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<< Text Pages >> Whitburn Lizards Cave - Cave or Rock Shelter in England in Tyne and Wear

Submitted by durhamnature on Sunday, 22 July 2012  Page Views: 6971

Natural PlacesSite Name: Whitburn Lizards Cave
Country: England
NOTE: This site is 5.066 km away from the location you searched for.

County: Tyne and Wear Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Nearest Town: South Shields  Nearest Village: Whitburn
Map Ref: NZ403644
Latitude: 54.972594N  Longitude: 1.371978W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
Destroyed Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
3

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hoya105 saw from a distance on 1st Jul 2010 there is a pub nearby 'The Marsden Grotto' which is formed from a series of caves, set into the cliff. A lift takes you down to it - or there are many steps for the fit. Also nearby is Lizard Lane and Lizard Lane campsite. Perhaps in time past fossilized remains of a reptile/sea creature was found in the cliffs/caves/quarry?

Old sea caves, discovered in 1878 by quarrymen. Some human remains, hearths, stone tools; many animal remains which included a long and interesting list of the local fauna. Many of these were from human food items, others were cave dwelling animals such as badger and fox, and others would have been animal prey items.

The caves were hastily and, by modern standards, unscientifically excavated. Many items had already been disturbed by the quarry workers. Some of the finds were taken to the Hancock Museum, now called the Great North Museum. The caves were probably, but not certainly, quarried away. The grid reference is given as NZ4063 in several accounts. The grid reference that I have given, NZ403644, is the best fit from contemporary descriptions of the site.

The following account is by R. Howse, local naturalist and curator of the Hancock. It is from Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumbria, Volume 7, which is out of copyright and is available as a scanned edition from Archive.org. I have edited the scanned version to correct scanning errors. The last paragraph is rather odd and certainly incorrect.

"Preliminary Note on the Discovery of Old Sea-caves and a Raised Sea-beach at Whitburn Lizards
In the spring of 1878, Mr. John Daglish kindly forwarded to the Museum of the Natural History Society a box of bones, discovered in an old Sea-cave by the workmen employed in quarrying limestone on the eastern escarpment of the Cleadon Hills, known on the Ordnance Map as the Whitburn Lizards; and he also granted, in the kindest manner possible, liberty to some of the members of this Society to excavate in the Cave, and examine any other part of the works now being carried on by the Whitburn Coal Company.

This was the first intimation we had of the existence of sea-worn caves on the escarp of the Cleadon Hills, and the occurrence of the remains of an extinct bird, the Great Auk, which, together with the bones of the Red Deer and Roe, formed part of the first instalment sent to the Museum, as well as numerous skulls of the Common Badger and Fox, made the discovery of the greatest interest. Systematic search was carried on constantly in the Caves, and amongst the materials first thrown out; and a very interesting list of Mammalia and Birds has been made out. Numerous others still await identification.

In the first Cave, only a few remains of man were secured, two lower jaws and some limb-bones, and these were found immediately at the entrance to the Cave. In a Cave adjoining, discovered during this year, the skulls of five persons were found and other portions of the human skeleton. These were all removed by the workmen before anyone could have an opportunity of examining the position in which they were arranged. No artificial implements of any kind have, so far as we know, been found, but through the cave-earth remains of charred wood or charcoal were frequent. The most numerous bones found are those of the Water-vole, which appears to have been the favourite food of the larger carnivora, Badger and Fox, as well as numerous bones of birds.

The Cave examined by us is situated about one hundred and forty feet above the present sea-level on the north-east escarp of the hill, and about fifteen feet from the top. It was entirely concealed by debris, which was overgrown by the regular herbage of the cliff, so that no outward signs of it were visible, and it was not till the workmen had removed a large quantity of loose rubble fallen from the cliff that the entrances of the caves were seen.
The general appearance presented by the first-discovered Cave much resembles caves cut by the sea in similar rock at its present level. The height of the principal entrance was rather more than six feet when the earth had been removed from the marly floor. It ran nearly west into the hill side, bifurcating at the far end into two branches. Near the entrance on the north side, another Cave branched off in a north-westerly direction from the main Cave, and a low outlet to this portion existed in the front.

This branch was on a slightly higher level than the main Cave, and behind the pillar separating the two in front the most numerous remains of the small carnivora, birds, and fish bones, were found.

The second Cave, in which most of the human remains were discovered, was not seen by us, unfortunately. It was separated by about five feet from the first Cave to the south, and at the time of our first visit was concealed from view by a mass of debris from the weathering of the rocks above. The Caves had been worked out by the sea from softer material than the surrounding beds, and the bottom of both Caves was of soft, marly, yellow limestone. There was no accumulation of water-worn pebbles in the bed of the Cave; but the thick deposit of cave-earth, rather more than two feet, rested upon the marly limestone. It was of a reddish appearance, and rather fatty to look at, but when dried readily left the specimen.

Some of the larger bones were scattered in a very irregular manner through the mass, but others were congregated and rather closely packed together. The larger bones had generally been broken and gnawed, and nearly all the bird bones, excepting the hollow limb bones, had been more or less fractured. Large masses of very small bones occurred together, which had been only partially digested, having formed the food of Badgers or Foxes. There was no appearance of stalagmite or stalactite, and only a very small deposit of calc-sinter was observed. Decomposed fragments of limestone which had fallen from the roof occurred here and there in the Cave-earth. The Cave-earth had an irregular surface, and was grooved more or less with water that had accumulated on and drained over its surface.
The following species of animals, some of which appear to have been more or less domestic, have been carefully identified by Mr. John Hancock: Horse, Cow, Sheep, Dog, Pig or Wild -Boar, Red-Deer, Roe, Badger, Fox, Yellow-breasted Marten, Weasel, Hedgehog, Mole, Water-Vole. Numerous bones of birds were also identified; among others the Kestrel or Merlin, Gannet, Great-Auk, Razor-Bill, etc. Shells of the Oyster, Periwinkle, Limpet, and several species of Snails were likewise distributed through the Cave-earth. The occurrence of the remains of the Great-Auk, determined by Mr. John Hancock, would of itself give great importance to the contents of this Cave, as this bird has only once been recorded as occurring on the Northumberland coast, and has not been observed for the last fifty years in any part of the British Islands, and its former existence in the North Atlantic is now matter of history on both sides of this ocean. The Yellow-breasted Marten is now restricted to the northern part of Scotland, and the Badger, formerly abundant in the Northern Counties of England, as the names derived from its haunts show, has now disappeared from our locality, and is only found in the more wooded and secluded parts of the South of England.

No great antiquity need be claimed for the contents of these Caves. That they must have been raised to their present level long before they were the habitation of the creatures whose remains have been concealed in them admits of little doubt; but the absence of any artificial instrument, and of the remains of those former denizens of England, the Hyaena and Cave-bear, found in the Yorkshire and Devonshire Caves, and its occupation by those still existing, or existing within the century in some part of the British islands, would seem to imply that a long period back is not required to explain all the appearances existing in these Caves."


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Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
NZ4064 : Limekilns, Marsden by Mick Garratt
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NZ4064 : Marsden station, South Shields, Marsden & Whitburn Colliery Railway, 1953 by Ben Brooksbank
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NZ4064 : Old lime kilns at Marsden by Robert Graham
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NZ4064 : Lime kilns, Marsden by Alexander P Kapp
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