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Eldon
Hole Lloyds Shaft Dig
For more information
contact Jase
Rider or Stick.
Update by Jason Rider
- January 2001
Due to the logistics of
the shaft, a dig cannot take place without a team of six being
available for the duration of the dig. The diagram of the dig (below)
shows where each person is required to be positioned (points labeled A
to F) in order to pull and guide buckets up from the dig face all the
way out into Eldon main chamber - there is no where else within the dig
that rubble can be stacked - it has to come all the way out!
The team are rotated so that each person gets a stint at the dig face -
digging is quite exciting as small voids between rocks often appear,
however nothing major as yet been found. Most of the spoil is clay and
smaller rocks and can be hauled out in buckets, however, some of the
larger rocks will not fit through the constriction and so are being
stored in the silty tube (which isn’t actually a tube at all) until we
can get round to hilti capping them. Spending time at any of the other
positions, bucket hauling, can become quite monotonous - especially if
you happen to be within whistling distance of Steve Fellows! The humour
of Stik and Mike, however, just about keeps everybody sane during a dig
session.
Despite the difficult nature of this dig we aim to stick at it as a lot
of work has been put in to it and we feel that we cannot be too far off
finding something.
Report by Steve Rider - February 2000
A preliminary visit was made to Eldon Hole on the 23rd January to
assess the condition of the presumed Lloyd's Shaft. To our knowledge
the dig was last active in the late 1980's when three TSG members
including Iain Barker were trying to find the now legendary 'great
river' as talked about by Lloyd and King in their writings of the
1770s. The Eldon team, consisting of Jase Rider, Gary Bode, Davey Jones
and Steve Rider set about stabilising the entrance to the dig (which
has collapsed due to rotting timbers) a week later on the 30th January.
A third visit was made on the 7th February and good progress was made
removing deads left over from the TSG dig, widening the current extent
of shaft and extending the depth of the shaft by 3 to 4 feet -
hopefully past the depth attained by the TSG in the late '80s. A return
is planned in the near future.
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