Cavern Clues

We asked if any readers could identify the whereabouts of this ‘cavern’ in the last issue. Several people, including Derek and Janet Midwinter, and Peter Dawson of the Lower Medway Group, thought that it could be one of the rock shelters at Oldbury, before the collapse of the overhang. A different interpretation was given by Bernard Worssam. “It looks like the face of a Kentish Rag quarry. It is quite likely that it shows, looking east, the entrance to a mineworking at Willington Street (TQ785541), briefly mentioned in the Geol. Survey Maidstone Memoir (1963) and in ‘Kent and East Sussex Underground’ by the Kent Underground Research Group (1991). The latter work shows a drawing of the face dated 1973. The figure of a man is too small to be recognisable, but suggests the height of the opening is about 10ft, which agrees with the drawing.”

That drawing is reproduced here by kind permission of Terry Reeve and the K.U.R.G.

Right: The original photograph and left: Terry Reeve’s drawing from 1973