MENDIP TIMES
Leery Mendip – following miners’ footsteps
With PHILIP HENDY
CAVING
I HAVE previously described some of the caves which were adapted by lead miners, usually to dispose of water after it was used to wash ore or power machinery at various
mineries. Occasionally, however, the miners broke into natural cave during their work looking for or following veins of lead or ochre bodies. The most famous of these is Lamb Leer Cavern, at Gibbet’s Brow above West Harptree. The cave is situated at the head of Lamb Bottom and any large void encountered underground by the miners was called a leer. It was discovered about 1676 and was soon explored by John Beaumont. At the foot of the miners’ shaft, a descending passage was followed, past a huge beehive stalagmite, to a vast chamber, with the passage emerging from the wall some 20 metres above the floor. At the bottom, lead ore was found and extracted, which was unusual, as few natural caves have any lead or other mineral worth bothering about. Beaumont visited the cave and encouraged the miners to enlarge a passage in the side of the chamber, until they found a smaller chamber, the Cave of Falling Waters, with a magnificent flowstone cascade from floor to roof. The cave was lost and reopened several times, but is now closed, with access denied. Strangely, some large caves have been discovered by cavers in mining areas, with no evidence that they had ever been entered by the old miners. G.B. Cave, Charterhouse Cave and Upper Flood Swallet, all in the Charterhouse area, are good examples. They have large chambers and are surrounded by old workings, but remained unknown until dug open by cavers in the 20th century. On Axbridge Hill, Shute Shelve Cavern is a large cave discovered when an old ochre mine dating from the 1920s was dug out by the Axbridge Caving Group in 1992. Low workings led to the small Crystal Chamber. Near there, cavers dug through boulders and passed the Corkscrew Drop (now enlarged) to enter a large descending cave passage to a choke.
King Mine: Deads at Bottom of Entrance shaft
The passage contains a lot of ochre, although it had never been found by the miners. Higher up the hill is Axbridge Hill Cavern, three chambers entered through miners’ workings by the Axbridge cavers in 2011. The largest chamber proves the truth of the legend of a lost cave with a chamber ‘as big as Axbridge Square’, although in fact it is only about a third of the size. Waste rock, ‘deads’, are stacked around the walls, and much yellow ochre remains. It is thought that the mine was abandoned when the price of ochre fell in the early 20th century. The miners probably backfilled the entrance to prevent unauthorised mining, but never returned to continue extracting the ochre. Over at Sandford, the hill is littered with old workings, most of which have collapsed. The longest open working is Sandford Levvy, a largely horizontal passage driven into the hill in 1830 in the hope of finding a large body of ore. It passes some natural rifts, but no ore was found. Nearby, however, is King Mine, reopened in 2005 by a member of the Wessex Cave Club. A shaft leads to natural cave, although at one time it was almost entirely filled with ochre. Pick marks on the walls, and even in small cavities, show how hard the miners worked to extract all of the mineral. At the bottom, a large natural chamber is entered, seven metres wide and 25 metres long. It is up to six metres high, and has a mud floor, but no trace of workable ochre. Several caves on Eastern Mendip, such as Banwell Ochre Caves and Bleadon
Cavern, are in fact old ochre mines, where the natural cave was once filled with ochre until it was all dug out, to reveal the cave itself. Some of these caves contained bones from extinct animals. Triple Hole at Sandford, and Hutton Cavern, are examples, although sadly most of the bones were collected by antiquaries, and were subsequently lost. Shipham was once the centre of mining for calamine, a common ore of zinc. The area is still pockmarked with old workings, although few of the mines remain open. The largest is Singing River Mine, which is more than 900 metres long. It has an active stream running through it, but it only encounters a few impenetrable cave passages. Rowland Pavey of Cheddar was one of the few people to drive mine passages in the hope of finding open cave rather than ore. Spurred by the nearby popularity of Cox’s Cave, and Richard Gough’s excavations at what was to become Gough’s Cave, in 1890 he dug a four metre tunnel and a seven metre shaft above Cox’s Cave in the hope of finding something he could open up as his own show cave. It was not to be, so he roofed over a small quarry at the foot of the cliffs, and called it Pavey’s Cave, filling it with various exhibits including Stone Age bones and tools which he found in the nearby Flint Jack’s Cave. Several cavers, mainly members of the Axbridge Caving Group, are still locating and reopening old ochre mines. Who knows, the discoveries on Axbridge Hill may be equalled or even surpassed in time.
Phil has been caving for more than 47 years and is a member of the Wessex Cave Club. He has been involved in producing several caving publications and is a caving instructor in Cheddar. His main interest is digging for new caves.
PAGE 64 • MENDIP TIMES • FEBRUARY 2015