Named after Vortigern, the 5th century British King who is reputed to have given Thanet as a bridal gift to his future son-in-law Hengist (of Hengist and Horsa fame), the caves are said to have been found by a gardener digging in the garden of Northumberland House in or around 1798. Some versions of the story have the gardener falling into the caves in the process and dying of his injuries.
The owner of Northumberland House, Francis Horster, was an eccentric man, and the lure of owning his own Picturesque curiosity led him to create a new entrance with stairs. He then used the caves as a wine cellar and personal grotto, and had them decorated with large murals by a local artist named Brazier. Brazier’s paintings of wild animals, a pair of redcoats guarding a doorway, a hunting and other scenes are boldly executed and look younger than their age, possibly through a process of occasional touching up.
After Horster’s death the caves were neglected for several decades until a tenant in 1863 turned them into a tourist attraction under the name Vortigern’s Cavern, charging the princely sum of 3d for entrance.
Northumberland House later became the vicarage, and a new entrance and set of stairs from its cellar, the current means of access, was created in 1914 as a private access to the caves in the event of air raids. This was very prescient as Thanet would later become the most heavily bombed part of Britain in the First World War. The public were also allowed access for shelter purposes but used the Horster-era stairs. The caves reopened as an attraction after the war, and then once again became an air raid shelter for the Vicarage in the Second World War, until both Vicarage and the adjacent church were destroyed by bombing in June 1943.
In an almost dreary round of repetition, the post-war history of the caves runs from immediate post-war abandonment, a half century as a tourist attraction following its reopening in 1958, and then closure again in 2004 by the local authority, its new owners, this time for unspecified health and safety reasons.
Visited with @obscurity , @Wevsky , @space invader ,@urban ginger and Stealth
,
The owner of Northumberland House, Francis Horster, was an eccentric man, and the lure of owning his own Picturesque curiosity led him to create a new entrance with stairs. He then used the caves as a wine cellar and personal grotto, and had them decorated with large murals by a local artist named Brazier. Brazier’s paintings of wild animals, a pair of redcoats guarding a doorway, a hunting and other scenes are boldly executed and look younger than their age, possibly through a process of occasional touching up.
After Horster’s death the caves were neglected for several decades until a tenant in 1863 turned them into a tourist attraction under the name Vortigern’s Cavern, charging the princely sum of 3d for entrance.
Northumberland House later became the vicarage, and a new entrance and set of stairs from its cellar, the current means of access, was created in 1914 as a private access to the caves in the event of air raids. This was very prescient as Thanet would later become the most heavily bombed part of Britain in the First World War. The public were also allowed access for shelter purposes but used the Horster-era stairs. The caves reopened as an attraction after the war, and then once again became an air raid shelter for the Vicarage in the Second World War, until both Vicarage and the adjacent church were destroyed by bombing in June 1943.
In an almost dreary round of repetition, the post-war history of the caves runs from immediate post-war abandonment, a half century as a tourist attraction following its reopening in 1958, and then closure again in 2004 by the local authority, its new owners, this time for unspecified health and safety reasons.
Visited with @obscurity , @Wevsky , @space invader ,@urban ginger and Stealth
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