Author: Steve Cottle

Some of this years special caving trips have been arranged locally. With a number of near-by underground secrets Wednesday evenings were the suited to being the optimum day for these visits. From caving in Southmead in the impressive Pen Park Ho le to a specially arranged trip down Redcliffe mines.

These mines date back to at least the 18th century when the area of Redcliffe became an important area for glass making. There are many possibilities as the original excavation of the mines though dating back through Alfred the Great and eve n to cavemen. The sandstone of the underlying rock was excellent for the manufacture of glass being made for bottles to export water from the Hot wells of Bristol. However as Redcliffe was already built upon and the sandstone had to be mined. The mines sp an over a very large area that cannot be quantified now due to the loss of areas by the building of the harbour railway and bombing from the blitz. However thanks to the ACG a trip was arranged for the mines on one Wednesday in November.

A large number of cavers met at the tacklestore for this trip and despite managing to loose Rachel between there and the caves around about 15 people were kited out with lights etc for the trip. Graham had managed to make a few copies of the available survey which were suitable distributed around so that groups could head off and explore the whole of the known area. I think that most cavers found all the interesting parts of the mine including the wall of the railway tunnel, the shafts that lead up to different levels (now inaccessible due to possible contamination in the war from the hospital above) and the pottery dump. Most of the passage is large walking with rounded arches supporting the roof. A few low crawls lead to some more cramped passages an d the more inaccesible areas that the more organised pre-arranged historic Bristol tours do not visit. For many this was an excellent chance to explore somewhere previously unvisited-visited and for others a chance to see some of the history of Bristol. Roland, equipped with camera at hand was there to record the events for posterity.

Ref: Secret Underground Bristol by Sally Watson.

Access courtsey of Alan Gray