Below the pitch a small passage continues for another 25 metres (82 ft), and is thought to drain the area just to the east of the blind valley.

[7] In 1895 Edward Calvert, of the Yorkshire Ramblers' Club, attempted to replicate Edouard Martel's descent of the Main Shaft of a few weeks earlier, but failed to get beyond Birkbeck's Ledge at −60 metres (−200 ft) because of the quantity of water.

Later in the year he entered Jib Tunnel, and realised that this was the parallel shaft that he had seen, and that a man could be lowered directly to the floor of the Main Chamber from its lip.

The following year, he set up a series of jibs and pulleys, and was lowered in a boatswain's chair, becoming the second person to reach the Main Chamber.

[11] In 1995 eleven-year-old Lee Craddock wandered into Jib Tunnel and fell down the shaft to his death whilst on an outing organised by the Scouting Association.