Updated 30th October 2010; 16th October 2011

"The shakehole with the entrance is on the left of the track in the woods. A tight entrance under a boulder leads almost vertically down to a choked possible streamway. The hole has been descended for 10.8m to a point approx 1.5m off bottom and it would need boulders breaking to progress. There is a reasonable draught from the choke at the bottom. At the base, a stone has dropped about 6m (or 3m depending on the estimate)."
This was the situation until June 2011 when some excavation was carried out, then August when the breakthrough came.

June 2011 exploration
A 2m entrance shaft leads to a slide on your back under boulder on a mud floor. A 2.5m climb down is followed by 2m of horizontal caving over boulders to meet the head of a 6m pitch just after an awkward move past a restrictive boulder. At 4m there is a ledge and this can be climbed down with care to a solid limestone ledge where the way splits left and right at 35deg.
Left from the pitch was initially blocked by boulders that were removed to expose an aven where boulders filled the bottom half. The descent between the boulders was abandoned due to the unstable nature and a final drop to the floor was deemed very unsafe - so a retreat was made. A boulder thrown down the hole hit the floor and rolled down hill with a good rumble for a good 10 seconds. This enthusiast use of crowbars helped remove most of the restriction but this was not descended as its still deemed a little interesting and might require engineering and a spare pair of pants.
Right from the pitch drops down a 1.5m climb into an ascending canyon. After 10m and over interesting boulders a mud and boulder floor is met. On the left a hole in the floor was looking interesting as a good air flow was felt. Approximately half a minute after a sandstone boulder was kicked out of the way, a piano sized boulder that was supported by the sandstone chock stone shifted downwards causing the swift extraction of all four people in the area.
We decided to return at the beginning of August to engineer the slot.

August 2011 exploration
A support for the large boulder was constructed from scaffold bar and clips then a ladder hung off the bar. Good progress corkscrewing down through the large boulders was made and a few rocks moved to pass the final restriction. A climb down 2m to a large ledge meets a 6m pitch in a large 1.5m wide rift.
The bottom of the pitch is a mud and rock floor, one end is filled with boulders and rocks: air is drying the rock at the lower level. The other end, under the ledge at the top of the pitch, turns right over muddy rocks into a 5m diameter chamber with a good mud floor.
There is an upstream passage that passes a 25m climb in the roof and a conical aven. The passage seems to stop at a final aven. This passage shows evidence of a small stream that flows in wet weather. To the right of the mud-floored chamber a rift passage has a couple of drafting slots on the floor that become too tight but could be chemically enlarged. At the end of this passage, a climb down a 1m diameter, free-climbable shaft drops about 30m. Half way down the passage splits into two, one side is muddy and the base has a 6” drafting slot on the right. The other side is clean washed to a mud and rock filled floor. By moving some spoil, a small passage which is too tight to pass, where the water sinks, can be seen.
A frustrating site as all areas found seemingly expel good air.
At the top of the 6m pitch Dan traversed over to descend through boulders but no way on was found.

The aim is to return to survey (the length / depth above is very much a "guestimate"), take a few photos, and possibly descend the left hand scary pitch?

Reference: anon., 2008e (summer logbook); anon., 2010c (summer logbook); anon., 2011d (summer logbook)
Entrance pictures: yes
Underground pictures : yes
Video : yes
Detailed Survey :  
Line Survey :
On area survey :
Survex file :