of his last digging
trip along the approach passage. Then went on holiday, injured knee, surgery
followed, almost…

With Jake,
Jon, Brockers and Tav

We
assembled at the usual time, 10:00, in the Hunter’s car park. Waited around a
while for Nick, although Nick did say on Thursday evening, he might not be
available, so headed down towards Wookey Hole, to the farm…

With Jon, Nick and Tav.

The Cold Gnarly North was my destination today, the others decided
to dig in the Soft South, which is the easier, more comfortable option.

Drag line attached, bags attached, drill tube and wire reel in
hand I set off al…

With Jon and Brockers

A small team assembled for today’s activities and it was soon
decided that the best and most effective use of manpower was to dig in the Soft
South.

While Jon packed bags, Brockers went ahead to start digging and I headed
…

Just after the breakthrough into An Expected Development in
August 2018, we’d had a discussion regarding the possible origins of the cave
system along with other geomorphological processes and events, i.e. Pleistocene
frost and ice damage. At the t…

With Jon, Brockers and Nick

We made a return to the Cold Gnarly North to finish off the job we
had started last weekend. Jon was the first to cross the “sea of slurry” and go
up to the nice dry bit to fill bags. Somehow, Brockers had talked himsel…

With Jon, Nick and Tav

The only plan for today was to clear the debris from last
weekend’s application of IRS up in the Cold Gnarly North. While the others were
packaging the dry bags ready for use later, I went ahead to reel in the wire.

On ar…

With Duncan, Brockers, Jon, Nick and Tav

I had to collect some supplies at 09:00 and then met the team at
the Hunter’s 10:00. From there we drove down to the farm. I stayed behind for a
while at the farm to prep things, the others got changed and …

I attended a Flint Knapping Workshop at Butser Ancient Farm (Chalton,
Hampshire) today. The rest of the team were at Hallowe’en Rift, the following summary
of the morning’s activities penned by Tav:

Tav, Duncan, Brockers, Jon, Jake and Alex

Tav…

Note: no activities took place last weekend. I was over on the Gower
peninsular digging with Jon and Alex at Harry Thomas’s Cave, Overton. Others
had their own commitments.

With Brockers, Duncan, Jon and Jake

The digging effort, once agai…

With Brockers, Nick, Jon and Tav A view from the Junction. Jon to the north assists with the pipe from the pump. To the east Tav, at the bottom of the entrance, contemplates, it was sunny on the surface. Today circumstances dictated that the digg…

With Jake, Jon and
Tav Due to other
commitments, a smaller team today so the digging effort continued in the Soft
South. Tav filled bags and moved the occasional rock to Jon, who was positioned
at the junction. I was at the bottom of the entrance hau…

With Jake, Jon,
Duncan and Tav

Although last
weekend it required three persons to secure the cave, only one was necessary to
re-open the cave for this session. Given that we were a team of five, when it
was suggested that we should dig in the ‘Sof…

I attended the Somerset
Archaeological and Natural History Society (SANHS) Annual Archaeology Day at Wells
and Mendip Museum, and was unavailable for the Saturday morning digging session
at Hallowe’en Rift.

The following
report was provided by Jon…

With Jake, Jon,
Nick, Duncan, Brockers, Tav and Mike (Moxon)

After digging last
weekend, Jon was on the surface with Jake, who managed to add some more stone
to the wall, but spoil is required to back it up. I was at the bottom of the
entrance, Ni…

With Tav, Jon,
Dunc, Nick, Jake and Brockers

Jon’s turn in the
“pond”, Dunc chose to be next in-line again and took up position in the small
“chamber” just beyond the former “pinch-point”. It took some time to assemble
the pump and drain away the …

Solo

Just a brief visit
underground to collect my camera that I managed to leave behind yesterday. Took
a few snaps of the magnificent spoil-heap.

With Jake, Tav,
Nick, Brockers and Duncan

After some heavy
rain during the week, it was obvious to us that Tav’s pump was going to be
required. The pump was set-up and proved to be very effective, the water soon
was drained away.

The water gone…

With Tav,
Brockers, Jon, Nick and Jake

The induced rapid
speleogenesis applied last Sunday morning had the desired effect and we were
presented by a considerable pile of fractured rock and gravel. This took quite
some time and effort to remove. I …

Solo

Another glorious
day weather-wise and it was a warm walk up the hill to the cave with kit.
Lowered the bags down the entrance, then pushed them through to the north-west
passage. There, the bags were clipped together to form a train and I dra…

With Nick, Tav,
Brockers, Jonathon, Jake and Alex

A strong team
today, seven of us. Note that I’ve resisted the temptation to add the prefix
“magnificent”!

For the fourth
week in a row, Nick was dispatched to his pond, although this was almost …

With Nick,
Jonathon, Alex and Jake

The plan was to
continue to enlarge the north-west passage. Unfortunately, Tav didn’t make it
today so, neither did the pump. Nick was, sort of, volunteered to bail-out the
pond of his own making. When he got the…

With Nick,
Jonathon, Tav and a massive welcome back to Jake

A jovial group of
diggers ventured up the hill from the farm to the cave entrance. The loose
bags, left-out to dry at the end of the last digging session, were packed-up
and dispatched to…

With Brockers,
Jonathon, Nick and Tav

After the lurgy
and a week at the University of Sheffield Zooarchaeology Lab, it was good to
get back into Hallowe’en Rift for my first digging session of 2019.

The plan this
session was to continue the enl…

With Jon and Brockers

Finally managed to hand-over goodwill bag to Mark, who was in the
yard when we arrived at the farm.

Up the hill at Hallowe’en Rift, the loose bags were packed up and
the packs stored underground. We decided to start the qu…

With Jon, Brockers and Nick.

Nick turned-up with a large, heavy bar to try and deal with an
obstruction underground. At Hallowe’en Rift, Nick went ahead to attempt to
remove the obstructing slab of rock, although he required some assistance to
get…

With Jon, Duncan, Nick and Brockers

It was a wet and miserable morning with a cold south-easterly
wind, not a good day to spend too long on the surface, everyone underground.
Brockers digging with assistance from Duncan, Nick was at the mid-way ha…

With Jon, Brockers and Nick

Jon digging, Brockers assisting, I went to the mid-way hauling
position because Nick had gone on a quest to explore the ‘north-west passage’.
Bags and the occasional rock were temporarily stashed at the mid-way point
un…

With Nick,
Brockers, Jonathon, Duncan and Alex

Alex, Brockers, Jonathon and Duncan disappeared underground to get
the digging underway and started to fill bags and shift rocks. Nick remained on
the surface for a short time to build some wall, I pa…

Solo

A gentler, more considered solo digging trip to retrieve some
small mammal bones that Alex had noticed and pointed out on Saturday. The
remains are relatively recent. The animal bones were recorded (photographed)
in-situ before carefully lift…

With Alex, Jonathon, Duncan, Brockers and Nick

We continued the quest to the south-west. My turn to be up-front
digging, Alex was next in line and did some extra widening of the passage, Jonathon,
also moonlighting, in between skips, Duncan and Br…

With Brockers, Jonathon, Nick and Alex

While the empty bags were being removed from the drying line, I
took the opportunity to go underground and have a quick look at progress so
far. The enlargement of the south-west passage to hands and knees cr…

With Roz My 500th trip into Hallowe’en Rift.

The purpose of this trip was to try and capture some images of the
low stuff approaching An Unexpected Development, to show it how it really is. The
cave is still very dry. Got some good photos too. …

With Brockers, Nick, Alex and Jonathon

Brockers experienced the “loneliness of a long-distance digger”
far away from Nick, who was hauling the skip with filled bags, and digging a
hole in the middle of the skip-run, why, who knows, something about…

With Alex, Jonathon, Brockers and Nick

While Alex went ahead to start digging, Jon and I rearranged the
‘boardwalk’ so that it bridged the ‘drainage channel’ and, therefore, making an
improved skip haul route. Brockers, meanwhile, decided that he …