Stop anyone who lives in Nottingham and ask them what they know about Nottingham caves and they’ll probably say they know of one or maybe more and will then proceed to tell you some story associated with the caves, but the tales they tell are not always as close to reality as they think.
Rock-cut houses in Narrow Marsh
The only possibility of seeing dripping water, is where brick, metal, wood or some other material has been inserted into the Bunter. This, due to capillary action, will divert water from its natural downward course and cause it to flow over the surface of the inset material, from where it could then drip. To test this yourself, if you lightly touch a cave wall it will feel dry and powdery, but if you press firmly and make good contact with the wall you will soon find your hand getting damp.
As for creepy crawlies they are conspicuous by their absence, livestock of the smaller varieties beetles, spiders, snails or mice are not to be seen. They are not found in caves because they cannot survive on a diet of sand, it has zero calories, and the temperature, although constant, is below what they would find comfortable. Some forms of fungus find caves a most suitable place to inhabit, they form a ornate curtain of white lace like material and are always found to eliminate from a piece of rotted wood.
Sometimes this is the only way in.
passageway to give himself good access to his canal wharf's in Brew-house Yard. I think the problem most people encounter is that their visit to the cave was lit by only a small torch, or even an oil lamp or at worst the flame of a match. Under these conditions, and in what most people find to be an alien environment, it would be very easy after walking or crawling, if the cave had not yet been cleared, around for half an hour to think you had gone a considerable distance. Add to this the fact that we subconsciously calculate distance by reference to objects of known size, and that these objects are possibly not to be seen in caves. An other example of a long passageway is Western Passage also in the Castle Rock. This is believed to have been a back way out, or Sally Port, from the old castle. It starts in King David's dungeon and comes out close to the Park gates on Pevril Drive. Along
Steps down to the caves under the Red Lion
it's length are remains of what would have been defensive stations, small rooms that can only be entered from the back, like pill box's. The occupiers of the castle would have looked upon it as an emergency way out in the time siege but if they did not protect it the invader would see it as a nice easy way in. The wine cellars below Wollaton Hall could also be looked on as an example of a tunnel, especially the small passageway at the end of the main wine cellar. This passageway, it is believed, ran down in the direction of Wollaton village, half way along the route it broke through to the surface. It could have been constructed to house a very early plate-way, the name given to the first type of railway because it ran on metal plates with a lip on the outside to stop it drifting off. This plate-way would have been used to haul goods up the hill from the village. Short passageways were in abundance in the Park, the block of land that runs from Park Terrace down into Park Valley, which originally had
Rock-cut passageway in the Park
seven levels, each was interconnected by steps and underground passageways. Some are still to be seen but many have been lost as gardens have been modified and built on. Also in the Park is the Park Tunnel a tunnel of giant proportions, originally cut to give horse drawn traffic an alternative way up to Derby Road. Its architect took on the job knowing that if the gradient exceed a certain amount then the traffic for which it was intended would not be able to make the climb and he would not get paid. It did and he did not get paid. A good example of a short tunnel is, although it may have been destroyed when the building "was preserved", is under the Flying Horse Hotel on The Poultry. It connects a small beer cellar under the basement with a larger one lower down and is 2.5m wide and about 15 meters in length and arch shaped. It's the only pub I know with three beer cellars, one brick and two sandstone.
Unlike the caves of Derbyshire, which were created by water action, all the caves beneath the city are man made, cut from the solid Bunter sand stone. Although it is possible that when a natural fault in the rock face presented itself to a cave cutter/digger he would not have been slow to take advantage of it. Investigations into the tooling marks, that cover the walls of cave’s, show that the work may have been done with a small pick like tool, with a shaft
Possible example of type of pick used.
about 14in/36cm and a head about 7in/18cm wide, with a triangular point on one end and a chisel point on the other. But this tool would only have been used to finish off a cave, the chisel end to level up uneven wall sand the point end to add a nice textured surface. The actual cutting/digging of a cave may have been done in one of two ways. The first method involves removing rock at floor level, with the chisel end of the pick, to a depth of say a meter. This undermines the rock above,
An early pillar in the entrance to the main chamber
of the fish gutting complex on Fisher Gate.
then driving wedges into the rock further up so as to cause the rock to fracture and the bottom piece of rock to fall. The second method starts like the first, by undermining the wall, but then a brushwood fire would be built against the wall. When the wall became very hot the fire would be quickly raked away and cold water thrown onto the hot surface of the wall. This sudden dropping temperature caused the rock to fracture and break away. The first method may have been used by Mr. Rouse in his sand mines in Peel Street because due to several accidents involving men getting buried he was closed down.
A byre in a Saxon Farmstead cave, less than a
hundred yards from Nottingham's Market Square.
ceilings may often give an indication to what their particular use may have been. An example of this is a cave on Derby road with a ceiling height in excess of 6m 20ft, tracing previous owners turned up the fact that it had been used as a Wagon Makers Workshop. This explained the need for plenty of head room, but was the cave enlarged or was it simply a case of it being the right size for the job?
A Medieval cooking pot, with rabbit stew, shows it's self.
feel it should be placed in the Permian To resolve this problem without solving it, the Bunter, of which the Pebble Beds are one division, are often stated to belong to the Permo-Trias. To add an even further confusing element is the fact that the Pebble Beds are frequently found without any pebbles! The term ‘‘Bunter’’ is German in origin and means ‘‘bright-coloured’’.
A Medieval brick thrall in a Rock-cut cave.
A carved pillar with Saxon graffiti in the main chamber
of a malting complex in Middle Parliament.
A passage entrance into a large chamber
given the Egyptian treatment
Our cave digging involves removal of six hundred
years of acclimated garbage.
This apparent ease by which you could dig yourself a home would have attracted people to Nottingham, but local laws and restrictions on ‘Farriners’, as any outsider was called, would have prevented them. The early settlement covered by the caves would have been in the cliff face from Abbey Bridge to Sneinton, and the area now known as the Lace Market.
The living area of the Saxon Farmstead in Long Row, Nottingham.
A Fish Gutting thrall in Fisher Gate.
A diver down a well under the Salutation Inn.
Most cave wells are only three feet wide.
A fake pillar in a Saxon cave, a buttress.
The original beer cellar of the Flying Horse Hotel.
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