Mendip Caving Group - Occasional Publication on Upper Flood

? 1996, 2007, 2008 Mendip Caving Group. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without written permission of the author(s), except for brief quotations in a review

To all MCG members; past, present and future

Editor: Charlie Allison; Design & Layout: Charlie Allison & Malcolm Cotter; Cover Design: Charlie Allison; Acknowledgements: James Allen, Andy Beare, Sonia Cotter, Joan Goddard, Neil Hutchinson, Peter Mathews, Martin Rowe, & the MCG membership.

1: Mendip

2: Flood and Discovery

3: Upper Flood Swallet

4: An analysis of MCG digging efforts in Upper Flood Swallet 1968 - 1985

5: The 1990s and the Terminal Choke

Appendices

List of Plates

List of Illustrations

Tables

Surveys

Preface

An introduction to the history of Upper Flood Swallet. This publication stems from an account of the chain of events sparked when a camper enquired of a group of cavers - out of curiosity - what a void further up the valley was called.

Editorial Charlie Allison

The phone rang one evening towards the end of April asking if we could produce something on Upper Flood in ready for the BCRA Conference as the MCG were proposing to have a club stand. Well the reply was yes, and here it is!

Of all the recent phenomena on Mendip the Great Flood of 1968 is probably the most important in living history - a sinistra a device of mass destruction, a dextra paving the way for the discovery and subsequent extensions of several major caves.

The Flood has greatly enhanced the understanding of the history and geography of Mendip, yet it has raised many a debate on the likely course of caves and their extent. Although the MCG, with assistance from the Wessex, has devoted many, many, man years of effort to this area of Mendip, without the Flood the discovery of Upper Flood, Middle Flood and Grebe Swallet in this small, but significant, area may have been delayed for several years if at all. Passage discovered in this area so far exceeds 1300 metres with Upper Flood accounting for over half of this.

Mendip caves are noted for the war of attrition that ultimately leads to a breakthrough. Upper Flood is no exception to this rule, and indeed we are almost certain that, in time, the best is yet to come.

This cave does not give up its secrets lightly. Virtually continuous digging for over twenty seven years has yielded one of the prettiest caves in Britain. It is perhaps difficult to appreciate the amount of blood, sweat and tears poured into the cave over time. Jonathan Roberts (q.v.) has quantified many years of this toil, although even this cannot provide a complete picture of the total work as some MCG trips were not recorded at all and others were not recorded in the logs whilst used for analysis.

This work is a tribute to the effort and dedication of the digger. We hope that this Journal gives inspiration and ideas to those digs which have yet to go, and to those who are new to the sport.

However, there is a great Mendip tradition that, shortly after a publication concerning caves is produced, it becomes rapidly out of date. We sincerely hope that this is the case here.

Foreword Malcolm Cotter

Part of this report was submitted in about 1986 as a Journal article to follow in sequence with other progress reports on Upper Flood.

The Journal was never produced and the manuscript was returned in 1992. This report updates the 1986 version. With the later introduction of MCG Occasional Publications, the publication editor suggested reprinting & embellishing the earlier reports in order to make the overall account more comprehensive. In addition the earlier works have had illustrations and photographs added. An extract from the narrator's chronicle giving an account of the first MCG exploration is also included.

The excellent input, practical additions, and support of the publication editor, Charlie Allison, is greatly appreciated, together with the help and encouragement of my wife, Norma.

Thanks to Tim Francis for acting as honest political broker, to Charlie Allison for providing the annotations for the plan and diagrams, Wayne Hiscox for the early reference material, and Peter Mathews for assistance with the cross sections. We must also acknowledge the assistance and kind help of the staff of the Charterhouse Outdoor Centre and Mendip Wardens provided over the years

1. Mendip

A short extract from High ways and Byways in Somerset by E Hutton - as featured in the 1960 Mendip Caving Group Journal

Mendip, as one soon finds, as one trudges along its highways - for it has highways very definite, lonely and walled with hedge or dry stone - or wanders along its indistinct tract and byways, is a vast mountain tableland worn down by countless centuries of time. Meanly clothed with a shallow poor soil; a lonely, windy place, a place of rolling and empty fields, of sudden and immense views, of a strange and grim enchantment.

For Mendip holds the secrets of man and civilisations older far than Rome. Maesbury Camp, the lonely and forbidding barrows on Blackdown, weigh upon one as nothing that Rome has abandoned here is able to do; they seem to speak to one of a life that is so old it is an agony to think of it, and they threaten us with their enormous wisdom: the vast labour which has ended in a few colossal heaps of barren earth. For upon the Mendips as upon no other mountains in the world, perhaps because few are as old as they, man and his efforts fade into nought; their futility is exposed by the emptiness of space and the passage of time. And if, as he will, the wayfarer turns to the sky for assurance and for comfort, that sky is so often an immensity of cloud, of large grey clouds hurrying no wither before the south west wind, laden with memory of the measureless ocean.

The loneliness of Mendip is a genuine loneliness. A man turns to the sky because he must; he is shut away there from the large and fruitful world lie knows, the cities, the towns, the villages and the plough lands beneath him, not the height but also the breadth and flatness of that great plateau which the roads traverse so swiftly, anxious only to pass on their endless ways. One is caught as it were in an empty space, a featureless desolation, a solitude that is like no other solitude. And there is no one else who has persevered in the exploration of these hills but has been astonished by their silence, the absence of trees, of cattle, of sheep, of all voices, and of the sound of bells, a sound one thinks, that might break the spell that lies over this desolate upland. Yet such a man will know that Mendip has voices and sounds of its own that are part of that silence.

For Mendip is hollow and full of secrets: secret springs, secret underground rivers whose courses may never be known, but whose voices one may hear suddenly on a still day as you lie on the shady side of a swallet, a curious murmuring hollow sound, rising and falling. It is not all who in such loneliness can bear such music and still have possession of his soul.

Yes, the hills are full of secrets; they are dreadful for they are very old; they are full of caves where are mingled the bones of men and beasts that are dateless; they are full of deserted camps and barrows which were built and used and defended by someone of whom we know nothing; every hill or headland is crowned with the work of man, work that was forgotten history by the time of the Romans. These remain. But the mines of Charterhouse, what is left of them? Where are to be found the remains of the Carthusians, Charterhouse - a cell of Witham, and Green Ore - a cell of Hinton? Nothing. It is though Mendip were outside history and Christendom.

And yet on a day of wind, a clear day after rain, this great plateau which a man fears almost as much as he loves is capable of giving him almost endless reward. On such a day Mendip awakes: the thin grass laughs like an old man in the sun, the rock shines with golden lichen, the lean woods are filled with the strength and joy of the wind, and suddenly you find as you come up from the plateau onto a height such as Beacon Hill or Pen Hill or Westbury Beacon, for example, all England is spread at your feet.

The Etymology of some Mendip place names

An abridged extract from an article by the late Arthur Cox in the 1967 MCG Journal

It describes the history and evolution of some of the place names associated with this part of Mendip

"In particular the West Saxons were responsible for the place names of this area as they exist today. In this short summary the term Old English must be taken to include the Nordic and Saxon Contributions. These are just a few of the possible or probable derivatives of some of the local names. Further research can easily be made by reference to the excellent county volumes of the English Place-Name Society, and many other useful works."

Charterhouse Chartreuse: French - the abbey of which a cell was built here

Nordrach Noro: Old English, drag: Old Norse - a hill [also poss. German]

Velvet Bottom Fiellet: Old English - disafforested bothm: Old English - valley floor

2: Flood and Discovery

by Malcolm Cotter

A brief history of the discovery and early exploration of the cave. It is largely drawn from the MCG Journals of 1976 and 1982, and provides an insight into the events stemming from over a quarter of a century ago. This section covers events and progress up to the end of 1982.

Velvet Bottom is one of Mendip's more delightful dry valleys, and has become increasingly popular with visitors to the area. The valley begins under the south-east slopes of the Old Red Sandstone anticline of Blackdown, and descends in a south-westerly direction to Black Rock where it merges into Cheddar Gorge. Among the tributary valleys entering Velvet Bottom those of Longwood and Manor Farm are noteworthy - both enter from the North.

The upper part of Velvet Bottom, known as Blackmoor has been variously explored by the Group since the late 1950s. Perhaps more has been learnt of the locality since the Great Flood of 1968. And, it is since then that the greatest length of cave passage has been discovered.

The Great Flood of Wednesday 11th July 1968

During the afternoon of the 10th July torrential rain fell over Devon and Somerset. At Charterhouse the storm continued well into the night. By evening the water in Blackmoor formed a lake above the track which leads down from the church. A second lake formed lower down between this track and the Priddy Road which crosses the valley. The road was still intact in the evening, but the rain continued into the early hours of the next morning when the road probably collapsed. Many people believe that the track and road gave way suddenly since a wall of water was reported at Cheddar. Rapid rising waters are, however, a feature of flooding and similar surges were reported in other Mendip valleys where there were no such dams.

Farmer Harold Brown of Hazel Warren Farm reported that the Thursday was a fine day which attracted many people to Blackmoor where the torrents of water provided a pretty sight and an opportunity for paddling. In the morning water formed a flood running across Town Field from Blagdon Hill reaching the lower corner of the pond where the outlet normally occurs. Water also crossed the road at the dip by Paywell Farm, where chaff caught on the fencing indicated a depth of 1 metre. The pond itself was also a metre above its normal high water level.

The exposure of washing bed structures and heaps of flood debris attracted numerous treasure hunters. At this time the stream flowed on down the valley, overflowing the hollows below the Somerset Youth Centre Hut.

Upper Flood Entrance Swallet

From the 1976 MCG Journal:

The entrance to this cave became known to us on 3rd August 1968, three weeks after the flood.

A digging party composed of Richard Peat, Greg Smith, Roger Wallington, and the writer were exploring a leat near Middle Flood Swallet (Waterwheel), when a camper named Peter Anderson enquired about a 'mine-shaft' higher up the valley. The party were unaware of any such mine and asked to be taken to it. I remember walking up the valley with curiosity dosed with a degree of scepticism. On seeing the hole, however, all such doubts were lost. The shaft did bear a superficial resemblance to a mine, being almost a perfect rectangle. Near the bottom, on the North side, a number of timbers were visible. At the bottom itself, a square flat roofed tunnel led away.

It was with rising excitement that I entered the cave, realising that in it lay the key to the Blackmoor drainage. After all the hard years of digging it seemed that at last we would be able to explore the great cave which collects the waters of the valley.

This is the (transcribed) original extract from Malcolm Cotter's log dated 3/8/68 of the immediate events leading to the discovery of this cave:

A short way in a drop of 3 metres (now the first flight of steps) offered a small but sporting climb. From ahead came the voices of Roger and Greg, "this is it?" At the bottom of the drop a hole which, had just been cleared, gave access to a flat out craw! along a drainpipe. Progress along this could, unfortunately, only be made by breaking small straw stalactites. We then came to another short drop where we emerged at the side of a small stream passage. This section was well decorated and was named 'Stal Pot' (now the second flight of steps). On this visit there was a heap of sand and turfs on the floor.

Downstream the passage rapidly turned from a crawl into a mud wallow; upstream the way looked fairly large. The downstream passage revealed 17 metres of passage; the way on being blocked by a flowstone barrier behind a shallow pool. At roof level a slit only inches high continued; it contained a few straws bearing traces of flood debris.

Exploration upstream revealed a roomy boulder chamber, the walls of which contained numerous protruding fossils. A side passage gave hope of continuation. Progress at one point was stopped by a band of chert completely dividing the passage. This was easily broken and progress continued to a small chamber containing a chert bridge and good calcite formations. It ended at an impenetrable sump. Blackmoor had closed its secrets yet again.

Our exploration for the day had ended leaving us somewhat disappointed. The following day a survey was undertaken and this showed the cave was 83 metres long and 13 metres deep.

There was no evidence that water had flowed over the top of the shaft: the altitude was too high and no flattening of the grass was observed. The shaft, presumably, must have been undermined by water from below.

Mendip Caving Group. UK Charity Number 270088. The object of the Group is, for the benefit of the public, the furtherance of all aspects of the exploration, scientific study and conservation of caves and related features. Membership shall be open to anyone over the age of 16 years with an interest in the objects of the Group.

MCG Occasional Publication number 4

Upper Flood Swallet

Exploration to 1996

To all MCG members; past, present and future

Table of Contents

1: Mendip

2: Flood and Discovery

3: Upper Flood Swallet

4: An analysis of MCG digging efforts in Upper Flood Swallet 1968 - 1985

5: The 1990s and the Terminal Choke

Appendices

List of Plates

List of Illustrations

Tables

Surveys

Preface

An introduction to the history of Upper Flood Swallet. This publication stems from an account of the chain of events sparked when a camper enquired of a group of cavers - out of curiosity - what a void further up the valley was called.

Editorial Charlie Allison

Foreword Malcolm Cotter

1. Mendip

A short extract from High ways and Byways in Somerset by E Hutton - as featured in the 1960 Mendip Caving Group Journal

The Etymology of some Mendip place names

An abridged extract from an article by the late Arthur Cox in the 1967 MCG Journal

It describes the history and evolution of some of the place names associated with this part of Mendip

2: Flood and Discovery

by Malcolm Cotter

A brief history of the discovery and early exploration of the cave. It is largely drawn from the MCG Journals of 1976 and 1982, and provides an insight into the events stemming from over a quarter of a century ago. This section covers events and progress up to the end of 1982.

The Great Flood of Wednesday 11th July 1968

Upper Flood Entrance Swallet

From the 1976 MCG Journal:

This is the (transcribed) original extract from Malcolm Cotter's log dated 3/8/68 of the immediate events leading to the discovery of this cave: