Razzerip1
New member
20 September 2008
Shute Shelve Cavern brings back many a fond memory; it was my first caving/digging trip combined, with Axbridge Caver and Cap n' Chris, when I first joined Axbridge Caving Group.
This was to be my Daughters (the youngest member of ACG), first trip. Shute Shelve offers no sporting caving trip but a wealth of History and some impressive large water worn chambers.
We parked up and made our way up through the woods to the cave entrance, the entrance is a small depression on the hillside, we started our decent turned our lights on and were set upon by the local midges.
Once through the entrance crawl the coast was clear and we were met by a couple of curious bats. The first main chamber is Reynard Chamber offering some good flow formations, our next stop was Pit Prop Passage which has a few props, hence the name, left by the miners.
Toni enjoyed looking at all the different types of rock
We slid down the corkscrew boulder choke into the The Flat Room; there are lots of places to explore here. The roof is low in places but the chamber is extremely wide, the whole cave is on a steep incline, our final stop was the 30m long and 12m wide Box Room, an impressive site in Mendip standards, beyond this point a final 5m drop marks the current end of the cave.
Shute Shelve is still holding on to its secrets and there is a good chance of more passages beyond this point.
More Photo's at - http://www.flickr.com/photos/steve-sharp/sets/72157607409193700/
Shute Shelve Cavern brings back many a fond memory; it was my first caving/digging trip combined, with Axbridge Caver and Cap n' Chris, when I first joined Axbridge Caving Group.
This was to be my Daughters (the youngest member of ACG), first trip. Shute Shelve offers no sporting caving trip but a wealth of History and some impressive large water worn chambers.
We parked up and made our way up through the woods to the cave entrance, the entrance is a small depression on the hillside, we started our decent turned our lights on and were set upon by the local midges.
Once through the entrance crawl the coast was clear and we were met by a couple of curious bats. The first main chamber is Reynard Chamber offering some good flow formations, our next stop was Pit Prop Passage which has a few props, hence the name, left by the miners.
Toni enjoyed looking at all the different types of rock
We slid down the corkscrew boulder choke into the The Flat Room; there are lots of places to explore here. The roof is low in places but the chamber is extremely wide, the whole cave is on a steep incline, our final stop was the 30m long and 12m wide Box Room, an impressive site in Mendip standards, beyond this point a final 5m drop marks the current end of the cave.
Shute Shelve is still holding on to its secrets and there is a good chance of more passages beyond this point.
More Photo's at - http://www.flickr.com/photos/steve-sharp/sets/72157607409193700/