The Horse Shoe Cave

The Horse Shoe Cave is entered via a rock-cut arch leading from the Square Cave. The arch once contained a door and the post holes for the door frame are still visible. The cave’s domed shape is intended to give it great strength and ensures that water flows down the walls and away instead of dripping into the cave itself. There are large stone thralls (benches) around the walls which were intended to support barrels at a height which allowed their contents to be easily emptied into a container placed below them.

The passage out of this cave is thought to be relatively modern. It is possible to see where the passage has been cut through the thrall leaving a very small and totally useless piece of thrall in the north-west corner of the cave. The passage connects the caves under number 50 with those under 48 Bridlesmith Gate although, by the time the Society first entered these caves, the northern end of this passage was bricked up making the two cave systems separate again.
Until 1975 the property above this cave was occupied by Hunt’s Domestic Appliance Centre which probably explains the large number of broken vacuum cleaner pieces that were found in this passage. Amongst all of the twentieth century rubbish was the printing press which is now displayed in the cellar above. The press was probably discarded by a printing and engraving company called Blakey Brothers which occupied number 52 Bridlesmith Gate from around 1898.
The images below show the way the passage appeared in 1975 and the way it looks today.