Belfry Bulletin Number 137

No. 137

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Editorial Although the Belfry Bulletin has appeared regularly, if perhaps a little late in the month at times, the same thing cannot be said of the rest of our club's publications.

The Caving Reports series were designed to form a record of the more serious work done by the club and the original scheme was to publish them at the rate of approximately two per year, depending, of course, on the amount of such work carried out by the club. This system is still humorously kept going; by the dates printed on their covers, which bear no relation whatsoever to the actual dates of publication.

Up until a short while ago, the reason why these reports were anything up to a year behind the announced date was merely that stencilling them took too long. We now have an arrangement with the firm that does the covers for the B.B. to get them stencilled and both Caving Reports No 4 and 5 are now being printed.

In addition to this, Bryan Ellis has done a fine job of editing and printing a B.B. Digest. You will find an advert enclosed with this B.B. The price, incidentally, is 3/6 (not 3/-) and about six have already been ordered. There are only thirty, so get your order in as soon as possible if you want one. " Alfie. " _______________________________________________________________________________________

CAVING 2nd May.

9th May. 11th May. 18th May. 30th May.

31st May.

St. Cuthbert's. A trip by Roger Stenner and Rowena to collect the tripod for modification. In via Railway Tunnel entrance to Rabbit Warren to Plantation Junction and on to sump, missing a party who had gone through sump. Back to Entrance Pitch via Everest. The ladder had been pulled up. While waiting, Rowena's helmet fell through the hole in the floor and went down to the floor of ArĂŞte Chamber. Mo replaced ladder after a short while.

Swildons Hole. Party of five down to sump, including Tony O'Flaherty and Prew.

Cuthbert's. Party consisting of Mo, Mike Wheadon and Mike Thompson. Down to first duck via Quarry Corner and Everest Passage. Went through duck to final sump. This was examined and digging prospects envisaged. Returned via Bypass Passage and Lower Mud Hall and missed Roger Stenner and Rowena.

Swildons. Tony O'Flaherty and M. Ware to Sump I. Eastwater. Roger Burky + 2 B.C.S.S. + 2 females to the Terminal Rift.

Swildons. Paul and Tess, Sid Hobbs, Gordon, William and George Honey. Spent some time in the top series examining roof for signs of a reported fall. None fond.

Eastwater. George Honey, B. Windridge, Dave Knight.

Alfie's Hole. Digging by Alfie, Jill, Colin and Barry. Large rock blocking way on was attacked by Alfie without success but splintered easily when Colin had a go at it (Alfie reckons he softened it up). Remainder of stone still to be shifted.

Emborough Swallet. (see separate article.)

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June Committee Meeting At the June meeting of the Committee, Len Dawes, Phil Davey and Jim Simonds were elected to membership of the club. Mike Palmer was made a Cuthbert’s Leader. It was agreed to carry on with creosoting the Belfry, obtaining mains water and arranging a slide carrier for the club projector. Dave England has agreed to carry on as M.R.O. representative for the time being. Arrangements for the 1959 dinner have been started. Ian has delivered two blocks of Portland Stone for the Memorial Tablet to Don Coase. Bob Price and Chris Falshaw have resigned form the committee.

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No. 137

EMBOROUGH SWALLET On Saturday, June 6th, a B.E.C. digging team entered the top of what we hope will prove to be a cave system at Emborough.

Little is known at present about the previous history of the swallet. It has, almost certainly, been entered before but possibly not by cavers intending to penetrate further. Certainly its presence has not been known by active cavers for some years. It does not appear in Barrington’s book and neither the swallet nor the stream which sinks into it are marked on the Ordnance Survey maps of the area.

About five years ago, I was taken to see the swallet by Les Browne and we did a ten minute investigation of the entrance at the tine. On several later occasions, I tried to find the swallet with no success, and in the end I had to go and see Les who gave me exact directions as to how to get there. I revisited the swallet with Jill on the 30th of May. During a visit the next day with Frank Darbon, Colin and Jill, we pulled a few rocks away and decided that it should be possible to open up the entrance quite easily. Permission was obtained from the farmer for the B.E.C. to dig out the cave on Sunday 31st May, and the next day, Jill and myself having the day off, we removed a very dead dog from the entrance and did a further bit of rock moving.

On Saturday, 6th June, a gang consisting of Frank Darbon, Colin, Prew, Alfie and Jill arrived and began to dig out the entrance. A couple of hours later, we entered through a squeeze between a boulder in the roof and a large rock and found ourselves in a small, low chamber about ten feet long by five feet wide by three feet high, going to the right. The floor becomes lower at the far end of the chamber, which is in relative solid rock and has an amount of dried mud present which does not seem to get disturbed by the stream. This part of the cave has a rather stagnant smell.

To the left, another squeeze under a detached bed leads over a small hole between boulders. This hole drops about six feet and has a washed gravel floor. Crawling over the hole, another small chamber is entered. This is part of a boulder ruckle and drops about eight feet down. Digging is at present barred at the bottom of this by a large rock which must be removed. All the rock in this side of the cave is very clean and water worn.

On Sunday, 8th June, a rough survey and some photos were taken, during which time Chris Falsahw, Roger Stenner, Colin and Jill dug and probed down in all the most likely places. It was noticed that daylight could be seen in the chamber to the left, so we came out and started to re-construct the cave, pulling down a whole lot of semi-detached rocks at the side of the entrance. It is hoped to get a direct access to the chamber where we hope to continue digging.

We have left the cave to stabilise after our rock shifting efforts and we must now remove the rock at the bottom and continue digging. In spite of the unstable appearance of the cave, the chances of further penetration look quite promising.

Alfie _______________________________________________________________________________________

IMPORTANT FREE BEER will be provided at the Hunter's Lodge, according to the usual Mendip custom on the 19th June, when Chris Falshaw will be celebrating his forthcoming marriage to Vivienne Hudson. A further TWO BARRELS will be on tap, on the evening of July 11th. These will be provided by Mervyn Hannam to mark the occasion of his recent marriage; and by Jill Rollason on her tenth anniversary of caving (known in then club as a ‘decadence’). All are welcome. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Apologies to all whose April and May issues of the B.B. were rather late in coming. A series of misfortunes too complicated to describe overtook the staff of the B.B. and resulted in some of the postal deliveries being all haywire. We hope you all got the right B.B.’s in the end.

No. 137

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LETTERS To the Editor. B.B. Dear Sir, The Caving Report on St. Cuthbert's Swallet is now very much out of date, and rather than publish another Caving Report on this subject, I believe it may be best to publish an altogether grander affair, somewhat on the lines of the S.W.C.C. report on O.F.D. I have in mind a thick volume mounted in loose leaf from. This is more expensive than a Caving Report but is a more satisfactory way of providing for alterations and additions. As a suggestion, I put forward the following structure, more or less an enlargement of caving Report Number Two: 1. Introduction, including a brief description and history of cur club and a tribute to Don Coase.

2. The history of the cave, including a brief history of digging in the area, and the relation of the cave to the rest of Mendip.

3. The discovery of the cave, not whitewashing or condemning the delay in widening the entrance rift, and the chronological history of exploration.

4. A complete survey – small scale.

5. Description of the cave, series by series, each section accompanied by a large size map.

6. Geology of the cave.

7. Flora and Fauna. (Overprinted small scale survey).

The report could also include a loose folded large scale survey, and various photographs.

Although a lot of the necessary work has not yet been done, a start on some of the sections could be made at once if such a publication were to be planned for the not too distant future.

Incidentally, Don Coase wanted to see such a bock as the above published, and it would thus would make a fine tribute to his memory.

R. Stenner.

Editor’s Note.

The compilation of a 'Cuthbert's Atlas' as a tribute to Don was suggested at the tine of his death and discussed by the committee. It was agreed at the time to wait until an accurate survey (on which the bulk of any such book largely depends) was produced. When this has been done, the subject will automatically come up again and I am sure your remarks will also be discussed.

To the Editor, B.B. Dear Sir, I feel that I should write and clarify the mystery of "Bertie Bat". In the early pre-war days of the B.E.C., it was felt that some sort of distinctive emblem was needed for the club; after all, the Wessex had their cave exploring dragon (or Gryphon) complete with candle, so why shouldn't we have something similar? The committee put their heads together and after an awful lot of brain fag, hit upon that which should have been obvious from the start - a bat.

Bertie - the name was coined about or just after the end of the war - as he was originally drawn, no longer exists. He died when all the earlier club logs etc were lost during the blitz, but I made an almost exact copy, which, as Tony Johnson states in his letter, was fitted to my car. This badge, by the way, is still on the car.

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No. 137

From this original, which was in the form of a hybrid bat in flight, have descended all the various versions of Bertie. The next in line was the original block from which the club notepaper was printed, supplied to us by Gerard Platten.

Tony's bat is, I feel, somewhat different to Bertie Mk II (The car badge) and is nearer to the cloth bat cut out some 14 or 15 years ago by Ken Dobbs, who also made quite fair metal Berties of moulded wood's metal. These last, however, varied considerably from mould to mould.

I have also a partly completed outline of "Super Bat" suitable for a car badge. This bat when complete will be six to eight inches across the wings and is more or less a faithful copy of Mark II. Some years ago, it was the thing for each member to paint his own bat on his hat, but these varied so much that it was anyone’s guess as to what they actually were, varying from flying foxes down to pipistrelles, few of which resembled the unfortunate bat they were supposed to be copied from.

Incidentally, as will be apparent, the Belfry being a later addition to club assets than Bertie, the Belfry was named after him as being the congregating place of members and not vice versa.

T.H. Stanbury.

Editor's Note. Thank you, Harry. The degree of authenticity of the various bats is now revealed! The car badge bat, which we have just commissioned, is a version of Tony's loudspeaker cover bat, which is about half way between the older and newer versions of Bertie (His wingspan gets longer as the bats get progressively newer). We hope this 'Halfway' version will please all, in the tradition of British compromise!

Note to New Members. T.H. (Harry) Stanbury is the founder of the B.E.C. and thus an authority on its early history.

To the Editor, B.B.

F.G. Drainpipe, Dept. of Drains, Elsan Street,

Dear Cur, It has come to my notice that you have a large amount of movement of holes in your vicinity, and this prompts me to enquire whether you have, in searching for moving caves, come across any of my drains (particularly the ten inch variety).

Should you find any, I shall expect you to send them back to the above address as this will save us from shifting any further items to lay our ten inch drains.

Yours Hopefully, F. G. Drainpipe Editor's Note. F.G. Drainpipe is, of course, our old friend F.G. Darbon. I hope he will forgive me for altering his letter a bit to get it into this space.

No. 137

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LADY CHATTERBOX’ COVER The second of a series of articles on the Stately Homes of the B.E.C, by Anne Gardner.

On Sunday 24th May 1959, a more or less intrepid band of idiots in steamingly clean clothes descended upon the new Thomas Residency. This motley crew consisted of the Henrobel Hobbs, Spike, Digger Gardner and the writer. It appears that one dark night, under cover of two old tarpaulins and assorted ex-army blankets; the Thomas’s crept into, and proceeded to squat in Clifton. What is the world coming to when the L.M.F.O.M. is allowed (reformed as he is) to live in the part of Bristol which houses the elite of the B.E.C.? At least twelve sane and sensible members of the club are going to be forced to search for new homes if this new should leak out!

However, as the second Lord Thomas has installed himself and his charming wife, I must keep to protocol and tear his home to pieces. I have already given Mr. Collin’s palatial home and Mr. Hannam's penthouse the treatment and tradition must be adhered to.

After wending a weary way up 42 steps which went round and round and round, we arrived at a door. Not unusual, you might say, but in the case of the B.E.C., you might. A half dressed Lord Thomas met us, and in his somewhat boisterous manner, bade us welcome. The exact words he used cannot unfortunately, be printed. The rather small hall opens onto all four rooms and proceeding clockwise they are as follows. The very necessary, containing a barf, a washbasin, a bog and a gleaming highly polished water hotter upper (the Thomas's have not yet decided to have a matching floor covering or mundane lino). Next door is the kitchen, rather large but without room, I am sad to say, for the Rolls Royce usually kept in most Clifton Kitchens. The living room is rather larger than at their previous address and had a most pleasant black and gold leaf motif wallpaper. Next to this is the bedroom and, by squeezing past the bed, a marvellous panorama of Bristol is laid out before your eyes - if you have any. The upper part of the wall is glass, and any enterprising person with a soapbox could also enjoy the view by standing on it in Lord Thomas's hall.

I did not venture to enquire if, like Mr. Hannam, they have tried to enjoy the view by sleeping vertically as I feared L.M.F.O.M.'s reply. During the visit, cheese and biscuits were produced and much appreciated.

Special points of note: - You can stand anyone you don’t like on the top step and retire into the bathroom. By belting out of there at a rate of knots similar to that to get to the Hunter’s first, one can knock the said person flying out of the downstairs landing window. Good fun! - what? A most interesting decoration was a bottle of milk, and in a B.E.C. household too! The cupboards in the kitchen are absolutely magnificent affairs capable of housing 22 Poles or 58 Jamaicans (according to Mr. Hobbs, anyway) and we understand that Lord Thomas is seriously considering this.

The Thomas conveyance, carriage or diligence was parked neatly just under the mews entrance to the house and presented an awe inspiring spectacle. In the absence of further persons to call on, we went our ways homewards. Will any other members intending to reside in this area please let the selection committee know in advance so that detailed plans for sightseers can be made and all that should be hidden, hidden. _______________________________________________________________________________________

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No. 137

SONNET For many years, within the Hunter's bar You'd find him; with a pint of rough or beer Within his mug, while outside stood his car Which into drystone walls he'd sometimes steer.

Yes, many pots of ale he'd often sink.

No teeth had he which would impede the flow Of rough and orange. T'was his favourite drink, While in his hand a Woodbine oft would glow.

Alas! His pot is missing from the shelf And dentists fashion teeth for him to wear.

'Tis said that he is seldom by himself.

He's neatly dressed, and tidy is his hair.

Quite soon confetti, wedding bells and rice Will doubtless all command a fancy PRICE _______________________________________________________________________________________

Don't forget that LAMP SPARES are on sale at the Belfry.

Apply to the Hut Warden. Cash on the nail! _______________________________________________________________________________________

The Belfry Bulletin. S.J. Collins, 33 Richmond Terrace, Clifton, Bristol 8.

Secretary. R.J. Bagshaw, 699 Wells Road, Knowle, Bristol 4.