The Hell-Fire Caves…
Way back in the 1750′s someone called Sir Francis Dashwood (who later became known as Lord le Despencer) arranged for the Hell-Fire Caves to be created. It is alleged that they were dug by the local unemployed farm workers who had no work due to crop failures but it is more likely than not that they were actually dug out by some passing labourers on their way back to Cornwall…
What’s A Hell-Fire?
This is the name of a notorious club, The Hell-Fire Club. There were actually dozens of these types of clubs around the country and their members were normally quite important/famous. The clubs themselves didn’t actually refer to them as Hell-Fire clubs, for example the Hell-Fire Club in West Wycombe was more commonly referred to as The Order of Knights of West Wycombe.
Other thatn Sir Francis Dashwood (who was the founder of this particular club) another famous (or should I say, world famous) member of the club was none other than Lord Sandwich.
One of the things the Hell-Fire Club did was to play cards and it is still said today that it was during a said game of cards that Lord Sandwich told his servants to put some meat between two slices of bread thus inventing what we now call, a Sandwich!
What Did They Do?
Playing cards was one of the more civil things they got up to. Amongst other things, Satanism, freemasonry, consumption of vast amounts of alcohol, sexual rites and orgies!!!
Now you know what sorts of things they got up to, you can see why they wanted to hide away deep underground in what we now refer to as the Hell-Fire Caves!
The Caves…
On entering the caves you have the option to purchase a glow-stick. If you have any young children with you then I would strongly advise that you get them one as it is very dark down in the caves…
As you can see from the map above, there are quite a few points of interest for you to take a look around on your way through the caves.
These next two image show you what it looks like in the caves.
The flash from my camera has lit up the corridors quite well, but if you look towards the end of the photo on the left you can see really what it looks like down there!
As you wander through the caves you will come across various displays of people dressed in the period costumes of the day when the caves were originally used as you can see from the photo below…
Ghosts!
As you can kind of expect the Hell-Fires caves are said to be haunted by several Ghosts! There is one particular story I like the most and that is of the clubs steward, Sir Paul Whitehead. In his last will and testament it was requested that an urn of his ashes be placed in a corner of the Mausoleum that is directly above the caves. He also requested that his heart was to be placed inside. In 1829 a visiting Australian soldier stole his heart and it is said that the ghost of Sir Paul Whitehead haunts the caves waiting for his stolen heart to be returned…
Underground River
The River Styx flows through the caves and from what I gather, originally you would of needed a boat to get any further in the caves, but in more recent times a bridge has been constructed to save you getting wet!
As the caves are completely man-made they have even gone to the extent of construction some man-made stalactites!
Mausoleum
The Dashwoods Mausoleum is directly above the Hell-Fire Caves and is hexagonal in shape. It is the final resting place of the Dashwood family including Sir Francis Dashwood, the founding member of theThe Order of Knights of West Wycombe (aka, the West Wycombe Hell-Fire Club).
Map Of The Hell-Fire Caves
To View The Photo Gallery Please Visit:
http://www.ketrin.co.uk/daytrips/Buckinghamshire/Pages/Hell_Fire_Caves.html
