THE SEARCH FOR THE LOST CAVE OF AXBRIDGE

Alan Gray

Since the discovery of Shute Shelve Cavern (The Discovery and Exploration of Shute Shelve Cavern by Alan Gray ACG Newsletter Autumn 1992 Page 9), I have had a niggling doubt at the back of my mind – the uncertainty that Shute Shelve is not the lost cave of Axbridge. The main reason is that the miner’s description of the lost cave of Axbridge stated that it contained a chamber large enough to fit Axbridge Square. Although the first chamber of Shute Shelve (Reynard’s) would have seemed large to the miners in the flickering candle light I think it would have been evident to them that this chamber would not be large enough to fit Axbridge Square.

Shortly after the discovery of Shute Shelve Cavern Andy Farrant and I walked both Axbridge and Shute Shelve Hills trying to identify old cave passages exposed on the hillsides. One area was of particular interest marked on the 1931 Ordnance Survey map as a Quarry about 100m vertically up the hill from Shute Shelve Cavern. The site was noted as an interesting area but the digging in Shute Shelve and other factors intervened and the investigation of this site was consigned to memory.

4^th November 2000

After just a little persuasion Simon Fowler agreed to have a look at the Quarry. We reached the Quarry via Shute Shelve Cavern after a long struggle up the hill. The feature marked on the Ordnance Survey as a Quarry is in fact two features a man made Quarry and a Rift. The Rift consisted of an estimated 6m wide by 30m long cutting going directly into the hillside. Both the left and right hand walls are water worn rock with the left hand wall exhibiting large scallops indicating that this cutting was created by the force of water many aeons ago. There were no signs of ochre deposits, (which was extensively mined on these hills) on either of the quarry walls. In addition there are no signs of pick marks on either of the Rift walls indicating that the ochre was not extracted from the quarry itself and also that this is natural rather than a mined feature. So it can be assumed that the ochre was either extracted from the floor of the far end of the Rift or from underground. I don’t think the mineral was extracted from the far end as there is only about 10m of tumble down spoil before the hillside. So my conclusion is that the ochre was mined from underground.

After rooting about and having a careful look it was agreed that this site would be well worth a further investigation.

We then drove to John Chapman’s house, in Cheddar, an ACG member who had carried out extensive excavations looking for the lost cave of Axbridge in the early 1950’s. He stated that to his knowledge the Rift that we had been investigating had never been dug and he had always thought that it had potential as a dig site. He also told us that it is shown on the six inch 1931 Ordnance Survey Map that this quarry contained a single track narrow gauge railway track that was used to move the mined minerals to the track way. My thoughts on this was that the miners would not have gone to the great effort or expense of installing the track unless there was a large amount of ore being extracted from this quarry. In addition the map also shows that the track way ends directly in front of the entrance to the Rift.

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