Hi guys, just looking to hopefully get some more info, we have a couple of newbie?s wanting to come underground with us so we thought we would ease them in with a trip to matlock.

When we first visited jug holes, we managed to get a little lost in (I think) the 3rd water cavern and end up in what looked to be quite extensive mine workings and followed quite a strong draft for a short distance, but as it didn?t look the most stable place we decided not to explore too much.

As were going back and have plenty of time on our hands (knowing the way now) weve decided to have a proper look around, just wondered if anyone else has been down there, how far you have gone, and what you have found?

Survey here:

http://tinyurl.com/7n3z52u

Greg

It is really crumbly down there - not really a place for newbies.  There's lots more places you could take them that are just as interesting and more fun.

The lower mine workings are very dodgy and best avoided unless you have a real interest in stacked deads held up on rotten stemples!
The workings are also known as Noon Nick.

Devonshire or Wapping are much more solid options in the area

Brains said:

The lower mine workings are very dodgy and best avoided unless you have a real interest in stacked deads held up on rotten stemples!
The workings are also known as Noon Nick.

Devonshire or Wapping are much more solid options in the area

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Sorry i didnt mean to give the wrong impression, only a couple of us will be looking to enter the lower workings, we wont be dragging the newbies down there, just looking to find out if anyone knows whats there e.g. the source of the draft?

Greg L said:

Survey here:

http://tinyurl.com/7n3z52u

Greg

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thanks but this only covers the cave, it doesnt include the workings I am talking about

Another report on this site talks of a shaft with bracing halfway down. I'm not sure where this is but it doesn't sound like any shaft I have seen before!

Was there for about 4 hours a couple of years ago, there's a trip report on here somewhere. They aren't that extensive, but there's plenty to explore, although nothing of particular excitement. Can't remember a draft. Didn't seem too loose to me, providing you don't kick anything of course.

Op Mole did survey the mine workings many decades ago but the complete survey has never been published. The published simple survey is from a paper by Noel Worley based on earlier work by Op Mole.

Its a very interesting area and most of it is not especially unstable compared to other mineworkings nearby. Some of the more obscure parts are held up by nothing though and should be treated with extreme care or avoided.

I did follow a strong draft once (to the right of the chain pictch than no longer has a chain) but after forcing myself through a 180 degree bend that was far too tight for my long legs it just disappeared into nowhere.

Kitty

Finally found the report with the shaft - http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=6511.0 - it describes it a a hole with a brace. Does anyone recall seeing it or know how deep it is?

I've had a few trips in to the old workings - the 'brace' you see down the hole is actually used as a bit of aid as you go lower in to the workings, you cross the shaft lower down using it.

Thanks that's handy to know, can you tell me if any tackle is needed at all?

Jugholes is one of those places where there should be a lot more to explore, or rather there must have been in the past - Devonshire Mine is another that comes to mind easily. What lies at the bottom of Hut Shaft (the big one near the Adit entrance) is mystery - it was open , it has been descended but has a lot of rubbish/fill at the bottom. A fine looking shaft that leads (according to one incomplete survey to "extensive caverns". I have heard two accounts of Jugholes connecting (via other mine workings) with Oxclose Mine, one from the time when Oxclose was working (1950's) and one much more recent. The wildest story I have heard is that Jugholes connects with the Via Gellia - the source was authentic enough and the basis of the story plausible, the story may not have been literal and the intention for telling it could be dubious. Then there is a Jugholes Sough, inaccessible but heading for an area East of Jugholes where there is no access to much now (?).

What lies at the bottom of Hut shaft is not a mystery it is just that the survey has not been published.

The only way Jug Holes has ever connected with Oxclose is indirectly via the long submerged section of Oxclose Sough and it has certainly not been accessable since the 19th Century. Tales of connections the Via Gellia and I have also heard Masson are almost certainly fanciful.

There is no record of a Jugholes Sough although there is a hand picked sough (now partially blocked) which drains the water from the north of Jug Holes north east into Leawood Pipe where it flows into Oxclose Sough.

Kitty

is anyone aware of how the lower workings were accessed origonally, is there an old entrance that is now blocked as I only know of the two entrances in the 3rd water cavern and neither seem practical for lugging out floorspar?

The area around the 5th water cavern was worked using  the lower adit. The original  entrance  has collapsed and the current lower entrance was dug out in the 1980s where it met bedrock.

I'm don't think there has been any significant flourspar working around the 3rd and 4th water caverns but these were accessed by shafts when it was worked for lead which are now blocked.

Kitty

Jugholes Sough is referred to by that name or another depending on the source referred to. Neither account of connection between Jugholes and Oxclose made mention of that via the soughs. What lies at the bottom of Hut Shaft will remain a mystery until a survey is published and/or more exploration done. The adit was open in the 1960's and so was Hut Shaft, which is of large diameter with fine ginging. There can be no knowing what lay south of the entrance before quarrying took place.  The mention now of a connection with Masson is intriguing and opens up even more possibilities, at least in the mind.
There will always be storys about connections, those who dream about them, those who look for them and those who dismiss the possibilities of them. With the number of mines and the extent of mine working in the area a lot of connections must have existed and maybe considerable distances could have been travelled underground. I can recall too one story at least, denied once, looking to have more substance with later research. The "bottom line" I suppose is that we only see a very small part of what has been there, at different times, over a long period.
I like the idea of "almost certainly fanciful" - enough to appeal to the romantic side of me.   

Tripod you are a true philosopher!!

Rhinolophus - no tackle is needed to explore the lower workings

Cheers
Matt

matthewjc said:

Rhinolophus - no tackle is needed to explore the lower workings

Cheers
Matt

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Gonads?
O. G.