The first Stump Cross Caverns reviews: what Victorian visitors said
Discover the first reviews of Stump Cross Caverns back in the Victorian era, featuring glowing endorsements and some dramatic adventures.
Long before the days of five-star ratings and Google recommendations, there were the ever-wise and wonderfully wordy Victorians.
What they lacked in emojis, TikTok edits and aerial drone shots, they made up for with their delightful written accounts of subterranean adventures at Stump Cross Caverns.
The first 60 years of Stump Cross are full of lively descriptions, startled reactions and downright dramatic retellings from miners, tourists, explorers and journalists. You might think of these as the very first "reviews" of our own underground wonder.
Ready to look back? Better get a thesaurus ready…
Most amusing… and yet wise
Our story begins back in 1860. Two Greenhow miners, William and Mark Newbould, accidentally broke into a hidden world of stalactites while following a vein of fluorspar underground. Just like that, Stump Cross Caverns was revealed to the world.
By the following year, the news had spread further, leading to the first published write-up appearing in the Craven Weekly Pioneer in August 1861. The journalist provides what we would definitely call an endorsement:
"Mr Newbould supplies his visitors with suitable habiliments for their subterraneous explorations. The donning of the miner's smock and trousers is a most amusing episode. And yet it is not more laughable than wise…"
He is dazzled by the formations and the sense that the magic runs deeper still:
"Below these caverns… there is a lower set which have also their peculiar attractions, and our guide seems to entertain the notion that the number and extent of the stalactite chambers… will yet be found very great."
An impressive observation indeed by the Victorian guide, as it turned out to be completely true! Later explorers confirmed that the system extended far beyond the early show route.
Just a year later, the Craven Pioneer weighed in once again with another affectionate description:
"The splendid 'Stump Cross Caverns'… are full of snowy stalactites, in every variety of formation and position."
A dramatic guided tour
One of the richest early reviews is an anonymous Victorian travelogue. It reads like a diary entry – part field report, part comedy sketch. The writer begins with a warning not to overeat before entering the cave:
"It is quite advisable that too hearty a meal should not be eaten, as it would be found a great inconvenience… in consequence of the stooping position to be maintained for an hour or two in the labyrinth."
Solid advice. Then comes what is surely one of the most evocative costume-change descriptions in our archive of reviews:
"The abrupt entrée of an arch young urchin bearing a lode of coarse hempen habiliments... depositing them on the floor… If there are any ladies in the party they will be conducted to an upper room… dispensing for the time being with the darling crinoline."
Picture the scene: Victorians stripping off their finery, tying handkerchiefs "in the Tyrolese mode" around their heads… Did they laugh at each other's outfits, or were they far too polite?
Once underground, the tone shifts from comic to reverent:
"The grandeur of these wonderful curiosities begins to increase, and the mind becomes so excited by the gorgeous scene that all previous inconveniences are at once forgotten… Almost every conceivable variety of fantastic form and shape is now seen standing forth… like quaintly formed pillars of polished white marble."
Later, breathless and dishevelled, our reviewer emerges with his party, "to luxuriate awhile on the soft green-sward, and muse upon the hidden beauties they have just left behind."
That's what we call a five-star review.
Adorned with stalactites
Local historian William Grainge offers another glowing account:
"The roof and sides are adorned with stalactites in every variety of size and form… though in some places more abundant and beautiful than in others."
He also warns that, in the days before safety was top priority, getting lost was entirely possible.
"No stranger should enter it without a guide for should he happen to lose the proper direction… he might wander for hours without being able to find his way out."
This theme becomes even more dramatic a little later on. Keep reading…
Surpass all in beauty
As the decades passed, review after review sang the same tune:
- "The most perfect portion… is the 'parlour', the floor, sides and roof of which are incrusted with various forms of deposit and adorned with stalactite and stalagmite… Everywhere are some of the purest white and of all sizes and forms."
- "We have heard it stated by gentlemen who have visited the most famous caves… that these caverns surpass all in beauty."
- "In their stalactical adornments they equal, if not surpass, any of the finest spar caves in England."
It makes for fascinating reading. Victorians walked in, gasped at this natural wonder… and immediately compared it with others and established a rank! It goes to show that our culture of reviewing and rating is far from a modern invention.
The man who got lost
No round-up of early Stump Cross reviews would be complete without J. Botterill's legendary account of getting dramatically disoriented in the cave in 1901.
His guide was unable to accompany the group, so he handed them the keys with one helpful instruction:
"Mind you don't get lost."
Poor Botterill and his party, rather predictably, got lost.
"On all sides were branch passages… We soon began to get confused."
His somewhat more sensible companions turned back, but Botterill was obviously undeterred. He pressed on:
"Stumbling, stooping, climbing and crawling… Each chamber seemed to contain new wonders."
So far, so good. But then panic began to set in.
"My candle was burning low… Behind me was a cul-de-sac, before me three unknown passages…
"On, on, on along these seemingly endless passages and passing more beautiful curtains and more wonderful chambers as I advanced. A cold perspiration began to break out on me when I considered how many passages I should have to explore before I could hope to exhaust them all and find a way."
Eventually, just as his candle went out, he ascended the staircase and raced back to the inn expecting a rescue party, only to find…
"…my three companions calmly sitting down to a tea."
A very Victorian punchline.
A final word from the past
Not all reviews were so positive. In 1919, Bruff lamented the damage caused by Victorian visitors, describing the caverns as:
"A begrimed wreck, despoiled by senseless and destructive barbarians, whose idea of pleasure seems to be to destroy what they themselves have enjoyed, so that others shall not enjoy the same pleasures."
Thankfully, conservation ethics have changed for the better since then. Today, Stump Cross is protected, cared for, and cherished in ways early guides could only dream of.
Visit Stump Cross Caverns – and add your own review!
Reading these early reviews is like stepping back into the candlelit excitement of the Victorian age. But nothing compares to seeing the caverns for yourself. (And you'll be pleased to know you don't need to scramble about by candlelight anymore…)
Today, the passages are lit, the paths are stable and the protective gear is much more flattering.
But we've kept the sense of wonder. Those same beautiful rock formations. The same vast chambers. And the same feeling of awe, echoing down half a million years of geological history.
After your visit, why not pull up a chair in our cosy Time Cafe and continue a tradition started in 1861? Yes, just like those early Victorian visitors, you could leave us a review. (First to include the word "habiliments" wins…)
The quotes in this article are taken from issue 145 of the Craven Pothole Club Record, published in January 2022. Visit the Craven Pothole Club website to learn more about this longstanding local caving association.
