Andy Sparrow, David Cooke, Keith Milward, Lawrence Wilson, Peter Sanders, Seán Tidey, Will Puddy, Yvette Mayo
A delayed follow up to our SRT tower training evening (due to the passing of Jackie Dors)
This cave has been a bete noire of mine for quite some time so with a certain amount of fear and trepidation I got changed and positioned myself at the back of the group in case I bottled it and needed to leave in a hurry.
It was lovely and warm inside the cave and, despite being drippy, a lot drier than outside. Andy, Sean and Cookie rigged swiftly and the whole party disappeared efficiently before me.
All too soon it was my turn, the first pitch had been rigged excellently with the Y-hang as high as possible, this calmed my nerves as I didn’t have to drop off of the ledge into the abyss as I had done previously, at the rebelay Andy was on hand to encourage and reassure as he was for the second and third, before I knew it I was at the bottom with everyone else.
I wasn’t in tears and my knees weren’t knocking, what’s going on? Whilst it lasted I barged to the front of the queue and started to make my way up the ropes, by the time I got to the third rebelay I knew what I was doing and actually enjoying myself. All too soon I was at the Y-hang and then up and out to the surface where the rain had stopped
Whilst others derigged I got changed then all went into the Hunters for a debrief.
Hopefully my SRTing is on the way up, partly helped by new cows-tails that I actually trust. Thanks to all for your patience, guidance and encouragement
— Lawrence Wilson 12/01/2024
Andy Sparrow, David Cooke, Lawrence Wilson, Peter Sanders, Rachel Sparrow, Will Puddy
Euan
Our fitst digging trip of the new year saw us making a fresh start in a new location, at the digging chamber adjacent to the clubs old dig.
We split into three teams with Andy and Rachel drilling holes in “The Hidden Stream”. Will, Euan and Peter making great progress at the new dig site, Whilst Cookie and Lawrence partially rebuilt the spoil heap and retaining wall at the bottom of the Aven dig site that had collapsed for a second time.
All out in freezing temperatures so reluctantly warmed up in the Hunters
— Lawrence Wilson 21/01/2024
Andy Sparrow, Lawrence Wilson, Paul James, Peter Sanders, Rachel Sparrow, Seán Tidey, Will Puddy, Yvette Mayo
Euan
All parked and got changed in much warmer temperatures than last week then divided ourselves into two groups, the first to tackle the squeezes and the lower reaches while the second had a bimble around the upper series.
Peter, Will and Sean negotiated the squeezes without too much difficulty, Sean needed to remove all extraneous kit but just pushed through, sadly PJ’s chest was just too big and despite a few spirited attempts couldn’t force the second squeeze so joined the upper series team.
We had a good poke around reversing chimneys etc. and Yvette doing the Switchback, finally leaving the cave at just gone 21:00 when we retired to the Woodborough where the other team arrived a while later having had a great trip up the streamway all the way to the Hanging Gardens.
— Lawrence Wilson 30/01/2024
Andy Sparrow, Lawrence Wilson, Peter Sanders, Rachel Sparrow, Seán Tidey, Will Puddy, Yvette Mayo
Euan
Meeting on the roadside between Priddy and Ebbor Gorge at 19:30, we got changed and walked to the entrance over a surprisingly soggy field, on the way it was pointed out that we needed three ladders but only had two! thankfully Andy had a plan.
We descended the tube and turned right into the roomy and well decorated Talus IV, after a few photos we retraced our steps to the junction and took the other passage down through a couple of squeezes to the top of The Forty Backs.
Sean rigged this with both of our ladders and all except Andy and Rachel descended the awkwardly tight rift. At the bottom we had a quick look in Master’s Hall then climbed up the calcite slope of Coffee Pot, helped and hindered in equal amounts by a knotted rope, once at the top a tight right angled bend was negotiated then through a puddle and some small passage to emerge at the entrance to Talus IV.
Andy and Rachel had kindly derigged The Forty Backs and had rerigged the entrance pitch most ingeniously. On the way in Andy had lowered the ladder then abseiled down on a doubled rope. On the way up he used the rope as a safety line, belayed from the bottom but he attached the ladder via a prusic to the other (dead) side of the rope thus being able to climb up the ladder whilst being lifelined, very clever.
Emerging into the field at 22:15 the fog had come down, sadly the Queen Vic was shut but the Hunters provided a warm welcome
— Lawrence Wilson 6/02/2024
Andy Sparrow, Lawrence Wilson, Will Puddy, Yvette Mayo
I am writing this sometime after the event so can’t remember much about it! I’m sure we did good work in both the secret streamway and the connection dig then went to the Hunters afterwards
— Lawrence Wilson 28/04/2024
Andy Sparrow, Euan Goodland, Ken Passant, Lawrence Wilson, Peter Sanders, Peter Hall, Rachel Sparrow, Seán Tidey, Will Puddy, Yvette Mayo
I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone?
Having had a couple of weeks of rain and a forecast for more rain on the Wednesday this trip was advertised as “very, very wet” and boy we weren’t disappointed!
The stream was at the very top of the dam and judging by the debris had been going down the grid not long before, in we went, the noise was incredible.
We decided to go straight down the Wet Way as not sure we would be able to come up it against the flow of water.
The Eyehole was interesting, as soon as you where in it your body formed a plug and the water almost immediately backed up and flowed over the top of you, nothing for it but to allow yourself to get washed through, unfortunately Rachel managed to find the foothold on the other side that wedged her in position until she too was washed through, having had a near death experience she and Andy battled their way out.
The next challenge was the Lavatory Pan, it was very nearly sumped, thankfully the much braver than I Pete Hall was at the front and dived through, when it was my turn I just sat in it feet first and within a second I was spluttering on the other side.
The old Forty was in full flow with the water hitting the far side, very glad of the hand line especially on the way up.
The Twenty was thundering. Standing immediately at the top the water came halfway up my thighs
After battling our way back to the Water Chamber a few hardy souls returned via the wet way whilst the rest went via the Short Dry Way that had a sizeable stream flowing down it the whole way.
It was a relief for our ears to finally exit the cave and escape the noise. A truly wonderful trip that I will remember for a very long time. I know upper Swildons “like the back of my hand” but the water transformed it into a completely different beast. Congratulations to Euan as it was his first trip to Swildons, I hope he isn’t disappointed in normal conditions
A very welcome catch up at the Hunters as could only hear shouts down the cave we hadn’t chatted much.
— Lawrence Wilson 28/04/2024
David Cooke, Peter Sanders, Will Puddy
Euan Goodland
Met at WCC on wet and foggy night and eventually set out to Eastwater around 8pm. Peter warned everyone of the slippery approach and promptly slid down the bank on his backside. Lovely waterfall down the entrance and through the approach to the Boulder Ruckle, so soon washed off the muck. Wet through, we progressed through the Woggle Press to the Boulder Chamber and then down to the Crossroads. Turning left we arrived at Dolphin Pot and descended with the aid of the 13m rope (and Italian Hitch for some). Next came the 35ft (Dolphin) Pitch which was rigged with the two ladders and 21m safety line, last man down using a doubled safety line held at the bottom. Getting a bit cold now, we descended the pitch (finding that one ladder actually reached to within a metre of the bottom, but two gave more flexibility at the top). Then on to the Bold Step, which was a bit testing. Down the rift we branched left and down the Muddy Oxbow (?) right at the bottom and back up the Thirteen Pots, returning to the Bold Step (actually climbable in the upward direction when at least two point contact could be maintained) and up through the Woggle Press for a refreshing shower on the way out (more so for Peter who struggled up the first access hole to the base of the entrance shaft which was in full flood instead if diving across to negotiate the second access in slightly more comfortable conditions. Slithering back up the slope we arrived cold wet and tired at the WCC, to find the time was nearly midnight, so straight to bed with no beer. What fun!
— Peter Sanders 2/03/2024
Andy Sparrow, Lawrence Wilson, Will Puddy, Yvette Mayo
I suspect others but can’t remember
Another digging trip to our favourite cave, writing this after the event I presume good work was done in both the Secret Stream and the connection dig, I’m sure we went to the Hunters afterwards
— Lawrence Wilson 28/04/2024
David Cooke, Lawrence Wilson, Peter Sanders, Will Puddy
Unfortunately my Panda spluttered to a halt at the top of Cheddar Gorge (turned out it was the alternator) thankfully Cookie had signal and Will picked us up.
After starting a little late this brilliant little cave came up trumps as it always does, we all enjoyed a swim at the bottom of the ladder, the canals seemed a bit longer than usual and I had forgotten how much “up” there is on the way out.
A warm welcome was enjoyed at the Riverside where we caught up with Cookies adventures in India
— Lawrence Wilson 28/04/2024
David Cooke, Lawrence Wilson, Paul James, Peter Sanders, Will Puddy, Yvette Mayo
This is a great little cave, but quite strenuous!
Having got the key from Roger we all went down the ladder and straight into a descending crawl that finally emerged into a large well decorated chamber. Then through more squeezes and climbs before arriving at the top of the pitch that Will rigged.
The pitch is long and awkward, the ladder runs against the sloping wall all the way with two pinch points. Despite linking two ladders they didn’t quite reach the bottom leaving a straight forward free climb.
Through a squeeze a lake was reached that most waded through to some passage beyond. We returned via the same route.
After much discussion as to which pub was closest we ended up in the Hunters
— Lawrence Wilson 28/03/2024
Andy Sparrow, David Cooke, Euan Goodland, Lawrence Wilson, Paul James, Rachel Sparrow, Will Puddy, Yvette Mayo
Gary Avril
All met and changed in light drizzle and walked to the entrance across a very wet field.
Just inside we split up with Rachel, Gary and Avril going through the squeeze into Mud Passage whilst everyone one else climbed up the fixed ladder and into the Devils Elbow route, most of us had never been this way before and where pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t all squeezes. There are little chambers, free climbs and some decorations. Ultimately at Buggery Bend it is a crawl through water before a tricky down climb into the stream (fixed hand line) before popping out into the gorge 20m upstream from the normal Mud Passage route.
Following down stream into Main Chamber we regrouped then split with Andy, Rachel, Gary, Avril and Lawrence making their way out having had a look at the formations.
The rest went down the terrace and loop before climbing up into ladder dig and visiting Bat Passage before finding Disappointment Chamber which is all very loose, thankfully Yvette managed to dodge a large rock dislodged from above.
Changing was cold and wet so it was essential to warm up in the Woodborough the ladder dig crew arriving at 22:30
— Lawrence Wilson 28/03/2024
Andy Sparrow, David Cooke, Euan Goodland, Ken Passant, Lawrence Wilson, Seán Tidey, Will Puddy
The clocks having changed at the weekend we walked across the fields in the light in a rare dry spell, as there was a good turnout we split into three teams.
Sean and Will going up the Aven, Andy and Cookie in to the secret streamway whilst Ken, Euan and Lawrence got busy at the dig. At exactly 20:00 silence descended whilst we listen for sounds through the dig face, disappointingly we couldn’t hear anything Will and Sean reported clearly hearing our banging about and even voices so can’t be far now, good progress was made from both sides.
A lot of rubble was removed from the secret stream with reports that it looks interesting about four metres ahead.
A pleasant debrief was enjoyed at the Hunters where we were all impressed with Will’s rock aiming that this week managed to find the bridge of Sean’s nose
— Lawrence Wilson 8/04/2024
Andy Sparrow, David Cooke, Euan Goodland, Ken Passant, Lawrence Wilson, Peter Sanders, Seán Tidey, Yvette Mayo
Arrived in thick fog, having introduced ourselves to the farmer we got changed in a barn and dunked wellies in disinfectant then walked across a couple of fields to the entrance pipe.
Descending the 10m entrance landed us straight into a roomy chamber with a flat and frankly terrifying ceiling. From the end of the chamber a clamber through boulders lead to the top of a short down climb with a vintage hawser laid hand line in place.
Directly at the bottom of the climb a corkscrew downward squeeze lead into another, well decorated chamber with a short extension at one end.
The corkscrew squeeze was a lot harder on the way up through it, other than that the way out was straight forward via our inward route.
According to the farmer nobody has been down this cave since Covid and a few years before that, so probably six or seven years, that’s a shame as it’s a worthwhile little cave, having said that I won’t be racing back for a year or two.
A slow drive in thick fog ended at the Hunters for a debrief
— Lawrence Wilson 15/04/2024
David Cooke, Euan Goodland, Lawrence Wilson, Yvette Mayo
Arrived in Burrington in sunshine and decided to have a quick look down Aveline’s, to our surprise the lock was missing allowing us to have a look at the distinctly unimpressive Mesolithic scratchings and the very muddy end of the cave, Cookie has informed UBSS that the lock is missing.
Walking up the valley we arrived at the entrance to Sidcot and rattled down the spidery entrance tube with Cookie looking unsuccessfully for the entrance to Purgatory.
After negotiating the Letterbox and Tie Press we slid down the Lobster Pot and soon came to the watery end of the cave, despite this being a duck it appeared to be full of silt so would need digging out to get to the true end of the cave.
The accent of the Lobster Pot provided the usual array of sound effects but eventually all managed it without the use of the rope.
Just before the Letterbox Cookie and Yvette examined a left turn that succeeded I leading to Purgatory, whilst they where doing that Euan and I exited the cave and did a very quick entrance to entrance trip of Goatchurch which Euan hadn’t been down before, turning the evening into a three cave jaunt.
We retired to the Woodborough where we were joined by Andy and Rachel
— Lawrence Wilson 28/04/2024
Adam Fletcher, Andy Sparrow, David Cooke, Euan Goodland, Judi Durber, Lawrence Wilson, Peter Sanders, Rachel Sparrow, Will Puddy
Gary and Avril
All met up at the Burrington Inn, then lift shared up the very bumpy track to park at the UBSS hut, a very pleasant walk in spring sunshine to the always impressive entrance. Here we split with Andy, Rachel, Lawrence, Gary and Avril going in the dry entrance while the rest went via the Wet entrance before successfully bottoming out the cave at the sump.
Sliding our way in we abruptly arrived in the impressive Main Chamber before having a look in the once very pretty Grotto.
From here we had a good look around the Main Chamber but couldn’t find the way into Junction Chamber (wrong name?) the entrance has possibly been filled with debris, there are huge amounts of flood bebris newly deposited, presumably from the February floods.
Exiting via the Wet Entrance we walked over to Bath Swallet where we had a look at the top of the pitch. The other group weren’t far behind us so lift shared back and arrived at the Woodborough within a few minutes of each other.
Good to see so many members out for a Wednesday night’s caving
— Lawrence Wilson 28/04/2024
Andy Sparrow, Euan Goodland, Lawrence Wilson, Paul James, Will Puddy
Gary Powel
A very successful night’s digging with rapid progress (about a meter) made in the connection dig, we have now turned left which hopefully is heading straight for the top of the aven dig site, our spoil heap is quickly filling up, so all of this week’s spoil was podged onto the wall which presumably strengthened it quite a bit. Fingers crossed not far to go !?!?
— Lawrence Wilson 2/05/2024
Andy Sparrow, Gary Powell, Seán Tidey
Andy, Gary and I met at the Wessex at 7 and began the now familiar routine of heading to the dig.
On reaching the secrete streamway I climbed up to check out the last bang and begin removing the rock. What I was met with was quite a surprize. After previous bangs almost all the rock had been shattered into pieces not much bigger than a fist. These could easily be piled into the half barrel, pulled under the person at the face and dumped until the streamway was clear enough to begin drilling again. This time though the rock had shattered into 5 very large pieces, including some from the right hand wall (all the banging having been done in the left). This proved very hard to remove and involved slings, ropes and lots of profanities. The rock here has quite a lot of faults in causing this to happen. Eventually Andy and I got most of it out with just one whopper left slap in the middle. The plan is to tackle this with plug and feather on the next trip. We had been talking about creating a turning round space in the streamway at some point as so far its a case of wriggle in and wriggle backwards to get out. Inadvertently we have almost done this. Once we had removed as much as we were going to be able to it was time to start drilling. The clubs new 4AH drill battery made its debut and made short work of the rock, making two 60cm holes and still showing two lights on the battery! Andy and I swapped places so Andy could rig the bang. We then retreated to just below Castle Falls where Gary got the press “the button!”, making what sounded like a good explosion.
Standard exit procedure, no pub.
We will wait and see what next week brings.
Seán
— Seán Tidey 12/05/2024
Seán Tidey, Will Puddy, Yvette Mayo,
On a beautiful spring evening Will, Yvette and I met on Charterhouse rd north of Longwood. Before setting off we had the inevitable untangling and fitting of our SRT kits followed by the flaking of 150m of rope into two bags and the distribution of krabs and slings. By 7.30pm we set off with topo and key in hand and of course our helmets on our heads.
After a bit of searching we found the cave and Will and Yvette got to work on the padlock. There is about 5 minutes of crawling and sliding before you reach the top of the first pitch. From the top of the first pitch we could easily identify the direct and right hand-routes, as there was a CCC sign on the right-hand route confirming the bolts were CCC & CSCC placed and maintained. I set off rigging the RH route, starting with a short traverse to the first Y hang in a shallow rift. From here the first big pitch started, at first descending with feet on the wall but at the first deviation the wall went vertical and the decent became free hanging, something like 24m in total.
At the bottom, very far from any wall I spied a small, in-situ sling around a flake just above the entrance to a rift. At first I thought that's a very small sling for a deviation! Then it dawned on me, it was there to grab and allow the rigger to be able to get to the wall and therefore next bolts. With no wall in reach I started to swing and after a couple of mins of swinging and bouncing I managed to grab the sling, pull myself towards the wall and clip a very welcome bolt. I continued to rig, making a 5ish meter bridging, traverse through a rift to the top of the second pitch. Will and Yvette were now making their way down the first pitch.
Somewhere in this or on exiting this rift, and I have no idea how, I think I may have lost the RH route and ended up on the direct route as after another amazing free hanging pitch I arrived on the ledge at the top of pitch three (the sketchy boulder bit in the guide book) rather than hitting a rebelay at the top of three and getting all the way to the bottom of the cave without touching the ground. I had now used the two lengths of rope I had been carrying so set up camp on the ledge and waited for Will and Yvette who were now on the second pitch and waiting in the rift. We regrouped on the ledge and discussed the options, the amount and position of visible bolts making matters confusing. I eventually rigged a short traverse followed by a 23ish M non-freehanging abseil down to the floor.
After we all made it to the bottom of the cave, we had a couple of minutes of looking around but time was quickly marching on and we had an 11pm call out. Unable to put off ascending any longer I set off up the pitch, with Yvette behind and Will de-rigging. On the sketchy ledge Yvette swapped position with me and took point on the very bouncy pitch two. When Will arrived and de-rigged the bottom pitch I took the bag of rope and gave him the empty one and set off upwards!
All three of us I think it is fair to say found the free hanging ascents pretty hard work, mainly due to poor technique rather than fitness, defo the case for me. By the time I reached the rift Yvette was transitioning onto the first pitch, which was proving hard as I had not left anywhere near enough rope loop under the rebelay (thought I had loads when rigging but it all turned out to be rope stretch). Will caught me up in the rift as Yvette carried on up.
When I eventually slogged my way up to the top I took one bag with me and left Yvette to wait for Will while I dashed out of the cave to grab my phone and scramble into the field to get signal and cancel the call out, also to let people know we were not going to make last orders. When I got back to the top of the pitch Will had just finished de-rigging so, very hot, sweaty, and tired we made out way out of the cave, faffed again with the lock and ambled back to the cars for 11ish.
This was a fantastic and challenging trip, not to mention an excellent work out. Credit to Yvette for preforming like a seasoned SRT caver and Will for doing all the de-rigging and ascending with the extra weight of rope.
Although it would have been good to have more than three members of the club on the trip any more than three and we would have been very late. If we fancy going down again, perhaps after some training then either pre-rigging or rigging both routes could be an option.
Seán
— Seán Tidey 12/05/2024
David Cooke, Euan Goodland, Lawrence Wilson
Arrived in high spirits, got changed and walked across a couple of fields in gorgeous sunshine with deer and rabbits frolicking, full of the joys of spring. Oh my how things can change.
We identified an overgrown depression and beat our way through brambles and nettles to find a tiny stream that we followed to the very heavy gate that to our surprise didn’t need digging open.
The vast majority of this cave has been dug through loose boulders with lots of shoring evident throughout, metal still looks in good condition, the same can’t be said for the timbers.
We climbed down the natural entrance shaft on a fixed ladder then negotiated an awkward feet first crawl to descend a tight rift. At this point the small stream reappeared which was more of a minor annoyance than a problem. The cave is reminiscent of the nearby Hobnail Hole, clean washed through boulders.
Steeply descending through shored up boulders and numerous small grottoes we finally arrived at Inside Out Passage, the book describes this as a 10m hands and knees crawl leading to the top is Persistence Pot.
Sadly the stream has clearly been diverted or blocked so it now carries its silt into this horizontal passage that has filled to become a flat out crawl in stinking sludge. Half way along a slight enlargement enables you to nearly sit up whilst legs and bum disappear into the ooze. This is where the somewhat dodgey bolts are.
Much phaffing then ensued with Cookie unrolling two ladders, discovering one didn’t have C-links, dropping a mallion in the ooze, setting up a lifeline, feeding it all down the restricted pitch then finally turning around and crawling backwards to the pitch head.
As soon as Cookie disappeared over the lip much swearing was heard as the now stinking stream flowed straight into his face and continued to drench him for the entire 13m drop.
More phaffing as Euan moved past me and turned around to back over the lip, more colourful language as he also got drenched. Finally it was my turn, extracted myself from the ooze, turned around and over the lip……..oh yes a face full of gritty, smelly water. I couldn’t look up, around or barely down. Got to the bottom cold, wet, spluttering and only able to see out of one eye!
The other two investigated a wet crawl whilst I had had enough so self lifelined back up the ladder to resume my position sat in the ooze to lifeline them back up.
A comparatively swift derig as we pulled everything back to a small chamber where we could sit up and pack everything away.
We then rocketed out, dashed across the fields, changed and strictly adhered to the speed limits to arrive at the Hunters with minutes to spare.
If anyone fancies doing this cave again it would be much easier to set up everything in the “sitting up” chamber then pull the ladders and lifeline in behind you and feed it down the pitch whilst the second clips them into the bolts at the small enlargement. Probably best only done in a drought as well
Unless anyone else has a nomination this cave wins the much coveted “worst pitch head award” 2024 (and hopefully in perpetuity)
— Lawrence Wilson 26/05/2024
Andy Sparrow, Avril Rea, David Cooke, Euan Goodland, Gary Powell, Lawrence Wilson, Peter Sanders, Seán Tidey
Paul Stockall (potential new member)
Not raining which was a relief but got quite chilly in the wind. Much kitting up, going up and down, changing over etc.
Euan, Gary and Avril’s first ever SRT experience and all made great progress.
Many thanks to Andy, Cookie and Sean for their collective patience and guidance.
Retired to the Hunters to warm up
— Lawrence Wilson 26/05/2024
Euan Goodland
The trip started, as most SRT trips do, in the car park flaking rope and trying to untangle and then fit our STR harnesses. At the cave Seán rigged with Yvette and Will helping Euan as this was his first SRT trip. We fist rigged the direct route, Seán went to the bottom of this while Will set Euan up to do it. Will then set up the Right Hand route and came down with Yvette. Once we were all at the bottom it was decided that Euna would go up the RHR as it was a bit more complicated with its rebelay. Seán went up on the direct rout along side to try to help. After a bit of drama and phaffing at the rebelay (entirely Seán's fault) Euan past it and we started making out way out, with Will and Yevette de-rigging and repacking bags as they went.
After a successful trip, with fun had by all we returned to the car park to celebrate and congratulate Euan on his first SRT trip. We decided against the pub.
— Seán Tidey 20/06/2024
Seán Tidey
This was the last chance to make a breakthrough without Andy. Euan and Will jumped straight into the dig and cracked on, with Gary in charge of dealing with the spoil. I had a quick gander into the secrete streamway dig, which you can now turn round in! This was all expertly supervised by Cookie! As we had plenty of people I went to the dig at the at the top of the aven to see if he could hear Will and Euan. At 8:20pm, clear as a bell I could hear Will and Euan banging away at the other end. After banging back my self (there are not many decent rocks to bang against at that end) I started shouting and could clearly hear the others shouting back! AN AUDABLE CONECTION HAS BEEN MADE. I returned to the other end and we confirmed we could hear each other. After a bit more digging, a rock falling out of the ceiling and almost taking out Euan we headed to the hunters knowing we were and that a break though is defiantly imminent!
— Seán Tidey 20/06/2024
Andy Sparrow, David Cooke, Lawrence Wilson, Peter Sanders, Seán Tidey, Will Puddy
On Wednesday 26th Andy, Lawrence, Cookie, Will, Peter and I met at the Wessex with the intention of having a fairly leisurely exploration of the upper sections of the cavern, no ropes / SRT involved. Whilst walking out of the carpark Andy suggested going to have a look at the ‘Technical Masterpiece’. This sounded interesting. Cookie had tried to get there a couple of times with no luck, Andy I don’t think had been down it and the rest of us had only seen it on the survey and didn’t have a scooby doo! When Andy suggested we enter the cave in age / size order with him staying firmly at the back the alarm bells should have started ringing, but to me this made the ‘Technical Masterpiece’ sound like a short, tight, tricky feature that we would each have a go at and some may make it and others not, how wrong I was! The start of the trip was the standard Eastwater start following the string down to its end. From there instead of taking the 380 foot way as may normally would we followed Cookie down towards a sideways squeeze. Cookie had a go but tagged out and I went in first, this put me in the front of the line! We continued through this with the floor changing from gravel to concrete! We followed the concrete floor gently down until we reached the top of Mortons Pot, a short pot with some cable in the ceiling ( a remnant of the dig) which led us to an impressive, vertical dig, somewhere in the region of 30ft deep with a lot of wood and scaffolding on one side. There was a double rope hanging down the pitch (from a rusty pully) but integrity of this was unknow. I climbed down, what was a really tricky climb first, at the bottom the passage turns into a crawl and heads off “under” the scaffolding side. I waited for Cookie to come next but 2/3 of the way down the climb he decided it was too tricky of a freeclimb and started heading back up, his parting words were “that’s the Technical Masterpiece through there” and “that’s 3 times I’ve tried to get there now”. Peter made it down next and due to the lack of space I started through the fairly easy crawl into the TM. After a short headfirst belly crawl with a 90deg bend I came to a small pot. After 5 minutes of trying, I still couldn’t get into it feet first so I made Peter back up, to the bottom of the pitch and tried the whole thing again feet first that got me in easily. Peter quickly followed with Will behind. This was the start of the TM! With still no idea of how long or hard it was and whether anyone was behind Will I started heading down with Peter and Will following. The passage was a tight rift downhill stream passage with a small pot you could stand in every few meters. The main feature of the passage was there was no single technique / position you could use to get down. One moment you were right up by ceiling, on your side, 7ft above the floor at a 45-degree head down angle, the next you were down in the trickle of water on the floor going feet first dropping into a slightly bigger (two person pot). Every squeeze was different and required lots of thinking, trial and error and effort! Will, Peter and I continued down for a while until Will made the best decision of the evening and decided to turn back. This left just Peter and I to continue. Why did we continue when it was clear it was not the short, tight, tricky feature I thought it was in the beginning? I was still under the impression that the passage came out somewhere we knew and could get back to the surface from. A short look at the survey would have shown this was an error. The passage also had lots of 90 degree turns and there was always the thought that the end was just round the next corner. Finally, the challenge of seeing the next and the next and the next squeeze made me want to keep going and get through them. I don’t know if this was the same for Peter or whether he was blindly, loyal, following his club chairman assuming (wrongly) he knew what he was doing! After perhaps 45mins of this, during which we descended a long way, I eventually got to a squeeze that no matter how I tried it I could not pass. This was actually the best thing that could happen to us! If we had made it though we would have ended up in the Westend Series somewhere with the only way out involving large vertical pitches. After a bit of discussion between Peter and I, it was decided there was nothing for it but to turn around and head back up! By this time, I think our distinguished colleagues had made it out and decided the best course of action was to head to the pub! Petter and I continued, very slowly to head back up the TM the way we had come. I found this much more physically tiring than the way down (as we were going against gravity) but knowing we had done it all before and taking a slow and steady approach with plenty of mutual encouragement and help we progressed back to the bottom of the dig / pitch at 12am on the dot. The relief I felt when I realised we had made it to the bottom of the pitch and were out of the TM was substantial!! Peter and I, after catching our breath started the climb up (taking full advantage of the rope) and followed the concrete floor back to the squeeze where we retrieved our belts and found the guide rope to the entrance. We emerged at 12:30am precisely to see a relieved Andy, Lawrence, Will and Cookie. Cave rescue had been called out at around 12.10am but Lawrence quickly stood them down before anyone arrived as well as informing wives we were out and safe. We staggered back to the Wessex whilst explaining what had happened, where we had been and what the TM consisted of. Our energy levels were recharged with a Snickers from the Wessex and at about 1am we started making our individual ways home. I don’t know about Peter but I woke up on Thursday covered in bruises and just a little stiff! Although a very hard trip, with a bit of jeopardy thrown in, after a couple of days reflection I would defiantly class it as type 2 fun and something to tick of the caving bucket list. Peter was an absolute machine throughout and thanks to the rest of the team for dealing with everything on the surface.
— Seán Tidey 7/07/2024
Euan Goodland, Peter Hall, Seán Tidey, Will Puddy
Will, Peter, Euan and I met at a bit earlier than normal at 7pm expecting a longish trip to explore as much as Longwood as is possible in an evening. Lawrence, our resident Longwood expert had to cancel last minute which left the four of us a bit unsure of the route. Will, Peter and I had been down multiple times before but still really had no idea. After faffing with the lock for an age we very quickly got into the tight, vertical slides and squeezes that is the Longwood entrance. Euan I think led with me last with the kit. No problems were encountered until we reached the narrow left squeeze. The other three made it though pretty easily on their fronts but I for some reason couldn’t turn round and had to be guided through feet first like a like a lorry reversing! This led to a space big enough for all of us to lie / manoeuvre in. Euan, at the front was the first to come across the small but awkward pitch. Lying on my back I awkwardly set a hand line up around a pillar and sild it down to him and Euan led us down the pitch. Once down we could at last stand in a roomy chamber. The sound of the stream was strong with water running down the far right of the chamber and another clear route to the left. As the aim of the trip was to reach the main stream way I got down into the water and looked for a potential path. Getting down on my side I looked round the corner and could see two 90deg thin turns. Looking very unappealing I (wrongly) unanimously decided this was not the way. Heading the other way we found ourselves in the great chamber. An odd looking chamber as everything, all the formations and rock was very dark, even compared to the chamber with the stream. We had a quick gander round here while Will and Euan continued on. I tried to explore up a flowstone shoot with an old peg in it but to no avail. Will and Euna reappeared from the corner of the chamber. Thire description of the next bit of the cave was passage leading to massive hole in the floor that looked impassable without rope (turns out it could be traversed) After a bit of discussion and none of us having any clue the correct way on we decided discretion was the better part of valour and started heading back up. I climbed up the pitch holding the rope first and set a ladder up for the others. When we were all up into the lying down space Will very awkwardly rolled the ladder and we started making our way back up, which like always was much quicker than you expect. After faffing with the lock again and walking back to the cars (with our helmets on). The evening finished with a quick a trip to the Woody. It was discussed at the beginning that just assuming someone would know the way was lazy and a bit irresponsible and that perhaps more effort should be put in to getting surveys / reading descriptions by all team members.
— Seán Tidey 5/08/2024
Euan Goodland, Paul James, Seán Tidey, Will Puddy
Paul Stockall
After a change of schedule, it was decided to postpone Thrupe Lane and do one of the best trips on Mendip instead. Meeting on Priddy Green at 7.30 we quickly got changed and headed to the cave. This would be Euan's first trip past the twenty! There was not much water in the stream, probably the average for the time of year. Entering into the cave I took the wet way with others I think taking the short dry. Rapidly, without faff we made our way to the 20', set up ladder and life line and all, without drama made it to the bottom. We continued on at a brisk pace, not too fast that Euan couldn’t admire the cave but with the pub always at the back of our minds. Climbing up to see the Bishops Palace, we made it to sump 1 with no dramas. The sump was not a perfect sump but still had plenty of water in. Lying down in the water provided the usual profanities from all. Euan went through with the same confidence and gusto he has shown throughout his fledgling caving career! Once through we continued past the landing down to sump 2. As sump 2 was not a perfect sump either, at least at the start we all got down and had a ganders, even with an air gap it did not look very appealing! The noose tied in the end of the rope was also an ominous omen. There was a lot of small air bottles stacked at the upstream side of the sump, suggesting that there is a regular group going through 2. After a bit of chatting, we turned round and headed back. Entrance to sump 2 and back, 1 hour 50. Hunters to finish.
— Seán Tidey 5/08/2024
Andy Sparrow, Seán Tidey
On the afternoon of Friday 26th July and the morning of Sunday 4th August Andy and I have been down to the dig in Sludge to make some progress with the hope of breaking through before the Wessex 90th anniversary on the 17th August. The main aim of the two sessions was to take out boulders blocking the dig and stopping us being able to dig at the 45deg angle Cookie's survey suggests. Therefore allowing for rapid progress on the 14th Aug when its club digging night. On the 26th we went in with the drill and the plug and feathers and had a successful afternoon filling 14 bags with both spoil and broken rock / boulder. Deciding the mud wall was about at its limit we left the bags for the next trip while we pondered what to do with the spoil. On Sunday 5th the first thing we did was empty the 14 bags into the hole / rubble tip underneath the secrete streamway dig. Then getting back to the dig face we pressed on taking it in turns to dig, but with Andy definitely doing most of the work. This session was a constant mix of easy digging interrupted by big boulders that needed drilling, plug and feathers and chiselling. We made good progress and as well as going down cleared rock from the direction we ultimately need to head. There is now room to dig and fill bags in the hole and the hole is about a meter deep. After three hours we were down to our last battery light on the drill and had filled and emptied another 21 bags and multiple buckets of boulder chunk. There is still some large boulder in the base of the hole so we intend to have another session of boulder removal before the 14th. The digging is amazingly easy between boulders with a bag being filled in only a couple of minutes. The plug and feathers is also really efficient at breaking up the boulders. Breakthrough imminent!
— Seán Tidey 5/08/2024
Andy Sparrow, David Cooke, Peter Sanders
I've always been intrigued to see if the connection from Hillwithy to Hillier's is open.
With Andy's help the entrance was located without much difficulty. At Chert Chamber Andy then left us to join the other group possibly because the continuation was low and muddy rather than the spacious passage it had been. The way on wasn't his squalid as we had been led to believe with only a couple of puddles that you had to get to close and personal with. Largely following our nose we arrived at the boulder choke.
Cookie squirmed through the bottom but no continuation could be found. Had it collapsed? We had noted a vertical climb up out of the passage and into boulders some 15 meters before the boulder choke. Consulting the guidebook and local experts this is probably where we should have gone. We turned around and headed back to the entrance and then to join the other team in Balch Cave.
The connection remains elusive.
— David Cooke 24/11/2024
David Cooke, Euan Goodland, Gary Powell, Seán Tidey, Will Puddy, Yvette Mayo
Paul Stockal
The grand Sludgepit round trip! This has been the cumulation of all the clubs digging efforts over the last couple of years and plenty of individual work by Andy. The team congregated at the Wessex and set off to the cave at just after 7.30pm, with Cookie catching us up. Everyone was in full SRT kit apart from Garry who was going for the minimalist belt, sling and ascender. Yvette rigged the entrance pitch and led us down into the cave. Once Yvette, Seán, Paul and Euan were down we decided to set off into two groups. We were trying to complete the new round trip Andy has made, therefore we had to find 15 laminated numbers placed around the cave. After leaving the entrance chamber we found number 1 and set off. 1-4 was some really tight squeezy bits, that we had not visited much, if at all before (as it was not on the way to the dig). Some challenging traversing in a rift led us to the second crossroads, which went into skeleton passage / series and eventually to a simple traverse line and into the dig chamber. Passing more ChCC info signs telling other cavers the name and dates of the dig we slid down the new knotted handline going through Fusion passage to the top of Avon Pitch. The slow progress through the squeezes before the dig chamber meant Will, Cookie and Garry were not far behind. Euan led us down Avon pitch to the streamway, and we headed up to Link pitch and Yvette started making her way up followed by Euan and Paul. Seán skipped it out by heading to 13 and climbing through the roof to meet the others at the top. Will and Cookie were still behind with Garry taking his own route in places and getting lots of good photos. We all made it through the now spacious Link and soon found ourselves at the new travers, none of us had done this before. Using our cows tails we slowly made it across a really fab travers that everyone should try. Garry was below us taking photos. This led us back to the streamway via a small abseil at the end. Then we headed down to 12 & 13 where we climbed up into the ceiling, very close to the top of Link pitch. We headed away from the pitch through some very high level passages to 14 which took us out into an area with a very neat wall from a previous dig, and various passages we had to explore until we decided that they were all dead ends. Turns out 15 involved doing a 180 above our heads. After finding 15 we had no idea where to go but soon started to hear and see voices and feet that we headed towards and popped out under the entrance pitch rope having completed the SPH round trip! We climbed / ascended out the pitch ambled back to the Wessex and then to the Hunters. A really fantastic trip with almost everything, SRT, traverses, squeezes and some fun route finding. Fun had by all.
— Seán Tidey 7/09/2024
David Cooke, Euan Goodland, Gary Powell, Seán Tidey, Will Puddy
Paull Stockall
An always surprising cave in its size and prettiness, if not in the conventional manner (see pics on FB). Entering past the used fire extinguisher and other detritus in the entrance we all headed off to explore on our own. Most of the cave is walking passage with crawls and squeezes between. We had a couple of GH bats for company. Unbeknown to most of us there is a lower level to Browns Hole. Once Cookie had mention this who else but Euan had to go and explore. So, while most of us continued to wonder round he disappeared into the mud! Cookie, Garry and I explored the old dig with the remains of the wooden railway in and then exited through the other entrance. Although most of the upper cave can be explored in half an hour the beautiful marbling of the rock, reminiscent of Wagyu beef makes it really worth a look. Contact Euan for info about the lower section. Seán 27/09
— Seán Tidey 27/09/2024
David Cooke, Euan Goodland, Gary Powell, Seán Tidey, Will Puddy
Paul Stockall
After getting pretty muddy down Browns Hole a cleaning session in SLS was required. We approached the main entrance with some trepidation due to the recent amount of rain and could hear the entrance well before we could see it. The stream was well and truly coming in the entrance and after a bit of discussion on whether going in was a good idea or not Paul got into the water and led the way. I followed with Euan and Cookie behind. This first bit was really good fun in the water, and you could really feel the current pushing down. Worryingly we decided that if any of it was going to sump (if level increased) it would be right at the entrance. I would describe it as the thoroughly good fun, the water was really “warm” and there were several more streams joining us as we progressed. We set out with the aim of making sump 1 as its a bit of an infamous one, but soon realised we would be lucky to get that far. After 15 mins or so the water split into two streams, both of which immediately sumped, somewhere before Nutmeg Grater. This was our que to turn around and start heading back. We passed a rock that on the way out we noted the water was just lapping over and now was just below. This allayed or fears of the water rising whilst we were in there. Fun was had by all in a great cave. We firstly tried to get into the Oak House but, despite people being in their drinking the doors were locked. So on Euan's recommendation we debriefed at the Thatched Cottage in Shepton. Check out the club Facebook page for pictures videos. Seán 27/09/24
— Seán Tidey 27/09/2024
Andy Sparrow, Avril Rea, David Cooke, Euan Goodland, Gary Powell, Lawrence Wilson, Rachel Sparrow, Seán Tidey, Will Puddy, Yvette Mayo
Paul Stockal
Having been down to sump two only a couple of weeks earlier this trip was a “do and go where you fancy trip”, but also with the aim of getting Garry and Avril down the 20'. Yvette, Will, Paul and Euan I think headed off to the top of the old 40' to rig an abseil and have some SRT fun. Not too sure what else they got up to but I think it included abbing down, SRTing up and even trying to free climb all the way up! Andy, Rach, Lawrence, Seán, Avril and Garry headed to the 20'. Avril and Garry had been Swildon's somewhere in the region of 50 times but never down the 20' so this was going be a big trip for them. Avril had only done her first ladder in SPH a couple of weeks before. Seán rigged the 20' and one by one started lowering people down until we were all successfully down. The team headed off down the stream way. Andy was less than helpful to Avril and Garry when it came to the Double Pots (see Facebook photos) making sure they got the true Swildon's experience! Most of the team headed up to Barns Loop to have a ganders, which is a far as we got on this tip. Seán headed back to the pitch to re-rig it and be ready to get people up. The rest of the team arrived and started climbing back up. With plenty of cheering and encouragement Avril and Garry made it up without incident like a pair of pros! At a leisurely pace we all started heading out the cave, picking up the 40' team on the way. We took various ways out of the cave, then back to the green and to the pub. A great tip for all. A & G getting down the ladder and others exploring the rarely used 40'.
— Seán Tidey 7/09/2024
Andy Sparrow, Euan Goodland, Paul Stockall, Seán Tidey, Will Puddy, Yvette Mayo
We all met at 10am on a beautiful (almost too beautiful for caving) autumn morning in the car park next to the SWCC hut. We all went to the club hut to have a gander at whopping great survey that spans the whole width of hut. With the two teams already planned we looked at the survey to get an idea of the route and the scale of the cave. After finishing getting changed the Cwm Dwr team (Andy, Seán, Euan, Paul, Will & Yevette) took the short walk to the entrance, while the OFD1 team (Laurance, Steph, Rachel, Avril, Garry) to the 30minute ish walk to OFD1. The Cwm Dwr entrance has a bit of a reputation for being tight, long and more or less horrible and we were all thinking about this as we started but it turns out it was no where near as hard as any of us remembered or imagined. We crawled out of Cwm Dwr into massive passages where your torch light seemed to disappear, instantly on a different scale to anything we see regularly on Mendip. We were now on the hunt for a boulder choke that we had to find our way through. Once we got there, we followed the most worn / polished route and got through with little difficulty. This led to more massive passage with fantastic features, features that would have been the highlight of most caves but in the vastness of OFD were just another stall. Navigation in this part of the cave was really tricky. Andy took a back seat and let the rest of us find our way. We had the survey for most of our route on several A4 sheets. The key is to ALWAYS know where you are at all times, rather than only getting the survey out when either your lost or you get to a junction. With a cris cross of massive passages parts of the survey look like a map of an American city. We soon found our way to the diver’s pitch. A spectacular waterfall falling down flowstone with a thick hemp rope. I freeclimbed up and set up an anchor and belay and belayed the rest of the team up. This led to probably the smallest, squeezyest part of the cave so far. This led, if my memory serves me correctly to the fantastic on your back squeeze exiting over a massive drop that you need the chain above you to get out (see FB pics).
From here we were into OFD 1 territory and soon started seeing other cavers and groups, we had seen no one else so far. The others were not waiting for us on the rocking boulder as had been the very tentative / hopeful plan. We carried on through some water (the first real water we had been though), up the shiny new staples (see FB pics) until we reached the wire travers. We found out through chatting to a commercial group in front of us that the other ChCC team were somewhere ahead of them. After a bit of a wait on the travers and loosing Andy who shot off to try and catch the others we slid down a chain into the streamway for a short distance (some of us, Euan, getting wetter than others) then quickly bumped into the others at last at the junction of the streamway and the entrance / exit of the high level / wire travers route. Hellos, handshakes and stories of the journey so far were quickly shared. A couple of us went off to do another lap of short section of streamway and then both teams headed to the exit and emerged, tired, wet but utterly triumphant into beautiful Welsh afternoon sunshine! We all headed back to the car park at our own paces. Then, after some more stories, that were probably already becoming more and more dramatic we retired to the Ancient Britton for a debrief. A fantastically successful trip all round.
Apologies for any errors above regarding order of things / routs / descriptions etc. I was not taking notes.
— Seán Tidey 7/11/2024
David Cooke, Euan Goodland, Lawrence Wilson, Paul Stockall, Will Puddy, Yvette Mayo
All met in the car park and walked up the West Twin Brook that has been significantly scoured out following a recent storm.
Worming down the entrance tube and through the Letterbox squeeze we turned immediately right into the Purgatory series via an awkward feet first corkscrew and a short crawl.
Surprisingly here we could stand up and follow a number of fairly roomy rifts, after examining a number of possible dig sites and climbing up into a substantial boulder choke we examined a beautiful phreatic tube that ran along one of the rifts at roof level in one direction and to an abrupt apparently dead end the other.
We returned by the same route, the corkscrew squeeze proving a lot harder on the way out particularly if you are tall (well that’s my excuse anyway!) An impressive collection of juicy spiders were enjoyed by most on the way out.
Who would have thought that there was so much more cave in Sidcot than the normal tourist route, definitely worth a visit. Debriefed at the Woodborough
— Lawrence Wilson 19/11/2024