Mendip Caving - Back

The Mendip Hills lie in south west England just to the south of Bristol. They are an eroded mountain range of carboniferous limestone overlying old red sandstone. They stretch from the north somerset coast at Brean Down as an west to east plateau rising to a maximum height of 300 metres or so. The melt water from previous ice ages has incised some deep valleys into the flanks of the hills including the world famous Cheddar Gorge. There are few surface streams on the plateau and most that exist rapidly sink into the ground in swallets which provlde an entrance to the underworld of Mendip. Much of the water emerges at two main resurgences, one at Cheddar and the other at Wookey Hole where diving exploration in the subterranean waters of the Axe has penetrated as far as the 25th Chamber and beyond to a depth of 90 metres. The waters of Wookey Hole are fed from several cave systems near Priddy including Swildons Hole and St. Cuthbert's Swallet,featured below.

The big resurgence at Cheddar is fed by the cave systems in the Charterhouse area and include GB cave, Manor Farm Swallet, Longwood Swallet and Upper Flood Swallet which recently has fulfilled it's promise as being one of the most significant caves in the area.

On the eastern side of the Mendips are the caves of Fairy Cave Quarry and Stoke Lane Slocker.

Swildons Hole

Below are some images of Swildons Hole near the village of Priddy. The longest cave currently known on the Mendip Hills it winds under the village of Priddy ending 500 feet below the Victoria Inn. It was first entered just over a century ago. The cave consists of a long winding stream passage above which is a network of fossil passages. New discoveries are still being made occasionally by digging blasting and diving.

The entrance	Between the Forty Foot and Twenty foot pots	Barnes Loop	Far end of the Black Hole Series	Birthday Squeeze on the Round Trip
Northwest Stream Passage	The Landing in Swildons Two	Sump3	Archway in Swildons Four	Downstream from Sump 3
Near Keyhole	keyhole section	Blue Pencil chain	Just downstream from the chain	Tate Gallery
In the Tate Gallery, Swildons Four	In the second Double Trouble	Formations near Birthday squeeze	Passage near the final duck intoVicarage Passage
Rift passage looking back towards U-tube of Renascence Series	The crawl into New Renascence	Bedding passage Renascence Series	Main passage Renascence Series	Calcited boulders in a chamber containing old maypoles Renascence Series
View back to maypole chamber Renascence Series	Emerging from the Stoops Renascence Series	Crawl near Black Chamber Renascence Series	Near Black Chamber Renascence Series	Near Black Chambe Renascence Series r
Black Chamber Renascence Series	Black Chamber Renascence Series	The black stal in Black Chamber Renascence Series	Resting before Sump Six	Start of the Damp Link in Six
Swildons Seven approaching the Beehive	Swildons Seven looking down passage to Beehive	The Beehive	The Beehive	Ancient broken stalactite curtains by the Beehive
Climb up into Sump Six Bypass	Six Bypass Climb	Downstream Sump Seven bypass	Downstream end of Sump Seven	First Chamber in Eight
First Chamber in Eight	First Chamber in Eight	Streamway in Eight	Streamway in Eight	Streamway in Eight
Constriction in Eight	Approaching Sump Eight	Near Sump Eight	Climb into Eight bypass	In Eight bypass
Looking up into Thrutch Tube in Swildons Nine	Sump Nine chamber looking downstream right hand side	Sump Nine Pool left hand side	Sump Nine Pool left hand side
Between Sumps 6 and 7	Start of Sump 9	Entrance crawl to |Pirate Chamber	The Scalloped tube off Shatter Passage	Shatter Chamber

GB Cave

This cave and its companion system Charterhouse Cave are in the Gruffy Ground nature reserve in Central Mendip. GB, named after its discoverers, was first entered in 1939 and a major extension made in 1966. The water from this cave emerges in Cheddar Gorge. The cave is notable for having the biggest passages and chambers on Mendip. The Great Chamber discovered in 1966 is very well decorated as is the neighbouring Bat Passage.

North Hill Swallet

This small cave system was blasted open over a five year period in the late '60's into the early1970's and has received some interest again in the last few years. It is rarely visited being overshadowed by the proximity of the extensive Eastwater Cavern. It lies at the end of a shallow dry valley which is quite boggy and lies only 100 yards or so from the Wessex CC headquarters behind Eastwater Farm. Care has to be taken when rigging the cave that it is made cow proof as itchy heifers have been know the dislodge the belay!

Beyond a surprisingly impressive entrance rift a series of blasted crawls leads via a sporting free climbable pitch to a section of natural vadose streamway ending in choked passage carrying a small stream. There are a few formations here and there.

St. Cuthbert's Swallet

In 1953 the longest cave system yet entered as a result of a systematic dig was discovered - something like 6 km long and 120 metres deep.The area known as the Mineries, now a nature reserve, was a scene of grimy industrial activity in the late nineteenth century when the St. Cuhberts leadworks were belching smoke and fumes over the countryside around Priddy. They recycled the old Roman leadworkings - lead being available without deep mining on the Mendips. Even today the ground hereabouts is poisoned by lead. A celebrated law suit came about as a result of all this activity. The water sinking underground at the Mineries is next seen at Wookey Hole only a mile or two away. The resultant pollution from the lead works interfered with the activities of the paper mill at Wookey and the end result of this flurry of legal activity was an injunction on the owners of the lead works preventing them from contaminating the streams sinking underground nearby. This injunction still stands today and has directly resulted in the protection of St. Cuthberts Swallet from the casual vandalism to calcite formations seen in so many other Mendip caves. Access to the cave is controlled by the Bristol Exploration Club whose headquarters are only a hundred metres or so from the cave and whose members were responsible for discovering and exploring the system.

The cave is hard to describe! Although there is a stream passage that can be followed right the way to the end of the system, there have been numerous points of engulfment of surface streams over the aeons. This has led to a multitude of inlet passages above the main streamway. The central area of the cave has several large chambers often filled with large boulders and route finding can be most confusing. Tucked away in various nooks and crannies throughout the system are magnificent calcite formations both large and small such as the 30+ metre high Cascade and Curtain Chamber and beautiful nests of cave pearls and clusters of helictites. Challenging climbs and squeezes render the cave very sporting as well.

The most awkward part of the cave is the notorious entrance rift, a narrow 10 metre deep shaft easily slithered down but providing a strenuous struggle out. To add to the fun the entrance stream has to be diverted away from the entrance to allow the rift to be descended safely. Woe betide you if the dam overflows or there is heavy rain

Since the cave's discovery there has been a leader system. Would be leaders, like taxi drivers, have to display their knowldege of the standard routes through the cave.

These photographs are a selection from the many I have taken in the cave over the last 30 years.

The Entrance pipe	The entrance rift	Top of Arete Pitch	Climbing the Arete pitch
Top of Pulpit Pitch	Starting the descent of Pulpit Pitch	Martyn Grass descending Pulpit Pitch
Pulpit Pitch	The rift below Pulpit Pitch	Gour Passage Pitch	Gour Passage
Water Chute	The cascade into Traverse chamber	Passing the Choke	Climb into Bypass Passage just beyond the choke
Streamway just below Bypass Passage			Streamway beyond the choke
Streamway beyond the choke	Gour passage	Sewer Passage	Climbing the chain into Gour Hall
Looking up Gour Hall	Rift beyond Gour Hall	Near of Gour Hall Rift	Just before the old sump
Crawl (old sump)	Between Gour Hall and Sump One	Dam upstream of Sump One	By the sump
Emerging from the sump
Just beyond Sump 1	Just beyond Sump 1	In St. Cuthbert's 2	In St. Cuthbert's 2
In St. Cuthbert's 2	The pot near Sump 2	Ledge Pitch	Wire Rift
Fixed ladder into Mud Hall	Entering Boulder Chamber	View down Boulder chamber	Entry to Upper Traverse Chamber from Lower Mud Hall
Curtain at base of Upper Traverse Chamber	View down Upper Traverse Chmber	View up Maypole Series	Bottom end of Harem Passage
In the Railway Tunnel	Cascade at end of Railway Tunnel	Another view of the Cascade	Pearls near the Fingers
Passing the Fingers from the Railway Tunnel side	Fingers Traverse from the Everest Passage side	Curtain chamber	Curtain in Curtain chamber
Everest Passage	Approaching the Fingers from Everest Passage	Curtain with cemented fill in Railway Tunnel	In the Rabbit Warren
First Stal Bank	Second Stal Bank	Emerging from Rabbit Warren Extension	Entering High Chamber from Upper Traverse Chamber
Stafford's boulder problem	Sally Glanvill in Curtain Chamber	The curtain in Long Chamber	Formations outside Curtain chamber
In Catgut Series	Traversing in Catgut Rift	Totem pole stal in September Chamber	Central September Chamber
The Balcony in Sepember Chamber	Straw chamber	Bell chamber	Marble Hall
Stal barrier in St. Cuthbert's 2	St. Cuthbert's 2	St. Cuthbert's 2	St. Cuthbert's 2
St. Cuthbert's 2	Traverse down to bottom of Maypole series	Traverse down to bottom of Maypole series	Traverse down to bottom of Maypole series
Pulley Pitch	Stal just beyond head of Pulley Pitch	Manganese stained stal
Maypole Series	Maypole Series	Maypole Series	Eroded stalagmite false floor
Eroded stal Maypole Series	Maypole Series	Maypole Series	Maypole Series
Maypole Series Near the highest point in Maypole Series

Upper Flood Swallet

The best introduction to this relatively little known Mendip cave is a rather prophetic article I wrote for the Belfry Bulletin 20 years ago.

"Originally known as Blackmoor Flood Swallet this cave was one of the bonuses of the 1968 flood that washed away the Forty and the road at Velvet Bottom. The heavily choked passage was originally explored by the MCG and subsequently dug by both Willie Stanton and that club whose headquarters lie conveniently within walking distance. Although the cave promised much, lying at the head of the Velvet Bottom catchment area near the limestone/shale boundary with a potential 700 feet of vertical range, it became clear that siege tactics were required. The once roomy ancient stream passage was choked with fill, stal obstructions and lead tailings. It has taken nearly 17 years of digging, blasting, wall construction and back filling to gain access to the present cave. It has paid off for the MCG who now have in their grasp potentially one of the deepest caves on Mendip, if not the country, and despite the length of the known cave the depth potential still remains.

The entrance lies on land controlled by the county council which is why access arrangements are fairly tight. Parties of four including a MCG leader are allowed down but due to the nature of the cave overcrowding and damage to formations can be a risk if more than one or two groups are down the cave. My interest in the cave was photographic and it must be said that it lends itself to photography magnificently.

A concrete barrel shaft drops two metres into a small chamber from which a flight of steps leads to a rift passage. A further short drop intercepts a small stream. Upstream can be followed for a short distance while downstream continues as a stooping or crawling size passage on a very shallow gradient. At various points evidence of the Intensive excavations can be seen In the form of walls. Malcolm Cotter tells me that in places the passage has been back filled to a depth of 1.5 metres or more. Eventually after 275 metres or so the roof lowers to a muddy grovel partially full of water. However, the enthusiasm of the explorer is more than stimulated by the draught of cold air and the sound of running water. A wriggle up a mud covered stal slope and a squeeze through stal curtains leads to one of the most dramatic entrances on Mendip.

One stands (carefully avoiding the numerous straws above ones head) on a big stal slope in a roomy well decorated chamber. On one's right a large stream gurgles out of the wall, crosses the chamber~ and splashes off at bottom left into the enticing darkness. This is Midnight Chamber, the breakthrough point.

Upstream the passage is a low crawl to a sump whilst downstream the cave continues as a crawl. Here the damage to stal formations is most evident and I suspect that although this is by far the most vulnerable part of the cave that much of the destruction was caused by the excited first explorers. This is hardly surprising because the passage consists of a crawl about 1.5 metres high and 1 metre wide along the walls of which are arranged a mass of stals on a false floor whilst the roof is studded with a forest of stalactites. Delicate crawling in the stream leads to a boulder obstruction through which one gingerly worms into the next section.

Here the streamway widens a little but the roof remains low. Some attractive stal bosses can be seen on ledges on the left and there is enough exposed limestone to observe the nature of the rock. It is extremely shaly and it seems to me that the best formations can be seen in the shaly sections. Stal formations and shale seem to go together – does anybody know why? Anyone also cannot fail to notice the black marks on many of the stalagmites. Closer examination shows the marks to have legs and that they are the remains of dead flies. Presumably flies hatch from eggs carried in by the stream on rotting vegetation and then die from lack of food. Incidentally there is little evidence of flood damage to the formations which suggest the streamway can cope with large volumes of water of that the ingress of water is limited. Now that there is an excavated entrance to the cave a repeat of the 1968 floods could destroy the decorations and the MCG have already thought in terms of constructing some kind of flood gate to the entrance. The streamway turns a corner passing a massive stal bank on which are arranged numerous numbers of totem pole stalagmites, some at angles suggesting breakage and re-cementing. The straws in this section are some of the best on Mendip. Just before the stream dives into a bedding crawl one can see clumps of stal on the floor. If one looks closely one can see straws that have been formed, broken off, and have been re-cemented before the floor they were on was broken off, and washed into the stream. I must say that this suggests to me that the cave is pretty ancient!

Beyond the bedding crawl one enters the second largest chamber which is really a washed out shale bed. Some nice false flooring remains here. A squeeze under boulders at stream level leads to another bedding passage which suddenly develops as a rift at a corner. Here one can walk upright for only the second time since leaving Midnight Chamber. This state of affairs doesn’t last long because another crawl looms up. Here the roar of a waterfall can be heard but disappointment soon supervenes as the stream is found to drop 3 metres down a narrow slot into a low sumped-up crawl which has not been passed since I last visited the cave, just before Christmas.

All is not lost however for above the waterfall is a short climb into a small decorated chamber. A low excavated crawl leads to the current terminus – a tube filled with stal false flooring and mud. It is possible to gaze into the promised land beyond and feel the hint of a draught. The spoil heap in the chamber has been decorated with examples of cave art ranging from the obscene to the ingenious. At the end of the cave one is less than 30 metres below the entrance with most of the depth potential of the system unrealised. God knows what will happen to the pretty bits if the system gets really massive – hence my initial statement."

In September 2006 after 20 years of digging through several obstacles the way on was located into what has been dubbed the Blackmoor Master Cave. The most accurate description at the time of writing can be obtained from the Mendip Caving Group website but things are changing all the time. The images presented here were made in 1986 just after the cave was first entered.

Longwood Swallet

Excavated by pupils of Sidcot School this system lies at the head of the Longwood Valley between Manor Farm Swallet and the Gruffy Ground area that contains Charterhouse Cave and GB Cavern. The cave was entered just at the end of the second world war but the constricted entrance passages including the infamous Letter Box ensured it remained relatively unpopular until the discovery of the main streamway, dubbed August Hole, three years later. Fifteen years or so after this a dug link enabled cavers to take alternative routes to the main streamway. It is one of the deepest caves on Mendip although the final passage is tight and extremely flood prone. There have been two fatalities over the years, one in the entrance chimney when a young woman died of hypothermia in wet conditions and another in the streamway below Main Chamber when a boulder fall caused a death.

After the constricted entrance series two routes unite at Swing Pitch which leads down Fault Chamber, a passage very like those found in some caves of Assynt in Scotland. At the base of Fault Chamber one can walk upstream through some of the largest passages to be found on Mendip or journey downstream through well decorated passage to a lofty rift and final descent into the constricted Renolds Passage.

Manor Farm Swallet

This is the longest system to be found in the last 30 years. The original swallet was dug for several years before a successful breakthrough in the late 60's. Unfortunately the unstable entrance collapsed before the cave could be explored. A shaft was excavated through solid rock to intercept this passage but the floods in 1968 revealed the cave's promise when a large 10 metre deep collapse occurred only yards from the shaft. This was filled with scrap including some old cars and a tunnel blasted from the base of the excavated shaft to intercept the cave revealed by the collapse. No further digging was required to explore the rest of this deep and sporting system. Unfortunately the cave, at times, is heavily polluted by farmyard waste, making the trip a smelly and unhygienic experience. Experienced cavers can bottom the system with no tackle at all although a safety rope on the 15 metre deep entrance shaft is obligatory. In places the cave is well decorated and at the bottom, large passage in the form of NHASA gallery is entered. My friends Pete Rose and Nick Chipchase were instrumental in first entering this passage having serendipitously joined the diggers on the breatkthrough trip!

Caves in Cheddar Gorge

Cheddar Gorge is one of the most famous natural features in Britain. It is thought to have been carved by meltwater subsequent to the last ice age although at one time theory had it that it was a huge collapsed cavern. It is still in the process of erosion, threatening tourists and their vehicles. Many attempts have been made to stabilise the cliffs but to reverse a natural process is impossible and most efforts are now directed towards damage limitation. The lofty cliffs are a challenge to rock climbers, and more recently, base jumpers.

From the speleological point of view the Gorge has been a source of frustration. The second largest resurgence on the Mendips emerges just below Gough's show cave to leave Cheddar as the River Yeo. Unlike Wookey the main resurgence is solidly choked with boulders. Downstream access to the underground river in Sayes Hole was possible but the underwater passages were found to be too constricted for upstream progress. Similarly the fossil resurgence cave discovered by Gough in the 19th century allowed cavers access to a roomy network of passages but at no point did there seem to be any way into the underground river below the cave. The Skeleton Pit , a flooded shaft near the entrance, was dived and ended in an impassable constriction. Deeper inside the cave a large boulder chamber was found to flood in wet weather and many cavers concluded that the unseen streamway must be constricted.

All this started to change in 1980 when the late Martin Bishop led a small team of cavers and the Welsh cave diver Martyn Farr to a sump he had found in a side passage in Gough's Cave. Faulty equipment and the constricted nature of the sump deterred Farr from making a really determined nature to push it to a conclusion. The sump pool was at the bottom of a muddy rift and was not much bigger than the diver entering it so that visibility was immediately reduced to zero. It then descended as a narrow rift for an indeterminate depth. It was to be another five years before another diver Richard Stevenson was persuaded to dive there by a caver who had rediscovered the sump. Richard was unaware of the pool's reputation until the night prior to the dive. He descended the unpleasantly narrow rift, extremely worried about his return. and just as he was about to bale out found one foot had become cold and was waving about in open space. To his amazement he had dropped into the main Cheddar streamway - and far from being constricted it was 3 or 4 metres in diameter. Subsequent exploration took Rich and his fellow divers including Rob Harper a local vet for a considerable distance upstream, passing a flooded side chamber, to reach one of the largest chambers on the Mendips, Bishop's Palace (named in honour of Martin Bishop).

Ironically the flooded side chamber was found to connect back to the show cave and was made accessible by quite a short dig. The chamber named Lloyd Hall after Dr. Oliver Lloyd, ex editor of the Cave Diving Group Journal, made future exploration much easier. The diving team pushed upstream past Bishop's Palace, through another deep sump, into a section of roaring stream passage known as Sheppard's Crook (after another early pioneer cave diver) to reach a final very deep sump. This has been explored to a depth of 50 metres and ascends slowly to terminate in an impassable choke of massive boulders. Diver's have surfaced within the boulders but no way through them has yet been found.

Reservoir Hole

A tiny hole in the cliff some way up the gorge from Gough's Cave first attracted the attention of cavers more than 50 years ago. Although small the hole emitted a significant draught suggesting there might be a much large cave within. Thus started a series of digs that were to take 20 years to reach fruition. The driving force behind the digging was Dr. William Stanton and the current layout of the cave is testimony to his systematic approach to cave digs. After the initial entrance crawls a blasted tunnel leads to a chamber and spiralling excavated descent for over 30 metres through boulders to emerge in a fossil phreatic passage - Grand Gallery. Beyond here ascents lead to another boulder climb this time ascending to emerge into the lofty Golgotha rift that can be ascended to a terminal high level chamber named Herbert's Attic in honour of that pioneer of Mendip caving Herbert Balch. The choked muddy lower levels of the cave drop very near the level of the resurgence at the bottom of the gorge and flood in wet weather as water wells up through them.

	Photo taken on my first visit in 1969 - the year Grand Gallery was entered but before this happened	Grand Gallery
	Tony Boycott in Grand Gallery	Tony Boycott in Grand Gallery
Formations in Grand Gallery	Formations in Grand Gallery	Formations in Grand Gallery
The approach to Topless Aven	Formations in Topless Aven	Formations in Topless Aven
Climbing up through a choke	Emerging into Golgotha Rift	Golgotha Rift
Golgotha Rift	Herbert's Attic	Herbert's Attic
Herbert's Attic	Herbert's Attic	Herbert's Attic
Herbert's Attic	Herbert's Attic	Herbert's Attic
Herbert's Attic
		Under Pulsation Aven
Gour Dams	Above Chain Chamber	Formations in Chain Chamber
Formations in Chain Chamber	Looking into Potter's Heaven	On the way to Jill's Slither
		Manganese stained stal in Jill's Slither
Roof Pendants in Jill's Slither