| The Domed Cave System is situated below 52 Bridlesmith Gate – the Oxfam shop – and extends part way under Bridlesmith Gate itself. In the 18th century number 52 is thought to have been used by the Cocks family as a druggist shop (the equivalent of a modern chemist shop or pharmacy). Parts of the Apothecary’s Caves show features which may indicate that the Cocks and their successors used the caves to carry on their business. |
| William Cocks is known to have been trading from Bridlesmith Gate until his death on 22nd July 1808. Between 1800 and 1806 Cocks employed an apprentice called Charles Prockter. One of the walls at the entrance to the cave system has the letters C P and two dates 1801 and 1804 inscribed. Could this be the Charles Prockter’s grafiti? |  Grafiti at the entrance to the B System |
| In the last years of his life, Cocks took on another apprentice called John Nunn. Following Cocks’s death his sisters, Elizabeth and Anna, acting as executors for his will, leased the shop and the business to Charles Prockter for fourteen years for £52 10s per year. Prockter agreed to continue John Nunn’s apprenticeship. Following the end of Nunn’s apprenticeship in 1816 Prockter sold the business and the lease on the shop to him for £150. John Nunn was eventually joined by one of his own apprentices, William Gelsthorpe and formed the company of Nunn and Gelsthorpe. They later opened a second druggist and chemist shop. Gelsthorpe lived abot the shop in Bridlesmith Gate which John Nunn rented a house in the Park. |
| Number 52 continued to be used as a druggist and chemist’s shop following the death of John Nunn in 1855. In the early 1880’s the property was purchased by a milliner named Frank Blakey, along with the shop next door and the Clayton’s Square to the rear. By this time several properties had been built in Clayton’s Square and these were included in the purchase. By 1894 Frank Blakey’s eldest son, also called Frank, had set up an engravers business in number 52. He lived next door at number 50 with his mother Eliza and his brother Edward. By 1898 Edward had joined the company which was renamed Blakey Brothers. It is known that the caves below the shop were used by the printers and several of the cave have dark stains on the walls caused by printers ink. Blakey Brothers occupied the premises until 1975. |
| When the Society first entered the cave system it was filled almost to roof height with builders’ rubble and waste mostly dating from the latter half of the 19th century. Once the rubbish had been removed it became possible to see a flight of steps cut in the sandstone. |  Entrance to the B System |
| At the bottom of the steps there is a passage which leads to the right into the Truncated Cave and left into the Semi-Circular Cave. On the east side of the passage there is a stone pillar with brick walls on either side suggesting that there are further caves beneath Bridlesmith Gate. Unfortunately excavating further would risk weakening the road above. |
| A large number of finds were recovered from this cave system. Some of which are shown below. |
 Codd Bottle for mineral or aerated water (1920-1930) |  Beer bottle, W. H. Hutchinson & Sons (1877-1915) |
 Ink bottle (1920-1930). |  Small black beads of the type used in Victorian embroidery. |