Top 4 Caves 우스터셔

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From Myseries of Mercia - a book and facebook page.... A mysterious cave on the Malvern hills and an enormous lump of stone in a nearby village...what connects them? This is Clutters Cave, an apparently man-made grotto within a volcanic basalt outcrop. Very little is known about it, not least who on earth "Clutter" was, but it's been mentioned in connection with various points in history going back to the medieval age. Folklore claims that Owain Glyndwr, the legendary Welsh hero, hid in Clutters Cave after his abortive attempt to invade England and retreat from North Worcestershire. He was never seen again so it's as good a story as any. I've also been told that a hermit once lived in the cave, dispensing blessings and wisdom to those who climbed up the hills to see him. Alfred Watkins, author of The Old Straight Track and father of the ley line concept, reckoned he had found a "door" to the cave a few yards away in a nearby gulley which was used as a "sacrificial stone" by "druids". He even got his assistant McKaig to lie on it as a "victim" to prove his point. Unfortunately for Watkins, we know that at least part of his theory was wide of the mark as his cave door is of a completely different type of rock. So what about the big rock? This lies at the centre of the village of Colwall and folklore gives us a reason for its presence. Another name for Clutters Cave is "Giant's Cave" and the story goes that this giant lived on the Malvern Hills with his human wife. One day he saw a man flirting with his good lady down in the valley where Colwall now lies. Erupting with rage as he watched the two of them giggling, he dug his hands into the rock and scooped out an enormous lump which he hurled at the pair down below, crushing them both. It was said that they lay under the rock for centuries until someone dragged it away to clear the obstruction, whereupon the giant put it back into place the next night! Strangely, there is a record of a payment made to a local man to drag the current stone into position to replace "the stone that once stood there". Some say that Clutters Cave is actually a Victorian folly, but nobody has any idea when it appeared. I find this unlikely as although Alfred Watkins did misidentify a few sites he surely would have been aware of something being just a few decades old. I've also seen a reference to it in a novel from 1883 and in the journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute from 1881, neither of which dismiss it as a folly.

Amazing rock formation in the woods. Well worth a visit. The path to the south side of the stream is badly overgrown. Here are some notes on its formation: https://earthheritagetrust.org/southstone-post/

📌 Vale's Rock Vale's Rock, also known as Crow's Rock, later turned into a house on two levels. It is thought that the last tenant was Jack Leyland, who lived there until the early 1960

Geological overview Just south of Stourport a magnificent river cliff of fine grained red sandstone is seen. Although mainly homogenous in terms of geology, there are white streaks and thin bands of coarse material running throughout the section. The soft sandstone of Redstone Rock is easily carved and there is evidence of human-made habitation in the cliff face since Stone Age times. The caves that can be seen today were mostly made in the 12th century, when a hermitage was established there, conveniently located for the hermits to be on hand to offer blessings and prayers for passers-by in return for alms. It was said to house up to 500 men, who may have also manned the ferry crossing, which was there due to the presence of a ford until the river was dredged. The caves were later used as domestic dwellings and were inhabited almost continuously until the mid twentieth century. Source: Geopark.org

South of British camp on the Malvern Hills just below the west side of the ridge is a man made cave, Clutter’s Cave or Giant’s Cave. This has been excavated into pillow lavas. Almost 600 million years ago a volcano erupted under the sea. It was cooled by the cold sea water and a solid crust formed around globules of lava, which were piled up as more lava erupted. Though they have since been deformed by Earth movements some of the rounded ‘pillow’ shapes can still be seen around the entrance to the cave. Here there are also beautiful views over the Herefordshire countryside and from the ridge over the valley of the River Severn to the Cotswolds

What he said ^^^^^^^

Just south of Stourport-on-Severn, Redstone Caves are made from Triassic sandstone. Carved out in the 12th century and then home to a hermitage, it seems extraordinary today that once up to 500 men lived here. The Geopark Way, a long-distance footpath specialising in geological marvels in the area, runs unsurprisingly right past these caves.