The best man I've ever seen to dig is a Yorkshire man living over here.He'd carry a mattock and shovel in one hand and the terrier on it's chain was in his other hand.
On his shoulder he'd have a small bag with a torch, nets, a bottle of water for the terrier and his locator.
Most digs I had with this man were 7 and 8 footers but believe me if this man was on his own he'd still have gone to the same holes and on several 10 footers we had he'd do most of the digging.
And remember, with a mattock they're not much use after 4 or 5 feet so it was the shovel after that.
Sometimes I think ter