NT Newsletter Issue 38 (2)

8/2/2019 NT Newsletter Issue 38 (2)

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MENDIP AND PO

The lost cave of Axbridge was referred to in the last issue. Alan Gray, a member of Axbridge CavingGroup who have been looking for the cave since the 1950s, has written the following: -

In the 1920s the ochre miners on Axbridge Hill said that they had found a cavern as large as AxbridgeSquare. The location was not revealed and in the 1950s the Axbridge Caving Group (ACG) startedlooking for it but with no success. In 1992 the caving club discovered Shute Shelve Cavern on anadjacent hill and at first it was thought to be the lost cave. Although it was large enough the miners hadnot entered the two largest chambers. Digging continued at various sites over the surrounding hills but

nothing else was found. Recently a new digging team got together and digging commenced at the baseof a limestone cliff. A 3m deep hole was excavated and the remnants of a cave found but the walls of thepit were getting dangerous. So we hired a 7.5 ton slew digger for 2 days but a cave only 10 feet indiameter and 3 feet high was discovered. The other diggers wanted to move on but I said that we shoulddig some more since it had cost a lot of money to hire the digger. After four more sessions we had duganother 3m deep hole but things were not looking promising and when we arrived for the fifth session wefound that someone had stolen our rope. So one digger started digging in the most unlikely place andwithin five minutes he announced Im through. The hole was enlarged and we could see a wooden pitprop so we all descended and sure enough there was a large chamber with a shovel and miners bootthat was later dated to 1920. Although the chamber is not as large as the Square it is about half the sizeand all the other historical facts fit so after some 100 years of being lost the cave is now re-discovered.The main chamber is 21m long and 14 m high and the cave has been called Axbridge Hill Cavern.

So, the cave is not on National Trust land. Rob Holden

On Friday 9th March the Mayor and Mayoress of Weston Super Mare, Cyril and Sue King, visited BreanDown Cove Caf. They met and spoke to volunteers and staff and the Mayoress signed up formembership of the Trust. Rowena Noakes gave them a tour of the recently renovated cafe, shop and the

house. Tea and cakes were provided by Jason Harmer and his welcoming and cheerful staff, andafterwards a number of photographs were taken by a Weston Mercury and a National Trust photographer.

Paul Harvey

MENDIP AND POLDENSIssue 38 March 2012

The Search for the Lost Cave of Axbridge

Brean Down


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Pete Chapman, Richard Parker and John Buckler, localresidents who helped to repair the damage

The longest damaged section

On Sunday morning, 19th November, Vi Howley came across a small group of 15 year old lads who wereentertaining themselves by pushing headers off the top of the wall that runs east to west from Crook Peakto Barton Rocks gate. Very bravely she approached them and politely asked them to stop causingdamage and to leave the wall alone. Being in the majority they ignored her and carried on. The end result

was several long stretches of wall without any headers as shown below and many other sections where 3or 4 stones were pushed off.

Within a day I had received several calls about thedamage. Three local residents including two NTvolunteers, offered to help to repair the damage and onWednesday 7th December I was joined by RichardParker, Pete Chapman and John Buckler to start work onthe repair. A strong north easterly wind was blowing andit was rather chilly but they stoically worked on. I neededto call an early finish at 3.0pm as everyone wasbecoming cold and we had rebuilt two of the longersections and three short sections.

We met again on Friday 11th January, along with sixregular members of the work party, and were able tofinish the repair by lunchtime. Pete Chapman stayedon and helped with the building of the end wall andgood progress was also made here.In total the repair took about 40 man hours and thiscould have been time spent on other work.

Very many thanks to the residents who turned up tohelp carry out the repair.

Paul Harvey

The Sunday work party, which meets once

a month, has now been running for some 7months. The numbers have increased to amaximum of 7 but when I called on them, inmid February, at lunch time, I was only ableto meet 3 of them. They wereaccompanied by Charlie, Vicki's dog, whowas on the lookout for a snack or two.They are coppicing an area of hazeladjacent to the southern end of the smallleaf lime trees in King's wood. The newgrowth, in a few years, will help to providesuitable habitat for dormice and may lead

to an increase in numbers of this delightfulanimal.

Vandals come to Crook Peak

Working party news

Sunday Work Party and Millfield School


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Millfield School Pupils with Teacher Ronnie Harkness

Emma, Barry, Chris, Neil, Ronnie and Bob clear the last of the cutscrub at the end of a hard day

In addition to the bird boxes in King's wood there arenow some 40 dormice boxes supplied and placed bySomerset Wildlife Trust.

Teacher Ronnie Harkness has been a work partyvolunteer for 19 months and although she can only

attend outside term time she has been bringing somepupils along to help. This time, mid February, thegroup was helping Hayley to build some dens in King'sWood to encourage other young people and theirparents to do the same. If you look carefully at thelime trees in the picture you can see that the originaltrunks have suffered considerable decay but there isplenty of top growth. They were pollarded by theNational Trust, shortly after acquisition in 1986, toextend their life and this has been successful. Withoutpollarding many would have completely collapsed dueto the height and weight of the top growth.

The work party have been busy clearing scrub invarious properties belonging to the NationalTrust. They had already started to clear an areaon the Crook Peak butterfly transect inDecember and there was a final push tocomplete this area before the spring flowers start

to come through. It has taken the team threedays to do the work as there were a largenumber of thorn and ash trees and saplings tobe removed in addition to the usual bramble andbracken and two Turkey oaks.

The area is just to the west of the track up fromCompton Bishop and runs towards the south side of

Compton Hill. As is often the way with scrubclearance, tractor and swipe cannot be used on thesteeper slopes and these have to be cleared usingbrush cutters and hand tools. The cleared areafaces southwest and the butterfly team arereasonably confident that there will be an increase inthe number of butterflies seen in this area. It will beinteresting to see what flowers will appear in thespring now that the dense cover has been removed.

While cutting up some of the trees we came acrossthe set of 'cricket stumps' show in the second

picture.

Paul Harvey

Anyone for Cricket?


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Bourton Coombe before Bourton Coombe after clearing

Barry Hillier and Hayley fitting a gate in Main Orchard,Glastonbury

First of the new gates Main Orchard

Six months sure does go quickly in Somerset. As you have read in the previous newsletter, I'm the newRanger for the Mendip and Polden Hills. I thought it would be quite nice to give you a little update of my

adventures on the hills. It has been really busy; as I am sure you are aware. Rob Holden has moved tobecome the Head Ranger, looking after Prior Park, Dyrham and Bath Skyline. He is having great fun!

We have been completing the final few pieces of scrub management work for the season. One area wason Heydee (Cheddar) - it is looking really great so thanks for all who were involved in this work. Anotherarea was at Bourton Coombe and you will be impressed by the before and after photos below.

We have been really busy at Glastonbury Tor, creating better access to the main orchard at the base ofthe Tor. Jobs there include hedge laying, fencing, installing two new gates, willow archways (installed bya local willow worker) and steps... (If you want to see more information about this project then checkout this site: www.nttorshepherd.wordpress.com)

We now have a link with the Autistic Society based at Burnham. They came out last week to join myselfand George to do a spot of scrub cutting. It was a great day, and we look forward to working with them

again soon. I have really enjoyed my first six months and as I watch Winter turn to Spring, I am gettingreally excited for the year ahead.

Hayley Dorrington

View from a Ranger


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Thanks for all your help this year and I am pleased to include below the breakdown of the hourscontributed to the National Trust by you, our volunteers.

Where / Who 2010 2011 ChangePoldens 286 280 -2%Glastonbury 240 240 0%Large Blue 540 572 6%Sand Point 24 288 1100%Crook Peak 1,335 1,197 -10%Brean Down and Fort 670 476 -29%Butterfly transects + bird boxes 217 256 18%Mendip and Polden Countryside Rangers 4,848 5,740 18%Full Time Volunteers 1,650 2,210 34%Volunteer Induction and training 185 110 -41%Community Volunteer Groups 302 1,893 527%Total Volunteer Hours East Somerset 10,297 13,262 29%

The meeting will be held on Saturday 21st April, 10.0am for 10.30am start, at Showcase Caves inCheddar. Anticipated duration is 2 to 2.5 hours. We are using a room next to Costa Coffee and it is easyto find as they have a large sign outside.

Parking is available at a number of locations but the free car park is a little way up the gorge on the lefthand side opposite the reservoir. To save you a long walk down the gorge we will be running a shuttleservice, using the minibus, at the start and finish of the meeting.

The agenda will include the following topics.

Welcome to all volunteers.

Short video from Fiona Reynolds.

Short presentation by Martin Papworth Archaeology of Somerset. Presentation of long service awards to volunteers.

We look forward to seeing as many volunteers as possible as this is a rare opportunity for us to meettogether.

Our annual litter pick will take place on Wednesday 4th April starting from 10 am. Please come to help ifyou can.

Paul Harvey

Newsletter editor Celia Starr. With thanks to Paul Harvey for the photographs.

Volunteer news

East Somerset Volunteer Hours 2011

Start of Season Meeting 2012

Brean Down annual litter pick

NT Newsletter Issue 38 (2)

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