Agen Allwedd - Priory Road Exploration

[Huge]

I remember a group turning up in Sick Parrot Chamber, during one of our digging sessions in the 90s, because they'd heared the same rumour!

They didn't stop to help.

 

[marsrat]

06/12/24 - 08/12/24: Avalanche Aven & Arrakis->Broadside Breakthrough
Broadside to Arrakis has now been connected, and a closed loop formed which will be used to further validate the survey.
The connection was completed by Dave Kinzett and Paul Stacey on 06/12/24 with further help from David Sutton on previous trips.

The connection was first passed by David Kinzett via the Arrakis side via a very tight squeeze dubbed the, "The Spice Grinder".
The connection is passable, but very tight - so bear this in mind. I am quite small if you know me, and I struggled with it when trying to haul a scaffolding bar through. Only really useful if you need to haul scaffolding into broadside.

Above: The dig from the broadside side.

Above: Paul 'Atreides' in the Spice Grinder.

Above: Dinner for Paul Stacey and Dave Kinzett

Above: The dig from the arrakis side

Above: No idea, I'm just reposting lol.


Avalanche Aven continues to be dug, with 2m progress being made. Digging was done by Alex Stacey, Paul Stacey, David Kinzett, Alex Randall, Mike Green and Gary Jones.
Alex Randall is now part of the merry monks

 

[Jedexertus]

I remember a group turning up in Sick Parrot Chamber, during one of our digging sessions in the 90s, because they'd heared the same rumour!

They didn't stop to help.

If anyone does go down they are going to be very disappointed lol but if anyone does feel free to take some water bottles from the streamway to camp for us please

 

[Huge]

Is the neat rectangle, shown in The Bunker on your excellent survey, the bellows by any chance?

 

[Jedexertus]

I didn't do the survey but it most definitely is yes

 

[Moonrat]

I didn't do the survey but it most definitely is yes

Yes, it’s the bellows, I was thinking also of adding the impressive pipe works as well. The problem as always is adding detail can sometimes obscure the cave itself. Less is sometimes more…

 

[Moonrat]

We appear to have become Aggy connection Kings... but just not the one we set off to find !!
3x new loops have been formed so far , although two are probably only for sadists that far into Ogof Agen Allwedd.

 

[matisok]

Think it was a combination of not finding anything in Grolsch, and suddenly finding Trafalgar + the Courtesan - perfect time to stop I reckon.

> Odd that Willerup just stopped.

Hi guys,

One of the Willerups here. So excited to read about your activities.

We had our own forum running back then on our website. It was indeed pretty active and provided a good platform for our explorations. I have tried a few years to resurrect the information from the outdated forum but unfortunately with no luck. I will try again and try harder. The trip report part of our documentation still lives at: https://willerup.com/oydc/

And indeed in our team we got into digging alongside our main climbing and fell running passions. It was primarily the initial sporty challenge of Daren that got us hooked and then the meeting of John Stevens, Arthur and all the other amazing people from White Walls and the caving community.

I hope live the day the breakthrough happens.

Yoor!
Mathias

 

[Tritim230]

Great site, thanks Mathias.

 

[ChrisB]

I have tried a few years to resurrect the information from the outdated forum but unfortunately with no luck

Is archive.org any help? https://web.archive.org/web/20060201231331/http://willerup.com/caving/

 

[matisok]

Is archive.org any help? https://web.archive.org/web/20060201231331/http://willerup.com/caving/

Yeah I wish it was. But it didn't/doesn't scrape a forum which is in the php-format that we used back then. Mind you all our trip reports are intact (as per the link above), but all the forum talk is lost - which is a shame because there was a lot of good reporting there and more people chipping in (some still active on this forum obviously). But thanks for the tip/attempt.

I will dream of Daren tonight.

 

[Jedexertus]

> Odd that Willerup just stopped.

Hi guys,

One of the Willerups here. So excited to read about your activities.

We had our own forum running back then on our website. It was indeed pretty active and provided a good platform for our explorations. I have tried a few years to resurrect the information from the outdated forum but unfortunately with no luck. I will try again and try harder. The trip report part of our documentation still lives at: https://willerup.com/oydc/

And indeed in our team we got into digging alongside our main climbing and fell running passions. It was primarily the initial sporty challenge of Daren that got us hooked and then the meeting of John Stevens, Arthur and all the other amazing people from White Walls and the caving community.

I hope live the day the breakthrough happens.

Yoor!
Mathias

Really cool to look through your photos and see the digs and different areas the way they were, i will read through the trip reports aswell, mega work and achievements you guys did down there hopefully we continue to make progress and make the connection aswell as discovering more cave, using some of your original tools / trays that are still down there

 

[Moonrat]

> Odd that Willerup just stopped.

Hi guys,

One of the Willerups here. So excited to read about your activities.

We had our own forum running back then on our website. It was indeed pretty active and provided a good platform for our explorations. I have tried a few years to resurrect the information from the outdated forum but unfortunately with no luck. I will try again and try harder. The trip report part of our documentation still lives at: https://willerup.com/oydc/

And indeed in our team we got into digging alongside our main climbing and fell running passions. It was primarily the initial sporty challenge of Daren that got us hooked and then the meeting of John Stevens, Arthur and all the other amazing people from White Walls and the caving community.

I hope live the day the breakthrough happens.

Yoor!
Mathias

Yep, I keep telling everyone... remember we're all standing on the shoulders of Giants!!
Without your incredible efforts much of what we're now doing just wouldn't have been possible. Reading your logs over the years had got me constantly thinking "all we need is the right team" there's stuff there to be done .... shame I had to wait for my son to be born and grow up to be a young man before we could begin! Needless to say, sometimes as I haul my weary body up and down Southern Stream with a heavy tackle bag I think I might have waited too long. I still remember doing that trip with you, John & Arthur I think all those years ago.

In time (hopefully not too soon) we'll be handing the baton to the next group of cavers... and on it goes.

Hope you're all well

 

[Goydenman]

I remember well following your reports and having some correspondence .....was great work and inspiring

 

[marsrat]

From last update - 05/02/2025: Avalanche Aven and more

To be honest, couldn't find the dates of the numerous previous camps so I've grouped it all into one crap forum update with not much detail

Happy to announce a breakthrough in Avalanche Aven, a continuation currently being dug.
Access is via a rope and scaffolding, please be aware aven is unstable.

Broadside and AA resurveyed meaning that nearly the whole of Priory Road is now resurveyed? (I'm sure somebody will correct me)

 

[marsrat]

22/02/2025 - 22/02/2025: Iles Inlet Digging

With a free weekend, I made a desperate attempt to get myself down to Priory Road to dig; but what use is digging without company so I spoke to Mathilde Feral (many thanks for accommodating me + transport when I lost access to wheels) who keenly agreed to come along; I also posted on the CSS group chat inquiring for volunteers: and Rupert Massey sought to join us.

We set out to push a promising lead in the Iles Inlet region of priory road: a heavily scalloped passage splitting off from Iles Inlet headed north into blank space. I had started digging this lead previously with Adrian Fawcett, and realised a shovel was needed (we had to dig downwards to access a potential arch).

(We dug in the lead on the right. Credit to Paul Stacey for the diagram)

As such, Mathilde went off to grab a shovel from Avalanche Aven (kindly donated by SMCC if I recall correctly), and I went to Arrakis to source a drag tray. We reconvened at the junction of the Courtesan and went to the dig site. The aim was to drop the floor by 1-2 meters, following the same strategy used to break through into Iles inlet with the hope of finding an arch we could pursue. We dug for around 3-4h, before needing to head out to the CSS birthday dinner (happy birthday to Mel, Stuart, John Stevens and Chris Seal with a combined birthday of 263 years!).

We encountered issues with sand reentering the pit, and the climb eroding as we entered/exited - so sandbags were used to shore it up temporarily.
We dropped the floor by about 1m-1.5m. The plan is to haul a bucket into the dig, and set up a pulley system to make digging/spoil removal easier as we are having problems with getting the spoil out of the pit (as the area is small). The front, left and right are solid walls and the pit as it lowers is increasing in size.

(Credits to Paul Stacey for the diagram and the research).

The hope is that we will need to drop the floor by another 2-3m before we hit the level of the strike dip; where hopefully we will hit an arch or a curve in which we can begin making horizontal progress into blank space. There is no visible draught (not that we extensively tested, I stuck my face in the dig and didn't notice anything); the air however is suitable.


The Merry Monks are still looking for keen cavers who strive for glory (and new cave); we have a digging camp on 28 February to the 02 of March (day trippers welcome). The current plan is to dig both the Iles Inlet lead and avalanche aven (if we have enough diggers). Good music/food/time to be had, DM me if interested!

Yours aye,
Marsrat.

 

[asheshouse]

Thanks for the update. Digging looks similar to Trident, lots of loose sand. Anyone been back to the end of Trident to reassess digging potential? The alignment with Starbar is intriguing.

 

[marsrat]

Hi all!

We have found a promising lead. We are rapidly dropping the distance between Aggy and Daren, but we are having manpower issues (we can't get the spoil out of the dig quick enough as it is a fair distance!!). It has been smoke-tested and there is an audible connection; so confirmed to connect! It's just sand and small rocks

We are looking for more diggers/helpers/anything with two arms ideally.
We are digging 11APRIL->13APRIL, and 18APRIL->20APRIL. Daytrippers welcome, but given advance notice we can accomodate you camping.

Come be apart of the glory!

 

[Daniel Rose]

Hi all!

We have found a promising lead. We are rapidly dropping the distance between Aggy and Daren, but we are having manpower issues (we can't get the spoil out of the dig quick enough as it is a fair distance!!). It has been smoke-tested and there is an audible connection; so confirmed to connect! It's just sand and small rocks

We are looking for more diggers/helpers/anything with two arms ideally.
We are digging 11APRIL->13APRIL, and 18APRIL->20APRIL. Daytrippers welcome, but given advance notice we can accomodate you camping.

Come be apart of the glory!

Would love to help with this! Have two arms and so do a few friends.

 

[the morganism]

Hi all!

We have found a promising lead. We are rapidly dropping the distance between Aggy and Daren, but we are having manpower issues (we can't get the spoil out of the dig quick enough as it is a fair distance!!). It has been smoke-tested and there is an audible connection; so confirmed to connect! It's just sand and small rocks

We are looking for more diggers/helpers/anything with two arms ideally.
We are digging 11APRIL->13APRIL, and 18APRIL->20APRIL. Daytrippers welcome, but given advance notice we can accomodate you camping.

Come be apart of the glory!

Hi I would love to offer my assistance to this noble cause. Along with Dan Rose.