11th February 2017

With Tav, Nick, Jonathon and Matt.

I was ready for the surface duties but, Tav opted for that position, on the grounds that he had dug on Thursday evening. I did the haul and shuttle again, Jonathon was at the top of the slope, Matt at the bottom, clearing away the filled bags from Nick, who was digging today.

I’d brought along another ‘pick’ to make the removal of the rocky fill easier, the steady flow of bags out, suggested it did the job.

On the surface, Tav busied himself by working on the retaining wall. He cut back the scrubby undergrowth to enable the wall baseline to be completed. I, too, spent a short time adding to the wall before going underground to clear the backlog of bags.

The skip was worn out so had to be replaced, this took quite a time as the haul ropes needed some adjustment. Then, just as we had got underway again, one of the boards on the bridge over the pot moved, causing the skip to jam, so had to sort that out.

At the end of the session, over 50 bags plus some rocks were cleared out to the surface. Another fine session was concluded and we made our way down to the farm to get changed, and head up to the pub.

Author: mendipgeoarch

Archaeologist, Geologist, Speleologist