Mendip Cave Rescue

Mendip Cave Rescue are providing first aid cover for the Sidcot School Peace Festival, where suitably qualified first aiders will be on hand to treat anyone who requires our assistance. This year the festival is held on Saturday 15th June, from 12:00 through to 17:00. The festival is free to enter, so feel free to come along and say hello and sample some of the entertainment on offer.

Mendip Cave Rescue are organising a rescue practice at Eastwater Cavern on Sunday 30th June 2019. As part of the assessment of what scenarios of various rescue situations and the techniques needed for assisting with various injuries. Depending on numbers, the aim is to see what can be transported down the Technical Master Piece and the systems needed to get an injured caver back out. This is a very important part of contingency planning and the more people who attend the more that will be gained from the exercise. All are welcome to attend this rescue practice - please meet at the MCR store by the Belfry at 09:30.

The British Cave Rescue Council (BCRC) was formed in 1967 as the representative body for bona fide volunteer underground rescue organisations in the British Isles. Its functions include representing and supporting its members at National and International level, promoting the exchange of information between member rescue organisations and providing a common voice for them. ResCon is the bi-annual BCRC Cave Rescue Conference, a gathering of cave rescue volunteers and others to discuss (and practice) cave rescue techniques and meet other cave rescue team members. The next ResCon is to be held on Mendip in September 2019, to be organised by Mendip Cave Rescue, over the weekend of 6th to the 8th September 2019 on the outskirts of Priddy in the Mendips. A ResCon 19 website is being created which will have full details. Please note that tickets are now available online from eventbrite, with weekend tickets costing £40 (to include camping, food and activities).

Mendip Cave Rescue received a message from Wiltshire Police at 17:30 on Wednesday 20th February, regarding an incident involving a lost dog near Box Stone Mines. A Jack Russell terrier had apparently entered a small hole more than a day earlier and could be heard barking, but efforts to extract him had so far failed. Four local cavers met at Quarry Hill, Box at 18:15 as Dorset & Wiltshire Fire Service were departing. The Jack Russell (called "Patch") could be heard intermittently through a small hole clogged with leaf litter at the base of a rock outcrop. On inspection of the site it was decided that Patch did not get into the hole that way, so a search for an alternative way in was undertaken. A small, very old, low entry on the south side of the outcrop seemed most likely, so one caver crawled in calling to Patch, and coaxed him towards the entrance. A couple of minutes later Patch appeared on the surface for a slightly tearful reunion with his owners. Patch appeared uninjured and none the worse for its stay underground, and the incident was closed at 19:03.

Rescuers on the surfacePatch after the rescue

Photographs of Patch kindly provided by Derek Hawkins

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