Aveline's Hole gate cut

andrewmcleod

Well-known member
Popped into Aveline's Hole today at about 2pm; haven't been in there before. A bar in the gate has been cut, allowing access. There is also damage to other parts of the gate where it looks like an attempt has been made to pry the panel off. There is a length of blue 8mm(?) low-quality looking non-nylon rope tired to the gate running deeper into the cave. I did not got through the gate to see where it went. There were a pair of cheap, possibly damaged 'Blackspur' 18" bolt cutters tucked into the hole in the floor opposite the gate which I photographed and decided to retrieve. There is a small amount of fresh rust on the bolt cutters where they were wet, possibly as little as a night's worth of rust though?
 

andrewmcleod

Well-known member
Photos attached...
 

Attachments

  • gate.jpg
    gate.jpg
    607.7 KB · Views: 378
  • panel_damage.jpg
    panel_damage.jpg
    387.6 KB · Views: 174
  • bar_damage.jpg
    bar_damage.jpg
    567.7 KB · Views: 172
  • bolt_cutters.jpg
    bolt_cutters.jpg
    511.9 KB · Views: 214

fredthedog

New member
andrewmc said:
Popped into Aveline's Hole today at about 2pm; haven't been in there before. A bar in the gate has been cut, allowing access. There is also damage to other parts of the gate where it looks like an attempt has been made to pry the panel off. There is a length of blue 8mm(?) low-quality looking non-nylon rope tired to the gate running deeper into the cave. I did not got through the gate to see where it went. There were a pair of cheap, possibly damaged 'Blackspur' 18" bolt cutters tucked into the hole in the floor opposite the gate which I photographed and decided to retrieve. There is a small amount of fresh rust on the bolt cutters where they were wet, possibly as little as a night's worth of rust though?

Thanks for the report. A repair has been actioned and will be done asap. This has also been reported to the landowner and Heritage England's Heritage Crimes Unit as this is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and the gate was installed by Heritage England. The Heritage Crimes Unit has contacts with the local police and they will deal with the report to the police.
 

fredthedog

New member
andrewmc said:
There were a pair of cheap, possibly damaged 'Blackspur' 18" bolt cutters tucked into the hole in the floor opposite the gate which I photographed and decided to retrieve. There is a small amount of fresh rust on the bolt cutters where they were wet, possibly as little as a night's worth of rust though?

Please could you keep these so that they can be passed to the police. Thanks.
 

Andy Sparrow

Active member
The entire length of Aveline's Hole was open for decades before this was found  http://www.ubss.org.uk/articles/avelines.php
Following this discovery an expensive and ugly gate was installed across this fine phreatic cave passage.  My prediction at the time was that this gate would inevitably attract vandalism by would-be explorers wrongly assuming there was something worth seeing on the other side.  This has proved to be true.  My longer term prediction is that 20 years from now the current enthusiasm to repair the gate will have evaporated and it will be left, corroding slowly, bars prised apart, just another example of unsightly cave junk serving no purpose whatsoever.
 

SamT

Moderator
Andy Sparrow said:
ugly gate [snip] that [snip] would inevitably attract vandalism by would-be explorers wrongly assuming there was something worth seeing on the other side.

Have to agree with that.. it was my initial reaction to the photos.

I wonder if anything could be done to protect the engraving at a much more localised level.  Thus preventing the need for an ugly gate.

Clear Perspex plate mounted over engraving??

It seems the engraving survived intact prior to the gate.  :-\
 

royfellows

Well-known member
It seems that we are prepared to damage one thing in order to protect another from a perceived threat that previously never materialised.

As my ole pappy used to say, "Think before you do"
 

SamT

Moderator
The string suggests kids to me (presumably having just read about Theseus) .

The 14 year old me would have longed to know what was behind that gate (and I would have had access to bolt cutters from my dads shed).

Hopefully the full weight of the law will be hurled against the perpetrators should they defy all odds and be found....perhaps some loud tutting and finger waving along with a suggestion of joining a local caving club.
 

Laurie

Active member
SamT said:
Hopefully the full weight of the law will be hurled against the perpetrators should they defy all odds and be found...
...Like a metaphorical slapped wrist, don't do it again and sent home laughing at the magistrates.

 

ZombieCake

Well-known member
From the Pics the rope looks like the cheapo stuff you get in say Lidl or the Range.  Why leave behind the bolt cutters?  Were they planning a return visit, disturbed by another party, forgot it, or too lazy to carry it out?  Would there be any possibility of the Heritage Inquisition Illuminati Guardian Constabulary finger printing the cutters (unlikely I know given Police cuts)?
From memory, one advantage of the mark's placement is that they are obscure and very hard to see unless you know where you are looking.  They're no Lascaux by any means but nevertheless quite interesting if that sort of thing (faint scratchings) interests you. Also the articles don't give the exact location in the cave. One the other hand once located they are quite rare and potentially at risk from damage from prodding etc. as any other cave feature would be.  So do you hide in plain sight and hope very few notice, or use the iron gate?  Risks on both sides, and the solution used I guess often errs on the side of caution.
I was down there c. 3 months or so ago to test an e-bay special bulb flash gun ('cos I was too lazy to walk to Goatchurch) and the gate was all fine then - has anyone been down much more recently to try and refine the damage date range?
 

rhychydwr1

Active member
I believe that the Aveline engravings are modern.  In my misspent youth as MNRC Caving Secretary, long before you needed permission to dig in  caves, I organised a dig in Avelines.  The aim was to enter the river passage below Plumley's Hole and the large cave passages beyond.  During a rest between working at  the mud face my wife and I used to search for cave paintings / engravings.  We had a lot of experience of this, when searching in the painted caves of France.  We were quite used to techniques such as shining a light at a shallow angle to the rock face.  Needless to say, there were no engravings then!   


 

andrewmcleod

Well-known member
ZombieCake said:
From the Pics the rope looks like the cheapo stuff you get in say Lidl or the Range.  Why leave behind the bolt cutters?  Were they planning a return visit, disturbed by another party, forgot it, or too lazy to carry it out?  Would there be any possibility of the Heritage Inquisition Illuminati Guardian Constabulary finger printing the cutters (unlikely I know given Police cuts)?

The bolt cutters are available for ?8.99 on Amazon and (although I haven't looked at them in too much detail) I think the cutting bits are damaged. The 'Heritage Inquisition Illuminati Guardian Constabulary' will get their go at them in due course, I'm sure :p
 

Ship-badger

Member
I hadn't read the article about the engravings before. Why wasn't I surprised to read who the two were who discovered the engraving.
What an asset to the UK caving scene they are.
 

SamT

Moderator
Not condoning it either Chris.  Just smacks of kids.  It would appear that no body has been in the cave to check if there is any damage in there, which would of course be another matter.

I can't see that there is a note on the door explaining access arrangements which will always generate this kind of response.

I still think its a really ugly gate too (not that they're pretty at the best of times).

 

Attachments

  • 28.jpg
    28.jpg
    90.2 KB · Views: 157
Top