Plantation Swallet
For information contact Dan Hibberts.

Report by Dan Hibberts - September 2008

After hearing all the stories about Plantation Swallet: one hundred and eighty feet deep, constantly on the move, with the smell of crushed limestone, girders bent like bananas after being fitted the previous week. Not to mention all the club members that had dug there in the past. Mike Salt, Dave Ottewell and I just had to go and have a look.

It was Autumn 2006 and Mike was very enthusiastic for us to go for a nosey. Dave and Mike had already been for a look and found the depression but were unable to locate the entrance. So, a couple of weeks later, Mike and I went for another look. It did not take us long to locate the entrance which was buried under eight inches of leaves. A very good job had been made of the entrance, so good in fact that we were unable to gain access!

The next I heard about Plantation Swallet was that the lid had been prised off and it was discovered that someone had previously thrown a dirty great boulder into the entrance to restrict access. The Darfar Pothole club then spent three weekends removing it! For the next 18 months Mike expressed an interest in having good look, he said that the Darfar were not interested or didn’t have the time but were keen to pass it on. So we went for a look and it didn’t take us long to work out why the Darfar were not interested, or why everyone had abandoned the place, also we had found a new meaning for the word “dodgy”. The entrance consisted of two huge metal drums, which are laid vertically on top of the choke; you climb down between boulders for forty feet or so until you arrive at a large chamber with a sloping floor. Two car-sized boulders are at the entrance and need supporting. Half way down the right side of the chamber is a difficult to find entrance, hidden amongst boulders, leading to the top of the choke. After crawling back under the chamber you find yourself at the head of a very awkward pitch that requires care when placing feet. At this point we both agreed that work needed to start from this point, as this was by far the most frightening place either of us had ever been. There are three large rocks, four feet above the floor, which hold each other and the rest of the choke up. Just below us, the choke didn’t extend much further - about six more metres - and the route onwards passes back under the choke into a very unstable area, but what a draught! We both agreed it was an excellent prospect.

The following Saturday we returned with loads of scaff poles liberated form various building sites and set about stabilising the choke from the point decided on the previous week. We made good progress that day; we installed a scaffold platform part way down the pitch with a fixed ladder to make access safer. We stabilised the hanging boulders utilising an old steel girder that the previous team had installed. It was looking good; at this rate it would take us no time at all. How wrong could we be?

The followings weeks were spent digging shoring up and listening to all the funny noises that the boulders were making and on some occasions, while digging on my own, the banging noises would make my mind up for me that it was time to leave. We had gained a few new recruits along the way, who only seemed to come for the day. Strange! After lots of work shoring up to the end of the known cave, it was looking very promising, like it would go every time we removed one more boulder. Bob Toogood and Dave Ottewell made it whenever they could. Bob said that mine and Mike’s enthusiasm would get the better of us but we were making very quick progress. I was spending every spare minute underground a lot of it on my own. Mike and Dave had turned up one Saturday Morning while Nigel Strong and I came to survey from the entrance. All we could hear was rumbling boulders as Mike had been let loose with a crow bar.

The next week I scaffed what Mike had dug out. A hole had appeared in the floor, while digging and scaffing, which needed just one more rock removed and we were into a small chamber with a steeply descending floor. Throwing rocks down the hole was very encouraging. The next day the rock was persuaded to move, and we dropped into a small chamber back under the floor of what we had just scaffed. You could see down three and half metres between boulders and the draught was getting stronger. Mike and I returned with that crow bar and more scaffolding, Mike got to work demolishing the choke while I scaffed up what he had demolished. It was looking good. We were left that day with a rock you could nearly pick up but it was too awkward to shift. Mike had started work in Switzerland so was not about. On Monday, the 7^th of July I thought I would go remove the rock that was in the way with the aid of Mr Hilti. Behind the rock was an open tube: it had finally gone. Mike and I had an arrangement that, if it went, we would wait till we were both there, that week must have seemed like a month to Mike, it felt like a year to me.

On Saturday the 12^th of July Mike, Dave and I returned and pushed through the tube into a small chamber with an aven into boulders, presumably part of the choke. Looking on through a squeeze was another chamber that was about twice as big as the last with a sloping boulder floor; this chamber also has looming boulders just above head height. We had now reached the bottom of the choke and an accurate survey showed the depth to be forty-three meters or one hundred and forty one feet. On entering the chamber it soon became apparent that the way on was blocked. After jiggling things with a bar we soon gained access to an even bigger chamber with two ways on. Straight on was thirty metres or so of very muddy steeply descending passage, which ended in a dig, mud filled and reducing in size until too tight. The other way on just ended but there was a tantalising sound of water through muddy boulders. It was decided that we would come back the next day.

The next day Mike, Bob and I came back with extension cables and more scaffolding tubes. I arrived at the dig face first. It had been raining all night so the water was very loud. By the time Mike got to the bottom I had dug my way in. We just needed a little more help from Mr Hilti before dropping down three metres into a very clean chamber with a stream running from North to South. This could mean the water may resurge at Ilam, which would be very exciting.

The water ran into a very tight rift, which continued for about four metres or as far as could be seen until it went around a corner. Blasting has revealed an undercut. As of this being written, water can be heard dropping just ahead and the draught is intermittent. The total depth is now approximately Fifty-five metres. Digging is still in progress...