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Mendips GB cave 17 Dec 2014 21:24 #14671
- Topic Author
- gordona
- Visitor
-
Team: Brian GordonA Guide Kevin.
Trip Time 2 hours?
A plan was hatched on Saturday night to get out early Sunday morning; with Kevin offering a promising sounding trip into GB.
'GB Cave is a cave between Charterhouse and Shipham in the limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England, and is close to Charterhouse Cave, the deepest in the region.
The cave was first entered on 19 November 1939, after ten months of digging, by the University of Bristol Spelæological Society, and was named in recognition of the two members, F. J. Goddard and C. C. Barker, who had done most of the work involved in its discovery.[2][3][4] The cave is located within the Cheddar Complex and the 17-acre GB Gruffy nature reserve and is close to Charterhouse Cave, the deepest cave in the region.[1]
Ladder Dig broke through in 1966 to gain access to the extremely well-decorated Bat Passage.[5]
The entrance to the cave is kept locked, and access is controlled by the Charterhouse Caving Company.[6]
Description
GB Cave is remarkable for the Gorge, a river-passage up to 6 metres (20 ft) wide, 12 metres (39 ft) high and 90 metres (295 ft) long, which opens into the even larger Main Chamber (20 metres (66 ft) wide, 23 metres (75 ft) high, 122 metres (400 ft) long). Together these two form what was thought to be largest known space under the Mendip Hills,[7] until the discovery of "The Frozen Deep" in Reservoir Hole in 2012.[8]
Further into the cave is the Great Chamber, another large space, and a number of other chamberse in the cave are well-decorated.
We set off at 9. Entered the cave via a small concrete blockhouse went down and then chose the 'harder' route then began an entertaining route to the right. Some tight crawls but not very long. There was a step at some point was it the leap of faith? We seemed to make good progress as there was only 3 of us and no bags/SRT etc.
Eventually reached some fantastic chambers, Really well decorated. Went down to the bridge. Crossed over and up to the right. Down to the sump. Back up climbed up the 40' waterfall. The best part of caving for me!
Explored a passage near the top of the chamber.
Then back down and then back to the surface via the 'easier' route.
Good trip. Highly recommended.
Good weekend away
Big thank you to Kevin for taking us out so early
Trip Time 2 hours?
A plan was hatched on Saturday night to get out early Sunday morning; with Kevin offering a promising sounding trip into GB.
'GB Cave is a cave between Charterhouse and Shipham in the limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England, and is close to Charterhouse Cave, the deepest in the region.
The cave was first entered on 19 November 1939, after ten months of digging, by the University of Bristol Spelæological Society, and was named in recognition of the two members, F. J. Goddard and C. C. Barker, who had done most of the work involved in its discovery.[2][3][4] The cave is located within the Cheddar Complex and the 17-acre GB Gruffy nature reserve and is close to Charterhouse Cave, the deepest cave in the region.[1]
Ladder Dig broke through in 1966 to gain access to the extremely well-decorated Bat Passage.[5]
The entrance to the cave is kept locked, and access is controlled by the Charterhouse Caving Company.[6]
Description
GB Cave is remarkable for the Gorge, a river-passage up to 6 metres (20 ft) wide, 12 metres (39 ft) high and 90 metres (295 ft) long, which opens into the even larger Main Chamber (20 metres (66 ft) wide, 23 metres (75 ft) high, 122 metres (400 ft) long). Together these two form what was thought to be largest known space under the Mendip Hills,[7] until the discovery of "The Frozen Deep" in Reservoir Hole in 2012.[8]
Further into the cave is the Great Chamber, another large space, and a number of other chamberse in the cave are well-decorated.
We set off at 9. Entered the cave via a small concrete blockhouse went down and then chose the 'harder' route then began an entertaining route to the right. Some tight crawls but not very long. There was a step at some point was it the leap of faith? We seemed to make good progress as there was only 3 of us and no bags/SRT etc.
Eventually reached some fantastic chambers, Really well decorated. Went down to the bridge. Crossed over and up to the right. Down to the sump. Back up climbed up the 40' waterfall. The best part of caving for me!
Explored a passage near the top of the chamber.
Then back down and then back to the surface via the 'easier' route.
Good trip. Highly recommended.
Good weekend away
Big thank you to Kevin for taking us out so early
From your description it looks like you've been on Wikipedia 