Hunters' Lodge Inn Sink - Beyond Drip Tray Sump (Part I)

by Tony Jarratt

"There was something incredibly satisfying in digging a very deep hole.  It was uncomplicated.  You knew where you were with a hole in the ground.

 “Maskerade - Terry Pratchett

This year started well when on the 12th January Mark Ireland found that Drip Tray Sump had disappeared! Over 50 bags of clay, sand and rocks were hauled out but a week later the water was back so digging concentrated on the Cellar Dig, located just down dip of the breakthrough point into Happy Hour Highway.  A lot of rock has been removed from here with the help of bang and the route on downwards will need some more of the same.  In the meantime work is continuing at the "Sump" - weather permitting - which has once again dried up and is a less stressful site!  While your scribe was away gallivanting in Meghalaya, the enthusiastic team removed over 100 loads of spoil until on the ih March the pool returned - to dry out again on the 19th.  Another 80 or so bags carne out then and on the 24th.  Air conditions were good and the digging was easy, if a bit sticky.  An exploratory dig in the ceiling of the mud tube near the last breakthrough point has also been commenced (see below).  Paul Brock and Pete Hellier investigated the depths of Hunters' Hole in search of a connection dig but were put off by the potentially very long term prospects. John Walsh returned to his dig in Dear's Ideal and intends to pursue it further when he can get a three or four man Wednesday night team.

Drip Tray Sump on 22nd January 2003.  Photograph by Sean Howe.

60 bags were filled on the 26th of March when the rock tube being followed hit a solid rock wall sloping back towards the way in.  This gave us a good rock boundary to work from and we continued downwards through layers of sand and clay.  During the next ten days another 140 or so bags came out.  The up dip "inlet" coming into the end of the cave has also been partly excavated.  The two huge boulders in the middle of the dumping area have been relocated and the place is rapidly filling with spoil.  Another 120+ loads came out from the end during April when rumours of running water being heard below the floor were not confirmed.

It is thought that the water feeding Drip Tray Sump comes from the trickle in the Cellar Dig and from wet weather streams sinking near Southfield Farm.  This water may rise through the floor.  The submersible pump was taken down but has since been removed as the dig has become too deep to pump.

Another job done was the mending of the long, broken stalactite using Milliput epoxy putty. This seems to have generally worked well and even looks like calcite, though the angled tip needs straightening out!

An article by Dr. Andy Farrant in the D.B.S.S. newsletter, autumn 2002, pp 17-18 refers to H.L.I.S.:- “... a large relict phreatic passage about 2-3m high extending up and down dip. It is very reminiscent of N.H.A.S.A. Gallery in Manor Farm Swallet. ..”  The cave is developed within the Black Rock Limestone, replete with nice fossils including the coral Caninia just inside the entrance.  It trends south-south-east, downdip, parallel with the neighbouring Hunters' Hole.  It is currently heading towards Alfie's Hole, close to the Hunters' - Rookham road, but as yet there is no connection with either cave.  Quite why the passage is there is a mystery.  It clearly is very old, formed at a time when the local water table was above 250m O.D., and may be genetically associated with Hunters' Hole. The large phreatic scallops are rather vague and ambiguous but the water appears to have flowed down-dip.  It probably once functioned as a stream sink draining a once more extensive cover of Jurassic and Triassic strata, remnants of which can be seen a few hundred metres to the north-east in Chewton Warren. Similar other high level, phreatic cave remnants can be seen at Whitepit, Sandpit and Twin Titties Swallet, perhaps focusing on a palaeo-resurgence at Westbury-sub-Mendip. Here a large, sediment filled, phreatic cave exists at approximately the right elevation which is at least 780, 000 years old.  Only digging will prove this hypothesis!  The entrance streamway is genetically unconnected with the relict passage and following this may also prove fruitful."

The Inn-let Dig

Trevor and the writer have concentrated at this strongly and intermittently draughting site which intersects the "up-dip inlet dig" at a higher level, enabling this latter excavation be used as a spoil dump if necessary.  Digging and blasting through some 6 metres of calcited mud and boulders has revealed a boulder choked and well decorated passage heading back towards Happy Hour Highway.  Work here has finished and this dig, now surveyed, will probably be used as a temporary spoil dump for the Drip Tray Dig - our last hope at this end of the cave. (But read on!).

Drip Tray Sump

Now drained, hopefully (but doubtfully) permanently.  Digging has reached some 4-5 metres below the original sump level where an almost complete phreatic tube has been entered.  It is a metre wide with a solid, smooth rock floor and RH wall.  At least a half a metre of the left hand wall is also solid but there may be a sediment filled bedding plane above this. The passage is totally filled with superbly banded and multicoloured sediments (similar to those at the mud tube breakthrough above) and is running back almost under the main drag.  The sediments illustrate that the ancient cave waters once flowed this way.  The cave geomorphology here is difficult to understand but hopefully the concerted effort which is now underway to push this tube will soon yield a breakthrough and more information.  All assistance is welcome as we HAVE to clear this passage before the wet weather returns, pumping or bailing being out of the question.

Matthew Butcher (S.M C. C.) dizging in the dried out 'Sumo' on the 28t Photograph bv Sean Howe.

Additions to the digging team

Nick Hawkes, Estelle Sandford, Natalie Domini ( Southampton D.C.C.), Matthew Sibley, Adam Young, Chris Densham (Oxford.D.C.C.), Barry Weaver (Chelsea.S.S.), John Cooper (Chelsea.S.S.), Simon Brooks (Orpheus C.C./Grampian S.G.) and John Hanwell (W.C.C.).

Visitors

Katie and Ian Livingston and Joanna Kelleher ( Canada).

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