busty_caver
Member
First there are great pictures of this trip but i cannot get them to load on here. They are on the Darkplaces website but for some reason will not load on UK caving. If you are a DP member you can view this report under the UK Drain Exploration Forum section or else wait for the next issue of the Belfry Bulletin.
Waterlip is a small village near Stoke St Michael in the Mendips, Somerset. There are several small caves in this region of limestone, one of which has two long concrete storm drain tunnels carrying surface water into a supposed Norman Culvert before it enters Waterlip Cave entrance. The water then moved over 120 metres and 15 metres in depth before appearing out of a hole in the face of a nearby disused quarry. The water from the resurgance is then piped to empty out of a long rusted pipe into the quarry lake.
On Wednesday 2nd July I was asked to take a look at the entrance to the cave as during recent flash storms the road and neighbouring houses had been flooded and the reason was believed to be debris blocking the cave entrance. With permission from the council, landowner and the company currently using the quarry my partner and I decended through a rusty manhole cover to investigate.
At the base of the man hole shaft the tunnels went in two directions. To the south there were two tunnels going out to the surface used to collect the large quantities of water which run down the neighbouring valley. To the North there was one tunnel which led on for 5 metres under the main road. This was believed to be a Norman culvert and had been lined with concrete rings 10-15 years ago in the threat of subsidance from quarry lorry traffic.
Once through the concrete storm drain there is another man hole overhead and the tunnel bends 90 degrees to face West and continues as concrete for another 3 metres. There is then a minor collapse in the roof which has been held up with corregated iron. The culvert then opens out slightly into a beautiful stone built structure believed to date from Norman times.
The culvert then heads southeast for at least 10 metres before reaching a junction. To the southwest it continues for as far as my torch could reach although it was massively silted up and thus would have required a flat out thrutch to reach the end.
At the junction there is a 90 degree bend to the Southeast which continues as a much smaller culvert for 4 metres before ending at the entrance to the cave. The cave entrance is approximately 30 centimetres wide and can be seen to drop at least 4 metres in a rift. On this passage of culvert there is also a whole is the western wall approximately the size of an A4 piece of paper which also breaks into the cave.
There was no rubbish found other than a beer can which was removed from the cave entrance. The presance of flood debris in the culvert roof shows that this does flood to the roof. There were several small straws on the Norman culvert roof and lots of pretty snails with different coloured rings on their shells.
Upon exiting the drain we went to take a look at the quarry resurgance. This was dry but the size of the metal pipe put into move the water to drop into the quarry lake indicated that this is often a very wet cave. Debris around the pipe entrance showed that recently the water had also overflowed around the pipe and down the cliff bank as well as down the pipe. The entrance was accessible to the smallest caver through a tight squeeze but as this cave is documented already we took a couple of piccies and left.
Please be aware that if you are visiting this area that the quarry is used by a firm who make things for the MOD and therefore out of bounds. Luckily I had permission from the landowner and the firm to access this site.
It was a fun and intersting trip. The culvert walling was very pretty and excellently made with no visible mortar between the stones.
Busty Caver
Waterlip is a small village near Stoke St Michael in the Mendips, Somerset. There are several small caves in this region of limestone, one of which has two long concrete storm drain tunnels carrying surface water into a supposed Norman Culvert before it enters Waterlip Cave entrance. The water then moved over 120 metres and 15 metres in depth before appearing out of a hole in the face of a nearby disused quarry. The water from the resurgance is then piped to empty out of a long rusted pipe into the quarry lake.
On Wednesday 2nd July I was asked to take a look at the entrance to the cave as during recent flash storms the road and neighbouring houses had been flooded and the reason was believed to be debris blocking the cave entrance. With permission from the council, landowner and the company currently using the quarry my partner and I decended through a rusty manhole cover to investigate.
At the base of the man hole shaft the tunnels went in two directions. To the south there were two tunnels going out to the surface used to collect the large quantities of water which run down the neighbouring valley. To the North there was one tunnel which led on for 5 metres under the main road. This was believed to be a Norman culvert and had been lined with concrete rings 10-15 years ago in the threat of subsidance from quarry lorry traffic.
Once through the concrete storm drain there is another man hole overhead and the tunnel bends 90 degrees to face West and continues as concrete for another 3 metres. There is then a minor collapse in the roof which has been held up with corregated iron. The culvert then opens out slightly into a beautiful stone built structure believed to date from Norman times.
The culvert then heads southeast for at least 10 metres before reaching a junction. To the southwest it continues for as far as my torch could reach although it was massively silted up and thus would have required a flat out thrutch to reach the end.
At the junction there is a 90 degree bend to the Southeast which continues as a much smaller culvert for 4 metres before ending at the entrance to the cave. The cave entrance is approximately 30 centimetres wide and can be seen to drop at least 4 metres in a rift. On this passage of culvert there is also a whole is the western wall approximately the size of an A4 piece of paper which also breaks into the cave.
There was no rubbish found other than a beer can which was removed from the cave entrance. The presance of flood debris in the culvert roof shows that this does flood to the roof. There were several small straws on the Norman culvert roof and lots of pretty snails with different coloured rings on their shells.
Upon exiting the drain we went to take a look at the quarry resurgance. This was dry but the size of the metal pipe put into move the water to drop into the quarry lake indicated that this is often a very wet cave. Debris around the pipe entrance showed that recently the water had also overflowed around the pipe and down the cliff bank as well as down the pipe. The entrance was accessible to the smallest caver through a tight squeeze but as this cave is documented already we took a couple of piccies and left.
Please be aware that if you are visiting this area that the quarry is used by a firm who make things for the MOD and therefore out of bounds. Luckily I had permission from the landowner and the firm to access this site.
It was a fun and intersting trip. The culvert walling was very pretty and excellently made with no visible mortar between the stones.
Busty Caver
