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Appropriate refreshment
With PHILIP HENDY
CERTAIN pastimes, more than others, seem to create a thirst among their participants. Rugby springs to mind of course, as does bell ringing. It cannot be coincidence that very often there is a public house close by the village church and, as like as not, it will be called The Bell, or similar. There is one, for example, in Evercreech, a Ring O’ Bells at Hinton Blewett and another at Compton
(Photograph by Phil Hendy)
Martin. The physical effort involved in a caving trip can cause severe dehydration and where better to resolve the problem than in the pub, where exploits past and present can be recounted and embellished. There will be a cheery fire to warm us up on those cold winter evenings and probably the prospect of something to eat. When caving first became popular on Mendip, The New Inn on Priddy Green was an ideal watering hole which could be visited after a trip down Swildon’s Hole. For many years now the Hunters’ Lodge Inn has been regarded as the spiritual home of Mendip caving, although the Queen Victoria is also popular. Other pubs are often frequented, owing to their proximity to the cave which has been visited. Years ago, when money was limited, most cavers drank farmhouse cider, which fortunately has improved immensely over the years. Today, the most popular tipple is beer, of which there is an overwhelming choice, though real ale tends to be more popular than cask beer. Many regulars at the Hunters’ Lodge drink from their own tankards and hats off to Roger Dors and his staff for remembering whose is whose – and also their preferred choice of beer. Over the years, cavers have commissioned specially labelled bottled beers for certain occasions, often as a fundraiser or souvenir. For example, Yorkshire cavers produced Stump Cross Ale (brewed with cave water) to celebrate the cave of that name. The British Cave Rescue Council commissioned their own brew in 1994 to commemorate their annual conference. On Mendip, the Bristol Exploration Club produced Belfry Brew in 1985 in honour
Halloween Rift
of their 50th anniversary. Twenty five years later they came up with Belfry Bertie’s Bat Pee (their mascot is Bertie the bat). Tony Jarratt, our charismatic and enthusiastic cave digger, passed away in 2008. The annual JRat Award, for the longest cave passage found in Mendip or Scotland, celebrates his life, but after his passing, a special beer was brought out in his memory. Unusually, some years earlier, the club celebrated the 80th birthday of Tony’s father, Walter, with Walter’s Wallop. Cave-related beers are not just a British quirk; Roger Dors has two French beers, in corked litre bottles – Le Casque. The label, red for the 7% brew and blue for the 9%, is illustrated with a caving helmet. It was only a matter of time before caving was celebrated with beers produced in commercial quantities. The Cheddar Ales Brewery, started the ball rolling with the rather hoppy Potholer. It is quite popular locally. The inspiration came from Mike Hearn, who is a caver and once worked with them. Following on from this came Totty Pot, a porter, and its winter variant, Festive Totty. Totty Pot is a small cave near the top of Cheddar Gorge, famed for its Mesolithic remains. The discovery of the largest cave chamber in Britain, in Cheddar’s Reservoir Hole, was celebrated with a winter pale ale, Frozen Deep. Not strictly cave-related is Gorge Best, while other brands are related to geology or the Mendip landscape. I do not understand why one is called Goat’s Leap, when there is a Deer Leap above Wookey Hole. A competitor was launched at Wookey Hole on St. George’s Day. The new small Wookey Ale brand was established in 2020 by Sam Mills and his colleague Simon. They already have a range of beers, and added another, Hallowe’en Rift, a pale hoppy beer in draught and cans. It was brought to light at the cave of that name, a long term dig east of the Wookey Hole ravine. It is an interesting cave in its own right, showing much evidence of cryogenic activity in the past. This was when ice formed in caves during a period of glaciation and damaged the cave formations. Originally it was thought that such damage was caused by earth movements, but investigation has shown otherwise. Who better to launch Halloween Rift than the connoisseur beer-swilling members of the digging team? Many cavers like drinking beer with a cave-related name, and we are lucky that these brews are very drinkable as well. I must thank Roger Dors and fellow caver Brian Prewer, for assisting with my research.
(Photograph by Duncan Price)
CAVING
Phil has been caving for more than 50 years and is a member of the Wessex Cave Club. He has been involved in producing several caving publications and until his retirement was a caving instructor at Cheddar. His main interest is digging for new caves
MENDIP TIMES • JUNE 2022 • PAGE 61
