Manor Farm Swallet

[Peter Burgess]

The CSCC website access notes on Manor Farm Swallet say:

In recent years the farmer has chosen to close the cave during the summer and autumn months due to poor air quality underground...... Goodwill fee. It is requested that all cavers must be out of the cave by 10 p.m.

We are planning a trip in December. I haven't been down this cave for many years, and I wonder if there is anything we need to know other than what the access notes say.

For example, is there a chance the cave might be closed for bad air in the weeks before Christmas, and what is the goodwill fee at the moment?

I remember it as sometimes containing a good deal of cowsh. Is this still the case?

Thanks

Peter

 

[cap n chris]

Farmer Jefferies is the landowner. £2 per caver - call at either the bungalow or Manor Farm House or wander around in the farm yard or ring beforehand (01761 462366). Slight problem earlier in the year with skin irritation and poor air tends to be experienced in drier conditions. I imagine the air is presently not very good although haven't been there during the summer - it should be better after heavy rains wash through the cave. The cowsh problem still exists but has not been as "bad" as it used to be in recent years. The scaffold belay at the entrance is loose but can still be used; it is best to use hangers at september rift rather than the loose scaffold bar there (which can slide off its ledge under loading).

Depending on the time of day you may wish to park up the road at the Charterhouse Centre and walk down - in the past vehicles have been broken into while parked on the roadside (directly opposite private dwellings!) - I should know, `cos my car was one which got robbed!

Also perhaps worth checking this thread for the most recent debate on MFS:

http://ukcaving.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=933

 

[cucc Paul]

CUCC went down over the weekend... i didnt go but they would have said if the air was bad... They had a good trip...

for a small village priddy deffinatly has very good fireworks though...

 

[cap n chris]

Ahh!... they're not fireworks, they're explosives.The cavers I met were wearing KUCC marked warmbacs - presumably you don't spell CUCC with a K so they must have been from another uni speleo group. (Kent?, I guess).

 

[andymorgan]

So when exactly is the summer-autumn period when the farmer closes the cave?

 

[cucc Paul]

explosives.... all the same they were good.... poor guy forks got blown up then cremated

 

[cap n chris]

According to Mendip Underground (Irwin & Jarratt) 1st June to 1st November but I expect there's some flexibility and these dates aren't absolutely carved in stone but serve as a rough guide.

 

[cap n chris]

guy forks got blown up then cremated

Aha, but did he own a Knife and/or Fawke Candles?

 

[angelmaz11]

Hi there,

KUCC didnt go down Manor Farm so I wouldnt know about bad air. Maybe it was CUCC, though I dont remember their kit being marked...?

 

[cucc Paul]

ya cucc did our kit not marked its either sexily spray painted or taped....

 

[cap n chris]

I shall try and solve the misunderstanding created earlier in this thread; when CUCC Paul wrote that CUCC were down over the weekend (i.e. down the cave {Manor Farm}, not down on Mendip as I had read it!) I replied that I had bumped into cavers wearing KUCC marked overalls (but I failed to mention I was visiting Swildon's Hole). Then Angelmaz rightly wrote that KUCC cavers were not visiting Manor Farm Swallet (because they weren't!).

So KUCC were in Swildon's Hole.
So was I.

CUCC were in Manor Farm.

Clear as mud?

 

[cucc Paul]

cucc were also in swildons rhinos and east water i also believe we done gb.... were busy folk...

 

[Peter Burgess]

Not wanting to appear ungrateful, may I belatedly thank you for the useful info on Manor Farm.

It's a long time since I was there and am really looking forward to it.

Peter

 

[surreyminer]

The cave is indeed open, we did it yesterday. A bargain £1.50 each. We did not take a bolt for the second pitch so backed up the bar to the dam at the top of of the chamber. Very wet and sporting, a good time was had by all.
much nicer than boring Surrey mines :wink:

 

[cap n chris]

The cave is indeed open, we did it yesterday. A bargain £1.50 each. We did not take a bolt for the second pitch so backed up the bar to the dam at the top of of the chamber. Very wet and sporting, a good time was had by all.
much nicer than boring Surrey mines :wink:

Are you absolutely sure it was £1.50 each? - if so then I've been paying over the odds and will take along the lesser figure at the weekend! Any problems with pollution/irritation from the water?

Was the air OK in NHASA?

 

[surreyminer]

no problem with air or cowsh in MF; there was an awful ot of water.We only got as far as Albert's Eye, my rather portly brother kept blocking the hole and it filled up very quickly so only 3 of us went through, he had been to the bottom before anyway, the main purpose of the trip was some SRT practice for some new members which we acheived. We paid our money to the people in the old house with the white fake cow, she said a party had been in the week before

 

[whitelackington]

We paid them £6 for three of us, stood in the road with two male and one femail and one child farmer and loads of cows 04/06/06

I have been doing Manor farm for over thirty years, never known it shut, they are desparate for the money, that's why you can never be sure what they are going to charge, I think they put it up every now and again to "Test The Market"
well farmers have been told to diversyfy :!: