17th July

I was away this weekend attending a BCRA field meeting to the Arnside and Silverdale AONB in Lancashire/Cumbria. However, the rest of the team continued with operations and the following report was written by Tav:

Brockers, Nick, Tav, Jon and Jake

A very hot day soon got even hotter as the team began removing the large pile of rocks produced by Vince and Callum’s midweek plug and feathers extravaganza. While Jake prepared the surface wall, Brockers moved the rocks to Nick then on to Tav and on again to Jon who stacked them below the entrance. As most of these were too large for a single hauler to pull out Jon returned to the surface to aid with the haul while Tav and Nick moved back a place. 30 odd large boulders were extracted, most of which were too big to fit in the skip and required the net. Several were described as silly in size and a select few as very silly. Meanwhile Brockers carried on digging and produced another 20 or so loads of rocks plus 50 bags. To move these, Nick and Tav shared the duties on the three underground hauling spots while Jon emptied the bags and Jake relocated the rocks to the new terrace wall. Following a well-earned lunch break, Jake and Jon took up the digging cudgels, Tav and Nick swapped places with Tav moving back down to the junction and Nick loading below the entrance. Brockers manfully hauled solo on the surface. By close of play another 50 bags were removed along with another 30 or so loads of rock including a few more which required the net. 180 odd loads extracted in total, which, if not quite our highest overall tally, must surely have merited a new weight record! Another very large boulder (the largest yet!) was exposed and requires plug and feathering.”

Author: mendipgeoarch

Archaeologist, Geologist, Speleologist