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This is probably the highlight of a visit to an otherwise unremarkable English seaside town. The chambers are very old (even by English standards) and so unlike
by chris_armstrong 11mo ago
This is probably the highlight of a visit to an otherwise unremarkable English seaside town. The chambers are very old (even by English standards) and so unlike anything else medieval that is still around.
- madaxe_again 11mo ago18th century is not “very old, even by English standards”, it’s practically modern - these are almost certainly Georgian follies.
- chris_armstrong 11mo agoIt was discovered in the 1800s, the shell grotto is much much older and probably built over a very long period of time
- noir_lord 11mo agoDoesn't seem like it tbh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_Grotto,_Margate#Origins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_Grotto,_Margate#Origins > A member of the Kent Archaeological Society analyzed the grotto and concluded in 2006 that it was likely a mediaeval denehole, a small chalk mine, reworked and decorated in the 17th or 18th century. There are multiple buildings in my village older than that (and the core of the church is centuries older).
- chris_armstrong 11mo agoI stand corrected - there’s so little known about it that it’s probably some strange labor of love from recent centuries
- _benedict 11mo agoI remember there being sufficient documentary evidence in the entrance/shop/museum bit to conclude it was most likely created by the very people who “discovered” it, to serve as a tourist attraction.