This paper gives a brief description of the natural caves that have been formed by landslipping in the Cotswolds near the city of Bath. The paper includes sites that have previously been published, new data from these sites, as well as several new sites. Plan surveys of the main caves are presented.

This paper publishes biographical details of twelve of the thirteen known members of the Bristol Speleological Research Society and portraits of five of them. The membership is analysed and comments are made on a dispute over finds from Aveline’s Hole and its influence on the foundation of the University of Bristol Spelæological Society.

There is no formal scheme in the field of cave and Karst hydro-chemistry to allow workers to demonstrate the quality of their analytical work. Alternative procedures which allow them to do so (by calculating ion balances, or by comparing observed conductivity with the theoretical conductivity) both require the determination of ions which may be of no direct interest. Ion balance data from recent studies at sites on Mendip are presented. Ion balances provide a clear measure of analytical quality, and in many cases comparisons between imbalances and inter-ion regression data located analytical mistakes. Ion balance data are precise and easy to interpret, giving the method a significant advantage over conductivity-based procedures. Rigorous procedures in the use of primary standard solutions led to the detection and correction of an important source of systematic error.

During a drought of historic proportions in 1995, the Mineries Pool Outflow stream (the largest stream entering St. Cuthbert’s Swallet) and a nearby spring stopped flowing. The Pool is supplied by water draining an upland marsh in an area that has seen more than 1600 years of lead mining and lead smelting. When flow of the Pool Outflow resumed, a huge surge of calcium sulphate appeared in its water. From a mean concentration of 10.1 × 10-5 M, and a previous maximum of 17 × 10-5 M, in 40 days the sulphate concentrations rose to 91 × 10-5 M. The event lasted approximately 140 days. In 1996 there was another severe drought, but the streams did not dry up, and the sulphate levels remained normal. Ion chromatography was used to determine sulphate and nitrate concentrations in the streams. The survey was an example of the application of a scheme of analysis developed by Knights and Stenner, in which ion balances were used to analyse the reliability of the analytical data.