Sandstone Caves in
Nottingham
On a recent visit to
Nottingham we went to look at the famous sandstone caves. These are all manmade
caves cut into the Triassic Sherwood Sandstone beds which are up to 90 metres
thick and are composed of fine grained
sandstones deposited under desert conditions. They are easily worked by hand
tools but will safely stand as unsupported arches and tunnels. Although the
sandstone is weak it has very few fractures or bedding planes so it is ideal
for carving out caves. In fact Nottingham has more manmade caves than anywhere
else in the British Isles. There are over 800 caves in and under the city. Some
date back to medieval times and even earlier. Several of the complexes are open
to the public as tours. Some others are accessible via buildings open to the
public, while others are on private property.
Some of the caves date
back to Norman times or maybe earlier as Norman pottery has been found in the
caves at Castle Gate. Many of the older caves have been destroyed or reworked
but it is thought that that there were over 100 caves prior to 1600. The
present caves date back to the period 1600-1900. Due to shortage of space in
the city in medieval times people lived in caves cut horizontally out of the
rock in the sides of cliffs. The best example today is the rock houses at Sneinton Hermitage, east of the old town, much of which has
been quarried away by the railways. See the link below to YouTube videos in the
caves.
Public house cellars:
Constant temperature in the caves of around 12 deg.C
make them ideal places to store beer. A large number of inns have cellars or extra rooms cut into including Ye Old Trip
to Jerusalem, Salutation Inn, Royal Children and Old Angel Inn. They typically
have a cut raised platform on which to stand the barrels and usually consist of
two or three rooms. Most of them were dug out since 1600 but older ones are difficult
to date. Again some were used for illegal purposes including gambling and cock
fighting.
Wells & Cisterns: Many
caves had a well or cistern build in the floor for access to the water table
which was often not far below the bottom of the caves, especially at the
southern end of the city where the caves were near to the River Trent flood
plain. Several completely flooded caves exist under Castle Boulevard and have
been access by divers into extensive system of chambers not fully explored. The
fact that the water table has risen about a metre since medieval times is
illustrated by the fact that some of the caves under Drury Hill have floors now
covered with shallow water.
Industrial use: Several of
the caves were used for industrial purposes including a tannery (see our visit
below) and for storage purposes. There are a number of caves under the castle
area but it is a myth that a long one exists as an escape route from the now
demolished medieval castle. Outside of the main city several caves were dug as
sand mines as the sandstone is so friable it is easily ground up as loose sand.
On the west side of Mansfield Road is a large sand mine which was worked using
donkeys from 1785 onwards. It was used as a tourist attraction in the 19th
Century and an air raid shelter in WW2. There is now an entrance from Peel
Street open to the public. Outside the city are a number of other caves,
notably at Welbeck Abbey and the village of Arnold.
Modern build construction
in the 20th and 21st Centuries is not without its
problems in Nottingham as so many of the caves are undocumented. Many small
caves have been discovered during construction work and once documented have
been filled with concrete. Some have had brick pillars built in them to
strengthen the roof and others have had concrete roofs built over the top. When
the Broadmarsh shopping centre was build a number of
interesting caves were uncovered and incorporated into the shopping centre as a
visitor attraction.
We decided to visit the “City
of Caves Tour” which is underneath the Broadmarsh
shopping centre (follow signs to this to get to it). Tours around the caves are
available seven days a week except for a few dates around Christmas time but there
is no wheelchair access to the site as there are 30 steps leading down into the
caves There is of course the inevitable gift shop and display centre!
The tour took us through a cross section of social history of the
caves of Nottingham. As part of our visit we saw the only medieval underground
tannery in the country, a section used as an air raid shelter where thousands
of people sought refuge during WW2 and the remnants of Drury Hill Victorian
slums and several wells for water supply. The cave network has Ancient Monument
Protection and a number of other chambers and tunnels.
The area was originally known as Tiggua Cobaucc, meaning ‘Place
of Caves’, and the first reference to Tiggua Cobaucc was in The Life Of King Alfred, by Welsh monk and
historian, Asser, the Bishop of Sherborne, who
visited Nottingham around 900 AD. These ancient caves were likely used for
housing as early as the 11th century, and troglodytes were certainly recorded
in the 17th century. Many were inhabited until 1845, when the St. Mary’s
Enclosure Act banned the rental of cellars and caves as homes for the poor,
though the practice doubtless continued illegally. One of the cave chambers has
a hole in the roof probably for dropping messages down from the properties
above to alert people engaged in illegal activities such as cock fighting and
gambling.
We then went over towards the castle and dropped into the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem pub for a pint, it seemed a shame
not to. It is supposed to be the oldest pub in the country but that is
disputed. This also has several cave rooms at the back of the pub, along with
cellars cut out of the sandstone underneath (see photo). We did not have time to visit the other
locations open to the public but they also seem worth a visit. Several sites
are not even commercial endeavours but can be visited free just by seeking out
their location in advance. There are enough locations to keep you busy for a
couple of days, bearing in mind that most of the old pubs in Nottingham have
rooms or cellars cut into the sandstone below. See references below.
General Admission Prices for the City of Caves
Tour are:- Adults: £7.95; Under 18s: £6.95 (Under 5s go free);
Students: £6.95; Over 60s: £6.95.
The
main underground sites open to the public are listed below. Some have regular
visiting times but others are only open on special occasions.
Check
websites for details.
City
of Caves Nottingham Tour: Brewhouse Yard &
Mortimer's Hole, both in the Castle area:
Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem: Peel St Caves: The Malt Cross: and Park Estate Caves.
Andy Hall
References:
Sandstone Caves of
Nottingham:
by:
Tony Waltham. Forth Edition 2018 and now in the Red Rose Library, an excellent
read.
City of Caves
website:
http://www.nationaljusticemuseum.org.uk/venue/city-of-caves/
Nottingham Castle Caves:
https://www.visit-nottinghamshire.co.uk/whats-on/nottingham-castle-cave-tours-p611691
Caves around Nottingham:
https://www.visit-nottinghamshire.co.uk/ideas-and-inspiration/caves/all-cave-attractions
Top underground sites in
Nottingham area:
https://www.visit-nottinghamshire.co.uk/blog/read/2018/05/going-underground-explore- nottinghams-top-ten-caves-b5494
YouTube videos taken in
the caves:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nottingham+caves