Surface digging near Goatchurch Cavern

[cap n chris]

Does anyone know anything about the digging on the surface near Goatchurch Cavern (beside the scarp along the path which joins the top of the wooden steps and Flange Swallet) - the dig, if it goes (which it won't), will simply enter GC at the top of Nameless Chamber (AKA Dining Chamber). It has appeared very recently (probably done at the weekend).

Although Burrington Combe isn't a SSSI (therefore not requiring five miles of paperwork before you can fart or pick up a leaf), digs of a cave-related nature should be OK'd by UBSS first.

 

[AndyF]

Just out of curiosity, why would the UBSS have the say on digs in the Coombe?

 

[Les W]

In Grahams absence I wil attempt to explain: :wink:

UBSS are the agents of the land owners - The Wills family.
The Burrington commoners also have a say and UBSS is the prefered route to approve anything caving related in Burrington Coombe.
all digging, surface or otherwise must be approved by UBSS in liason with the commoners before permission is given. Failure to do so can result in various parties getting upset, which has happened more than once.

Hope this is correct :?
Hope it helps

 

[cap n chris]

Also, it is worth pointing out that UBSS is actually older than the Combe.

 

[Peter Burgess]

But not as old as their hut, which is even older than both the UBSS and the coombe, isn't that right, Chris?

 

[Les W]

and nearly as old as Graham!!

 

[Peter Burgess]

If this dig is not supposed to be there, and I suppose we need to wait for UBSS to confirm this, and if we can't find who started it, who is going to fill it in before it causes trouble?

 

[darkplaces]

it might be a rabbit or badger!

A big one :shock:

 

[cap n chris]

F'ing big rabbit/badger. I'll photo it today and you can tell for yourselves.

N.B. The UBSS hut actually predates the Devonian, its foundations being created during the Silurian/Wenlock era. Graham, as we all know, was born during the first half of the Cambrian.

 

[whitelackington]

it might be a rabbit or badger!

A big one :shock:

Or a pet rodent gone AWOL for the weekend :twisted:

 

[Peter Burgess]

This is where a change in attitude is probably needed. There are no physical barriers to access in the Combe, so people (not just cavers) come and go as they please. That's great, and I have no problem with that. But it instills in people the feeling that if they can come and go as they please, they can also do other things as they please.

Do we have a mentality that says that if it isn't fenced off and there are no signs, then 'it doesn't belong to anyone and I can do what I want'? I think so. This is possibly just human instinct. If nobody has 'staked a claim' on a patch of ground by making it clear that it belongs to them, then others will assume they have moral 'rights' over it.

I don't want to see signs and barriers everywhere. It would be better if we could get more people to understand that every plot of land in the country belongs to someone or some organisation (forelorn hope?). Before doing anything on that land it is only courteous to make an effort to find out who it belongs to and to ask if its OK to carry out whatever activity it is they are planning.

For Burrington, I would first turn to the CSCC access web page, which I did this morning, and it only took me a few minutes to confirm what Chris already told us earlier.

 

[Peter Burgess]

Graham, as we all know, was born during the first half of the Cambrian

So he doesn't remember the "Big Bang" then?

 

[Brains]

Wasnt that when he dropped his beer mug?

 

[Slug]

it might be a rabbit or badger!

A big one :shock:

It might be one of those sicko's that digs out Badgers to fight them...........................Yes it still happens :twisted:

 

[Peter Burgess]

It might be one of those sicko's that digs out Badgers to fight them

Horrible people. It would have been in the middle of the night if it was. But I don't recall any obvious badger setts in the area. Badger baiters tend to find more remote places than this for their nasty activities.

 

[cap n chris]

Here they are: the first one is of the rubble down the slope (which is probably as much of a hazard as the hole is...). The second is the hole itself which doesn't look as big in the picture as it does in reality.

 

[cap n chris]

So why doesn't the bollocky picture upload? It's only 213kb so it's not the size causing the problem. I can't be arsed with this tonight.

 

[Peter Burgess]

Oh, good grief, we're going to have to wait till tomorrow 'cos of the inadequacies of an IT lightweight. :wink:

 

[cap n chris]

I click on "add image to post", get postimage box, go to browse, select file from folder, click on "upload image", wait for the dohicky to scan, nothing happens. Try filling in the box for the description, thinking it might not like non-described items, to no avail. Try this in a variety of combinations five times then give up. If at first you don't succeed, bollocks to it, it was never meant to happen and the computer's just messing with your mind.

 

[Peter Burgess]

So paint us a picture in prose. A picture paints a thousand words. So how many pictures was it - two? 2000 words please before I go to bed.