Saturday 26th October 2024

John Cooper, Pete Hann, Sarah Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Finished setting up the working platform and the hauling pulley. Rescued 1 fat frog and a newt. 33 loads of spoil, mud and earth, hauled out. Spoil transported to fill another hole about 100m away. Finds today include 1 liniment bottle and 1 hand torch. Need to take a longer hauling rope across. 2½ hour. John.

Rescued Frog. Photo SH.

Rescued Newt. Photo SH.

Working, AV, JV, JC. Photo SH.

Bottom. Photo KL.

Saturday 19th October 2024

Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence and Adrian Vanderplank. Another length of scaffolding and ladder taken over to the dig. Whilst Pete was adding the scaffolding piece to the base structure, Adrian, Kate and Nigel went down the ladder, with Kate and Nigel going down the slope to view the horizontal rift. Both Kate and Nigel had an entertaining time climbing back to the bottom of the ladder, muddy and slippery! A few more poles, putlocks and scaffold boards required and hopefully next week we can start digging! Adrian.

Saturday 12th October 2024

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence and Adrian Vanderplank. Surface setting up. Stile over barbed wire fence completed and loose barbed wire collected up to remove trip hazard. Two long scaffold poles placed horizontally over the hole to provide anchor point for pulley. Start made on creating platform to give easy access to lip of pot. Very large frog rescued and placed in safer location! Rain shower stopped play. 2 hours. John.

Men at work. Photo KL.

Checking builder's ladder. Photo KL.