At one point the sandstone caves of Kinver’s Edge were home to 44 people, and in the 1960s they were the last cave people of England. The network of troglodytes were first constructed in the 18th Century. Likely it was quarry workers who began digging homes in the 250-million-year-old sandstone escarpment in the 1600s (though the first official record of a home here was in 1777).
What began as temporary shelter after quarrying work evolved into more permanent homes complete with brick fireplaces and chimneys to keep out the damp. The easy-to-carve sandstone made it easy to add rooms when families grew. Outside the cavernous housing, allotment gardens allowed inhabitants to live here fairly self-sufficiently. In the 1950s, local officials, worried about lack of plumbing and sewage, convinced them to swap their caves for local council housing. In 1967, the last cave dweller moved out.
Kinver Edge Rock Houses
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