2018

Dave Mitchell’s Dig 2018

06/01/2018 Pete H, Jude, Nigel Gr, Barry W, ?.
The large rock in the floor was going to be capped but with a broken capping bar we decided to use dets to break it up. 10 dets used and quite a lot of depth achieved. Adrian.

13/01/2018 Pete, Barry W & Myself.
Cementing session. With just one bucket of cement Pete spent the session stabilizing and cementing walls. Buttress in the wall L/H side wall will need capping next Saturday. Adrian.

20/01/2018 Pete, Barry, Myself, Jude, (?Nigel).
Late entry so probably capping and hauling. Adrian.

27/01/2018 ?
? Adrian.

03/02/2018 Pete, Barry, Myself, Nigel.
Capping, hauling, cementing. Pete forgot the ladder, luckily I had one. I forgot the drill, but Pete had one!! Adrian.

10/02/2018 Barry, Jude, John Williams & Myself.
More capping on troublesome boulder on floor and a bit sheared off of the Right-hand side. With this done we had a better view of the end which is a gap between rocks in an inverted V. Whether the draught is coming up between the boulder or along remain to be seen. Adrian.

17/02/2018 Jude, Pete, Nigel, Myself.
All to the bottom under very drippy conditions. Pete to the front hauling out mainly mud with a few small rocks. Pete exposed a rock in the floor towards the end of the session which I then went and capped. By the time it was finally decided to break I found a hole underneath which you poke all of the long crowbar into. It might be interesting next time to see what else is, or not, underneath the rock. Very little draught today. Passage at the bottom is heading West towards Black Rock Gate. Adrian.

24/02/2018 ?
? Adrian.

10/03/2018 Pete Hann, Barry W?, Nigel?, Jude & Myself.
? Adrian.

17/03/2018 Pete Jude, Barry, ?
? Adrian.

24/03/2018 Pete, Barry, Myself.
Dig fever, no result! Adrian.

31/03/2018 John Cooper, John Williams, Geoff Newton, Barry Wilkinson, Jude & Myself.
Extremely wet, to the extent that we had a waterspout coming out of a join in the pipes and a torrent at the bottom. Lots hauled up to the intermediate stage with some more rock having been dug out of the bottom. It was far too wet and cold to haul to the top so there is a lot of spoil to be removed some time. Draught tested with magic smoke and seemed to be sucked directly in downwards at the bottom. Adrian.

Saturday 31^st March 2018. John Cooper, Geoff Newton, Adrian Vanderplank, Jude Vanderplank, Barry Wilkinson and Jonathan Williams. Very wet with a nice spout coming out of the wall about 3m down the entrance shaft. Jonathan at the face backed up by Geoff in the bottom tunnel. Me loading the bucket with Jude above me, Barry above her and Adrian stacking. We hauled rocks up from the bottom stacking space to the intermediate stacking space until Jude and Adrian were sufficiently cold. 1 hour. John.

01/04/2018 Adrian Vanderplank.
Down to the Naughty Step to retrieve Barry’s glasses left there yesterday. Not nearly as wet as the day before. Adrian.

07/04/2018 Barry, Jude & Myself.
A good days digging. Large rock on L/H side eventually succumbed to capping. The bulge on the R/H side didn’t. Might need some 10gm put in it. Jude went down and removed the pieces of rock and mud uncovered underneath where the rock had been, a hole 6” x 6” x 4’ deep, water worn. When tested with smoke it disappeared down the hole. Lots of rock in all the stacking places to clear but looking good. Not quite sure what Pete will think. Dig a lot drier this week despite heavy rain the previous night. Adrian.

14/04/2018 Pete Hann, Barry, Jude, Myself.
15 buckets hauled to the surface, another 15ish hauled to the intermediate point clearing the bottom. Pete agrees the way on is down in the floor where the draught is coming from. Adrian.

21/04/2018 Pete Hann & Myself.
Down to the bottom with one bucket of cement, drill, wire, exploder etc. Pete built a small wall on the L/H side and then a series of holes drilled in the bulge on the R/H rock. Large rock in the floor was drilled as well. 3 metres of 12gm cord was inserted and fired. Very draughty down the dig and Pete was enveloped in fumes before he got out, not a happy dwarf, positively Grumpy! Adrian.

05/05/2018 Pete Hann, Barry Wilkinson, Jude & Myself.
All down to the bottom with the usual buckets of cement. Capping at the bottom was as per usual lately … frustrating. Just when we thought it might be easier to get some 12gm for next week it started to get better and a good lump fell off. Having used up all of the decent caps I exited, and Pete went in to clear mud and cement. A new hole was opened up which link to the ? Adrian.

12/05/2018 Barry, Pete, Jude, Myself.
Looking good. Adrian.

Saturday 26^th May 2018. John Cooper, Pete Hann, Geoff Newton, Adrian Vanderplank, Jude Vanderplank, and Barry Wilkinson. Hauled 26 loads to the surface from the intermediate stacking space whilst Adrian and Pete were capping at the bottom. Then moved rocks from the bottom to the intermediate space whilst capping continued. One mix of cement taken in and used at the end of the session. Nice outward draught. 3 hours. John.

Saturday 2^nd June 2018. John Cooper, Pete Hann, Geoff Newton, Adrian Vanderplank, Jude Vanderplank, and Barry Wilkinson. Cementing and clearing spoil from the bottom to the intermediate stacking space. 2½ hours. John.

Saturday 23^rd June 2018. John Cooper, Pete Hann, Geoff Newton, Wayne Starsmore, Adrian Vanderplank, Jude Vanderplank, and Barry Wilkinson. With Barry and Wayne on the surface, me on the Naughty Step, Adrian filling and Geoff just above him 55 loads were hauled from the Intermediate stacking point to the surface whilst Pete and Jude were digging at the bottom. Adrian, me and Geoff then went further down and with Jude filling at the bottom stacking point and me stacking the four of us hauled up about 12-15 loads to the Intermediate stacking space. I then went out leaving the remaining 4 cementing and moving rocks from the face to the bottom stacking point. 2½ hours. John.

Saturday 14^th July 2018. John Cooper, Pete Hann, Jude Vanderplank, Lee Venning and Barry Wilkinson. Hauled 35 loads up from the bottom stacking space to the intermediate stacking space whilst Pete used up a mix of cement at the bottom. Then hauled 17 loads up to the surface, more still there. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 28^th July 2018. John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Geoff Newton, Adrian Vanderplank and Barry Wilkinson. Nigel and I hauled 29 loads up from the intermediate stacking space to the surface. Barry then came out and I went in. Unknown number of loads, mainly clatch, hauled up from bottom to bottom stacking space with Adrian doing a small amount of capping. 2½ hours. John.

Saturday 11^th August 2018. John Cooper, Pete Hann, Adrian Vanderplank, Jude Vanderplank and Barry Wilkinson. Moved spoil from the bottom stacking space to the intermediate stacking space. Then filled up the bottom stacking space again. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 1^st September 2018. John Cooper, Geoff Newton, Adrian Vanderplank, Jude Vanderplank and Barry Wilkinson. With Geoff filling and Jude and me on surface 48 loads hauled out. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 6^th October 2018. John Cooper, Pete Hann, Wayne Starsmore, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Hauled spoil from the dig face to the bottom stacking space and then moved it on upwards to the intermediate stacking space (38 loads). Good outwards draught. 2½ hours. John.

Saturday 13^th October 2018. John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Mike Hood, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. With Mike and Nigel on the surface, me on the Naughty Step, Adrian below me and Pete filling we hauled 42 heavy loads of spoil to the surface. We then moved down to where Jude had been filling bags with mud and these and some rock that Adrian capped were moved up to the bottom stacking space. Good outwards draught. 3 hours. John.

Saturday 10^th November 2018. John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Adrian Vanderplank, Jude Vanderplank and Barry Wilkinson. One mix of cement done and sent to the bottom with Pete Hann. Adrian plus his capping kit followed. With me and Nigel on the surface, Barry on the Naughty Step, Adrian below and Jude loading at the intermediate stacking space 16 loads were hauled to the surface. Adrian then continued on down to join Pete. The rest of us moved on down. With Jude filling at the lower stacking space, me hauling, Barry above me and Nigel at the intermediate stacking space we hauled more spoil until Jude had none left. By that time Adrian had finished capping and Pete had used up the cement. Drippy today. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 1^st December 2018. John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Adrian Vanderplank and Barry Wilkinson. Two mix of cement done and sent to the bottom as three loads with Pete Hann. Adrian plus his capping kit followed but waited to load. With Barry on the Naughty Step Nigel and I hauled 13 loads to the surface before Barry called it a day, very drippy today! Barry then came up and I went down. Pete was still cementing from the second load. After a while Adrian did some capping but the rock was hard. I went out to collect his second battery and send Barry and Nigel back to Upper Pitts. When I returned the first battery had just expired but better progress was being made with 2 caps in each hole. Finally, Pete went back and cemented in the rocks that Adrian had capped. 3½ hours. John.

Saturday 8^th December 2018. John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Adrian Vanderplank, Jude Vanderplank and Barry Wilkinson. One mix of cement done and sent to the bottom with Pete and Adrian plus his capping kit. The rest of us followed to get out of the wind. We hauled the spoil up from the bottom stacking space to the top stacking space until it was cleared. We then moved up and Nigel and I hauled to the surface in the rain and sleet whilst Jude loaded and Barry got very wet on the Naughty Step. Plenty of spoil left for a drier day! We left Adrian and Pete still capping and cementing. 3 hours. John.

Saturday 15^th December 2018. John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Adrian Vanderplank, Jude Vanderplank and Barry Wilkinson. All working the bottom. Once Jude had cleared a bit of loose rock Adrian started capping his way on and down. Regular loads hauled up to the bottom stacking space. 2½ hours. John.

Saturday 22^nd December 2018. John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Geoff Newton, Adrian Vanderplank, Jude Vanderplank and Barry Wilkinson. All working the bottom up to the top intermediate stacking space. Once this was full we left Adrian, Jude and Pete at the bottom whilst the rest of us moved on up and hauled 7 loads to the surface before the others came out. 2½ hours. John.

Saturday 29^th December 2018. John Cooper, Pete Hann, Adrian Vanderplank, Jude Vanderplank and Barry Wilkinson. Two mixes of cement sent to the bottom with Pete. The rest of us hauled 52 loads from the top intermediate stacking space to the surface. 2½ hours. John.