Tuesday 2nd November 2021

John Cooper, Graham Price, Wayne Starsmore, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Graham had arranged with Paul Ballantyne, the Caves Manager for Longleat Estate, that we could have access for the purpose of recovering perishable tackle from the cave. We had expected Paul to accompany us but when we met at 10am he said he would not. It was Graham’s first time down and I think he was suitably impressed. At the bottom both Graham and Adrian took photographs then John and Jude updated the survey data. Digging tools (long and short crowbars, hammers etc) were moved on out to the surface in stages. All the SRT ropes were removed as were the ladders. The hauling ropes were left in place. The cement tub was emptied of gone-off cement and also brought out for cleaning. The hauling rope normally left just below the gate was left at the top of Nut Pitch. It was quite drippy today. Wayne took photographs of the various hangers for the record. Several bats and lots of bat poo. Not sure when we will be allowed back in but don’t hold your breath. 2¾ hours. John.

Saturday 3rd October 2020

John Cooper, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Took in 2 bags of sand and capping kit. One mix of cement taken down to bottom. With storm Alex making its presence known the cave was damp! I’ve never seen Four-Tonne Shaft as wet with water entering only a few feet down and making the entire shaft a real shower bath. Fortunately the stream flowing down the bottom tunnel was being captured by the hole Wayne had cleaned out near the bottom end a couple of weeks ago and so did not complete its journey to flow down into the current dig site. The boulder was capped and some of it cemented into wall. Hope the water doesn’t wash the cement out. 2½ hours. John.

Monday 28th September 2020

John Cooper, Wayne Starsmore and Jude Vanderplank. Took in 2 bags of sand. Two mixes taken to the bottom. One used at the bottom and one doing maintenance work higher up the bottom shaft. Jude crawled into the lower south grotto and confirmed it didn’t go but the draught was still coming up out of the floor. One boulder refused to break so will have to be capped. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 26th September 2020

John Cooper and Wayne Starsmore. Took in 2 bags of sand and a small bag of cement. To clarify, a bag of sand taken in is half a builder’s bag (half of 25kg nominal) of sand (although I think Adrian adds an extra scoop from his dumpy bag!) and a small bag of cement is a 12.5kg bag (a normal bag is a 25kg bag). Two mixes of cement were taken to the bottom. One mix is 1 of the bags of sand made up to a 4 to 1 ratio with Portland cement. More rocks were dug out of the floor and cemented into the walls, first by Wayne and then by John. 2½ hours. John.

Monday 21st September 2020

John Cooper, Wayne Starsmore, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Took in two bags of sand and capping kit. Two mixes to the bottom. Some clatch hauled out from bottom. Then Adrian did some capping, John did some walling, Adrian did more capping and finally some walling. More walling required. Nice draught still coming from below. 3½ hours. John.

Saturday 19th September 2020

John Cooper, Wayne Starsmore, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Took in two bags of sand and left two more at the entrance. Two mixes to the bottom. John used the first building his retaining wall at the North end of the rift and then Adrian used the second building his at the South-East end. More wall building required and a bit of capping. Still a nice draught coming up from below. On the way out the extra two loads of sand were moved on down to the top of Nut Pitch. 2½ hours. John.

Tuesday 15th September 2020

John Cooper, Wayne Starsmore, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Took in two bags of sand and a new bag of cement. Adrian also took in capping kit. Two mixes to the bottom. After capping the loose boulder in the floor more walling done. Still a good draught coming out from below. 3 hours. John.

Saturday 12th September 2020

John Cooper, Matt Randall, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Took in two bags of sand. Two mixes to the bottom, no cement left. More walling done, first mix by John, second by Adrian. Small loose boulder left in floor for breaking up next time. 2½ hours. John.

Tuesday 8th September 2020

John Cooper, Wayne Starsmore, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Took in two bags of sand. Wayne added one mix to the Spiral Staircase whilst the rest took two mixes to the bottom. More walling done. 2¼ hours. John.

Saturday 5th September 2020

John Cooper, Wayne Starsmore and Jude Vanderplank. Two bags of sand taken in. One mix to the bottom. After a few loads of clatch were hauled out from the bottom more walling was done. 2 hours. John.

Tuesday 1st September 2020

Richard Carey, John Cooper, Wayne Starsmore, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Took in two bags of sand and a new bag of cement. Wayne added two mixes to the Spiral Staircase whilst the rest took one mix to the bottom. After hauling out a few buckets of clatch more walling done. 2¼ hours. John.

Saturday 29th August 2020

John Cooper, Rob Harper, Tony Seddon, Wayne Starsmore and Jude Vanderplank. Two bags of sand taken in. Two mixes to the bottom. After Rob and Wayne had viewed the bottom they went and added two mixes to the Spiral Staircase whilst the rest continued walling at the bottom. More walling at both still required. 2¼ hours. John.

Wednesday 26th August 2020

John Cooper and Jude Vanderplank. One mix to the bottom. After hauling out a few buckets of clatch more walling done. 2 hours.

Saturday 22nd August 2020

John Cooper and Jude Vanderplank. One mix to the bottom and a start made on building retaining walls. 1½ hours.

Tuesday 18th August 2020

John Cooper, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Took in capping kit. One cap sorted out the boulder. Then spent the rest of the time hauling spoil up from the bottom. Needs a couple of cementing sessions now. 2½ hours.

Saturday 15th August 2020

 

John Cooper, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. After winding in the wire made a start on clearing the debris from Tuesday. Lots more remains including a boulder that Adrian thinks needs capping. 2 hours.

Tuesday 11th August 2020

 

John Cooper, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Took in drill, bits and a couple of metres of cord to sort out the boulder at the bottom. Hot on the surface and nice draught coming out of the bottom. Repeated a couple of the legs from Saturday which I believe had been affected by the 6ft steel crowbar! Next trip should see what’s happened to the boulder. 2½ hours.