TJ’s Swallet, near Dallimore’s Cave, Green Ore.

In early September 2008 I was looking for a new dig site and combed areas of woodland in a few areas after looking at maps and Google Earth etc near MNRC. I found a few sink holes etc and one was slightly more interesting than most, I discussed this with Tony Jarrett a few weeks before he died and he said it sounded interesting and in a good location, hence the name of the swallet hole, hopefully, a new cave system in Mendip. My new dig site was decided upon.

24/09/2008 – Convinced I had a good dig site tucked away discretely in some woods, I got permission to dig there.

19/10/2008 – I moved a bit of topsoil and a few small rocks in the swallet and checked for any draft with joss stick smoke and I thought there was a slight draft through big boulders.

January 2009 – I dug solo on a few cold evenings and pulled a few bigger boulders out using a simple pulley setup. I checked the geology and the swallet is on a significant fault line on the BGS geology map.

March 2009 – I took my wife, Sue to have a look at my new hole. A massive tree had fallen across it and so my tree ‘crane’ was now repositioned.

April 2009 - March 2010 – I continued occasionally to visit the swallet with and tools and I had a geared hand winch setup to shift the larger boulders, progress was slow but promising. I got to the stage where I had surfaced some very big boulders so I needed some assistance.

May 2010 – Clive and Duncan and Sue accompanied me to ‘pop’ the first couple of boulders. Atlas crew now working with me on the dig and they are doing a great job, new steps, encouragement etc, particularly around the resident midges.

Watch this space, regards Andy Watson

Regular digging continues. See ‘Latest News’ for details.