Tuesday 9th June 2026

John Cooper, Kate Lawrence, Wayne Starsmore, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Cool today, 15°C but with the wind it felt colder. John arrived early and went down to drill holes. 5 x 12mm diameter holes 800mm long drilled. Adrian then descended and charged them with 40gm cord. The bottom ladder was raised a bit so should not get damaged. Really need to sort this out to prevent it catching. Should now be some rocks to haul out. 3 hours. John.

Saturday 6th June 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Cool today, 12°C but with the wind and rain it felt more like 6°C. Adrian to the bottom first with his new drill which he used in chisel mode to start with. Then he switched to his old drill and used pfs to split rocks which were hauled out. Kate went down to join him and help remove mud from around the rocks. Total for the day was 13 loads of rocks and 10 loads of mud. In addition 1 frog, 1 newt and assorted critters rehomed. 2½ hours. John.

Looking South. Photo KL.

Looking North-West. Photo KL.

Saturday 30th May 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Warm and sunny, 24°C, on surface today with a very slight breeze. John lowered the bottom ladder until it reached the floor then descended to check the results of Monday’s bang. (There was a gap between the bottom ladder and middle ladder of 50cm.) The bang had not done as much as hoped for. The ledge on the left had been lowered but still needs another 50cm taking off it. Also the main bang had not removed as much to the South as hoped for. John removed a few loose bits from the East wall then positioned the base of the ladder firmly on the floor. He ascended, checking the amount of overlap within the bottom ladder. Once on the surface the bottom ladder was raised to the surface and adjusted so the bottom rung of the top part was firmly attached to the top rung of the bottom part. The lengthened ladder was then lowered. Kate was lifelined down and strapped the bottom ladder to the middle ladder with a one rung overlap. She then sent up 18 loads of mud, 25 loads of rocks, 2 frogs, 1 newt and an assortment of other critters. At the end John descended to check what needed doing next. Probably a bit of capping and pf work then think again. The bottom rung of the bottom ladder was level with John’s knee at the end of the session and is again hanging from the middle ladder! 3½ hours. John.

Monday 25th May 2026

John Cooper, Pete Hann and family, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Clare and Wayne Starsmore delivery team. Kate down to do some before photos. John then replaced her using his drill to prepare holes for Adrian. Adrian then descended and filled some of the holes before coming out. The bottom ladder was raised to prevent it getting damaged. Need to see if it can be lengthened on Saturday. 2½ hours. John.

Saturday 23rd May 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Warm and sunny, 20°C, on surface today. Kate down to do some before photos. John then replaced her using his drill in chisel mode. After a while he was replaced by Adrian with caps and pfs. Once some spoil had built up he was joined by Kate to load the buckets. When Adrian had had enough he was replaced by Jude. Jude and Kate then loaded up more spoil. Finally John went down to see what work was required to make it a diggable size. 22 loads of rock and 6 loads of mud today. 4 hours. John.

View down to South. Photo KL with AV's camera.

Close up. Photo KL with AV's camera.

Video looking South by KL.