Sunday 29 September 2013

Swanage Stone Quarrs, Bell Vue Quarr No1 and South Townesend Quarr.

When:  29 Sept 2013  15.00 – 17.00 pm.
Where:  Swanage Stone Quarrs
Who:    Darren T,Rich T, Oz, Rubberduck and Moleman.


Full report to be posted soon.

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Lloyd Hall, Gough's Cave, Cheddar Gorge.

When:  25 Sept 2013  20.00 – 22.00 pm.
Where:  Lloyd Hall, Gough's Cave, Cheddar Gorge.
Who:    Darren T, C Castle. N Dennis, S Clegg, S Tidey, A Sparrow, R Sparrow, Max and J Durber.

Lloyd Hall is a subterranean river chamber in the depths of Goughs Showcave, not accessible to the general public. We assembled outside and got changed into our gear, some of our group opted to abseil and some were going to climb the rickety fixed ladder to the divers platform in the chamber.  Chris went on ahead to do some rigging as we faffed about in the showcave.  Andy advised that it would probably be best if we split into to groups as there would be a lot of waiting at the pitch if everyone went at the same time.  It so happened that all the girls in the group went off and did the X-tream caving circuit, which is a 1 and a half  hour caving taster trip around some of the less accessible parts of the cave http://www.cheddargorge.co.uk/x-treme/adventure-caving.
 We then climbed round one of the pools on show and disappeared behind it, over a few boulders and into the bedding plane.  Its an uphill crawl with about a foot of room from floor to ceiling, this opens out into a chamber with the rift to the right which is the way down to Lloyd Hall.  As Andy Judi and myself were going to traverse along the rift to the ladder we went first.  Max and Sean were abseiling down.  It was quite good fun traversing along a rift using your feet to push yourself against the wall behind you with a forty foot drop to the water below.  Don't think even a stick person could fall down though, as the rift got tighter the further down it went.  Once on the ladder it was a longish climb down to the wooden platform that is the divers platform where you would need to put your diving gear on if you want to explore this cave anymore.  The water level was very low and you could see the different colour to the rock where the level has sometimes been.  This was some 12 feet or so above where we were.  The water is from an underground river which resurges outside the entrance to the cave further down the road.
 We sat and waited for Sean and Max to abseil down to us.  After 3/4 of an hour or so it was time to climb the ladder back to the top.  We regrouped and then the girls arrived.  They wanted to go down to the chamber so went back to the showcave to do the X-tream caving circuit.  The bedding plane was fun sliding down head first into the puddle at the bottom.  If you fancy spending £20.00 on an exciting challenge then have a go at the adventure caving in Goughs Cave as its a good introduction to the sport of caving.  Thanks to Chris for organising this trip and maybe we can do the Hairy Ring sometime.

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Wednesday 4 September 2013

Monkton Farleigh Quarry (Brown's Folly Mine).

When:  4 Sept 2013  19.30 – 21.15 pm.
Where: Monkton Farleigh Quarry (Brown's Folly Mine).
Who:    Darren T, Rich T.

Last minute change of plan as we were supposed to do a photo trip to Hilliers cave to find the Red Room and the infamous Red Stall.
 Due to lack of interest from our club members we decided to go to Browns Quarry and have a look at the good work Mr Brian C has been doing to tidy the place up.  Its been nearly a year since we were last there as we used this place to get cave fit again after my eight month layoff with a broken foot.
 This is the underground Quarry that first got us interested in underground exploration. We will never tire of exploring it as its got over 20 km of passage ways and part of it was used by the MOD to store Ammunition and Explosive Shells during the Second World War.  The quarry was known as CAD 3 (Central Ammunition Depot No 3).  It was split up into storage districts.  Unfortunately you can no longer access most of these parts as they belong to a secure storage company.  However every now and then some parts do become available for exploration, but that's another story perhaps not for today!
 The old parts are easy to access and so it was to these we went.  We parked and got kitted up and walked to the entrance hole, as always its a bit muddy.  We decided to follow the main tourist route we wanted to see the work that has been done.  The walls etc are now probably in the condition they were when the MOD took it over and evicted the Quarrymen in the 30s, graffiti free apart from the scribbling's laid down by the Quarrymen over the last 150 years or so.
 We continued down Longs Passage into Clapham Junction then down Clapham Passage into Prop Chamber.  Railway Passage takes you to the Square Well and the Ferret Cage, said to be used to keep ferrets in by a Quarryman as his wife wouldn't have them at home.
We returned to Clapham Junction and took some pictures.  Then we went down Clapham Passage the other way and had a look at the three troughs but they were empty of water due to the hot summer. After a while sitting and chatting we made our way out.  At the end of a passage we noticed a hole that we had not seen before, I crawled through and followed  a passage for some distance not sure where this led as we were close to the old storage districts.  I returned and vowed to come back with my survey as this had been left at home as we had not planed to come here tonight.

 Clapham Junction.
Clapham Junction.
Three Water Troughs. 
Square Well.
WW2 Ammo Cases and other bit and pieces.
 
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