jester

More!

- A Mendip Miscellany -

jester

The 1968 flood

July 1968 flood - Goughs cave (victor roberts)
( Victor Roberts )

Two views of Cheddar Gorge taken the day after the great storm and flood of 10thJuly 1968.   The flow down the upper part of the gorge has stopped; all the water is coming from the resurgence and the cave.

July 1968 flood - below Goughs cave (victor roberts)
( Victor Roberts )

Various shoring methods


Timber shoring Concrete block shoring
Timber shoring, Charterhouse Warren (tony audsley)

Charterhouse Warren old shaft.  (1974)

Concrete block shoring, KingdownOFD (tony audsley)

KingdownOFD.   (2004).   Alice Audsley looks down the shaft



Reinforced concrete shoring
Concrete shoring, formwork (tony audsley)

Wooden formwork for concrete shoring at KingdownOFD.   The acrow prop is supporting temporary shoring in the hope of preventing a general collapse

Wooden formwork buried by a collapse (tony audsley)

So much for temporary shoring, but at least the collapse was quite colourful.



Formwork and reebars (tony audsley)

KingdownOFD, the formwork after re-excavation and a bit of a cleanup.   Reinforcing bars in position.

completed concrete beams (tony audsley)

KingdownOFD, the completed beams.


Wooden railways


Rhino Rift, the railway and digging hut (tony audsley)
Rhino Rift, the railway into the cave (tony audsley)

Rhino Rift, under a powdering of snow (1969).   The digging hut and the railway incline into the cave.



Longwood Valley Sing (tony audsley)

The winch and surface railway at Longwood Valley Sing, (so-called after a mis-print in the first edition of the Complete Caves ). 1      Shortly after this was taken, a pre-fabricated timber shored adit was installed and the railway taken down through it into the dig.   The pit visible in the foreground was then backfilled,  covering the tunnel and giving a secure entrance.

_____________
1Nicholas Barrington & William Stanton, The Complete Caves of Mendip First edition (1970).
"LONGWOOD VALLEY SING (Dig) Short hole in charty Limestone."

O.K, most call it Longwood Valley Sink, but Sing sounds more bizarre and so must be preferrable.




lvs001bt.jpg (27K)

Longwood Valley Sing - the site of the dig before much work had been done.   At this time, (?winter 1969), it was sometimes referred to as "The Blowhole", although the reason for this is not clear.

Longwood Valley Sink: entrance adit and railway (Simon Meade-King)
( Simon Meade-King )

Longwood Valley Sing, looking up the prefabricated timber adit and the wooden railway.

Revised:

Valid HTML 4.01 Transitional