Sludge Pit Hole (SPH) - The dig so far.

mikekushy

Active member
So,

Our first official report online from our Sludge Pit Hole dig, for those who wouldn't know what we've been up to. I'm not great at writing up and I don't want to get too excited about this dig for specific reasons, so I will keep it minimal on just our active dig 'The Mud Tube', add some photos with descriptions and answer any questions there on. This is mainly a recruitment drive as the dig is taking on a different character and we're getting deep in now.........Well in comparison.

Sludge Pit Hole (ALT': 269m) is the believed highest cave entrance on the whole of the Mendips, originally called 'Contour Cave' because it was believed to be on the 900' contour and the second closest cave entrance to the WCC hut, most of the digger's being WCC members find this a major pro'. The cave was originally discovered by Bridgwater Technical College with the help of Clive North and John Cornwell. Despite the name, the cave is relatively mud free...unless you go looking for it!
Unfortunately it is right on the boundary line of Portishead Formation (Red Sandstone) and the Avon, lower limestone shales. So theoretically everything should be majorly phreatic and then just fizzle out into tiny little passages. The water from the MAIN RIFT has been traced to  Passchendaele in Swildon's, NOT with Fluorescein just optical brightners!....See MU5 for more details.

Anyways, our current dig The Mud Tube is on a completely older and different water course to the Main Rift, this has been proven conclusively.

The 'sump' as it's known at the end of the Main Rift has been dug by several teams from various clubs over the years, with no obvious way on and a very slow drainage. We have never been interested in this, quite interesting though is on the way down to the 'sump' an obvious shale series is passed where more recent water does come in to the cave.

Back to our dig, Geoff Newton started to look at SPH for leads in October 2014 after getting permission. The cave had been closed for 30 years and re-opened in 2012, so the cave has never properly been looked at with LED lighting and the other mod cons we have in the 21st century. He was looking for a dig of his own, that required a small number of people and wasn't logistically difficult, so SPH by chance fitted the bill.

Geoff's attention was drawn to Strike Chamber and a couple of leads heading into blank spaces on the topo map. Back Passage was one (We've also dug here and discovered 30m of new passage to a too tight streamway) and an unnamed steeply descending tube leading of Strike was the other, this tube we believed was opened up by the Gordon Brother's of Priddy fame, in the late 60's and was not obvious at first. Going down this tube you encounter a small chamber which is now used for stacking (intermediate), the tube then carries on in the same fashion and a slightly larger chamber is entered with a high climb to the ceiling and roughly 6 ways on (now called 7 ways after the discovery of the mud tube). No obvious digging had been done here before, the floor funnelled down through liquid mud and a gravely choke about a foot square, Geoff started digging here solo pulling the mud out in buckets and filling the mud tube entrance, which at the time must have just looked like an alcove as it was calcited up. In January 2015 I came to help Geoff clear this and eventually with the help of Alison Moody and some extra persuasion we got into a very snug streamway, around a 90 degree bend and into the 'Gloopy Pool', which was lowered through a higher overflow channel with buckets, no ideal way on just a 6ft high approx' rift on the left, less than 1ft wide and heavily choked with layers of dry mud, maybe a 1ft airspace over the top. We discovered around 15m of extra cave here.

We then set up a hauling system from 7 ways chamber back to the intermediate stacking space to clear out the spoil Geoff had accumulated. One day whilst Geoff was arranging spoil to clear down in the Gloopy Pool streamway, I was sat higher up in 7 ways near the retaining wall we put spoil in ready to go out to intermediate and I was convinced I could feel a draught near me, so I started pulling dried gloop out of the alcove (which became the mud tube) which is also a continuation of the passages from Strike Chamber. With Geoff muttering below me "What on earth are you up to up there, you rascal". Intent on a discovery, a bit of mess was made to reveal a very very small airspace and a heavily choked tube, and it paid off when the passage started to become more obvious with more clearance...a possible bypass to the tight streamway! After prising out lumps of crystal from the floor the tube was passable (only just) for 4 body lengths until it hit a twist, still a zephyr could be felt. Time to move back up and make everything a more workable size. Ali and Jon' Williams at this time offered us substantial help with chemical persuasion so at the end of May 2015 we were back in business.

Drilling had to be done mid week to enable a quick set up for the charges and to keep our assistance happy, not having to sit around for too long. Most of our clearance sessions were on Friday evenings and some Sundays, week in week out. We set up an extra hauling system from the intermediate stacking spot to Strike Chamber, so we would be safe in respect to stacking space. John Cooper very kindly loaned us his Bosch drill, which has been an absolute trooper after dozens of trips. With help from many people, from different clubs (and countries) we've persisted with The Mud Tube dig, got around the twisty corner and into a chamber about the same size as the intermediate chamber, but a very steep floor, so not ideal for stacking. A rift passage low on the right is believed to be the other end of the rift in The Gloopy pool and 3 other inlets are encountered here high up. The way on is quite a tall rift which looks to be developing in size, we banged this and discovered a 3m climb down into a streamway proper, the draught here really picks up and it can get reasonably cold when sat idle. It's still a bit difficult to tell what is going to happen, but this rift development is interesting and there's a considerable sized iron vein higher up, which can be followed all the way from Strike Chamber. The passage runs parallel to the Main Rift so we traced the water to The Main Rift and conclusively discovered this stream does NOT re appear in the Main Rift, yay. Ahead the passage seems to be widening and another inlet ahead and a descending floor.

In addition to heading towards a blank space on the maps, we can also dream of bypassing The Main Rift, or connecting with downstream Nine Barrows (entrance approx 25m from SPH and a 8 metres lower). In our wildest dreams a connection with Swildon's hole (500m away) via some yet unknown higher level passages could be made. The current dig is even headed straight for Lime Kiln dig and it's possibly mythical cave system, and a number of faults including one very well known major one must be passed, the chances are quite low but the prospects are incredible.

It takes roughly 20 minutes to get to the dig site, through a bit of sporting cave but nothing extreme. Logistics at the dig are tough now, with the 3m climb down, 3m of horizontal passage to the sharp end and the steep floored chamber before the hauling system, digging with 2 people consists of too much travel and constantly leap frogging each other to move back up cave and clear the initial debris before going back down to clear more. Roughly 3 times in one session to clear one load of bang (and very hard going), with 3 people the leap frogging still has to be done, but bringing stuff up the 3m drop is so much easier without having to climb, Wayne Starsmoore has been a regular help once a month and is very much appreciated. With 4 we can haul straight from the dig face to 7 Ways Chamber.

P.S. Sorry we've not kept an up to date report on our digs, I did not believe much would happen at first given the geology of the area, so didn't want to publish much obviously. But the cave did have question marks when Geoff approached me about digging and exploring here, and as they say '"curiosity can kill the cat" ;)

Pictures and surveys to follow...Mike K.
 

mikekushy

Active member
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KMl File for SPH, you'll notice The Skeleton Series is missing but this is just to show our ground location in relevance to Lime Kiln.

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Full survey KML

 

mikekushy

Active member
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Strike chamber last year.

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Strike chamber September 2017, more like Strike Passage now

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The first tube off Strike Chamber to Intermediate stacking.

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Intermediate stacking space.

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The streamway to the Gloopy Pool before work.

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Around the corner of Gloopy Pool passage, the Gloopy Pool is another 2 body lengths in front of the person.

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Starting work on the MT.

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MT viewed from 7 ways (after initial clearance and some calcite dug out of the floor.

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Self explanatory.

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The twist in MT becoming more obvious now.

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Chamber after the twist, rift lower down on right, believed to be other end of Gloopy Pool rift.

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Onwards and downwards!

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One of the 3 higher inlets encountered after the twist.

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Looking into the higher inlet shown previously and in same direction as the dig rift, it's clear this rift is taller than first meets the eye.

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Minerals.

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Spoil to clear, and after clearance an obvious drop into stream passage.

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Geoff for scale in the climb down and looking onwards at the sharp end.

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View from Geoff's position in last pic's.

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Current sharp end.
 

The Old Ruminator

Well-known member
Well written up Mike. The race is on for next year's J'Rat awards. ( This Saturday for the current year). Looking forward to The Mendip Round Up at the Hunters.
Mike is also digging Jill's Slither in Reservoir Hole.
 

mrodoc

Well-known member
Mike could do with help at JS. He managed to lure us away from Vurley for a bit but needs help now. Good draught and exciting prospects.
 

mikekushy

Active member
The dig isn't nothing yet mind, so don't want to get our hopes up...but thanks, and I hope It's an interesting read if nothing else comes of it.
 

mikekushy

Active member
David Rose said:
Two digs on the go at once. Respect!

Thanks. Well SPH is regular on a Friday,  LVS on a Saturday, soon to be Brimble Pit. Jill's was a few Tuesday days I had off, and had help available from the Vurley Gang.

Spreading my bets thinly..

 
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