An Examination of Bones From Cannington Somerset

The Old Ruminator

Well-known member
We tried hard to save Jackdaw Cave etc at Cannington from destruction saying that the cave was an important archaeological site and bat roost. Sadly nobody listened despite the fact that I personally put the case to the minerals officer at County Hall.

Recent work on remains found there now point to how important the site might have been.

https://cotswoldarchaeology.co.uk/cannington-park-quarry-cave-somerset-human-and-animal-remains/

" These are very exciting dates and are comparable with those for the human remains known as ?Cheddar Man?, recovered from Gough?s cave, nearby in the Mendip Hills, which were dated to 8540-7990 and 8470-8230 cal BC. Mesolithic human remains are extremely rare discoveries in England, with just 20 firmly dated sites known (Meiklejohn, Chamberlain and Schulting 2011). "
 

The Old Ruminator

Well-known member
Looking again at the map this seems to be the quarry just to the east of the main quarry. When it was derelict it had 16m of water in it. We used it for dive training until the company got worried about liability. Recently all the water was pumped out and the quarry reworked. You see it here top right.

P7280004 - Copy by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr

The main quarry has permission to quarry the area marked XX. The deep shaft is down the bottom marked X. As far as I know it is still intact and unexplored.

This next image shows botryoidal stalagmites from Jackdaw Cave now destroyed.

Botryoidal Stalagmites. Super Macro. by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr

The main quarry showing the shaft entrance near centre.

IMG_3840 by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr

The bone site quarry shown pumped out.

IMG_3801 by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr

The quarry areas are off limits with security cameras and often patrolled by the game warden who has a big gun. Visits are not recommended and so far despite an email we have had no response from the quarry company regarding the deep shaft.

IMG_3799 by Nicholas Chipchase, on Flickr

 

AR

Well-known member
The Old Ruminator said:
We tried hard to save Jackdaw Cave etc at Cannington from destruction saying that the cave was an important archaeological site and bat roost. Sadly nobody listened despite the fact that I personally put the case to the minerals officer at County Hall.

Ah, yes, but the professionals know better than the experts, because they're paid to think they know better.... :mad:
 

The Old Ruminator

Well-known member
The official reason was that the 1948 planning designed to get Britain going again was still in force. At the time for the quarry company it was use it or lose it. Pity about the poor bats.
 

mikem

Well-known member
Hopefully they didn't remove it in the winter, when the bats would have been home...
 

AR

Well-known member
The Old Ruminator said:
The official reason was that the 1948 planning designed to get Britain going again was still in force. At the time for the quarry company it was use it or lose it. Pity about the poor bats.

Even if there was an old permission on the site, it should have been put through the ROMP (Review of Old Mineral Permissions) process, as part of which there should have been an environmental impact assessment submitted, much as there would be for a completely new quarrying application. Although there is a measure of presumption in favour of continuation there should still have been proper consideration of whether the value of anything that would be destroyed by the quarrying was sufficient to justify overturning the old quarrying permission. Without seeing the documentation for this case I can't comment in detail, but on the face of it I'm far from convinced that the mineral planners did their job to a suitable standard in allowing continued extraction.
 
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