With Nick, Jonathon, Alex and a late, but
welcome, appearance by Tom Chapman.
It was my turn to dig this session, Nick was
aiding the clearing of filled bags, assorted rocks and modifying the skip-run.
Jonathon was on the slope and loading the skip to Alex doing the haul and
shuttle to the entrance. Tom had turned-up, without any kit, hauled-out the
spoil and emptied the bags onto the heap.
At the dig-face, things were progressing
satisfactorily, when a small hole opened, from which air movement could be
felt. After a bit more work the hole was large enough to see space beyond. Nick
came through to have a look. Following a more concerted effort, a small rift
chamber could be seen, more digging and eventually, I wriggled through into the
rift chamber. It was c.2.00m long, c.2.00m high and c.0.40m wide, it is blocked
at the eastern extent by a rather fine ‘stal’ boss, more interestingly, to the
left-side (north) a low bedding continued with c.0.25m high space over
sediment, the full extent of the bedding could not be ascertained at this time,
it was from this that the air movement was emanating. It looks a very
interesting prospect indeed, obviously there is a lot of spoil to shift to make
access easier and the way ahead workable. Nick and Jonathon both came through
to take a gander.
As for the skip-run, it is more aesthetically
pleasing to look at but it’s functionality is rather less satisfactory, let’s
say, it is a work in progress!
About 40 bags and, possibly 10 skip-loads of
rocks were hauled out to the surface and added to the spoil-heap. All in all, a
productive morning’s work and it was pub-time.
