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The Brickworks Dig
Ogof Gweath Brics
Map Reference: SN 8552 1526
Altitude: 335m
 This project was started
in 1986. The Club has been involved in various dig projects
throughout its history but this is the one we have always returned to.
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| The entrance |
The surface
party hard at work |
Pulling out the truck |
No
"rabbit-holing" in this dig. All of the spoil,
literally tons of it have been brought out to the surface using a
railway system.
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Tipping the
spoil
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Looking back
up the entrance slope. The side passage is on the
right. |
Dig Activity in 2000
We visited Ogof Gweath Brics on
Saturday 5th February 2000. The previous week had been very wet
and there was too much water at the dig face for us to be able to bale
it out in a reasonable time so instead we dug out another 8 feet or so
of the Side Passage. The un-surveyed passage is trending
downwards and will probably connect to the dig face.
Our next visit was on Sunday 12th
March 2000 following another fairly damp week. The water was a
little lower than last time but still too high for us to be able to
dig in Lower Main Passage so we completed digging out the Side
Passage -
it did connect and Keith was the first Club member to complete the
"round trip".
Jim, Mick, Brendan and Keith visited
the dig over the weekend of 27th and 28th May. The dig truck had
been vandalised, had lost a tire and needed re-welding. Over an inch
of rain had fallen on Friday night but the water level was still below
the level of the railway track - just.
We used the propane pump which shifted over a thousand gallons of
water in a little over ten minutes. However by the time the
fumes had cleared over half of the water had flowed back in.
Nevertheless we shifted 75 buckets of infill over the weekend.
There is now a large void at the dig face with loads of "hanging
death" in the ceiling. Immediately in front of us there
appears to be a solid cave wall.
Keith took some video of the proceedings.
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Keith and John in Lower Main Passage on the day it was discovered. |
Jim in the same
place on 5th February 2000 - slightly damper! |
Jim in the
side passage on 5th Feb - slightly muddy! |
Jim emerging
from the dig chocolate factory. |
The last visit for digging in 2000 was on the
weekend of 18th-20th August. We pumped out a large volume of water late
on the Friday night. Unfortunately when we visited to dig the following morning
we found that some "no brain" (Keith) had left the propane cylinder turned on
over night and the cave was full of potentially explosive gas!
Nevertheless we managed to dig all of Saturday and cleared a four to five foot
section of floor. In the floor is a foot wide slot. We knocked a scaffold bar
four feet into the slot with very little resistance. We also removed a lot of
spoil from the dig face but cannot undermine the "hanging death" any further
unless we undertake some serious scaffolding.
Due to lack of volunteers we were unable to dig on the Sunday and so went caving
instead.
Dig Activity in 2001
We were not able to visit the dig in 2001 due
to the Foot and Mouth situation.
Dig
Activity in 2002
Brendan visited
the dig on Saturday 9th March and found that part of the roof
of the aven had collapsed in from the surface. So the
dig now has a "through trip" to add to the
"round trip".
John, Graham,
Roger, Keith and Brendan spent Saturday 6th April capping and making
safe the recent surface collapse above the aven. When Brendan had
first spotted the collapse 4 weeks before the hole had been
about the diameter of a dust bin. When we arrived the
hole had grown to be about 4 to 5 feet across.
We also spent an hour of
so digging in the base of the quarry on the opposite side of the tram
road but to no avail and finally returned to the Brickworks to pull out
about 25 buckets of the recent infill.
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The old and the
"temporary" new entrance. |
John placing railway sleepers in
place above the hole. |
Finishing off by sloping the sides
of the depression. |
The dig was next dug on the Sunday 18th August
by GS, JS, MB, BM, MC & EP. We have started piling the fill which
came in from the surface into sand bags and have built a
lovely retaining wall with it up in the chamber. Looks like
it should work quite well. Spoil removed down to track level
as far as the turn left. The dig has
collapsed to surface again - late October. The new
hole is to the right of the original one.
Dig Activity in 2003
25th/26th January John, Graham, Brendan and Keith
spent this weekend working at the
Brickworks, building terraced walls from the scaffold tower.
Another weekend's work should see the dig capped once again.
15th/16th February John, Graham, Brendan, Adrian,
Mick, Jim (yes Jim) and Keith spent
the weekend on 15th/16th February working at the Brickworks. The
hole to surface has now been capped once again. There is
still a lot of infill to remove from below the scaffold tower
as the original route into the cave is now completely blocked.
The dig face looks very interesting with the possibility of
two rifts to be dug out - one straight on and one to the
right.
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The hole taken from SWCC HQ |
Brendan Marris in the hole |
22nd/23rd March The digging team consisted
off: Pete Anstey (Sat. only), Mick Bowdler (Sun. only),
Keith Edwards, Andy Grimes (Sat. only), Brendan Marris,
Graham Smith, John Smith and Adrian Stanley. During
the weekend most of the infill was removed from below
the scaffold frame. Truck repairs were necessary
on the Saturday evening.
8th
June A day digging on the Sunday by Keith
Edwards, Brendan Marris, John Smith and Adrian Stanley,
after a trip in OFD 2 on the Saturday. The infill
below the scaffold frame has now been cleared to track
level and below. The original route into the cave
is now passable once again.
13th July The team this time consisted of
Roger Bryan, Keith Edwards, Brendan Marris, Graham
Smith, John Smith and Adrian Stanley. All of the
infill from the collapse has now been cleared and the
floor re-exposed in Lower Main Passage below the railway
track. We are ready now for the big push forward.
Keith demonstrating the
re-exposed floor in the side passage |
John clearing the side
passage |
John taking a break from
digging and enjoying a well-earned cuppa |
Sunday 14th
September A very tired (from the
previous day's caving and walking) digging team cleared a lot of the
infill from the pile by the dig face.
BMa & GSm took the first underground shift and KEd & ASt the second one.
The rift straight ahead shows no signs of opening out lower down.
The right-hand rift still needs further investigation.
The Dig Team: MBo,
KEd, BMa, GSm, JSm & ASt
Dig Activity in 2004
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14th/15th August A
very successful digging weekend. In spite of the recent inclement weather
there was only about 2' 6" of water at the lowest point. Saturday was spent
bailing then digging with 45 buckets of infill removed to the surface.
Sunday was spent mainly on scaffolding the around a large boulder and
creating a scaffold roof for the protection of the digger. At the end of the
day a further 15 buckets where removed. We have proved that the way on is to
the right at the dig face with solid walls and roof! During the weekend we
added another 6 feet to the length of the cave. We aim to return soon to
complete the scaffolding and add more passage to the survey.
The Dig Team: JDu (Sun
only), KEd, BMa, GSm, JSm & ASt |
Adrian examining the scaffolding.
The way-on is behind the shored-up boulder on the right |
25th/26th September
One of the most successful dig weekends ever.
Much of the weekend was spent scaffolding and stabilising the area
before the final right turn, but we still managed to remove 105 buckets
of in-fill and add another six feet to the length of the system.
The Dig Team:
MBo, KEd, BMa, JSm & ASt
Dig Activity in 2005
Weekend 28th/30th January Keith, Brendan,
Graham, John and Keith travelled down on the Friday evening. The
water level at the lowest point was just a little over welly height so
it was decided to pump it out. Once the pump had been started this
took only about 5 minutes.
Adrian joined the team on Saturday and with Brendan acting as Duty
Officer at the club, five of us dug out another 5 feet of passage,
removing 105 buckets of infill.
On Sunday the team was strengthened by the addition of Pete, Mick
Bowdler, Mike Cavanagh, Jim and Mike Noble. Approximately 120
buckets of infill was removed.
The passage discovered last August (Extension Passage) is now a little over 20 feet long
with solid roof and walls. It is trending downwards at on angle of
approximately 5 degrees and has been dug out to a depth of about 3 feet
6 inches.
The dig team |
Pete removing a boulder
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The new passage - Pete in the foreground
and Jim behind |
Mike Noble at the dig face |
The Dig Team: PAn (Sun only), MBo (Sun only), MCa (Sun only), JDu (Sun only),
KEd, BMa, MNo (Sun only), GSm, JSm, ASt & CWe
Weekend 7th/8th May Another very successful
digging weekend. On Saturday morning we constructed a
single-bucket railway over the pool and in the afternoon we removed 75
buckets of spoil.
On the Sunday we removed another 112 buckets of infill.
We appear to have discovered a cross-rift with the passage we have been
following, continuing ahead. Another weekend should confirm this.
During the weekend we added 6 feet to the length of the cave.
The Dig Team: MCa (Sun only), KEd, BMa, MNo, GSm, JSm & ASt |
Keith Edwards in the newly discovered
cross-rift. |
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Weekend 11th/12th June Yet another highly
successful weekend's digging by a very small, but highly dedicated team.
After a sunny week we all expected the dig to be dry, but the
Extension Passage had a significant amount of water at its lowest
point. We managed to bail this back into the main pool and then went to
examine the dig face. There was foam high in the roof of the cross
rift indicating that the Extension Passage had recently flooded to the
roof. The water had washed some of the infill out of the passage
straight ahead and had exposed a large pointed boulder hanging down from
the roof.
Brendan used his electronic draught detecting meter and found a small be
significant draught to the left hand side of this boulder.
During the Saturday Adrian continued to dig ahead and managed to get
underneath and past the hanging boulder - 60 buckets of infill were
removed on the day. On the far side of the boulder the passage
roof effectively disappeared with only sand above the digger.
On the Sunday Keith investigated the roof behind the hanging boulder
with the aid of a 4' length of angle iron. After about half a
dozen prods the bar went through to reveal black space. After
about half an hour the hole in the roof was large enough to climb up
into. We are in a narrow rift about 7' 6" high (from the existing
floor) with about 3" of air space in both directions. The passage
back to the cross-rift has been dug out to body-size and will connect to
the top of this rift. A small air space can be seen to both left
and right along the cross-rift. The left hand passage (looking
into the cave) seems to be an inlet.
Ahead the passage continues with air space at roof level.
Approximately another 5' of this passage has been dug out. It is a
narrow rift - about a foot or so wide and so although air space exists
at roof level the passage will have to be dug out to the existing floor
level where hopefully it will continue to be wide enough to get through.
Another 36 buckets of infill were removed to surface on the Sunday. |
The newly discovered passage looking up-dip, back
towards the entrance
The newly discovered passage looking down-dip, the
way on |
The Dig Team: MCa (Sun only), KEd, BMa, MNo & ASt
Weekend 9th/10th July A large dig team and
probably a record for the amount of infill removed - 140 buckets on the Saturday
and 120 buckets on the Sunday, but nevertheless a little disappointing.
There was a lot of water in the extension passage and so the first couple of
hours on the Saturday was taken up in baling water from here to the main pool
and from the main pool to the surface.
When digging commenced it became apparent almost immediately that the rift ahead
was joined in the middle. Above (where the air space is) the passage is
too small to follow, below we could see an arched roof. Unfortunately by
the close of play on Saturday is was impossible to remove any more infill ahead
as most of the way on was below water.
On Sunday John and Adrian lowered the floor by the dig face and ramped it back
along the passage. Now the water drains to the bottom of the passage and
so should be easier to bale out next time. Before we can go digging again
we will need to source a pump.
During the weekend approximately 2 feet was added to the length of the system
and about 6 feet to the depth.
The Dig Team: PAn, MBa, DBo (Sun only), KEd, BMa, MNo, JSm, ASt
& CWe
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