Author: mendipgeoarch

Report by Vince

Vince, Jake, Jon, Nick and Tav.

A bigger team tonight and good to see Jake back after his flat maintenance stint.

It was the usual warm trip through Chamber 20 to the dig. The thing is, by the time you arrive at the dig you are warm, very warm, then, straight into swinging the mattock and loading the loosened sediment into the bucket. And you feel the need to work quickly as those team members waiting might become impatient, well that’s the perception.

Jake was digging, I cleared away the filled buckets and passed them up to Tav at the top of the sand pit. Tav transferred the buckets into the skip, which was hauled upslope to the spoil dispersal area, this was being managed this evening by Jon and Nick.

As the session progressed Jake got warmer and warmer, so we swapped places, my turn to warm-up, not that I was particularly cool anyway. More buckets filled, rocks battered with the sledgehammer, all removed to the spoil heap.

There was some discrepancy regarding total number of loads removed, but 77 was the figure we stuck to as it has some symmetry to it. A good productive session and we were all ready for the pub for some well-earned refreshments!

Report by Vince

Vince, Nick and Tav

A smaller team assembled this evening so we decided that spoil heap management would be a good thing to concentrate our efforts on. We built some walls, moved some rock, built some more walls somewhere else, and shovelled a lot of spoil around filling the nooks and crannies. Time passed quickly. At the end of the evenings session we had a lot more space to dump more spoil.

Report by Vince

Vince, Mike, Jon, Nick and Tav

There’s been a short break between digging sessions as sometimes happens when work and personal commitments all come together. A good number of the team gathered for this evening’s session though.

As usual it was a warm trip through Chamber 20 to the dig. Jon and Nick entered the ‘dig-pit’ to fill the buckets. Tav was at the top of the pit, transferring the loaded buckets and occasional rock into the skip hauled up-slope by Vince. Mike was dealing with the sediment re-distribution. The downside of lubricating the slope with a regular splash of water is that the hauling position becomes quite mucky and overalls become mud plastered, and damp!

Mike waits for the first buckets to arrive.

It didn’t take long for the diggers to settle into a steady rhythm, there wasn’t much time between loads, a total of 90 loads were dispersed, mostly buckets.

All went rather smoothly, there were no mishaps, nor any character assassination (not much anyway) and it was an enjoyable evening session.

But all good things come to an end and it was pub time!

Report by Vince

Vince, Jake, Nick and Jon

The usual warm trip to the end of Chamber 20. When Vince arrived (delayed by a battery change) the others had decided it was his turn to dig. Spoil removal is the easiest job, plenty of room to swing the mattock, then scoop the loosened sediment into an empty bucket. The sediment mostly comprises pale yellow silty sand overlain by stiff pink-brown laminated silty clay. A lot more effort is required to dispatch the filled buckets to the spoil heap. Jake cleared the filled buckets up to Nick, who loaded the skip. Jon hauled the skip up the slope, emptied the buckets, cleaned them and returned the empty, clean buckets. Jake, under instruction from Nick, reduced a couple of boulders to more manageable pieces, useful walling material.

Jon also took it on board to record this evening’s tally. It was evident when looking at the count that there had been a “mid-haul” crisis around the “30” mark, when a shaky hand recorded the number. This was put down to Jon getting-up at 04:30hrs this morning to get into work early so that he could leave earlier and have time to get through the chaos of roadworks at Stonehenge and be on time for digging this evening.

At the end of the session: 58 buckets filled and emptied. Its okay with four but, more is better!

Vince was away, digging on
Gower with John Cooper and Professors Danny McCarroll (Swansea University) and
Danielle Schreve (Royal Holloway, London). Jon provided the following account
of the evening’s activities:

Report by Jon

“Of late, the Wookey Hole
and Halloween Rift diggers have shown increased enthusiasm for their
activities. Early arrival and a prompt start now appear to be the
norm. And so, it was at Wookey Hole this week. Five of the team
(Jon, Tav, Jake, Nick and Mike) met before the appointed hour. Even the
latecomers were early.

At the dig, Nick assumed
digging duties, supported by Mike. Jon loaded the skip, leaving Tav and
Jake to haul and empty.

The digging spoil is now
dry, easing the task of emptying buckets, and a team of five is a good number
for this dig. The bucket count rapidly increased and, unusually, was
accurately recorded by those team members at the spoil heap. 135 buckets
of spoil were removed.

Mike reported that the
floor was lowered by some 12 inches (30cm).

The prompt start resulted
in early calls to depart, but the team held out to the end. They then
retired to a local hostelry for some well-deserved liquid refreshment.”

Report by Vince

Vince, Jon, Tav, Duncan,
Mike and colleague Naomi Frazier, and a massive welcome back to Jake after 8
months off following knee surgery.

At the dig, Jon and Tav
after a brief discussion went ahead to start digging, they were joined, soon
after by Jake and Naomi. Mike went to the top of the pit to load the skip, Vince
was hauling up-slope and Duncan was emptying the buckets.

With multiple bucket
fillers it was non-stop hauling/emptying action, the slope requiring frequent
lubrication. Later, Jake came up to lend a hand with spoil dispersal and
management. They say, ‘that time flies when you are enjoying yourself!’ And it
did.

All of us expected Tav to
keep a tally of loads removed, he didn’t, “too busy…” he said. Anyway, it was
lots!
Duncan and Jake arrive at the dig.

Report by Vince

Vince, Mike, Jon, James,
Duncan and Nick

We have new buckets and,
because we are all-inclusive, we have buckets of many colours.

Mike and Jon were both
filling buckets, these were cleared away to James at the top of the slope. The filled
buckets loaded into the skip to be hauled up-slope by Nick. Duncan took the
buckets and emptied them onto the spoil heap and Vince dispersed the sediment to
fill all available nooks and crannies.

There was, of course,
plenty of chatter and time passed quickly by. With two filling the buckets, a
considerable quantity of spoil was removed and redeposited onto the spoil heap. Unfortunately, no-one was counting the number of buckets emptied. We briefly considered whether we could calculate the quantity by using buckets per minute, but then, no-one had timed this. Eventually, we settled for; it was a busy evening.

Report by Vince

Vince, Jon, Mike and James
Begley

A more leisurely stroll
up through the cave to allow James time to appreciate the surroundings. At the
dig, as guest digger, James was poked to the front, given the mattock, and
prompted to get on with it. Mike was clearing away the filled buckets and
passing them up to Vince at the top of the pit. Vince was loading the filled buckets
into the skip which was then hauled up-slope by Jon. Jon emptied (and cleaned)
the buckets, returning them back down the line, to be filled again and the whole
procedure repeated.

It was a pleasantly busy
evening with plenty of chatter. Soon though it was all over, and we made our
way out of the cave to change and re-convene in the pub for refreshments.