Box Quarry, Lower Hill Series 9th March 2017
Cavers, Elaine, Jonathan, Alan, Pete & James……The Thursday club, easy trips a speciality. We entered Jacks workings, and within 200 feet, realised that route finding was going to be a team effort and quite a challenge ! Once we had got used to the scale of the excellent Shepton Mallet CC survey, fast progress became possible on the main haulage roads and original quarrymens’ inscriptions at “The Black Horse” and “Picture Gallery” were found without too much difficulty. When we located the Bridgegate Crane, we were convinced that we had this place worked out. Unfortunately, Box Quarry had other ideas, and we spent a merry ten minutes going around in circles between “The Wall” and “RT Route”. When we regained our bearings at the “Lord Kitchener” drawing, where “Alpha” and “Beta” passages diverge, Alan took over route finding from Pete and led the party successfully to the airshaft down to the GWR railway tunnel. Here, ashlar walls block the route and we took a devious detour around some crawls over gob rock, to a short drop back down into B12 beyond another wall of the airshaft. Pete took over map reading duties here and a few hundred feet further along this main thoroughfare, some careful navigation led us to a second crane where Alan & Jonathan took some photos by “painting with light”. Returning to B12 proved to be rather tricky and we got temporarily lost. By this time, Jacks Entrance seemed very distant, so Alan led the party, while Pete navigated along B12 to where “Cathedral Route” led off East, then turned North towards the Backdoor exit, with handy “BD” orange paint signs and descending numbers pointing the way. Trip duration 3.5 hours.
Pete is being very kind – I may have been if front of the group, but not leading as my sense of direction underground is poor especially in Box. Elaine took over leading and, as Pete says found Backdoor exit by following the BD numbered orange arrows. I was very saddened with the vast amounts of graffiti on most of the main routes! Pete did an amazing job navigating around this complex mine. Alan.
Transcript of the "Private Gay" inscription on Bridgegate Road.
Notice that Private Gay promoted to sergeant for having on the 1 June behaved with great courage and presence of mind while on duty at the Kingsdown Camp. The ? Gay seeing someone approaching cried halt who comes here. Receiving no answer he cried advance one more inch and you are a dead man. Guards turn out cried Gay when lo behold twas only two children looking for Mama.
Poem (RT Route [Scripta Legenda Vol. 1 - Sheet I No. I4]) - Cannot find this on Google
Mothers eyes are looking
When little ones think they are not
Mother sees little fingers
Dip'd in the sugar pot
Left - Group Photograph under Crane No. 9,
Right Lost?
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Hunters Lodge Inn Sink (Upper Series). Participants - Paul Hodgson, Pete Flanagan.
April 20th 2017.
Bump, Grunt, Ow ! Bump, Grunt, Ow ! This is what Twiglets progress down (and back up) the Pub Crawl sounded like. 40m of steeply descending, capped to passable size bedding plane eventually spat the two of us out into the walking size fossil passage of Happy Hour Highway. Thanks to Estelle and her BEC restoration team, there are sill plenty of formations to admire despite the recent mindless episode of vandalism. After bypassing a choke by going underneath it and up the other side, more decorated fossil passage, this time ascending and with several boulder obstructions to wriggle past was enjoyed by the two explorers in the Barmaids Bedrooms. The final surprise was the in situ ancient bone deposit showing that a long blocked entrance is nearby. Trip duration 90 mins.
