ABSTRACT

The earliest explorers of British caves in historical times were undoubtedly lead miners, who encountered natural “opens” in the course of their search for ore. A notable example is the exploration of Pen Park Hole in Gloucestershire, leading to the first survey of a natural cave ever to be published (Shaw, 1992, pp.14-15). Another early scientific reference to British caves is the account of a descent of Elden (sic) Hole, Derbyshire, by John Lloyd in the 1772 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Subsequently, early geologists, such as Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873) and Sir Roderick Murchison (1792-1871) came along. They were trying to form the big picture from the complex structures and strata that constitute the British Islands. They found caves with bones buried in silt, and thus the diluvial theory of a universal flood, which supported biblical teachings, persisted for a while. William Buckland (1784-1856) was its principal proponent, with findings in Kirkdale Cave in Northern England, after which he wrote Reliquiae Diluvianiae (Relics of the Flood) in 1823. He soon realized the errors of his thinking and came to appreciate the reality that caves simply sat there in the landscape “catching” things that went past and were in fact “museums”