15th July 2017

With Jake and Jonathon.

I went along to the end of Merlin’s, reeling in the wire along the way, to start bagging the rocks and gravel. Jonathon and Jake cleared the backlog of spoil from last weekend, along with the bags and rocks that I was loading into the skip. Eventually, the loose spoil was bagged and digging slowed. Jake and Jonathon then moved back to clear the spoil stashed at the top of the slope to the entrance, and then, out to the surface.

Meanwhile, I got to work with hammer, chisel and bar to remove shattered rock, filled bags were stashed in “Nick’s Folly”. When clean, it was possible to get a better look at the narrow fissure, at most it’s 15mm-20mm wide, and mostly, filled with fine sediment, not really a viable lead. I pondered for a while, Jake and Jonathon weren’t going to return, I started to scratch around at the end of Nick’s Folly, where the passages appear to converge, perhaps digging down in the floor here might reveal something. I’ll loosen things-up a bit on Tuesday evening.

12:30, time to go and find the rest of the team and head-off to the Hunter’s Lodge for refreshments.

Author: mendipgeoarch

Archaeologist, Geologist, Speleologist