Saturday 30th August 2025

John Cooper, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Heavy showers forecast from noon onwards so started an hour earlier today. Initially installed a short middle section of ladder by fixing it to the walls either side. Then Pete went to the bottom and dug out 10 loads of spoil. He also sent up 2 newts for rehoming but the toad was too quick for him, vanishing into the pool in the original dig. One mix of cement then sent down in two buckets for Pete to start wall building. He decided he needed far more rock than was available so, as the forecast rain was now coming in, that was it for the day. Whilst ladder installation and wall building was going on the scaffold frame was rearranged. Pete was very impressed by the depth Kate had reached. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 23rd August 2025

John Cooper, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Another rather warm day but at least no real sun. Once Kate was at the bottom the bottom ladder was moved away from the wall end. One frog rehomed, then 40 loads of mud hauled out. At the end John went down to break up some rocks but after hauling out the first bit it was decided to leave the remainder and have a wall building session next week. A short length of ladder was taken across and it was decided it would fit nicely onto Pete’s wall end to cover the gap between the top and bottom ladders. Next week should be a consolidation session rather than another deepening session. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 16th August 2025

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence and Adrian Vanderplank. Another rather warm day but at least a bit of breeze today. Once Kate was at the bottom the bottom ladder was removed and passed over to Nigel for his strengthening straps to be fitted. Initially Kate sent up 2 frogs for rehoming. 40 loads of mud and 1 load of rocks were hauled out today. Nigel’s work on the ladder was interrupted at loads 10, 20 and 30 so he could go over the stile and empty the small buckets into the big tractor bucket. By load 30 he had finished work on the ladder so was able to help carrying the loads up the shakehole. Finally the bottom ladder was reinstalled so Kate could get out. The gap between the ladders grows larger each week! 2 hours. John.

Original survey modified with comments. JC.

Saturday 9th August 2025

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Cloudy and cool to start but more sun and warmer as the afternoon progressed. Once Kate was at the bottom the lower ladder was moved to the North end and 1 newt was sent to the surface for rehoming. 40 loads of mud were then dug out which went in the tractor’s large bucket and 2 loads of rock added to the rock pile. The lower ladder was reinstalled and Kate came out. The top and bottom ladders no longer overlap, the top rung on the bottom ladder is a step below the bottom rung of the top ladder. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 2nd August 2025

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Cloudy and cool to start but more sun and warmer as the afternoon progressed. Once Jude and Kate were at the bottom the lower ladder was removed. Today 1 frog, and 1 newt were sent to the surface for rehoming. 40 loads of mud were then dug out which went in the tractor’s large bucket. The lower ladder was reinstalled and Jude and Kate came out. Nigel spent some time measuring up reinforcements for the bottom ladder which bends at the join at present. 2 hours. John.