The Curious Mystery of the Magnificent Margate Shell Grotto
Read Time:2 Minute, 21 Second
Our universe is full of mysteries, not the least of which are the curious appearances of the black-eyed children, the red arcs on Jupiter’s icy moon, and now the discovery of an ancient cave whose walls are decorated with beautiful polished shells.
From Wackulus:
In 1835, a laborer was digging in a field just outside the English seaside town of Margate. Suddenly, he hit an empty space in the ground and his shovel was pulled into the earth. After poking around the hole and discussing the situation with nearby townspeople, James Newlove, the master of the nearby Dane House School, volunteered his son Joshua to be lowered into the hole. They tied him to a rope, handed him a flickering candle, and lowered him into the void.
Joshua returned a short while later wide-eyed and astonished, shouting a tale of a magical and winding temple that had walls covered in beautiful polished shells. The townspeople, unsurprisingly, were a bit dubious at first. But they widened the hole and sent a few adults within. They found that Joshua wasn’t lying.
They discovered a winding subterranean grotto, complete with an altar chamber and rotunda. All said, it was 2000 square feet, and the walls were covered in mosaics, created from mussel, cockle, whelk and oyster shells. All told, 4.6 million shells adorned the walls.
Newlove senior, a local schoolmaster and aspiring businessman, realized the financial benefits that such a discovery might reap. He hurriedly purchased the land above the mysterious chamber and began to adapt it for visitors. In 1837, just two years after its discovery, the grotto opened to a curious public. But to this day, no one knows who built the grotto, or just as interestingly, why they built it.
Shell grottoes of this type were extremely popular in the Europe of the 1700s. Many speculate that this was built in that model after a local was witness to some on a visit to the mainland. Yet, this grotto stood alone in a field. It was not part of a large estate or even close to a house. Which, if you built such a place to share with guests, surely it would be located close enough to easily get them there.
And, more obviously, had the grotto been built in the 1700s then certainly there would have been some documentation or legend of its existence just a few decades later in 1835. After all, in order to get millions of shells in to this underground passage many local people would have to have been involved in their transport. Yet, the discovery was a complete surprise to everyone.
Read more and see more pictures at Wackulus.com.
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This is really queer. Who built that?