Marking Caves

by

Lauren Roberts

Once, and only once, have I gone caving, crawling into an underground system of spaces of varying sizes where you must maintain your calm much as if you are under water. I liked it, but I cannot say I’ve had the urge to return to nearly one feet (a mere beginning for serious cavers) beneath the surface again. It’s an odd feeling to be surrounded by rock on all sides and to know—absolutely know—that you don’t have an immediate way out. That was my overwhelming thought particularly during those times when we were squeezing our way into and out of tight spaces, pushing our packs ahead of us and maneuvering with snake-like suppleness ever deeper. That feeling—a blend of creepy, alarming, thrilling—comes over me again as I write this despite it having been about twenty years since that experience.

That said, there are caverns people can visit easily—the one I was in had separate and easy routes where tour groups could walk through—such as Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and Cheddar Caves in Somerset, England.

Cheddar Caves is actually part of Cheddar Gorge, the largest gorge in the UK, located in the Mendip Hills, near the village of Cheddar and about 2.5 hours from London. There are few signs. The best indication of the gorge are the change in scenery from rolling hills to steep, high gray walls of limestone. The gorge itself is more than 300 feet deep, and the two caves in the gorge were carved out by Britain’s largest underground river, the Chedar Yeo. The geology is at least as interesting as the caves as reported by GeoTimes, in May of 2005.

More than 300 million years ago, western England was covered by a warm sea with a sandstone base. Calcification of dead sea critters and plants formed a several-hundred-meter layer of limestone. Tectonic movement then forced up anticlines, the tops of which eroded away to leave sandstone tops and limestone valleys.

During the Jurassic, 200 million years ago, a sea once again covered the region, depositing more limestone. The Mendip Hills area (which are the picturesque rolling hills you may drive through on the way to Cheddar Gorge) was a level plateau during this time period. Then about 1 million years ago, ice began taking over most of the United Kingdom.

Ice sheets reached as far south as Cheddar, but the bigger factor in shaping the landscape was actually the meltwater once the glaciers receded during interglacial periods. After each ice age, glaciers released a torrent of meltwater through the Somerset rivers to the sea. Carrying boulders and gravel, the rivers scoured out gorges like Cheddar Gorge up to 400 feet deep and 3 miles long. Throughout time, as sea level has risen and fallen, Cheddar Gorge has gotten deeper and shallower. Along the climb to the ridge of the gorge, you can see various layers of limestone.

While the surface landscape was being carved by glacial meltwaters, underground rivers were similarly carving out vast caverns, such as Gough's Cave and Cox's Cave, the two caves in Cheddar Gorge. Floodwaters and underground rivers dissolved the limestone, slowly sinking lower and lower until they hit the harder sandstone layer and leaving caves above.

Later history showed that by 1086 Cheddar was under crown ownership, and the village was at the center of a medieval forest. By the thirteenth century, when its cheese was already famous, it was prospering. Unfortunately, the Black Death, devastating to so many English villages, had a similar effect here.

But the village returned to life and is today a popular travel destination. For those who favor underground environments, it offers a series of spectacular caves, in particular Gough Cave and nd Cox’s Cave, the only two opened to the public. Gough Cave was discovered by Cheddar resident Richard Gough at the end of the nineteenth century when he started exploring the mouth of a cave that had been recently vacated by its elderly female inhabitant. For six years he labored with his sons to open it up. Their efforts produced the largest cave in the gorge with a half-mile of magnificent caverns created by an ancient river (one still flows beneath the cave). It is filled with stalactites and stalagmites and is still being carved out by the Yeo. Britain’s old complete human skeleton, estimated to be 9,000 years old was found here in 1903. Amazingly, he has a living descendant, a history teacher currently living in Cheddar, as determined by DNA testing! This cave is where the Stone-Age skeleton was found and where a replica now lies, the original in the National History Museum in London.

Today, the town of Cheddar thrives on tourism. Hotels, B&Bs, and camp sites offer numerous choices; restaurants, tea rooms, cafés, and public houses offer a variety of refreshments; and many different sports and outdoor activities offer entertainment to suit everyone’s interests. This includes, of course, caving and rock climbing. Their “Adventure Caving for Beginners” is an excellent way for those who have the desire but not the experience as you are taken only a quarter of a mile in and have, among other safety features, “ ‘back-up’ staff close by” for, I presume, for those who might begin to feel a terrifying sense of claustrophobia.

This souvenir bookmark also notes Cox’s Cave, which is a small cave possessing mirror pools and colorful calcite formations that was discovered by mill owner George Cox in 1837. His enterprising neighbor, Roland Pavey, sensing money, walled up a small quarry to create his own “showcave” and even added the now-famous Jacob’s Ladder, 274 steps that lead up to a lookout tower named the Mystic Tower. When in 1987, the leases reverted the two caves were joined together. They are still on private land, however, but purchased tickets allow anyone to explore.

A visit to Cheddar mean, of course, a visit to the cheddar cheese factory—and a gift shop for a similar bookmark and a wedge of cheese. But if you are so inclined, may I suggest their adventure caving program? It’s a good way to get a feel for caving as well as the opportunity to get very, very  muddy.

Bookmark specifications: Cheddar Caves
Dimensions: 6.25” x 2” (including ribbon)
Material: Paper and fabric
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Modern
Acquired: eBay 

Almost since her childhood days of Mother Goose, Lauren has been giving her opinion on books to anyone who will listen. That “talent” eventually took her out of magazine writing and into book reviewing in 2000 for an online review site where she cut her teeth (as well as a few authors). Stints as book editor for her local newspaper and contributing editor to Booklist and Bookmarks magazines has reinforced her belief that she has interesting things to say about books. Lauren shares her home with several significant others including three cats, nearly 1,300 bookmarks and approximately the same number of books that, whether previously read or not, constitute her to-be-read stack. She is a member of the National Books Critics Circle (NBCC) as well as a longtime book design judge for Publishers Marketing Association’s Benjamin Franklin Awards. Contact Lauren.