Saturday 6th December 2025

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Showers today but temperature up a bit at 10°C. Kate and Jude at the bottom for the first 20 buckets then Adrian replaced Jude for the next 20. In addition 6 loads of rocks were hauled out. Kate took some pictures looking under Pete’s wall at the end of the session. 2½ hours. John.

Grotto. Photo KL.

Photo KL.

Chlamys Midas? Photo KL. 

Saturday 29th November 2025.

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Cold but dry today. Jude and Kate to the bottom to start with. After 20 buckets of mud and a few of rock sent up Adrian replaced Jude. Took down P/F and capping kit. Then more buckets of rock and another 10 buckets of mud sent up. Adrian was enlarging the rift to the South, underneath Pete’s wall. A total of 15 loads of rock for the session. 2½ hours. John.

Saturday 22nd November 2025

John Cooper, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Cold and wet, raining, today so just a short fettling session. Kate went to the bottom to see if any urgent repairs required but she reported all OK. Adrian then used plug & feathers on a bulge sticking out on the top section. Once removed the top ladder was repositioned. Whilst Adrian was working on this the rest of us cleared the existing rocks from the shakehole and left them on the heap outside. 1 hour. John.

Saturday 15th November 2025

John Cooper, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Cooler again, 12°C, but dry with a slight breeze following yesterday’s heavy rains. Kate at the bottom to report the boards had failed to hold the mud wall so they were moved aside and mud/slop removal started. After 20 heavy loads had been hauled out there was a rest break whilst the right hand side of the middle ladder was bolted to the wall using a short strut. Hauling then resumed. At 35 loads a halt was called as the large bucket was deemed to be full. 3 loads of rocks had also been hauled out. At the end of the session Adrian went down to check on how the securing of the retaining boards could be achieved. A plan for next week was devised. In addition it was thought a shaving off from the top pitch where the ladder touches the left wall would give a better placement and also move it further away from the haul line. 2 hours. John.

Large bucket deemed full. Photo PH.

Scarlet waxcap. Photo PH.

Saturday 8th November 2025

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence and Adrian Vanderplank. Cool again, 10°C, but sunny with a slight breeze. Sorting out ladders was the plan for today. Initially John hung a 10.3m electron ladder down fastened to the scaffold bar adjacent to the pulley. The bottom rung was still about 3m from the floor! John descended and used the hauling line to attach to the top of the bottom ladder. This was hauled up a bit so the tape joining the bottom and middle ladders together could be removed. Then undid the bolts holding the middle ladder in place. The top bolt could be knocked in to release the ladder but the bottom two could not so Adrian descended and cut through them using a reciprocating saw. The now free section was carried to the surface out of the way. Locations for fixing the previous bottom ladder in as the new middle ladder were then identified before it was hauled to the surface for drilling. Unfortunately both are on the left. It was then lowered back down and the spot on the wall where the top anchor was to go identified and drilled. The top fixing was then loosely installed. Using the electron ladder’s bottom rung it was just possible to descend and mark then drill the bottom fixing. This was loosely installed. A new section from a double extending ladder was then lowered down to become the new bottom ladder. At the end of the day Pete ensured the fixings were tightened up. We still need to put in a bracket to hold the right hand side of the ladder securely in place. Kate was then sent to the bottom to dig out mud that had slumped in. After a while Pete went down to make sure she was excavating a suitable base for the retaining wall, I think he had to keep her focused a few times! We lowered a piece of plastic board and a stronger wooden piece for Pete to use as a retaining wall in the hope it would stop the mud slumping in too much. Unfortunately Pete’s batteries all died and he was unable to securely fix them to the walls. There was a mutiny at 30 buckets of mud and 2 of rock. 3 hours. John.