Stolen from:
T H E M E N D I P C A V E R
Vol. 4 No. 2. May, 1968
PIONEER SPELEOLOGIST IN A QUANTOCKS CAVE by Peter Hesp
Not far from the high Quantock village of Broomfield there is to be found in an isolated and little known system of limestone caverns which are unque for two reasons.
One is that this is the only cavern discovered anywhere in the 3 hill ranges which dominate the western part of Somerset: the Quantocks, Brendons, and Exmoor.
The pocket of limestone remains as a sort of coral reef, harking back to some forgotten geological period millions of years ago, when these airy Quantocks uplands formed a seabed.
A subsequent upheaval of the earth's crust left it high and dry - or comparatively dry, for the rainwater seeped through the porous limestone for untold centuries carving out an intricate and beautiful maze of passageways which remained unseen by the eyes of man until Somerset's first speleologist ventured there just 150 years ago.
Labourers' find.
And that is the second reason why Holwell Cavern, as it is called is unique - because of its associations with Andrew Crosse, of Broomfield.
Andrew Crosse was not just a caver, a wealthy country gentleman with leisure enough to poke about among the curious natural formations surrounding the district in which he lived, he was also a scientist.
He applied his exacting standards of inquiry to his exploration of Holwell Cavern and therefore, might be properly called the country's first speleologist.
He must have heard of the cave system as soon as it was discovered early in the 19th century.
Some labourers had been working this pocket of limestone, no doubt to carry it to nearby kilns for burning and conversion into agricultural lime, when their pickaxes broke open one of the hitherto hidden passages.
Terrier test.
Early records indicate that someone came along and placed a terrier in the hole to judge by the sound of its barks and the time taken for it to reappear how extensive the cavern could be. We are not given the identity of the man with the dog, but it might have been Andrew Crosse. He was already known to everyone in the district as a man with an inordinate interest in natural phenomena. From a biography written by his widow we learn that the locality in which he was born, spent all his life, and where he finally died, was "not only his home, but his abiding place. The face of Nature was as the face of a friend..."
Experimentation was the very breath of life to Andrew Crosse.
He was happily married at the age of 25, after succeeding to the family estates. At once his whole household was regulated to accommodate his studies in electricity, chemistry and mineralogy.
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Fyne Court, Broomfield, the family seat, was unluckily burnt down in 1898 but even today it is possible to view the remains of the great hall which Crosse used as a laboratory, and to see attached to the trees in the grounds the tall poles which he used for lightning conductors in his experiments with statics-electricity.
His wife recalls with no rancour but with affectionate remembrance that he was always surrounded by a perfect chaos of apparatus.
Beauty of interior.
He was not above requisitioning decanters from the sideboard and fine china ware from the cupboard to serve him in his work, and on more than one occasion he cheerfully :decimated the family plate, dumping, tankards, spoons, and teapots:-into a crucible in order to obtain chemically pure silver.
No sooner had Holwell Cavern been discovered than Andrew Crosse was down there exploring an aperture which in places was 20 ft. high and which went into the hillside for 140 ft
"The interior of the cave", he wrote , "but more especially the roof, is lined with carbonate of lime in stalactic and other forms.
"Some of these stalactites, when first discovered, were of the size of a man's body, and 6 feet in length; but by far the most interesting feature consists of an incrustation of crystals of aragonite of surpassing beauty, which coat the roof at nearly the farthest end of the fissure, covering it with every variety of arborisation which it is .possible to conceive."
He goes on to give further technical details of the type and coloration of the crystals, and adds: "It is utterly impossible by words to convey any idea, of their extreme beauty and diversity of form. They must be seen to be properly appreciated".
"Fiend" criticism.
At the far end of the cavern there is to be found a .pool of still, clear water. Andrew Crosse took samples of it and later, in his laboratory, exposed it to. electrical influences, to further his studies in crystallography. To his utter astonishment this man, whose work had received the. official recognition of the British Association, discovered that around the, electrodes in a hitherto untried solution there appeared not crystals but "whitish excrescences which later enlarged and assumed the form of a perfect insect."
The publication of this result unleashed a story of controversy. The gentle and retiring "electrician" of Broomfield was seen in fiendish garb; it was assumed in some quarters that he was claiming that he had created life - Christian England was scandalised.
But Andrew Crosse preserved his detached, scientific outlook and let the affair blow past his sequestered and well loved acres.
Today Holwell Cavern is seldom visited. The pool water of crystal clear water at is farthest end remains much as it was when Crosse visited it.
But there are indications that many of the idle and curious followed in his footsteps perhaps as a result of he "whitish insect" controversy.
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Black smudges from their candle flames deface the tunnel roof, and most, if not all, of the beautiful stalactite and crystal formations have been filched for souvenirs.
Acknowledgement: This article has been reprinted by kind permission of Peter Hesp and the Western Morning News, Plymouth. p 4 (20/3/1968)
