Cave House

 

When one considers cave dwellers, the common mental image is our prehistoric ancestors, unless we're making a jab at someones IQ (Troglodyte is a fantastic word, and we should definitely use it on stupid people) but in Shropshire some people were living in caves less than a century ago, and for some reason I'm absolutely fascinated by it. I've documented cave dwellings before and often found them tricky to locate because they show up on old Victorian maps as actual houses. And that does make a little bit of sense because the caves themselves are actually incorporated into houses in a curious amalgamation of natural rock and masonry. My last blog on cave dwellings didn't really capture that because there wasn't much brickwork left, but today we're lucky.

 

 

There are a few caves around here, and locals seem to know stories about each one, but with the pitfall that nobody seems to be able to agree on which nugget of history can be attributed to which cave. 

I have read that in 1809, a man did find human skeletal remains in one of the caves, and that these were regarded as some sort of ritualistic killing, but I don't know if that was this particular cave. Either coincidentally or in reference to it, the TV presenter Griff Rhys Jones did camp out here and perform a mock druid ritual during his series on British rivers. I haven't found the episode in question, but it sure sounds intriguing. 

This cave was probably adapted to a dwelling at some point after 1804, when the access road was created.  But now, there's barely any sign of there being an access road at all. There's a pretty nice bridge, but it's now regarded as more of a folly because it doesn't lead anywhere! The road it once attached to is gone.

 

The bridge itself is somehow still structurally sound despite being without maintenance for nearly a hundred years. Actual historic documents put its date of construction as the 13th December 1804, while Victorian maps show that the road that once ran over it did fork off, with one such path leading right to the cave house.

 

But it is possible that the cave was being occupied even before that. There's a letter to the wealthy landowners, dated 10th February 1793, that says "The old woman Hemmings who lives in the cave lately occupied by your shepherd requests to teach school there. She says she is both old and lame and cannot get a livelihood as formerly, but could instruct the poor children of the neighbourhood."

 

A follow-up letter from the 16th April 1803 tells of how the cave ceiling collapsed and broke poor old Hemmings furniture. But no children!

 

Somehow I don't think that's the same cave. This one doesn't have a collapsed ceiling. But such documents do prove that people were living in caves in this area. Poor Miss Hemmings was a lonely old lady who could hardly walk, and she wanted to use her cave as a place to contribute to society anyway and maybe have something to do with her time.

 

 

There is an image that is alleged to show this house before it was abandoned, but it's worth noting that the image is also alleged to be a completely different house some distance away. I'll include it anyway just in case.

 

(Photo not mine, obviously)

I can see the resemblance, and it clearly does back up onto a rockface. However I'm not entirely convinced. The windows and doors don't quite match up with what's left.

 

 

So for something a little more conclusive, census data does list a family that lived here, that being James and Ann Syner who came here at some point after their marriage in 1840. The 1841 census mentions the newlyweds in their twenties, living at another part of Shropshire, but at some point between that and the 1861 census, they seem to have moved here to raise their collection of semen demons. 

That particular census lists James as a gardener, along with their eldest son Henry, and Ann as a housekeeper. So it would seem that they got jobs on this wealthy estate, and the rich folks at the mansion said "We can't give you an actual house to live in... but would you like to try out our cave?"

 

The Syners had six children here in total, one of which died in infancy. I managed to find a photo that depicts the youngest daughter, Annie, with her mother Ann and their grandfather, sat outside the entrance to their cave house.

 

(Photo not mine, obviously)

According to the 1901 census, little Annie pictured here would go on to become a servant for a surgeon named Alfred Bethell. The 1881 census shows Ann and James living here alone, as their children had all grown up and got married. Ann would pass away in 1887, and in the 1891 census James is said to be living here with his granddaughters, Edith and Agnes. He's in his seventies and he's still a garden labourer, which is pretty impressive. And in a way, it's kinda wholesome that his granddaughters came to stay with him after his wife passed away.

James passed away in 1899, and Edith would go on to become a cook for a surgeon called John Pazley Cadwick, while Agnes similarly went on to become a servant for a woman named Annie Mallinson. 

I actually really enjoy these dives into the history of lower-class Victorian families. It's always the rich and famous who get a Wikipedia page. It's kinda nice that I can immortalise the little people too.

 

Among the ruins we can see how the brickwork of the house was connected to the cave walls. I find this sort of thing really interesting. A lot of effort went into creating this place.

 

There's a tiny chunk of roof tiles still here too.  

 

But it's time to check out the interior!

 

I assume this would have been the front room of the dwelling. There was quite clearly an upstairs living space at some point, but it's long since collapsed.

 

 At the back of this "room" is the cave entrance, still intact. I actually love this. There's just something wonderful about having a house with a secret cave attached.

 

 

There's a fireplace here, and it also seems to be sharing a chimney with a smaller fireplace on the upper floor. 

 

 

It's partially crumbled away but still kinda cute. 

 

 Time to check out the cave itself!

 

So regarding the census data of the Syner family, it's important to note that while I'm reasonably sure that this was their house, I can't be 100% sure. There is another cave structure nearby that might also be a contender, but a groundskeeper claims that it was actually used as a small restaurant. This is verified by the diaries of Adelaide Darby, the wife of one of the rich folks from the estate. She wrote briefly about going to a restaurant on the grounds that was built into a cave. This was in the 1850s, so James and Ann Syner were quite possibly here at the same time, and I really can't see people who were lifelong garden labourers and housekeepers also running a cafe. They must have been separate structures.

 

Having said that, I only know definitively that they were here as of 1861, so it's entirely possible that they lived in the same building, and the restaurant closed when they arrived. But somehow I doubt it. The 1861 census showed that they had a multitude of children, ranging from nineteen to infancy. They were settled in. 

I think the Syner cave and the cafe cave were definitely different. It's just a question of confirming which was which out of the two. Personally I do think this one is probably the Syner cave because the other is way too prominent on the old Victorian maps, indicating a wider use than just a dwelling. The road leads right to it from the bridge, whereas this one is down a little side route.

 

 

The cave portion of the house is basically just the kitchen. That might sound kinda odd from a hygienic standpoint, but it does actually make sense. Nobody had fridges yet, so food was commonly kept underground to keep it cool. In that way, the cave house kitchen kinda doubled up as an ice house.

 

 

There's a little tap here over the remains of a sink. Clearly the house had running water at some point.

 

 

There's a cute little pantry area here. 

 

I don't know who lived here after the Syner family left, assuming this was their cave. But in a curious twist, I have heard that the descendants of Old Tom Parr lived in this area. I cannot verify if they lived in a cave or in an actual house, but it's worth telling the story of Old Tom Parr anyway, because it's awesome.

 

Old Tom Parr was something of  Shropshire Methuselah, being born in 1483 and dying in 1635 at the age of 152. Now, it's commonly believed and incredibly likely that there was some record-keeping error at play here, but this isn't just something that was lost to history. This was widely believed even when he was still alive. Tom was even showcased to King Charles I as a "curious piece of nature." 

Tom had had his first wife at the age of eighty, and was found guilty of fathering a child during an affair when he was 105. He then married again at 122.

Then he was taken to London to meet the King, and his health just rapidly deteriorated. The King asked him that if he had lived longer than other men, what had he done more than other men, at which point Tom started talking about all his affairs.

 

I kinda gotta love the guy for that. There aren't many people who would get an audience with the King and start talking about all the times they got their dick wet.

Tom Parr died shortly after arriving in London. That's fair. 

As for his descendants, a Margaret Parr did live in the area, and she married a Benjamin Rowley. The Rowley's took their name from the nearby hamlet of Rowley, but they were mill owners and did pretty well for themselves. One of the Rowleys was the first person in Shrewsbury to own a carriage. I can't really see such a family living in a cave. But still, it was worth going into just to talk about Old Tom Parr.

 

 

This cave house was last occupied in the late 1930s, but I don't know who by, why they left or when the house fell into disrepair. It likely doesn't have much of a future, unless someone invests a load of money into restoring it for some reason. But as far as ruins go, it's kinda cute. It's just this little slice of everything that was brilliantly bollocks about the Victorian era. I absolutely love stuff like this. But it must be stressed that anything involving underground stuff is incredibly unsafe. This thing is liable to collapse at any time. 

That's all I've got for now, but if you do enjoy the blogs, then the best way to stay updated with them, unfortunately, is via social media. I'm mainly on Instagram and Facebook, but also Vero and Reddit when I remember they exist, and sadly Twitter and Threads too.

Thanks for reading!