Eastwater Cavern is a cave near

Priddy Priddy is a village in Somerset, England in the Mendip Hills, close to East Harptree and north-west of Wells. It is in the local government district of Mendip. The village lies in a small hollow near the summit of the Mendip range of hills, ...

in the limestone of the

Mendip Hills The Mendip Hills (commonly called the Mendips) is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the Frome valley in the east, the hills ...

, in Somerset, England. It is also known as Eastwater Swallet. It was first excavated in April 1902 by a team led by

Herbert E. Balch Herbert Ernest Balch (4 November 1869 – 27 May 1958) MA FSA was an English archaeologist, naturalist, caver and geologist who explored the caves of the Mendip Hills and pioneered many of the techniques used by modern cavers. Born in Wells, h ...

composed of paid labourers and volunteers from the

Wells Natural History Society Wells most commonly refers to: * Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England * Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground * Wells (name) Wells may also refer to: Places Canada *Wells, British Columbia England * Wells ( ...

. Progress was initially slow, but by February 1903 Balch and Willcox had discovered substantial passage, following the streamway down to the bottom of the cave. Dolphin Pot was dug in 1940 by the

Wessex Cave Club la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

, with Primrose Pot following in 1950. West End series was the most recent significant discovery, in 1983. On 28 August 1910 severe flooding rendered the boulder ruckles unstable, and the bottom of the cave was not reached again for another three years. The cavern was the site of a

fatal accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researcher ...

in 1960, when Alan Hartnell was hit by rock-fall. Several areas of the boulder chokes remain unstable. Dolphin ladder pitch also suffered a rock fall and was blocked by a sofa-sized boulder in 1959, but the route was re-opened in 1966. The water resurges at Wookey Hole Caves to the south, and below the cave entrance.

Description

The entrance proceeds through boulders towards the upper traverse, a wide bedding-plane angled 40 degrees downwards. Further passage takes the caver downwards towards the canyon. The lower levels are accessed via pitches and climbs, including Primrose Pot, which at is one of the deepest vertical pitches on the Mendips.

References

{{Mendip Hills Caves of the Mendip Hills Limestone caves

Description

See also

References