To try and dig into a cave below my house?

[TimeToChangeNameAgain]

There’s a small network of caves in my town which were open as showcaves until the 80’s but then all shut off. The dad of my dc’s best friend is a keen caver type person and showed my dh a map of these caves which appear to go directly under our garden.

The pair of them plus 4 kids have been in the garden all weekend and managed to dig what looks like a grave. At the moment I’m leaving them to it because I’m assuming they’ll lose interest soon and they’re not actually going to find this bloody cave. The dc’s are so excited about it - convinced that they’re going to have it as the best den ever and find loads of fossils.

They won’t actually suddenly fall into a cave will they? The stuff I can find about the original caves says that they’re granite and limestone - they’re just digging through earth and a few stones at the moment. I’m assuming they would have to actually chisel away loads of rock before they hit a cave but I’m completely clueless. I really don’t care about them digging a hole in the garden but I don’t want them to actually find anything.

Would you try to stop them? Or just leave them digging? They won’t start up again until next weekend and I’m hoping they’ll have lost interest by then and I can turn their grave into a little pond.

Been out all day shopping (DH on holiday this week) Couldnt wait to get back and see what has happened ! Sounds intriguing but as pp said have to careful of gases .pitfalls and so on.

I think if I were you I'd just get some pond liner in there now and get the kids excited about frogspawn in Spring instead

jakeyboy1 it was bloody Kent’s Cavern that started the whole thing. They were there with the dc’s for a birthday party a few weeks ago and I stupidly mentioned that there used to be caves open near our house. The next thing they’re down at the library printing off maps and marching around the garden with measuring tapes. Honestly sometimes I think it would be easier if I just never spoke to anyone, ever. Every time I speak it seems to end up with some insane new project being started.

There’s no way they could get through the original door. It’s all fenced over and directly in front of a very normal looking terrace house. The owners who let it out as a rental have made it very clear that they never let people in.

I'm going to have to chime in with others here.... trenching is a dangerous business especially if their support is in any way inadequate. I've sadly been in the position, outside this country, where all the men died at bottom of a trench when the side walls collapsed. It's a horrible death.

Does anyone else think this sounds like the start of a horror film... "We were worried about falling into the cave... we should have worried about what would come out of it!"

falcon I’m not going to let my kids get buried alive. They’re just digging a hole in the garden. Hopefully. It’s about 4 foot deep at the moment and I’ll be very surprised if they ever make any more progress on it.

daniel thanks for that. I’m on my own with the dc’s tonight and now I’ve got to worry about a cave troll climbing out of the open grave in my garden and murdering me in my sleep.

I have to say I’m wondering how they are planning to go through the layer of rock between them and the cave.

Explosives anyone?

They won't succeed in digging into the cave. Without pickaxes and explosives they would need to enter via an existing entrance. Absent full on mining and shaft sinking, cave entrances are natural - even if they get filled up with rubble over time the original hole was still made by water. There is no way they would ever be able to create an entrance where there was never one.

Caving without really knowing what you're doing is also really dangerous, my dad is a cave rescue volunteer and goes out on calls to rescue even quite well equipped people often. Given they all seem to have this interest in caves why don't they all join a local caving club so they can learn and explore safely? They may even be able to go in the old show caves as many cave networks are controlled by access grilles to which designated clubs are given keys.

Just urbex into one of the original entrances - there will always be a way!

@Damntheman @WiddlinDiddlin another one with a caving dad here! Small world isn't it?! My dad still volunteers with DCRO although he's in his mid 60s now. I was shoved through many tight & muddy squeezes as a child also 😂

Yeah ferretface I was surprised at the number of people with caving connections posting on this thread, but realised it was a self-selecting group - I don't think it is a true reflection of the number of cavers on MN.

OP -I reckon your DC are lucky - they're being brought up in an environment of curiosity, not just the cave but the tug boat and all the other off-beat projects. A recent study suggested that curiosity is important in future academic success. By the way, I've sent you a private message.

I have a brilliant idea.

Why don't they create a modern day Sutton Hoo? Make the trench big enough, shove in the knackered tug, a couple of hard hats, some tut from the kids' bedrooms and fill it all back in again?

That way, you get the garage back, the hole's filled in AND there's less crap in the bedrooms.

OP oh no that bloody place Kent's Cavern!Tell them you can get in there free with Tesco vouchers and is much easier/cheaper than destroying the garden!

That's hilarious though. I live on an old quarry not sure we are about to start quarrying!

mitziK that is bloody brilliant! I could hide so much stuff in there and it would confuse the yell out of future archaeologists.

If this were me, I'd go out and give them all a clip round the ear! Sheer stupidity.
If this is the cave network near me (it doesn't sound like it tbh from the rock description you gave), there's a published book on it, local interest info from before they were closed of etc...I'd rather read up on the subject than be swallowed up by a sinkhole personally!

Yes I was a bit surprised at the number of cavers offspring here hehehe!

My dads in his late seventies now, a minor miracle given the certain death he's tried to commit over the years and across the world!

Love the sound of this!

Timetochangenameagain ah, sorry I misunderstood thought adults involvement meant deep trench likely and got the heebies.

Love the caving community we have here ❤ @WiddlinDiddlin My dad died 3 years ago now but would have been 88 this year. 99% certain they knew each other then :) we sent his ashes down Swildon's Hole and had such a lovely trek out there passing group after group of savers who remisced with us. Just lovely!

My dh would have definitely been doing this in his twenties when our children were young! (Now he’s worn himself out). Yes keep an eye, keep them safe but as you say, I’m sure they’ll give up soon (fingers crossed)

They should read Friday’s Tunnel!

My dads in his late seventies now, a minor miracle given the certain death he's tried to commit over the years and across the world! I know. I have to meet an elderly caver whose life story doesn't contain incidents of stupidity from their younger days It seems the best way to fully understand risk is by having at least one narrow escape.

Hopefully they get bored soon but this is the type of thing that kids will remember for ever.

My Dad used to do things like this but he wouldn't have bothered with doing it safely. He was a complete idiot but we had a lot of fun.

There was a thread a year or so back on ukcaving.com - someone having some house renovation done discovered the downpipe from the gutter had been directed into a natural passage, and he was busy digging and following it down (with all due care about subsidence).