Excursions [and other notes] involved in the exploration of Hallowe'en Rift; a cave, so far, formed within Triassic Dolomitic Conglomerate.
The exploration of Hallowe'en Rift was started in 1982 by Trevor Hughes with other members of the Bristol Exploration Club, their interest waned by the late 80s. During the early 1990's Vince Simmonds and other, mostly, local diggers were active at a number of locations within the cave, including the start of the dig to the 'east' side of the entrance with Graham Johnson in December 1991. This led to the discovery of An Unexpected Development in August 2018. The current phase of exploration was commenced in 2009, with the majority of the early work being carried out by Vince Simmonds and Alex Gee, now the regular team also includes Rob 'Tav' Taviner, Graham 'Jake' Johnson, Nick Hawkes, Jonathon Riley, and Paul 'Brockers' Brock. There has been occasional help from others including Mike Moxon, Roz Simmonds, Duncan Price, Phil Coles, Caroline Allen, Mike Willett, Matt Tuck, John 'Tangent' Williams, Pete Bolt, Bob Smith, Callum and Hazel Simmonds, and several appearances by that well-known antipodean, Ray Deasey.
There have been visits from some notable experts in their various fields including: Charlie Self, Andy Farrant, Christopher Smith, Derek Ford, Joyce Lundberg, Don MacFarlane, Marc Luetscher and Gina Moseley. All have added to a better understanding of Hallowe'en Rift.
Won’t be digging today as I am off to a conference at the University of Reading – Towns of Roman Britain; some eminent speakers so should be good. It was!
Might go digging Sunday, will think about it. Didn’t dig, went over to Whitcombe’s Hole instead.
For one reason and another a depleted team – just me and Jake. We waited around for Peter Bolt (who is over from Columbia for a few days) but he didn’t show, so off we went.
We cleared the bags stacked at the base of Witches Cauldron ready to be emptied later and then up to Trick or Treat? Started to clear the accumulation of rocks and other debris to make some stacking space and give a clearer view of what is going on in this area. Had some fun reducing a pile of large rocks to a more manageable size to be cleared out at a later date. Both of us came to the conclusion that depth might be an important factor to consider here. It was then time to return to the surface to empty the bags. At the entrance there was Peter who had overslept after a late night at the Belfry and was a little jaded, I gave him my light so he could go and have a look while me and Jake emptied the bags. Peter soon returned not feeling like venturing along Toil and Trouble, so bags emptied, we left and made our way back to the farm, then to the Hunter’s.
