Caving in

 On a hot a Saturday being down a series of caves which stay at a constant 12C was the perfect place to be. Please don't think for one minute that I have latterly taken up potholing. Heavens forbid no....just a couple of gentle tours led by passionate volunteers round the Reigate Caves. 

As caves go these look quite reassuringly substantial don't they. What you're actually looking at in the shot below are sand mines. That's sand not sandstone. If you gently draw your hand over the surface it feels like a damp sandcastle and the sand tumbles away. It is just moisture holding it together and if it ever dries out Reigate is a goner because basically it's been built on the top of a giant sand dune which is now riddled with holes like a colander.

From the discovery of this Roman tile kiln you can see that these underground passages have been utilised over a long time. From 1740 onwards the sand began to be extracted on a more formal basis and would have been sold on for many uses included scouring. The phrase 'happy as a sand boy' derives from the young lads who wheelbarrowed this sand round the pubs of the day and were paid in beer. Come the end of their working day they would have been fairly relaxed and drunk. The pubs laid the sand across their floors as an alternative to sawdust.

People have also been accessing these caves for a long time unofficially and flytipping all their rubbish. When they were cleared properly a few years ago they found all manner of deitrus including this old meat cooler. It came into its own during the two wars, but one wonders how the residents of the town might have felt had they known that the caves were packed with live munitions during WWI which had been brought down from Arsenal and they were living directly on top of it. During WWII it was used as an air raid shelter and the football rattle was used as an air raid warning alarm. It must have been terrifying.

During times of peace the silver band used to practise down here and the local rifle club still shoot down here. It turns out that it's also rather good for wine and beer storage. One of the original company name remains in one of the outer walls and more recently the local Pilgrim brewery has pressed it back into service. It's also been used as a filmi location and was seen in both the drama series 'Gold' and a BBC documentary about art for which they recreated the stone age hand print with ochre seen in places like Pech Merle [which I was lucky enough to see many years ago].

At the time of the Norman Conquest Reigate didn't exist as a place as such, but it came into the ownership of one William de Warenne who was one of William I's Dukes. The new king parcelled out land to his cronies to keep them onside. This chap found the highest point in the area and the proceeded to build himself a castle upon it. Despite appearances this stone edifice is not it, but an 18th century folly. The original castle has long since fallen and disappeared, but this marks the spot and the so called sallyport [a fortified rear entrance] dating from that time does remain and is now known as the Barons' Cave.

This second cave gets its name from some fanciful story that claims that all the barons met there before travelling over to meet King John and witness him sign the Magna Carta. As an interesting aside he never actually signed in the sense that we would understand it today, but it meant that he added his seal. 

It seems to not have had quite such a remarkable history as the caves we'd seen in the morning, but certainly in more recent years the local groundsmen led paid tours round it. The walls are covered in graffiti and strangely horses heads seem  to be one of the most favoured motifs. It's certainly been used for illegal parties and at one point in time it had half a mini down there. These days it's opened on a few dates a year and maintained by the local caving society. 

We thoroughly enjoyed exploring with the tour guides. As ever they kept us entertained with colourful tales and fascinating snippets.

Arilx