"There are mussels, whelks, oysters, cockles, limpits, razor shells"
June 8, 2015 8:40 PM   Subscribe

The Mystery of the Margate Shell Grotto

A Paper from the Kent Archaeological Society by R.F. LeGear
posted by the man of twists and turns (10 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
Immediately my wonder engages! I definitely will go there some day. Thanks for this.
posted by Oyéah at 8:53 PM on June 8, 2015


Fascinating, thanks!
posted by cosmologinaut at 11:04 PM on June 8, 2015


My experience has been that when weird artifacts are discovered and the creator is sought, the answer is almost always "the person who purportedly found it" or "the person who owns the land on which it was found". In this case the purported discoverer was Newlove Jr, and the owner of the attraction was Newlove Sr. According to Wikipedia, the earliest reference to it is a leaflet dating from 1838, three years after it was reportedly discovered, announcing its opening as a public attraction. So, basically everything we know about the grotto seems to come from Newlove Sr himself.

The aesthetics seem modern, and it's quite well-preserved. It's hard to believe that a design with no apparent religious symbolism would have been made by "the Templars", and in any event: why would they? There aren't any reports of associated artefacts, even the sort that you would leave lying around when you abandon a room. I'd tend to go with LeGear's suggestion that it's a re-purposed chalk mine, and further suggest that it may have been extended by pupils of the Dane Hill House school nearby. No idea who did the shells, but it must have been a nice earner for an impecunious schoolmaster.
posted by Joe in Australia at 11:20 PM on June 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


That archeology paper is fun - I'd never heard of deneholes.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:42 PM on June 8, 2015


Here's the problem though. In order to see the thing you would need to go to Margate, and Margate is an unending pit of despair and horror, so....
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 2:10 AM on June 9, 2015 [2 favorites]


I first thought this was in Margate NJ (home of Lucy the Elephant) but on going further see it is in the UK. Very interesting and decorative.
posted by mermayd at 4:31 AM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


On the one hand, I can easily agree with Joe in Australia --- not only are the "discoverers" of these sites frequently also the builders, this is also exactly the kind of thing that would appeal to that era's educated folks to create (see also various fake 'missing links', like Piltdown Man). On the other hand, that's a lot of work with a buttload of shells --- it wasn't built quickly, and surely somebody would have noticed the schoolmaster repeatedly carting off loads of shells, not to mention acquiring more shovels and mortar than he'd ever need for gardening plus finding a place to dump the excavated dirt out of sight.

This article seems to suggest only a rich and/or educated person could have done this; personally, I lean towards it having been a lifelong labor of love from somebody farther down the economic ladder --- why not a smuggler? Sure, it's not very close to the sea, but that might make it a perfect stashing place, well out of the usual taxman's routes: picture one or more smugglers left on guard, bored out of their minds, and whiling away the time glueing shells in pretty patterns. Or perhaps the local neighborhood oddball, like those people who build things like the Watts Towers or houses made out of beer cans or whathaveyou. Start with a natural cave system and keep going a little bit every year, and eventually you've got this.
posted by easily confused at 4:52 AM on June 9, 2015


Regardless of who did it, that is a huge amount of work.

I first thought this was in Margate NJ (home of Lucy the Elephant) but on going further see it is in the UK.

In following the link about deneholes and chalk mining above, it appears that marl mining for agriculture was a huge thing in New Jersey as well; perhaps the naming overlaps reflect geological similarities?
posted by Dip Flash at 4:58 AM on June 9, 2015


easily confused:

Or perhaps the local neighborhood oddball, like those people who build things like the Watts Towers or houses made out of beer cans or whathaveyou.

My first thought when seeing the shell grotto pictures was Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village.
posted by univac at 5:16 AM on June 9, 2015


Should you be near Margate, there is a silent auction happening right now to raise money to save some of the town's notable architecture. Among the lots is a year's membership of the Grotto (giving free entry) and £25 of gift vouchers.
posted by Hogshead at 8:30 AM on June 9, 2015


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