Yes my first at most things caving including a long and fruitful friendship :blink: with Mr O'Doc and Pete Rose. My first successful dig ( The East Series Extension and Cerberus Chamber) and the first of rather a lot of amateur cave photos. We never finished the surface dig in the quarry face higher up the bank. A small flood stream sank here and a boy from a local school said that he had passed the tight bit and entered a new chamber 6 x 20ft with a pool at one end ( ref letter to P. G. ). Its a bit more buried now but like the blocked Tradesman's Entrance could be dug out with a machine. We used the old Victorian iron gate to prop up the slope into the East Series. I expect its still there. None of the cave interior is blocked or inaccessible and the two " entrances " to the East Series were always too tight for me any way. The cave was famous for its anthodite clusters ( The individual crystals of anthodites develop in a form described as ?acicular? ,needle-like, and often branch out as they grow. They usually grow downward from a cave's ceiling. Aragonite crystals are contrasted with those made of calcite another variety of calcium carbonate in that the latter tend to be stubby or dog-tooth-like ?rhombohedral?, rather than acicular. Anthodites often have a solid core of aragonite and may have huntite or hydromagnesite deposited near the ends of the branches. ) You only find these in remote areas of the cave now. There was a big ball of helectites in the new chamber we found. I doubt they are there now. I remember describing these to ADO for Mendip Caver many years ago. ( Perhaps he has the reference ). Cerberus Chamber was dug to intercept the stream in Andrew Crosse's Chamber but it all got too difficult with surface laid HE. So much easier today. We never found the stream but that point is the deepest part of the cave. The farmer has made a trackway into the wood recently. If the pheasant breeding is to take place here the wood will be inaccessible. Not a bad thing in the short term. I rather think the farmer resents interference with his right as landowner. The same happened with Twin Titties . Reschedualling it as an SSSI would likely not guarantee access though to prevent any more damage within the entrance should be gated. ( generations of curious schoolboys have been here . Not all with conservation in mind.) P.G has a few more photos of the cave and the 1960's surface dig. Its a real shame we never followed up the new chamber story but he and Pete Rose pushed off to university and left me in the lurch.
