Adventure Group visit Beer Quarry Caves
Our small group of eight members met at the entrance to the caves to start our tour at 2:30pm. Our Guide, Mike, gave us a brief overview of the history of the caves and what we were about to see. We were also given our hard hats to protect us from low ceilings!
At the beginning of our tour, we were given a short history of the life of the caves in a small museum near the entrance to the caves. In the museum was a large limestone window which had been carved at the quarry in 1492 and taken to St Andrews church in Colyton. The window was removed by the Victorians in 1900 when they renovated the church. It was knocked out and left in the churchyard. It was found in 1984 and brought back to Beer Caves for restoration.
Mike went into the history of the caves which is a 2,000-year-old man-made limestone underground complex located about a mile west of the Village of Beer, and the main source in England for Beer Stone. This was in the period of the Romans up to the Victorian era.
Our Guide, Mike, was very knowledgeable and bought to life the experiences of what it was like to work underground with very little fresh air and light. Quarry men worked long hours by candlelight with hand tools such as picks and saws. The quarrymen were also often supported by child labour. Skilled stonemasons would then work on the stone in the quarries because it became harder to carve when exposed to the air. The stone blocks would then be lifted by hand-operated cranes and loaded onto horse-drawn wagons and taken to barges which would sail from Beer Beach.
The stone can be seen in many Cathedrals, especially Exeter, including Winchester and St Paul’s Cathedrals, Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London.
After the Reformation, one of the uses of the quarries was as a place of refuge and of worship for Catholics facing persecution. in the 19th century, the quarries were also used to store smuggled contraband and WW1 ammunitions. Beer Quarry Caves can now be hired out for music festivals and wedding and vow renewals.
Unfortunately we were too early to see the bats which have a home near where we exited.
Carolyn Hartley
Photos: Bob Clark and June Cassidy