THRUPE LITE EXTRA
Some current Mendip cave excavations.
Latest addition: 27-Sep-2006
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THRUPE LITE EXTRASome current Mendip cave excavations.Latest addition: 27-Sep-2006 |
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This dig started out as a conventional excavation of a relatively small and unremarkable depression or hollow in the ground. However, it has developed a degree of mechanisation and sophistication which is quite without precedent in the history of Mendip cave digging. The digging team have excavated a vertical rift to a (current) depth of about two hundred feet.
( Clive North )
The joint architects and implementors of the dig, Dave
Morrison (L) and Jim Young (R).
( Clive North )
Looking down the shaft from the level of the rock bridge
(1st gantry). The second gantry level can
be seen below and the guides for the skip haulage can be seen
running down the shaft from the top right of the photograph.
 ( Clive North ) |
 ( Clive North ) |
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Dave Morrison and Jim Young working to extend
the steelwork at the bottom of the shaft (February 2005).
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 ( Clive North ) Looking up from the shaft bottom, the daylight shredded by a mass of steelwork. |
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2: Rose Cottage Cave |
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Tony Jarratt - digging is such hard work ! |
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 Tony Jarratt, drilling a boulder in the Connection Dig. Enlarge |
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 04-JULY-2005 Enlarge Tony Jarratt, at the end of Bored of the Rings passage, filling bags with spoil. The spoil is being dug out from the Connection Dig by Fiona Crozier who is out of sight below, (but still audible). |
04-JULY-2005 Enlarge Rich Witcombe, at the upper end of BOTR passage, emptying the skip that he has just hauled up. |
 18-JULY-2005 Enlarge Looking straight down into the Connection Dig. Temporary timber shoring is supporting a keystone boulder. |
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 07-DEC-2005 Enlarge |
 07-DEC-2005 Enlarge |
| Dowsing round Rose Cottage Cave. The process is being filmed by a television crew for a new "Secret Underground" series. The series should appear on ITV West sometime in February 2006. | |
 07-DEC-2005 Enlarge Chris Searle, honing his dowsing skills by the Belfry. Gavin Newman behind the camera. |
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 ( Tony Jarratt 11-Jan-2006 ) Tony's sketch survey of the extent of the cave. |
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2a: Rose Cottage Shaft |
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For some time there had been a suspicion that water from the sink did not appear in the cave. To test this, water tracing was carried out on 9th January 2006. Green dye was put into the entrance shaft and red dye into the nearby sink. The green dye was traced through the cave, but the red did not appear. It looked like a good idea to have another prod at the sink. |
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 16-Jan-2006 Enlarge Digging at the sink. Tony, pointing out the way on to Henry Bennett. |
 16-Jan-2006 Enlarge [This link was broken, it's now fixed (26 May) - sorry folksT.A.] Henry, enjoying himself at the start of the dig. |
 16-Jan-2006 Enlarge Late afternoon. The hole is now one Jarrat deep (approx. 1 fathom) and needs a tripod. |
 16-Jan-2006 Enlarge Tony, at the bottom of the hole. Solid rock can be seen bottom right. |
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By the end of the day, a pit, roughly one metre square and two(ish) metres deep had been excavated down to the rock. At this point it was dark and cold and there was no obvious way on at the bottom. Before leaving, the hose was dropped into the hole and the stream allowed to flow in. The next day (17th Jan), there was standing water in the bottom of the hole, but it was definitely sinking and Jane went to check again. She found that water from the sink was indeed flowing into the cave at BOTR passage. Unfortunately, during the dye test, the red dye had been swamped by the green. Oh well, better luck next time. |
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 02-Mar-2006 Enlarge |
 02-Mar-2006 Enlarge |
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In February, Tony went off to look for caves in sunny Meghalaya, India, leaving the Rose Cottage Dig to to shiver under snow in the English winter. (He ought to be ashamed). |
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25
September 2006 |
(CLICK ON
IMAGES TO ENLARGE) Looking down the 5m shaft (Jrat at the bottom).  ¾ down the shaft.  The digging face at the bottom of the shaft. |
Last modified: 23-Jun-2007
