Jug holes info

I'm heading into Jug holes on Monday, I haven't been in this cave before and wondered that's worth exploring? There isn't much description info so I don't want to miss anything interesting, especially if there are any tight squeezes etc

There is a lot of info out there including years of discussion on this site and the excellent Dave Webb Interpretation booklet available from the Mine Museum. Personally, I think it?s a great place to just explore. Start at the adit entrance at the bottom and work your way up, and then enter the upper chambers. Lots of Owd Man workings to keep you busy as well as some excellent natural stuff including the Bee Hive

Whilst in the owd mans workings, dont poke the roof, scary stemples or anything you want to keep the way back open!!! 
Also dont drink Soughers' sherry. 
O.G.

Check out https://thedca.org.uk/publications/booklets/category/16-booklets

You can download the interpretation pack, a really useful and interesting publication.

There's a load of late 17th Century graffiti on the roof of one of the Water Caverns - presumably when it was more filled with sediment, as it's way too high to reach now. In fact that entire roof is well worth looking at as the flowstone skin and rock textures are magnificent.

Yep, definitely don?t touch the sherry, it was a poor year!

If you go to the DCA website at theDCA.org.uk and look for the Cave Conservation Audits in the Pubications section you will find Dave Webb's publication on Jug Holes as a free download. 

This has masses of information, surveys, photos, etc.  Also worth checking the DCA website for access information which tells you about parking in the area and possible risk of theft from parked vehicles.

Doug Nash's paper  on Jugholes from the BCRA transactions is also worth a look, it should be available online  on their website though I don't have the link to hand.

The system has a wealth of features of note, from geology, geomorphology and mineralogy through industrial archaeology and history.
Plenty of fossils at the very least, vein stuff, limestone and basalt (why do you thing the top field is so wet and muddy....). I have been told by those that do that sort thing that there are plenty of ghosty spirits in there as well!
Rush through and its only a short hour or two, look and learn and its all day at least, but beware of some of the old man workings - rotten stemples and loose packwalls are plentiful in odd corners off the beaten tourist trip...

Thanks for the help guys

great trip into jug holes. nice to see owd git stopping to say hello. awesome little cave, thanks for all of the info

also, whats the story with the shrine

benshannon said:

also, whats the story with the shrine

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Somebody has decided to remember someone by leaving inappropriate stuff in a number of peak mines. I am sure the deceased would be angered at the littering and "spamming" of the underground. I feel enough time has passed and the people responsible should now clear away their litter. Last thing we need is the dark equivalent of lamp posts covered in plastic flowers and posters  :chair:

Hi Brian, " quote" shrine is a discrete remembrance to 'Sougher' . O.P. mole. late of this forum.  who asked to be laid in several locations, and is still caving tho' slower now. she will be moving to another preferred location in good time. thank you for your tolerance till then,.  more news soon as said in the three stags  :ang:
Ben, did you get really downstairs to t'owd mans workings?
so much to see with scare.
O.G.

Hey owd git. I don't know if we did. Do you mean the bit on the left when you enter the main entrance? We popped in and had a quick mooch and saw a metal arch with wooden slatted roof, but nothing too death.lol. Where should we have been looking?

Hi Ben, no, the area usually refered to as t'owd mans workings is below the lower series of water caverns.  several access points a read through interpretation pack  should set you on track. exploring from the adit is the most direct, worth simply checking all leads in 4th water cavern from memory. Someone will shout if i'm wrong.  enjoy the place masses to see.
O.G.

owd git said:

Hi Brian, " quote" shrine is a discrete remembrance to 'Sougher' . O.P. mole. late of this forum.  who asked to be laid in several locations, and is still caving tho' slower now. she will be moving to another preferred location in good time. thank you for your tolerance till then,.  more news soon as said in the three stags  :ang:
Ben, did you get really downstairs to t'owd mans workings?
so much to see with scare.
O.G.

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Noted. Thanks for the info 

I first visited Jugholes in 1965. Back then there was a railway track in the main entrance (2nd Water Cavern) from near to the mine workings out onto the waste tip. Another ran from close by the end of that up through the wood to a loading bay accessed from Salters Lane. These must have been worked by winch and I cannot recall remains of anything similar down the hill, maybe where, or what, the 'ropeway' might have been.

The 'old man's workings' I entered back then fitted the description given in the posts above, with small stemples 'supporting' the roof in places but more on the floor. Small workings and packs of small deads. Stability was very "iffy". It was a long time ago but my memory of these places put them somewhere from the bottom of the climb out into the 2nd Water Cavern and heading towards the upper series. If I remember correctly there was a small stream in that part.

My first trip to the sump in the Upper series ended at a pool of green water, not the wet crawl I saw more recently. Our party back in the 1960s missed the hole in the roof near the sump, whatever was up there and anything else in that area; it was just a trip to the water at the end.

As schoolboys back in 1965 we calculated the depth of Hut Shaft to be a lot deeper that 20m, twice as deep by our reckoning but we could have been wrong! I have only met one person who has descended that shaft only to find it blocked with rubbish. I have never discovered who included it on the well known section of Jug Holes and who stated that it was the site of 'extensive caverns'.

What was there before quarrying and the collapse of the 1st Water Cavern has to be wondered about.

Other things to think about - the connection with Oxclose Mine, if Jugholes Sough ever reached Jugholes and the story abut out of work Millclose miners descending into Jugholes and emerging on the Via Gellia (or did they actually go prospecting, mine to mine across that distance).

Jugholes is certainly an interesting system.

The track down into the main entrance was still in place in the 1970's and into the 80's when I think it was removed and used in Temple mine. I also remember some very steeply inclined rail tracks on the east side of the opencast but these must have been removed at around the same time. I think there was also some remains of a winch but its a long time ago now.

I remember Doug mentioning a steel cable running down the hillside in the 1950's and I think it or the anchor point broke when someone was carrying out some daredevil stunt. I also think there was a rail track running from the main entrance to the ruins part way down the hill which acted as a loading ramp.

I think the mine workings OG was referring to are the ones in the lower series. These are accessed through a short but awkward winze which once had a fixed chain. Someone took the chain out long ago and a ladder is probably best used if you want to get out. These run through the fill under the natural chambers and are interesting if gravity defying in a few places. Down at the bottom of these is a larger level which I suspect is at the other end of the boulder collapse that you climb down from the 4th water cavern to adit level.

The hole in the roof near the upper series sump leads to a mined out flat and a very tight stope that may once have connected to a shaft to the west of Jug Holes wood.

I suspect that there is at least 10m of fill in the bottom of Hut Shaft. I did some exploratory digging in the early 80's that exposed the ends of some rail track and a waggon and the earlier explorers from OP Mole and Orpheus (1950sclimbed down through a tangle of tree trunks and rocks. I found another route to the bottom of Hut Shaft in 1988 so it really isn't worth digging at the bottom. Doug Nash described this area as "extensive caverns" and my exploration and surveys tied up pretty well with Doug's notes from the 1950's,

It is unlikely that there was ever a Jug Holes Sough but the workings further North on Noon Nick Vein are drained by a hand picked level from Leawood Vein to the West and via Small Prophet Vein ( I have been unable to find any historical record or name for this). This in turn is drained by Oxclose Sough although there are also signs of another sough heading  north from here that could have been significantly older than Oxclose Sough.

I love reading about the history of these places. Ah I did see a hole to go down that had a few timbers thrown down it. Probs about 4 or 5m. So at the bottom of that is what takes you into owd man's workings? Sounds like death ??