Welcome
to the fifth of our new monthly newsletters! The readership is growing
all the time, and we now have a circulation of 187 people. The last
issue was opened by 92 people, which is amazing, but what the stats
don't record is now many people (like me) simply read in preview mode.
We've had lots of encouragement to keep this going, so if you have any
content for future newsletters, please let me know.
There's no need to write reams. Short pieces (complete with photos if
possible) are great. Longer articles can go in a full newsletter later
in the year. And don't forget to send us some Memories
for the 100 Memories project. The Centenary weekend will provide lots
of material for the future, and please do share your photos and memories
of this, too.
Back issues of this newsletter can be found here.
Linda Wilson
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THE RAVE IN THE WOODS: 8th - 9th JUNE
On the weekend of 8th and 9th June,
our student members are gathering at the Hut for a party weekend along
with members of other student clubs and societies to de-stress after
exams. There might even be some caving!
The end of exams have arrived, and you need to get away from it all!
All are welcome to join us at our hut in Burrington Combe for our (FREE)
huge hut party in the middle of the woods on the edge of the coombe.
What's more, we have just finished some huge hut refurbishments! We now
have a wood burner, and even hot running water!
INVITE FAR AND WIDE, get your friends to come along, and let's make this a huge event to become a staple in years to come.
The hut can sleep about 30, so bring your sleeping bags, and if you want
a good night's sleep you are HIGHLY recommended to bring a tent!
To sign up, visit the Facebook page and let the organisers know you'll be going.
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CONGRATULATIONS.....
The wedding carriage, photographed by Elaine.
To Cara Turner and Steve Hulse on their
recent marriage! By marrying a fellow caver, Cara followed in the
footsteps of her own parents who met underground in Long Churn.
The bottom layer of the wedding cake even had a caving theme!
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REMEMBERING TIM LYONS
Tim in Australia in 2006.
Sad news. Tim Lyons, who started
his caving career with UBSS whilst training as a doctor back in the 70s,
has died in Australia. Dick Willis remembers Tim...
Tim
was an extraordinarily bright man who changed medical disciplines
several times, resulting in a string of memberships of different Royal
Colleges. He was a member of the Benarat team of the 1984 Mulu
expedition, at which point in time he was working as an orthopaedic
surgeon. Rumour has it that his medical kit consisted mainly of bone
saws and mallets. No one got ill!
Tim
and Martyn Farr made the first ascent of the Benarat cliffs to access
the huge entrance of Tiger Cave; once described by Tony Waltham in a
lecture as ‘probably big enough to hold all the caves in Mendip”.
Tim
moved to Tasmania in 1996 to take up the post of State Pathologist.
Almost immediately after his arrival he was faced with the tragedy of
the Port Arthur massacre when 35 people were killed and 23 wounded in a
mass shooting. He subsequently lectured about the experience around the
world to help others prepare for such eventualities, which have become
increasingly common.
Tim
could appear quite serious but it hid a good sense of humour. Hugely
strong, a great caver and a good friend, he’ll be missed. He’s survived
by his wife, Julie (writer of hilarious Christmas newsletters) and their
three children.
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MORE DISPATCHES FROM MULU
500 metre swim. Photo by Elaine.
Continuing her stories from her
recent expedition to Mulu, Elaine Oliver tells how she was trapped by
flood waters in the largest chamber in the world.
One of the aims of this year's Mulu
expedition was to attempt a bolt climb in Sarawak Chamber - the world's
largest chamber by area, located in Lubang Nasib Bagus, or Good Luck
Cave. With a one-night camp planned, a group of eight set off with two
guides and two porters to take on the hot hike through the jungle,
punctuated by a lie down in the Paku river to cool off. Along the way,
we encountered some of the jungle's more bloodthirsty inhabitants:
leeches. They particularly enjoyed Cookie, who set this year's record of
eight in a single session.
Once underground, reaching the chamber involved a swim of about 500
metres, followed by an exciting traverse up some rapids - made all the
more exciting by our camp packs! A quick scramble up a final rope and we
were in a huge space - surely this must be Sarawak Chamber? Apparently
not. Despite barely being able to make out the far walls, we were still
only in the chamber's entrance passage.
Enormous boulder. Photo by Elaine.
Camp was swiftly established, then we split
into two groups: one to assess and begin the bolt climb, and my group
just having an explore as it was our first time in this cave. "Boulders
the size of x" are common parlance in caving circles - normally you hear
comparisons like TVs or cars. Some of the boulders in this chamber are
the size of council flats!
The next morning saw the contingent divide into three groups: one to
continue the bolt climb, one to take some photographs, and one to
investigate a potential aven lead at the back of the chamber. I was in
Team Aven, and spent a pleasant few hours scrambling around and
squinting upwards. Once again, the scale of the chamber was truly
impressive - we took well over an hour just to navigate to the other
side. Eventually, with time getting tight for our planned departure, we
turned around, and couldn't help but notice that the ceiling appeared to
resemble a colander much more than it had previously done.
We reached camp, where Veno, our head guide, informed us in a very
matter-of-fact tone that we wouldn't be leaving that day. The
photography team had been just above the stream when it rose almost five
metres in less than an hour, turning from azure to a murky brown. There
were no two ways about it - we were going to have to wait it out.
Cave yoga. Elaine in centre. Photo by Carsten Peter.
The climbing team returned ("A huge spout of water appeared out of nowhere and all I could hear was Andy yelling "TIME TO GOOOO")
and we compiled an inventory of our cereal bars and chocolate (we'd
only planned to need snacks on the way out, so rationing was instigated
as we had no idea how long we'd be trapped). To pass the time, we had a
Flood Yoga session and a behind-the-scenes commentary on a caving
documentary on a phone, followed by tea and (Kendal mint) cake. We got
our heads down early in the hope that the water would recede overnight.
At 3am, the radio crackled to life. The guides and porters, who had
spent an uncomfortable night on a ledge after trying to test just how
impassable the exit was (answer: very), had deemed the water low enough
to attempt an escape. In an amazing display of efficiency unprecedented
among cavers, we were all up, packed and ready to go in just 20 minutes.
Reaching the stream, the water was still higher than when we had
entered, but with caution and encouragement, everyone made it to the
deep canal of calmer water, then it was just a matter of the
half-kilometre swim to the dawn light at the entrance, and a very
welcome breakfast.
This may seem quite a dramatic few days, but in such a huge chamber, in
reality we had nothing to worry about: water may rise, but it also
falls. As Rambli, one of the expedition's Malaysian members said, "There
is always water in Lubang Nasib Bagus. How much there is depends on
your nasib."
Elaine Oliver
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UBSS CO CLARE REUNION - MAY 2019
Graham posing next to the car outside Andrew's house, pleasantly surprised by still having some rear visibility..
As part of the centenary
celebrations, former president Bob Churcher organised a dinner at
Balynalackan Castle in Co Clare, attended by 15 members of the society.
Linda Wilson takes up the story...
Co Clare has been the scene of countless
caving holidays for me, and so I was excited by the prospect of a return
after 10 years away, despite the trepidation brought about by reports
of rampant building in the area, especially around the tourist hot-spot
of Doolin. However, I soon fell back into the old routine. Graham and I
pretty much filling the car with our own stuff before we even went round
to pick up up Andrew and Sioned and their kit wasn't the most
auspicious of starts, but some nifty packing soon saw us ready to set
off for the ferry at Pembroke Dock. The ferry terminal was better than I
remembered it, and the ability to buy tea (even red bush!), coffee and
cheap bacon rolls and chips at 1am was a great improvement over the last
time I was at Fishguard and all they had by way of refreshments was a
vending machine that didn't work.
After the usual all too short time asleep in the cabin, we started the
drive across Ireland at 7am, stopping for an excellent breakfast in
Tipperary on the way. The roads are much better and faster than they
used to be and by lunchtime we had arrived at Atlantic View Cottages
in Doolin, which certainly didn't contravene the Trades Descriptions
Act as we had an excellent view of the sea without needing to stand on
the roof. The cottage was extremely nice and very well-equipped, so if
you're heading to Clare any time, I'd very much recommend them.
The view from the patio at the cottage. The thin dark blue strip at the base of the sky is definitely the Atlantic!
We started the week's caving off with a
Poulnagollum Branch Passage Gallery round trip, followed by a humongous
photographic trip to the Signature Stone in Poulnagollum with myself,
Andrew, Sioned, Tony and Clive on a project to make a 3D model of the
Stone and its multitudinous inscriptions to record the historic graffiti
such as that left on the first two recorded trips into the cave in
1880, which form our only record of those trips. This project will be
written up for a future newsletter, but from what I've seen so far of
the results, they're very impressive indeed. Many thanks to Andrew for
all his technical expertise and to everyone else for indulging my latest
research interests! It was six hours very well spent.
Dinner at Balynalackan.
The arrival of Julian and Carol Walford,
Bob Churcher, Clive and Wanda Owen and Ian Casselly filled a second
cottage, this time in Kilfenora. We were also joined for two nights by
Steve and Sheena Warr, and Steve and Jane Perry arrived for the night of
the dinner. Balynalackan. The evening of the dinner was excellent,
starting with a tour of the castle itself, where UBSS members used to
use the tower for abseiling practice, and followed by a really
high-quality dinner in lovely surroundings.
Plenty of caving was done, with one of the most amusing moments coming
when the part who had gone off to do a St Catherine's - Doolin through
trip all assumed that someone else knew where the entrance was,
resulting in the following note left on the table in the cottage...
Many thanks to Bob for organising the dinner!
Linda Wilson
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CAVES OF MID-WEST IRELAND
The society’s new Irish guidebook, Caves of Mid-West Ireland
is progressing well, the page proofs are complete and we are currently
getting quotes from printers. The front cover can now be revealed!
The guidebook will be launched in Ireland at the SUICRO Symposium which
this year is being held just outside Carrick on Shannon, in Leitrim, in
late October and in Bristol at our own Centenary Symposium. The price
will be announced when the printing costs are known.
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TRAVELS BENEATH THE EARTH - PROJECT UPDATE
Dick Willis, outside The Stables.
History interns Nick Stromberg and Lena Ferriday report on the progress of the society's ambitious oral history project.
This month saw us kick off the interviews
for the 100 Memories project. We were very lucky to chat to both Dick
Willis and Tim Hill about their experiences with UBSS and with caving in
general. Dick (pictured), continued to cave for decades after leaving
Bristol, and provided some great insights into how caving has changed
over the years; reflecting on some of his trips to Ireland with the UBSS
and other expeditions to more far-flung caving destinations like
Borneo! Tim was also a treasure-trove of fascinating information. He
offered some captivating tales about his time in UBSS in the 1960s as
well as some more personal thoughts about what the Society has meant to
him over the years. Thank you (again!) to Dick and Tim for sharing their
time with us. We have now started transcribing their interviews. These
transcriptions will form one of the outputs of the 100 Memories project.
June will most likely be an even busier month for us. We plan to
conduct and transcribe a lot more interviews and to establish a
social-media presence to engage the public with the project as it picks
up over the summer months!
Nick Stromberg and Lena Ferriday
Meanwhile, Linda Wilson went north to meet Peter Standing...
Peter Standing in his garden.
Peter was already an experienced caver by
the time he joined UBSS in 1962, and his choice of university was
heavily influence by his desire to continue his caving career. He also
followed in the footsteps of his brother Ian, taking over as UBSS
librarian. Peter provided a wealth of information about the thrills (and
risks) UBSS members encountered in the exploration of Little Neath
River Cave. He also talked about his involvement with expeditions to
Czechoslovakia and Ghar Parau in Iran.
Linda Wilson
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100 MEMORIES - THE HUT AND MORE...
The UBSS Hut. Thanks to Haydon Saunders for the photo.
As part of our ongoing project to
capture memories, Jon Brown takes a look at something that's been
central to UBSS actives for 100 years - The Hut.
A few years ago now I wrote up a couple of
articles about the area around the hut during World War Two, those
interested can find them on the UBSS website, what I didn’t write up was
a general paper on memories. Memory is a strange thing, I remember
spending a few days at the hut drawing up floor plans and looking at the
structure, there was a banging at the door, the boy scouts were lost,
so I pointed them in the right direction, brewed some tea then there is
more banging and this time someone shouting at me about leaving gates
open and muttering bull about sheep, not all boy scouts know enough to
shut gates behind them, don’t blame me!
The hut has many stories and memories attached to it, perhaps it is the
memories that should be passed on that are required, such as the fact
the water comes from the rain running off the roof of the married
quarters then collecting in storage, so it is advisable to go and remove
all the branches, leaves and dead pigeons from the chicken wire and
sump every now and then, as well as remember to boil the water.
Looking out from the hut there is an excavated barrow known as T5, yes
that one! Many moons ago I was asked to give Linda and Graham a hand in
locating it, stomping up and down the hillside through bushes, bracken
and nettles, working our way down until we finally locate it not far
from the track, so now it doesn’t take several hours to locate, you can
see it from the kitchen window.
Around the front of the hut have over the years been various facilities,
from a bath to a field kitchen, there are a number of films of the hut
now on YouTube that are worth viewing, but although the days of the hut
being out in the countryside removed from civilisation are now gone,
there is still a quietness in the area to be enjoyed.
In the library are many volumes from around the world, caving magazines,
caving bulletins, spelunkers from America, potholers from oop norf and
whatever the description in the odd scripts that were indecipherable
are. The library to many is somewhere that people go for meetings at the
Stables, however if one ventures up the wooden stairs, you will find
cave maps, travel, world maps, history publications, archaeology,
geology, geography and many more areas of interest than I could list, a
hundred years of publications, so next time someone sends out a random
email about some system somewhere, there is probably all the information
and more in the library, perhaps having spent four years in a darkened
room typing lists and putting little post it notes in books meant I
looked at more books than many, but the library is there to use, venture
forth and explore its hidden wonders and possibly interesting
obscurities.
There are many memories including ones that are now lost intentions,
Foxes Hole, a small hole in Burrington Combe but an exciting one, in the
wartime logbooks, the saga of which Graham may recount to those who
enquire, contain many interesting references, including the description
of foxes being in Foxes Hole, the foxes in this case were the troops of
the British resistance embedded in the Home Guard, Foxes Hole was
converted to a resistance store and base, with a camouflage cover and
was filled with all sorts of exciting toys when the log book entry was
made, explosives dets, guns and all that was needed to make life
uncomfortable for an occupying army. There are a number of resistance
bases in the area particularly in quarries and caves, UBSS was one of
the organisations that had members with a knowledge of such secret
activities during the war. There’s a dis or two in there for those
looking to do some research,
Memories are fickle things, sitting on a quiet night the wind and rain
whirling around, looking back at the hut, it is a Victorian ladies
cricket pavilion, which after a hundred years on its current site, has
outlasted any other, it is a location away from the city and until
recently away from infernal communications and modernity, take the time
to listen to the quiet, turn off the phones and devices and step back to
only a few years ago, when only fire, conversation and the sound of
nature were heard.
Jon Brown
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RE-ROOFING THE HUT
The time has come to replacet he
wiggly tin on the roof of the Hut and the Drying Store. The weekends of
the 14th - 16th June and the 21st to 23rd June have been set aside for
this. If you're able to help on either weekend, please contact Rosie Daniels.
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MUSEUM NEWS - BONE SCRAP IS OFFICIALLY EXCITING!
Rhiannon Stevens from the Institute of Archaeology getting acquainted with unidentifiable bone scrap from Picken's Hole
UBSS will be partnering with the
Institute of Archaeology on an exciting new project to unlock the
information held in numerous boxes of unidentifiable bone scrap in the
museum collection.
Last year I received an approach from
Rhiannon Stevens who would like to apply for a Leverhulme grant to
undertake further research on mid and Upper Palaeolithic sites in the
British Isles. She is interested in trying to find human remains from
the unidentified / unidentifiable bones by using a technique known as
ZooMs analysis on the material.
As Rhiannon explained to me: "ZooMS (zooarchaeology by mass
spectrometry) is a proteomics technique which can be used to identify
bones to species when this is not possible osteologically. This type of
research is successfully being undertaking in Asia and mainland Europe
and it would be really interesting to undertake this in the British
Isles. For ZooMs around 20-40mg of bone is needed for the analyses and
large numbers of unidentifiable bone fragments can be screened. It not
only offers further the possibility of identifying human (and
Neanderthal) remains within the collections but also offers the
possibility to gain further understanding of the diversity of the faunal
species present at archaeological sites. Where humans remains are
found we would then try to take a larger sample for radiocarbon dating,
stable isotope analysis and ancient DNA analysis."
Rhiannon recently visited the museum to look at material from Sun Hole,
Gough's Cave and King Arthur's Cave. A search of the Sun Hole boxes
produced a small tobacco tin of possible material, Gough's yielded
slightly more, then when Rhiannon started to look at the King Arthur's
Cave boxes, excitement quickly mounted. After that I tempted her to take
a quick look at the material from Picken's Hole. At that point,
Rhiannon sat on the floor lovingly running her hands through large bags
of unidentifiable scrap.
As museum curator, it was a great moment to see someone so genuinely
excited about boxes of material that I've personally lugged around
through at least three changes of premises. This shows the value of
retaining all the material from excavations, even when they appear to
have no obvious value, and it's so nice to see the UBSS museum still at
the cutting edge of archaeological science and contributing to ongoing
research.
Linda Wilson
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PENS! AND FUND RAISING
As part of the club's centenary
celebrations, Hellie Adams had the idea of getting some pens made to
mark the occasion, and every one who attended the dinner at Wookey Hole
got one in their excellent goodie bags, courtesy of the ever imaginative
Ruth Briggs.
If you missed the dinner but would like a club pen, please let me know
and I'll arrange to get one to you. and as we still have our fund
raising goals to meet, I'll be making a cheeky request for a pledge, but
it's not a condition of having a pen! The pens were paid for out of the
donations I got last year for baby-sitting film companies on museum
related projects.
On the subject of the 100 Pledges target, these have been flooding in
since the dinner, and the Lloyd Fund was able to claim the whopping sum
of £1.700 this year in gift aid. Please keep the pledges coming. They're
going to make an enormous difference to what the club can achieve.
And a tip for lovers of these excellent pens, they are refillable! You
just need to unscrew the shiny bit at the pen end and they take a
standard refill. It took me a while to discover this, but I got there in
the end.
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LOCAL INTEREST
Have you ever wondered what the longest running publication is that is solely concerned with Somerset’s local history? Adrian Webb, Somerset editor for one of the area's oldest publications has a few words to say...
The answer is NOTES AND QUERIES FOR SOMERSET AND DORSET (SDNQ) that
has been published in unbroken sequence since 1888. During that
time it has recorded evidence on local history, archaeology,
architecture, antiquities, genealogy, heraldry, literature, dialect,
family history, customs and folklore of the two counties. This
provides material of permanent value to all those interested in the west
of England, and in these topics generally.
It
is also a forum for exchange of information, the Queries section
containing requests for information about a range of subjects. Responses
are often printed, leading to a lively pooling of knowledge about often
obscure topics. Recent queries have included subjects such as roofless
tenements, World War II radio sites in the two counties, burying places
for suicides, early church records, and the lock-up at Poole.
Subscribers
now receive an Index to each volume as it is completed. Recent editions
of the publication are still in print and available for sale.
An Index to the complete series is now available.
The
journal is especially useful to the growing number of people actively
interested in local and family history. Among the many subscribers
are universities, colleges, libraries, schools, and individuals in many
parts of the world. Two numbers are issued annually in March and
September. The annual subscription is £8 (including postage).
In
1929, an appeal was sent out for new subscribers to SDNQ. Amongst
the benefits of subscription it was noted that ‘Subscribers are invited
to submit Notes and Queries. A great deal of pleasure and profit may
easily be obtained by inserting such questions or giving information to
those who ask’. 190 years later an appeal is again being sent out.
Please support our publication.
For all enquiries please contact the Hon. Secretary.
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THE GREAT BIG SUMMER PARTY: 13th - 14th JULY
Haydon, Lisa, Rosie and Si relaxing in the newly refurbished hut.
It's party time again at the
UBSS Hut! The aim is to get as many members back as possible for a Great
Big Summer Party on the weekend of the 13th - 14th July . So if you
missed the Centenary weekend in March, this is your opportunity to come
along to meet old friends and make new ones. There will be food, drink,
caving, singing and generally slobbing out!
Please spread the invite to as many of your UBSS friends as you
can so that we can turn the woods into Tent City again. The aim is to
barbecue a load of food, eat cake etc etc. There will be some alcohol
provided, but please bring some more to supplement what's on offer.
Sleeping space in the Hut will be prioritised for those who don't have
tents. If you need transport from Bristol, that can probably be be
arranged.
The hope is that we can use this weekend to carry out some
interviews for the Oral History Project as well. There will probably be a
gathering in the Stables on the Friday evening as well and maybe a meal
out somewhere.
If you're interested in this, please let Linda know so she can coordinate the catering and other arrangements.
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UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL REUNION WEEKEND: 19th - 21st July
For anyone who fancies a
double dose of partying, or if you can't make the Big Party Weekend, the
university's annual Reunion Weekend is a great time to reconnect with
friends and with Bristol.
There's a packed programme of events starting on the Friday
evening with a drinks reception at the Holmes, and a chance to look
around the Botanic garden. The following day, you can join Linda Wilson
for a walking tour of the public at at Royal Fort House, followed by
dinner in the Great hall of the Wills Memorial Building. It would be
really great if, to celebrate our centenary, we could get a couple of
tables of cavers together for this. This will be very special event this
year, as our treasurer and editor, Graham Mullan will be receiving the
Alumni Association Medal for "long-standing involvement in the work of
the Alumni Association and assistance in enhancing the life of the
university". This is a very significant honour, so please do join us in
celebrating this award!
Full details of the weekend's events can be found on the University website, along with details of how to sign up to the various events. If you do decide to come, please let Linda know so she can arrange for cavers to be seated together wherever possible. |
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2019 CALENDAR
Don't forget to get these dates in your diary!
8th- 9th June. The Rave in the Woods at the UBSS Hut. Big student party weekend with other student clubs. See Facebook for further details and to sign up.
13th July, Huge party for everyone at the Hut.
We're hoping to get as many members as possible to the Hut for a weekend
party consisting of lots of food, singing and even caving!
18th July. 7pm in the Stables. A meet up for chat and maybe cake, maybe with a meal out somewhere if people are interested.
19th - 21st July, University of Bristol Reunion Weekend and Reunion Lunch in the Wills Memorial Building
27th September, University of Bristol Students' Union Welcome Fair
25th-27th October, SUICRO Symposium in Carrick, Co Leitrim including the Irish launch for Caves of Mid-West Ireland.
8th November. 7pm in the Stables. Book launch for Caves of Mid-West Ireland, the successor to all the society's previous guidebooks to Clare and the surrounding areas. Booze and cake will be provided!
9th - 10th November, UBSS Centenary Symposium in
the School of Geographical Science. There will be a programme of talks
on Saturday 9th Movember with various field trips talking place on
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