Arthur Butcher Award

The Arthur Butcher Award is presented by the BCRA for, broadly speaking, "excellence in cave surveying". It was first awarded in 1988. It comprises a cash prize of £100 plus a trophy, which is stored at the British Caving Library. This award is usually presented at the Hidden Earth annual conference.

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Overview

The judging panel will meet annually to discuss contending work of which they are aware. To be sure that the judges know of your work, individuals and caving clubs should bring their work to the attention of the judges. For a cave survey, you can easily do this by displaying it on your club stand at the conference, or you can create a poster describing your work. If, however, you want other work to be considered , such as a report or publication on a surveying topic, or other more general achievements, then you should contact either the BCRA Chairman or the Cave Surveying Group. BCRA is aware that there a number of excellent cave surveyors "out there" as well as several innovative projects to do with cave surveying. The judges can interpret the rules broadly, but they cannot recognised your achievements unless they know about them.

As well as the list of winners given below, please refer to Hidden Earth Archive.

Rules

The rules were originally cited in Caves & Caving 87, p50 (Spring/Summer 2000) [History: Rules revised 1997 & 1999. See also Caves & Caving No. 41 (1988) and 60 (1993)]. The rules originally required the winner to be a BCRA member but this has been waived.

From 2018, the award judges have been following a guideline that this award shall only be made in years where an exceptional contribution to cave surveying is identified.

1. The Award will be made at the National Conference ...
   • ... to any one person or a nominated person from a group of surveyors, club or expedition.
   • ... for any one survey map, series of survey maps, report or publication on a cave survey or surveying topic; or for effort put into cave surveying by an individual or group; or for any other achievement relating to cave surveying that the judges consider warrants recognition.
   • ... by a panel of three judges approved by BCRA Council.
2. The judges will award the trophy called the "Arthur Butcher Award" and any other prizes which from time to time may be donated for that purpose.
3. Nominations for the Award (e.g. for a report or publication on a surveying topic, or other more general achievement) should be made in advance. The judges will also consider any cave map, published information etc., that is displayed at the National Conference. They will take into account a range of factors: effort and enthusiasm will be considered alongside skill, accuracy and presentation.
4. A copy of the award-winning material shall, if appropriate, be retained in the BCRA library.

Previous Winners

• 1988 Dave Ramsay and Arthur Millett for the Llangattwg cave survey
• 1989 University of Leeds Speleological Soc. for effort put into cave surveying.
• 1990 Colin Boothroyd on behalf of the Mulu expeditions for the Clearwater/Blackrock cave map
• 1991 Dave Irwin for perseverance with the St Cuthbert's Swallet survey
• 1992 Cambridge University Caving Club for contributions to the theory and practice of cave surveying
• 1993 Juan Corrin for continued service to cave surveying.
• 1994 Steve Neads, for his survey of Box Mines, and his Cave Surveying software
• 1995 Chelsea Speleological Society, for the club's strict adherence to Grade 5 standards; and notably to Arthur Millett, Mike McCombe and John Stevens for their development and use of computer survey software.
• 1996 Brian Judd, for innovative use of multimedia in his computer presentation on the China Caves.
• 1997 No Award. In 1997 the judges reported that they were disappointed at the small number of new surveys and surveying projects that were available to be considered for the award. After much discussion it was a majority decision not to make an award for 1997/8. There were a couple of ongoing projects that were given serious consideration but both had already received the award and the majority of the judges felt that it was too soon to award it again.
• 1998 Wookey, for his contribution to the development of surveying techniques and especially his enthusiastic promotion of cave surveying ideas and knowledge through the Cave Surveying Group, which he helped to form and whose newsletter he edits.
• 1999 No Award. The judges decided not to award the trophy this year. It was felt that, although there were a number of good surveys on display, no project was seen as being particularly innovative. BCRA is aware that there a number of excellent cave surveyors "out there" as well as several innovative projects to do with cave surveying - please bring your work to the attention of the judges and display your surveys, or posters describing your work, at next year's conference so that we can recognise your achievements!
• 2000 No Award. Two written nominations were received in advance of the annual conference in 2000, and a few clubs displayed their work without making a formal application (the rules do not require written applications). Unfortunately, due to the workload of the conference organisers, it had not proved possible to appoint a panel of judges who were able to attend the conference. Afterwards, it was felt that it would be unfair to consider only the two written nominations. Therefore, it is with regret that BCRA has decided not to award the prize for 2000.
• 2001 Ray Duffy and Red Rose CPC for their Easegill survey. The judges thought this was an excellent example of a long-term surveying project and the use of electronic drafting methods.
• 2002 Chris Wood and Ed Waters of the Laki Underground Team. The judges considered that this was a good combination of detailed surface work by geographers and underground surveying by cavers.
• 2003 Juan Corrin and the Matienzo Expedition. The judges liked the display of surveys on their stand at Hidden Earth 2003 and felt that the use of surveys in their presentations, together with other audio-visual elements was interesting and innovative.
• 2004 Erin Lynch and Duncan Collis for their excellent cartography and presentation of the Qikeng Dong & Dongba Dong survey, as well as a huge amount of surveying in China over the last four years, and good use of the Hong Meguei website for interim publication of surveys & data. The use of colour, the detail, cross referencing, overview info and layout on the survey are exemplary.
• 2005 Martin Green and Dave Loeffler for their Steinbrückenhöhle survey, which featured an excellent use of colour to distinguish levels in a very complex cave. The survey also demonstrates the state-of-the art in computerised survey-drawing software using Julian Todd's TunnelX.
• 2006 Ray Duffy and the RRCPC Easegill re-surveying team for sheet three of their Easegill survey (Oxbow Corner to Holbeck Junc-tion). The award was made for exemplary survey draughtsmanship, production and publication with accompanying notes, and for carrying through a long-term project with commitment over a decade.
• 2007 Phil Underwood for the 'Shetland Attack Pony' electronic compass / clino. Phil is not the only person to have worked on such a device but he has produced a well thought-out and robustly built unit, which has the potential to allow more accurate surveying, especially in difficult conditions. The device achieves this through reduced station position error and by storing readings in the device to allow later downloading, thus reducing transcription errors.
• 2008 Tim Allen and the Mulu team for the Mulu master survey centreline and terrain model. Tim has spent countless hours re-generating over 100km of lost survey data from the original 1980s surveys and creating a terrain model covering the whole Mulu/Api/Benerat massif by hand from surface contours. Citation by Wookey, on behalf of the Judges: Wookey and Phil Underwood
• 2009 Anna Mason for her 3D Video Surveying. Anna will receive a cheque for £100 from BCRA and the Arthur Butcher trophy to keep for one year. Citation by Wookey, on behalf of the judges, Wookey, Anthony Day, Olly Betts
• 2010 Andy Powell for the cavemaps.org archiving project. The judges felt this was a major contribution to the caving community, as it opens up access to information that for many years has been somewhere between secret and obscure. We wished to recognise the sustained effort required to scour caving libraries across the land, scan surveys, do the geo-referencing, and most significantly get the necessary permissions from clubs and authors. Andy will receive a cheque for £100 from BCRA and the Arthur Butcher trophy to keep for one year. Citation by Wookey, on behalf of the judges Wookey, Julian Todd and Martin Sluka
• 2011 Kevin Dixon and the Mulu Team for the Lidar Survey of Sarawak Chamber. This project involved an impressive combination of several factors: dedication to the subject, enormous hard work on the ground, publication of high-quality results, and the marshalling of an impressive budget. The work was not directed at new exploration, but has produced results with huge and lasting public-relations value, which is important outside the caving community as well as within it. Kevin receives the Arthur Butcher trophy to keep for one year. He has asked that the £100 cash prize from BCRA be donated to the Mulu expedition. Citation by Wookey, on behalf of the judges Wookey, Ed Waters, Julian Todd
• 2012 Andrew Atkinson for furthering the long-term success of UK Cave Surveying via his courses on paperless surveying, and for his work in setting up the BCA cave surveying data archive. Andrew receives the Arthur Butcher trophy to keep for one year and £100 cash from BCRA. Citation by Wookey, on behalf of the judges Kevin Dixon, Anthony Day and John Stevens
• 2013 John Cordingley for promotion and use of higher standards in underwater surveying. John receives the Arthur Butcher trophy to keep for one year and £100 cash from BCRA. Citation by Wookey, on behalf of the judges Kevin Dixon, Andrew Atkinson and Wookey
• 2014 Dave Nixon for the Caves of Castleton Survey Project. Dave Nixon ('Moose') has spearheaded the Caves of Castleton 3D survey project, which has collected over 30 km of data in eight years, merging many caves into a coherent and accurate dataset, and has combined this with surface data for a better visualisation. Dave receives the Arthur Butcher trophy to keep for one year and £100 cash from BCRA. Citation by Wookey, on behalf of the judges Andrew Atkinson, Wookey and Paul Mann
• 2015 Roo Walters and the 3D Cave Project for the major effort to scan the world's largest chambers, particularly for the affordable 3D printing techniques and publication/promotion outside the caving community; as well as developing and spreading knowledge on 3D scanning. Roo Walters receives the Arthur Butcher trophy to keep for one year and £100 cash from BCRA. Citation by Wookey, on behalf of the judges Andrew Atkinson, Footleg and Wookey
• 2016 No Award. This year the judges decided not to make the award. It was considered that, over the last two or three years, as the new Survey Salon has grown in size, there is some overlap between it and the Arthur Butcher Award; and that a re-appraisal of the scope of the award should be undertaken by BCRA Council.
• 2017 Paul Swire and Sam Allshorn for the Northen Caves Web-Site. This project, with its updateable web site, contains entrance photos and locations of caves in the North of England. There are cross-references to publications describing the discovery and exploration.
• 2018 No Award. The award judges are now following a guideline that this award shall only be made in years where an exceptional contribution to cave surveying is brought to the attention of the judges.
• 2019 No Award.
• 2020 to 2022 No award was made; largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the cancellation of the annual caving conference
• 2023 Rich Smith for writing, and maintaining, SexyTopo, the Android pocket-topo-style surveying app. This has allowed people to use all sorts of devices for paperless surveying, and made the transition from tiny-screen PDAs straightforward for many people.