~Tales from The Beachy Head Story~
Posted by: Annalie
Parson Darby – Blog One
Looking into the validity of Parson Darby’s Hole and all the legends that surround it gives us an interesting view of the landscape. We’re uncovering not just one ghost-of-a-cave, but many ghostly caves. One of the newspaper articles that has us intrigued was printed all around the country in March 1822.
“At a general meeting of the Subscribers to Lloyd’s, held on Wednesday, a sum was voted for the purpose of cutting caves and steps in the cliffs in the vicinity of Beachy-Head, for affording protection to the crews and passengers of vessels which may be unfortunately wrecked on that dangerous coast, until they can be relieved from their distressed situation…“
Sun (London), 22nd March 1822
This gives us a date, around a hundred years after Parson Darby’s death, for the cutting of new caves in the cliffs around Beachy Head, which raises a lot of questions.
Who were Lloyd’s and why did they agree to pay for cliff caves?
Lloyd’s of London are a prosperous shipping insurance firm who were first established in a London Coffee House in 1652. By 1734, they were publishing reliable daily shipping news listing departures, arrivals and ship’s cargoes, the location of other fleets and even the haunts of known pirates. As the eighteenth century developed, they began recording shipping losses, keeping a watch on the shipping lanes from prominent landscapes like Beachy Head. Hundreds of records are kept at Lloyd’s archives in London of all the wrecks they witnessed from the headland.
As well as having a purpose built watchtower and Signalman’s Cottage on Beachy Head, Lloyd’s were investing in the cliffs themselves, which confirms that they were singularly worried about the dangerous shores and the effects of the seascape on the mariners who navigated these waters.
So shipping problems in the channel around Beachy Head caused new caves of refuge to be funded in 1822. Does this mean then, that there was no other sanctuary in the cliffs themselves in 1822? Was there no Parson Darby’s cave? For a while the total debunk seemed possible, but a little more research has given us some further clues.
Were the ‘funded’ caves ever built, if so, how many were there and where were they?
The cliff caves of 1822 seem to have been more than just legend. We have an article from the British Neptune in June of the same year which confirms that:
“…six caverns, with entrances three feet wide, and flights of steps 20 feet in height, terminating in an apartment eight feet square, have been cut in the cliffs between Cuckmere and Beachy Head…”
British Neptune, 23rd June 1822
Just three months after the funds were approved, the new Lloyd’s-funded caves had been cut! Now we can imagine the white chalk face from the Beachy Head lighthouse to the Cuckmere river valley containing six freshly cut caves in 1822.
Is that it then? Were these the only cliff caves in the cliff face? Was ‘Parson Darby’s cave only ever a figment of folklore? Well no, not exactly. The British Neptune article goes on to say:
“…and a place called Derby’s Cave repaired…”
So the legend that was ‘Derby’s Cave’ had been in a state of disrepair a century after the Parson’s lifetime. We now need to picture seven caves along the six miles of chalk cliffs, cut into the soft rock around Birling Gap and the Seven Sisters. Seven caves of refuge. Seven chances for life in the storms and gales of this treacherous coast.
Do two newspaper articles provide absolute proof of Parson Darby and his chalky cave? No, but the scent is thick here, we are sniffing out legend from fact and coming up with a whole new impression of Beachy Head and its forgotten landscape. In trying to uncover facts about the Parson and his cave, we are virtually reconstructing centuries of the lost features of the Eastbourne Downs.
Wiser people might have put down their pens and investigating hats by now, having unearthed a new (old) landscape, but not us. There is still the question of the Parson, and whether he actually dug out a cave, and how many shipwrecks occured here in his lifetime, and what the caves were used for and…
How many caves were once housed in this stretch of chalk cliff?
(Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC BY-SA 3.0)
Heritage Eastbourne 