Goatchurch confusion

P

Peter Burgess

New member
whitelackington said:
:)
Did The Church of the Goats in times past have another entrance.
Was Flange Swallet ever passable into Goatchurch? :-\
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Entrance for cavers, or just a hole to the surface at some time in the distant past?

As far as I am aware there have only ever been two entrances used by cavers.
 
stealth

stealth

New member
Why is goatchurch called Goatchurch?, surely there must be a reason  :-\

Thinking about what happened on Tuesday night

One silly theory, was it  used at Halloween for sacrificial rites  :eek: ?



 
graham

graham

New member
stealth said:
Why is goatchurch called Goatchurch?, surely there must be a reason  :-\
Click to expand...

Doubtless there is a reason but it is lost in the mists of time. There are other (old) names that may (or may not) apply to this cave. There is also one early account which descibes the cave as being "near" Goatchurch.

So you pays your money and you takes your choice.
 
cap n chris

cap n chris

Well-known member
Peter Burgess said:
whitelackington said:
:)
Did The Church of the Goats in times past have another entrance.
Was Flange Swallet ever passable into Goatchurch? :-\
Click to expand...

Entrance for cavers, or just a hole to the surface at some time in the distant past?

As far as I am aware there have only ever been two entrances used by cavers.
Click to expand...

I imagine Yew Tree Swallet could have been engineered as a third entrance (although it would have predated the Backdoor being dug open in 1923) since it provided the majority of the water which used to flood Water Chamber in times past before the digging of the adit at WTBA clogged it up with LLS spoil; then there is the talus/ruckle at the top end of the (presently named) Dining Chamber which would undoubtedly have been a link to the surface in times past. There is also another potential link to the surface at the top end of the maze which can be seen on the surface as the small enticing dark hole found adjacent to the path between the two present entrances. IMHO Flange Swallet wouldn't link to Goatchurch since its a long way down valley and not in alignment IIRC with the dominant dipped bedding in which most of Goatchurch is formed.
 
graham

graham

New member
Yew Tree Swallet certainly feeds/fed into Goatchurch. That does not imply a passable connection, however, & there is no real point in trying to dig one. Flange Swallet is too far downvalley & anyway at the deepest point reached when it was dug, it ended in an impassably narrow slot.

Is knowlegelackinton going to ask any more questions?
 
cap n chris

cap n chris

Well-known member
graham said:
Is knowlegelackinton going to ask any more questions?
Click to expand...

No need to answer that bit of rhetoric. As you will soon become aware, Whtlckngtn is actually comprised solely of bundles of vibrating questions held together with old cavers balertwine all shrouded in a loose-fitting skin vaguely resembling a human. As long as you can keep him busy on any topic other than bolting that's fine by me!....  ;)  :kiss2:
 
stealth

stealth

New member
Going back to the orange peel part of this thread, has anybody done a survey of this part of the cave?, as I dont find it mentioned on the Goatchurch survey I got a few weeks ago,because if not, on Wednesday this week I will be taking my kids up that way (got a day off school-learning review day) and I thought that We could have a go at doing a very rough survey of this passage.An interesting way of teaching maths. Got everything I need I think: Compass,long tape measure, and an angle measuring implement, (namely a protractor on a piece of wood), crude I know but it works.Flask full of Oxtail soup. (very important), cheap digicam for photo records. Just hope I can get into the passage and am not too big.
 
axbridgecaver

axbridgecaver

Member
Sorry to disappoint you Stealth but Orange Peel Passage was surveyed by the Axbridge Caving Group in 1988, [ACG Newsletter Spring 1988 Pages 4 to 11] one of the first surveys that I had done. For an exercise it would probably be easier to survey another part of the cave as in places Orange Peel Passage is quite tight. Have Fun.


289217023_8b7b8237ec.jpg
 
stealth

stealth

New member
Axbridgecaver not a problem. May do as you suggest get them to survey another part just as an exercise.weve never done anything like that, so should be an interesting exercise.
As i'm am inquisitive sole what made you dig there, was there draughting, I find it interesting to find out how cave passages were discovered.
 
axbridgecaver

axbridgecaver

Member
The main reason we started the dig is that the vast majority of caves on Mendip (with the exception of those in Burrington Combe) were closed due to the SSSI situation. So we started looking at the caves in Burrington, our first being Goatchurch. The crawl looked very interesting and as there was only mud at the end we started to remove it. And as usual when digging starts we had visions of breaking into large passages so we continued and after only four hours digging (several sessions) broke up through the false floor into Orange Peel Passage. No there was no draught. However be warned that once you start cave digging it is very addictive - the next dig will break into massive chambers. Also remember that cave diggers are the best people in the world - eternal optimists - if we weren't we would have stopped digging years ago.
 
cap n chris

cap n chris

Well-known member
axbridgecaver said:
be warned that once you start cave digging it is very addictive - the next dig will break into massive chambers.
Click to expand...

This happens with such frequency that some people find it hard to believe that in one year alone over 4,000 new caves were discovered on Mendip.
 
graham

graham

New member
Is Chris ever anything other than completely serious?  :-\

I remember that year, it were amazing.  8)
 
P

Peter Burgess

New member
I'll say this very slowly so it sinks in......

Cap 'n......
              Chris......
                          is .......
                                    very...........
                                                      rarely.............
                                                                          serious...........
                                                                                              about.........
                                                                                                              ANYTHING!!
 
P

Peter Burgess

New member
Another possibility is that whereas whitelackington recently had a problem with his calculations being out by a factor of 10, cap 'n chris might have a similar problem, but the factor of error is 1000.  ;)
 
Razzerip1

Razzerip1

New member
Or you could just settle for Titan Cave in Derbyshire

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/bb_wm_fs.stm?news=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nol_storyid=6121616&checkedBandwidth=nb&checkedMedia=asx&subtitles=hide&alreadySeen=1
 
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