Axbridge Caving Group                    Journal  - April 2005
Cover Editorial/Index Carcass Cave Conversion of a Cap Lamp Rules of Caving
Caving with Spirit Hunters ACG AGM 2005 Templeton 2005 Mining On Shute Shelve Hill ACG 55th Celebration Dinner
The Lost Cave of Axbridge  
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The Personalities

Name

Born

Died

Comments

Mr Myatt

1865

1925

Organised the mining from the Quarry, Rift and Ax Ochre Mine

Fred Carpenter

1907

 

Hauled Ochre from the Quarry and Rift by horse

Charles Filer

1887

1936

Worked for Mr Myatt

Percy Channon

1900

1970

Worked for Mr Myatt as an Ochre Miner

Vic Channon

 

1961

Manager Cheddar Ochre Mill

Fred Curtis

1892

1960

Used to put in timber supports in the mines

William Tripp

1879

1957

Worked for Mr Myatt as an Ochre Miner

Albert Shepstone

1903

 

Hauled Ochre from the Quarry and Rift by horse prior to 1925

Charles King

1909

 

Ochre Miner, and worked in Cheddar Ochre Mill

William Channon

1901

1974

Worked in Cheddar Ochre Mill

1 Interview with Arthur Chard - July 1979

Owner of most of the land on the hillside also nephew of Michael and Rev. Chard, Woodlands Farm, Axbridge. Mr Myatt employed 6 men. He died 1922.

Then Mr Armfield manager, Shute Shelf for West of England Oxide and Ochre Co.

Rose Wood site 8 to 10 buckets on cable.

Channon and Curtis two of the miners.

N Parker of Axbridge haulier (opposite Woodlands Farm) haulier wagon and horses (possibly his father?). This method too expensive. So overhead cable from Rose Wood site – more economical.

2 Interview with Arthur Chard - July 1979

Rosewood ruins of hut, dry stone walling for tools etc. Hearth in N.W. corner – wall blackened by smoke. Hut approximately 8 feet by 12 feet. Beehive construction with elliptical aperture – use unknown. Ramp later than hut.

10a Interview with Fred Carpenter - September 1979

Rose Wood (ST 4243 5534) and Axbridge Ochre Cavern (ST 4312 5510) were being mined at about the same time by Mr Myatt, and a considerable quantity of Ochre was dug from the latter site. At Rose Wood a cable with buckets was in operation. This entailed a man standing on a platform and emptying the buckets into a wagon and then winding the buckets back up the hillside. A Charles Filer and William Tripp were employed by Mr Myatt. Plantation mines were dug by Mr Myatt’s miners, and a Joe Parker hauled from these with a wagon and horses. Mr Myatt supplied ochre to the West of England Oxide and Ochre Co. Ltd. of Warmley, Bitton Swinford, who he thought employed Myatt. (*Fred saw the name on the wagons). A Mr Albert Shepstone hauled for Mr Myatt after Parker, and was employed by Fred Peters, brother of Bert. However, this was not altogether a satisfactory arrangement as it caused rivalry between them, which resulted in “under cutting prices for hauling”. Fred Perkins hauled for Myatt who supplied ochre to West of England. While Bert Perkins hauled for Golden Valley, who also employed the Channon’s. Mr Myatt did not employ Vic or Percy Channon, (?) as they were all working on Axbridge Hill at the same time for different companies. Mendip Ochre Co. Ltd. (Golden Valley) dispatched ochre by lorry to Cheddar railway station and the remainder to the Ochre Mill at Cheddar.

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