Bones beneath Brixham

A minor detour from yesterday's walk to Berry Head leads to the topic of Brixham's subterranea, and the history of its "bone caverns".

Limestone leads pretty inevitably to 'karst' features, so it's not a wild surprise to find that the Brixham area's Devonian limestone geology gave rise to caves. I had a glance at this one, readily spottable from about here ...


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... if you look uphill through the woods a few yards from where the South West Coast Path meets the Berry Head Road at the end of the Shoalstone car park.




This is Ash Hole Cavern (aka Ash Hole, Ashole Cavern, and Berry Head Cavern). This opening isn't naturally-formed, but a breach into the chamber created in 19th century quarrying. There's not a great deal to see unaided: a small opening upward to the eastern end (perhaps the original sinkhole), and a muddy slope downward to the west. However, it's of interest as one of a couple of Brixham caves that in the 19th century yield significant animal and human remains (there's a brief summary here at the page Brixham's Caves).

Looking up left ...

... and down right

There are a number of 19th century accounts of Ash Hole Cavern: for instance, there's the large section about the "Ash-Hole" (pp 146 onward) in Octavian Blewitt's 1832 The panorama of Torquay: a descriptive and historical sketch of the district comprised between the Dart and Teign (Internet Archive ID panoramaoftorqua00blew). Blewitt quotes a letter from Thomas Northmore, first scientific investigator of Kent's Cavern, concerning the latter's visit in 1824 (see page 120) - but, as with many investigators of the 'antiquarian' era, Northmore doesn't seem to have been terribly rigorous. His field methods may have been OK, but he saw everything in terms of his pet theories about the biblical Flood and of caves used to celebrate "Mithratic or Dionysaick Mysteries".  Many accounts note an exploration of the cavern around the same time by a Reverend FB Lyte, but he doesn't seem to have published anything. The first solid scientific review appears to be The Ash Hole and Bench Bone-Caverns, at Brixham, South Devon (page 73, W Pengelly, FRS FGS, Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, Volume 4, 1871). The site is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 (ID 1019133).

Windmill Hill Cavern as first uncovered

While the early investigations of Ash Hole Cavern sound rather messy - antiquarian dabbling - the same can't be said of Brixham Bone Cavern (aka Brixham Cavern, Windmill Hill Cavern, and Philp's Cave). This now somewhat forgotten cave - or set of limestone fissures - is close to Brixham Harbour, and came to light in 1858 in the period when Brixham was expanding uphill, and a Mr Philp discovered the fissure in the process of excavations for a row of buildings. The location's very clear, marked as "Bone Cavern" on the 1865-1874 town plans, and the buildings called "Grotto Terrace".

Historic map data is (© and database right Crown copyright and Landmark Information Group Ltd. (All rights reserved 2009). Low-resolution image reproduced for small-scale non-profit use under the terms described in the Old Maps FAQ.

The cool thing is that the street map actually gives a schematic outline of the cave, from the following paper:


In this case, the Geological Society of London set up a committee to investigate the cave, leased it from Mr Philp, and conducted a through scientific investigation, which was published as the paper Report on the Exploration of Brixham Cave, Conducted by a Committee of the Geological Society, and under the Superintendence of Wm. Pengelly, Esq., F.R.S., Aided by a Local Committee; With Descriptions of the Animal Remains by George Busk, Esq., F.R.S., and of the Flint Implements by John Evans, Esq., F.R.S. Joseph Prestwich, F.R.S., F.G.S., &c., Reporter  (Proceedings of the Royal Society of London; Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Royal Society of London, 1873, Internet Archive ID philtrans03896081). The results - see William Pengelly Cave Studies Trust - were groundbreaking in the evidence they brought to the then disputed antiquity of humanity, by showing rigorously than human remains existed in the same deposits as extinct animal species.

See Philps Cave at Showcaves.com for a brief summary of the cave's story. It was open as a show cave within living memory, but closed in 1977. It's commemorated, however, by the street name "Cavern Road"; and, from a look at Google Maps Street View, I assume that this quaint little archway leading under a house on Mount Pleasant Road is its entrance:


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See also Brixham Heritage Museum: Opening of the Bone Caverns Display.

The third Brixham bone cavern - the Bench Cavern (aka Bench Bone Cavern)mentioned in Pengelly's account - The Ash Hole and Bench Bone-Caverns (page 78 ff) - no longer exists. It was uncovered by quarrying in Bench Quarry, Freshwater (not the IoW one). I haven't found the precise location ...

the northern slope of Furzeham Hill, one known as Bench Quarry, about half a mile due north of Windmill Hill Cavern, and almost overhanging Torbay
 -Pengelly, ibid.

... but accounts say that it was destroyed by further quarrying.

- Ray