4th April 2015

With Jake, Tav and Nick. Alex turned up at mid-day to help haul the bags out.

Arrived at the farm to find gate chained and locked, Mark away for hols with family so parked in field instead. On the way up across fields we met Ted who explained he didn’t have a key for the locked gate. Up at the cave entrance we were surprised to find that most of the bags left hanging up to dry were still there, considering the very strong winds of a week ago. Took 50 bags up to the end where Nick, back once again from foreign lands, took the first turn at digging with Jake clearing the filled bags, Tav at the T Junction and I settled down in the pot. Emptied the puddle in the pot and thought to myself should have come down last week and put another bang along the rift – will have to remember that should a future opportunity arise. Bags started to arrive at a steady pace and the pot didn’t take long to become filled. Time went by quickly and it was soon past mid-day and time to start to clear the bags out of the cave. Alex was waiting on the surface to empty bags as I hauled them up out of the entrance, 45 bags in total plus a few rocks – good session. When the the rest of the team surfaced the majority of bags were already empty and all that was left to do was hang the bags out to dry ready for the next digging session.


Got back to the van and was relieved that the cattle in the field hadn’t decided to lick it clean. We changed and retired to the Hunter’s Lodge Inn for refreshment as usual.

Author: mendipgeoarch

Archaeologist, Geologist, Speleologist