Eldon Hole

[graham]

I would have liked to have seen Time team trying to empty Eldon Hole in an archaeologically responsible manner in three days....

Amazing what you can do with a helicopter & a few builders bags.

More seriously, I'd suggest contacting Phil Murphy; though I suspect that if a trench was dug through the rubble, carefully carried out & the sections recorded & if work ceased on anything not rock being found, then you shouldn't have much of a problem. I'm assuming that the landowner would be happy with this & that it's not a site that requires permission from Natural England or English Heritage?

 

[NigR]

Careful, boys. They'll soon have the biggest gate in Britain on there before you know it!

 

[AR]

I would have liked to have seen Time team trying to empty Eldon Hole in an archaeologically responsible manner in three days....

Amazing what you can do with a helicopter & a few builders bags.

More seriously, I'd suggest contacting Phil Murphy; though I suspect that if a trench was dug through the rubble, carefully carried out & the sections recorded & if work ceased on anything not rock being found, then you shouldn't have much of a problem. I'm assuming that the landowner would be happy with this & that it's not a site that requires permission from Natural England or English Heritage?

The site is within a SSSI so it'd need NE's okay to dig anything (plus I expect they'd consult PDNPA and EH), I believe the landowner is Chatsworth but it's tenanted. Although my gut feeling is that there would be a significant layer of post-medieval thrown-in walling stones and dumped carcasses to go through before hitting anything votive, that's only a gut feeling and it really needs someone with sufficient experience of digging this type of site to advise.

 

[cavermark]

Was it PB Smith that used to say:
"ee, if I won lottery, I'd get some doleys to fill skips down Eldon hole and empty the whole f**kin' thing"

 

[Pipster]

Was it PB Smith that used to say:
"ee, if I won lottery, I'd get some doleys to fill skips down Eldon hole and empty the whole f**kin' thing"

There must be loads of us who said that... 

If I win daft money on the lottery my first big spend is on cranes n shit to empty it.

Thats exactly what I've said I do too!

We need an "Eldon Hole Lotto Syndicate". Get a couple of hundred people to subscribe every week and when (if) we win big we'll have the man power too.

Similiar thread here btw...
http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=10330.msg134998

PS. I'd be up for helping to dig a way through...

 

[pwhole]

Sounds like a good summer project. One thing that would be really useful in doing this would be to guarantee all-year-round access no matter what the weather with some kind of roof to the connection entrance - so if large-dia pipe were used, an undercut section at an angle would prevent snow plugging and also afford some protection from debris falling from above. Cutting the other end upside-down to this would equally allow easy ingress and egress, especially for rescues, as the angle of pipe would need to be quite shallow.

Could this be a DCA-assisted conservation project on the cards?

 

[matthewjc]

Re Pipe, speak to Old Git, he's currently got a length going spare....

 

[alastairgott]

We need a man who can build a trainline with 70mph petrol driven (homemade) trains from the entrance to get rid of the spoil...

Then it's just a case of time, a winch and some skips when you need them.


And get him out of welsh slate mines rebuilding miners cottages.

 

[bograt]

If the negotiations with the landowner are done right I suspect he will be glad of a few tons of reclaimed walling stone, he might even cart it from the top of the hole.

 

[paul]

In case anyone is interested, the bottom of Eldon Hole is blocked with snow again.

 

[pwhole]

Bugger. Well, I guess that only goes to show the need for a lidded passage through, eh?