A solution to the Longwood valley flooding problem?
- Thread starter Andy Sparrow
- Start date
good to see cavers getting recognition on the BBC website for this - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-24455690 
graham
New member
The photo on that BBC link may well change.
The 'official' CCC Ltd report on the work is at http://charterhouse-caving-company.ltd.uk/resources/Longwood_Valley_Flood_Works_Report_Sept%202013.pdf
Edit
The photo on the link has now changed. Perhaps it should be entitled Danger, Ladies at Work.
The 'official' CCC Ltd report on the work is at http://charterhouse-caving-company.ltd.uk/resources/Longwood_Valley_Flood_Works_Report_Sept%202013.pdf
Edit
The photo on the link has now changed. Perhaps it should be entitled Danger, Ladies at Work.
graham
New member
"No plan survives first contact with the enemy"
Those who live on Mendip will be aware that it was really rather wet last weekend. one of the results of this was that a flood pulse tore down the Longwood Valley, overwhelmed the Main Sink and reached LVS for the first time since the work was done. It being Autumn, this carried a lot of plant debris and in no time at all the shiny new grill was blocked.
The good news is that the dam held and the good folk of Cheddar were not washed from their beds*. The less good news is that the water found alternative sink points around the new entrance, essentially in the unconsolidated ground where the digger had been working, and there has been quite a large slump.
So, we reconvened the working party on Friday, placed Mrs Moody and Mr Whitcombe in a hole and threw rocks at them. This helped consolidate the slumped areas and a further working party will be needed to finish that job. On inspection, the bottom of the shaft has not been seriously affected, which is good. The other good news is that Nature has provided a nice area around the entrance to dump digging spoil - one thing that this shows is that spoil cannot be stacked anywhere in the cave itself that isn't subject to washing out. The cave was really very wet when inspected on Tuesday.
We consider that the current score is Nature : 1 CCC Ltd & SWT : 2
*Or indeed from anyone else's!
Those who live on Mendip will be aware that it was really rather wet last weekend. one of the results of this was that a flood pulse tore down the Longwood Valley, overwhelmed the Main Sink and reached LVS for the first time since the work was done. It being Autumn, this carried a lot of plant debris and in no time at all the shiny new grill was blocked.
The good news is that the dam held and the good folk of Cheddar were not washed from their beds*. The less good news is that the water found alternative sink points around the new entrance, essentially in the unconsolidated ground where the digger had been working, and there has been quite a large slump.
So, we reconvened the working party on Friday, placed Mrs Moody and Mr Whitcombe in a hole and threw rocks at them. This helped consolidate the slumped areas and a further working party will be needed to finish that job. On inspection, the bottom of the shaft has not been seriously affected, which is good. The other good news is that Nature has provided a nice area around the entrance to dump digging spoil - one thing that this shows is that spoil cannot be stacked anywhere in the cave itself that isn't subject to washing out. The cave was really very wet when inspected on Tuesday.
We consider that the current score is Nature : 1 CCC Ltd & SWT : 2
*Or indeed from anyone else's!
