Star Shaft 3 July 08

[Razzerip1]

An ACG evening trip to Star Shaft (Mendip) to practice some SRT
we all met at 7pm, David Holmes arrived slightly later and insisted we all moved our vehicles forward, David moved my Van for me and in a fit of rage snapped my ignition key in half.
We all got changed and headed up to the Shaft

Simon headed down first to rig the shaft and set up deviation's

Once at the bottom we headed to the second pitch, once rigged we made our way down to the lower levels, unfortunately this part of the mine was flooded, last summer the water levels were low enough for us to explore the lower levels.
There are still remnants of the miners tools here - (Look but don't touch)

we de-rigged and headed back up to the main Shaft

Once changed we headed to the Crown for a beer

A good practice trip

http://axbridgecavinggroup.wikidot.com/star-shaft-3-july-08

 

[cap n chris]

Any idea what happened to the padlock between your visit and the following evening?

Oh, and BTW, it's not a good plan to rig off the laddering as shown in the pics.

 

[Razzerip1]

The padlock was missing when we arrived - Heavy rocks had been placed on top of the hatch

We rang les's home and the matter was passed over to Cookie

I tried calling you but you were unavailable at the time.

Our main Anchor point was outside on the concrete slab the ladder was a backup

 

[cap n chris]

Aha, cool; cheers RR!

 

[Cookie]

The padlock was missing when we arrived - Heavy rocks had been placed on top of the hatch

We rang les's home and the matter was passed over to Cookie

I tried calling you but you were unavailable at the time.

Our main Anchor point was outside on the concrete slab the ladder was a backup

And Cookie call the Cap 'n who sourced a lock a fitted it within about 20 mins 

 

[Tree Monkey]

Would that be the padlock for the enclosure at Stainsby's Shaft? :-\

 

[cap n chris]

WE HAVE A WINNER!

 

[whitelackington]

Would that be the padlock for the enclosure at Stainsby's Shaft? :-\

r they robin peter to pay paul 
:

 

[cap n chris]

Nope. Short notice and no padlocks easily available - so 'twas a case of think quickly and.... hey presto!

 

[Tree Monkey]

So when's It going to be replaced?

 

[cap n chris]

When a padlock is available, reckon.

 

[Razzerip1]

Star Shaft - Mon  4 May 09

We did an SRT trip into the normally flooded lower levels of Star Shaft, and interesting trip with Lot's of history, The timber frame on the first level has colapsed but the frame below is still intact.

A selection of miner's tools and an old shovel still remain intact against the mine walls.

The Miners wheel barrow.

The head of the first pitch

Simon in motion!

 

[Les W]

When was this trip Steve?

We have considered gating the lower level to protect the artefacts, as they WILL go walkies if they are left easy to get to. The other option is to remove them and put them somwhere for public viewing (museum, etc.). They are only accessible in very low water, it would be good to get a feel for how often they are exposed. I have only seen the water that low once (it was actually a bit lower).

Could you get the other way along the level? There are a couple more barrows of the same construction, but not in such good repair.

It is a superb bit of passage with some very fine geology as well as the artefacts. 
Nice piccies too. 8)

 

[Razzerip1]

The Trip was Mon 4th May.

We were able to walk to the ends of both passages, the water was just below waist height (well for me anyway), we did the same trip a couple of years ago, nothing has changed position apart from the colapse. Apart from the metal objects everything else it to unstable to move.