May 2010, saw Tom Chapman, Sarah Payne, Simon Richards (NikNak), Jude and Adrian Vanderplank on a reconnaissance trip. Tom went to check out the North horizontal end and 30 minutes of boulder moving saw Tom entering a 6 metre extension with a flowstone wall and a
dead end! Meanwhile the rest of us were investigating a dip in the floor just inside the entrance. A small amount of capping to a protruding ledge allowed Sarah to get close up and personal with a Goat skeleton but the exciting discovery was the cool draught coming up through boulders in the floor.
In the next few days Tom visited Cheddar Caves to apply for official permission to dig the cave. This, in time, we received.
The dig started to go down vertically through boulders with a solid wall on the Eastern side and large boulders on the other sides. We decided that our best way to stabilise the three boulders sides was to build natural stone walls cemented together. Over the next few months we made steady progress downwards, capping the larger boulders, using the smaller rocks for the walls and hauling the larger ones out.
With Tom’s commitment to work increasing, we invited Pete Hann to join the team as his wall building skill is legendary and there were certainly a lot of walls to build. During this period there was an elusive draft, sometimes strong and then other times very faint, but always from the right hand side of the shaft.
As we approached 8 metres in depth more gaps appeared in between the rocks. It was at this time with the hauling becoming more of a problem, that Mark Helmore, Mark Kellaway (Mak) and John Biffen (Bif) started complimentary digging on Thursday nights. This now gave us two evenings, Mondays, where Pete, Jude, and Adrian stabilised and cemented, and, on Thursdays, the A (Animal) team which did the majority of rock hauling.
10 metres down, and an undercut was becoming visible. Digging continued downwards until we were a metre below the undercut and looking into a tube that had several large rocks blocking the tube, but had a tantalising black space beyond.
Excitement in the group grew and over the next few sessions the rocks were removed and the boulders on the right hand side stabilised. As it became apparent that the possible breakthrough would happen whilst Pete was away in France caving, both teams agreed to wait until he was
back before pushing the dig.
Breakthrough
On the 9th May 2011 the digging team, consisting of John Biffin, Pete Hann, Mark Helmore, Mak Kellaway, Sarah Payne, Jude Vanderplank, and Adrian Vanderplank assembled, minus Tom Chapman, but including Robin Taviner, for what we expected to be the breakthrough trip.
The last two or three rocks were pushed into the black space with resounding crashes booming into the distance, expletives from the rest of the team waiting in the shaft, Mark was trying to record the moment and produce a running commentary.
Finally we were through, black space beckoned, a 2 metre climb down led into a 3 metre wide rift, 4 metres high with a loose boulder floor. Another 20 metres downslope we encountered another pitch, luckily amongst our preparations for this trip we had brought with us some ladders and rope. With a much improvised belay (the ladder being attached to the rope which had been wrapped around a large boulder several times, and just for good measure Mak hanging onto the boulder.) A short 4 metre pitch lead to another 10 metres of passage before the rift narrowed the floor disappeared and more blackness beckoned. Time and a lack of the necessary equipment cut short the exploration, the Hunters called, and a very happy group of cavers exited the cave.
Plans were rapidly made to continue exploration the next day, Tom was kidnapped from work, ropes packed, drills charged, and speculation was high. Were we going to hit the Cheddar master system? Where was it going to end?
The next evening quickly arrived and Tom was set to work putting in the through bolts for the top Y hang. Tom descended this to a ledge, gardening loose rocks on the way, a second Y was inserted and Tom descended to a boulder floor. Every one descended the 21 metre pitch (split in to 9m and 12m pitches) keen to continue the exploration; we set off down slope heading under the pitch.
Ten metres downslope, the floor started to rise and the rift was filled with jammed boulders from floor to roof. It was with a mixture of satisfaction and disappointment that we left the cave. We now had 90 metres of cave passage and 56 metres in depth. Not bad for six months digging.
The prospects for more cave were reasonable. Voids in the roof needed to be checked out. It was also probable that the draught we felt at the top of the cave was coming directly out the floor at the bottom.
Before opening the cave to the rest of the caving world, we have done several projects. The breakthrough point was stabilised and unstable rocks were either cleared or cemented together. The 4 metre pitch was bolted, and the rocks around that were cemented together. Finally a gate was built and fitted at the top of the first shaft, the key on this is the standard “Mendip Key” and this was done in accordance with our digging permission from Cheddar Caves.
August 2011 saw us starting to dig at the bottom, going vertically down. In December, although the digging was going well, we had lost the draught. A rethink was in order, we had dug past a horizontal gap under an overhang approximately 3 metres down. So with a bit of wall removal we had the draught back!
December 2011 to November 2012 saw steady progress downwards breaking the 10 metre mark.
At present, the team continues to dig at the bottom, and has been supported brilliantly by the Mendip caving community in helping ferry sand and cement to the bottom. Currently we have used three tonnes of sand and goodness knows how much cement.
PS: as of the 28th May 2013 the bottom shaft measured 18 + metres deep!
Survey
Spider Hole November 2021