A couple of knowledegable people were quite suprised by this result, as it implies that, like Nettle Pot, the system is now mostly sealed except for the main entrance. I think the climbing shaft entrance was buried during the last opencasting - I certainly haven't managed to find it, despite having a reasonable idea where it should have been.
Makes me wonder if it was the backfilling after the opencasting that's plugged any other ventilation holes there might have been. With Hollandtwine being totally buried too, that was probably the last remaining good draught in the place snuffed out.
I've been in low O2 and high CO2 situations, as I've mentioned before on here, and the CO2 was far worse for me too, especially with a tight 50m prussik to complete. That was in Nettle, at the very bottom, and I haven't had much impetus to go back since. The level at the entrance shaft base was fine, but the lack of a draught seems to be the real issue down there.
If only the crawl through the bedding to Oxlow could be completed - there wouldn't be as many issues then, though the bottom of the system would still be pretty isolated. That said, the only draught I could detect on that day down there was coming up from 'Hell' - i.e. even deeper than we were. But if it was a CO2-rich draught, that's not much help!