Derbyshire Bone Caves 8: Thor's Fissure Cave

Thor’s Fissure Cave lies below and right of Thor’s Cave west window in an almost inaccessible position. It was discovered by G. H. Wilson in 1927, and excavated by him between 1929 and 1935 with the help of the ‘Brotherhood of the pick and shovel’.

Thor’s Fissure Cave from within. Photograph: the author.

Thor’s Fissure cave seen to the right of Thor’s Cave (arrowed in green). Photographed by the author.

Wilson (1937) describes his discovery of the cave thus: “In the summer of 1927 two of us spent a day re-exploring the slopes and cliffs south of Thor’s with a cragsmen’s equipment and enjoyed some really interesting minor problems in rock work. Notes made at the time mention the cave now excavated as a site of promise, and following up this hint my son G. E. Wilson, joined me in test digging in the spring of 1927 which suggested further work.”

He goes on to describe the cave thus: “Along the whole length of 60 feet or so, from the mouth to the very furthest narrow limit the floor was strewn with large and small boulders.. It was very evident that the excavation of such a cave would be no light task..”

On excavation and recording of finds Wilson records: “During Easter week of 1929, while some preliminary work went forward, Lieutenant Todd R.N. and G. E. Wilson, B.Sc., prepared an exact chart of the passage to be excavated marking this out in sections of 5 feet which were sub-divided into A. B. and C. The width of the fissure at floor level varies from 2 ½ to 5 ½ feet.

The entrance to Thor’s Fissure Cave, almost hidden by a deluge of spring foliage. Photograph, the author.

The importance of recording the exact position in which an object is found is evident, and this was secured for all items of note by giving the depth at which a piece was found, with the figures and letter indicating the section.”

Wilson describes the initial and subsequent excavations, in some detail. For example: “In some parts of the floor the rocky debris was soon removed as it simple lay loose on the surface. This was the case in section 6 and 7 where we decided to commence work. Here the stratification was regular, and apart from a few easily removed blocks of smaller size, and a layer of particularly difficult clay, the work followed the normal course. A stalagmite crust varying from 2 to 5 inches in thickness appeared across the floor of section 6 at a depth of 40 inches. This hard cement demanded an electric drill but ultimately yielded to a chisel and 20 lb. hammer. From these two sections representing 10 feet in length of the passage, at 25 to 35 feet from the cave mouth, came the more significant of our finds.”

Beginning to make my way inwards. 

Wilson’s sections 6 and 7 – the most deeply excavated.

On the recording of the finds Wilson seems to have been quite meticulous for his time, compared to some excavators. He explains the procedure during the initial digging at Whit week 1929 quite clearly: “The material was sorted further back in the cave as we did not wish to attract attention at this stage by a dump outside. Two men worked in the trench filling buckets which were passed along to the sorters. Any item of interest was reported by the diggers or sorters and a note as to position in which it was found. By the end of these three days we had assembled a collection of very interesting items including human jaws, flints, celts and bone implements. The animal remains included jaws, limbs, and vertebrae of bear; antler and other parts of giant deer; wild dog and wolf, ox, polecat and much besides.”

The work was carried out by an invited group christened the ‘Brotherhood of the Pick and Shovel’. Whilst some trustworthy, local men were included, many were learned men and well-known names of the time. These included J. L. Waterhouse; Dr R. Williamson; Geoff and Frank Hall; G. E. Wilson (his son); H. J. Irwin; W. M. Rogers; R Brocklebank; J. Cringhall; Harry Wright; L. Ramsbottom; A. J. Brain; Rev. D. G. Matthews; J. R. Duncan and a young, Don Bramwell.

On the termination of the excavation Wilson says: “Work in the Fissure cave carried on at intervals through several years, ceased for the present at Whit week 1933, but sections 5 to 7 will be taken lower when opportunity offers. Here we have struck into a fine laminated clay. Further examination during the summer of 1934 will decide the matter.”

Back of the cave showing steep bank of remaining deposits.

Bramwell’s summary (1950) provides clarity:

“Thor’s Fissure Cave, as its name implies, proved a narrow and difficult cave to excavate the sections being complicated by a succession of huge slabs and boulders which were sometimes wedged across the cave. The cave would not appear to be a desirable living site, and yet it yielded a series of occupation levels from late Palaeolithic to Romano-British times. The excavation was carried out by the Peakland Archaeological Society during 1933 and 1934, under the direction of Rev. G. Wilson, who gives a typical section as follows:  the lowest deposit was at least 4 feet of barren laminated clay, this was covered by a limey deposit of loose breccia containing the bones of late Pleistocene animals viz. a giant form of red deer, bear, reindeer and horse. Also in this stratum was a group of four patinated flint blades which are described as being of developed Aurignacian affinity. Two of the blades are of the shouldered and gravette type points respectively and can be matched by specimens from the middle zone of Mother Grundy’s Parlour at Cresswell.”

Flint tools from the lowest level of occupation. These are those that Bramwell assigns as Aurignacian and shouldered and gravette types. Photo credit: Wonders of the Peak (2021a). The same website estimates them to be between 12,000 and 15,000 years old. However, the reindeer antler retrieved from the same strata, in 1950 has been radiocarbon dated to ca. 20,000 years old.

Bramwell goes on: “A bed of hard stalagmite then intervenes across the cave floor: it was in turn covered by stiff clay containing stream wash. This in turn gave way to red cave earth, laminated with hearths of Bronze Age date. ln this horizon occurred  beaker pottery, some amber beads, worked flints, and a small polished celt with flat sides.

This may be Neolithic but could, also be a survival of Neolithic culture into Bronze Age times. Also in this. horizon occurred those curious pieces of dolphin bone; sternum, scapula and r vertebra, thought to have been connected, with certain magical practices. Such bones are not unknown, from inland caves, but are rare. The next strata consisted of variations of the usual top-soil and contained an assemblage of early Iron Age and Romano-British artifacts, mainly in the form of pottery. There was, however a spindle whorl of bone, a bone awl and a bone toggle, all of which have been recorded from similar cave dwellings in other parts of the Peak District. Some hones or whetstones and some thin bronze sheeting also belong to the Iron Age and Romano-British deposits, Besides dolphin bones there were some interesting remains representative of.post-Pleistocene fauna, including wolf, polecat, dog, wildcat, bear, red deer, ox, pig, sheep and goat.”

Dolphin bones from Thor’s Fissure Cave. Top: scapula and sternum. Bottom: vertebra. Why these bones were transported so far from the coast is a mystery, but it seems certain that the bones had some ritual significance for the people of the late Neolithic or Bronze Age. All from Wonders of the Peak (2021b).

Next Bramwell summarises the human bones found and the manner of their burial: “The human remains were all recovered from rough, shallow inhumations which showed little regard for the dead, several skeletons being placed in the same hole or group. One group had a rough protection of limestone slabs. The expert examination of the bones at the Institute of Anatomy, Univ. Coll. of London revealed that these cave dwellers did not exceed 5ft, 6in. in height or 30 years in age. They had sound but heavily worn teeth and suffered in the case of one individual from a series of setbacks (shown in their limb bone development) due to disease or lack of nourishment.”

Radiogram from one of the deceased. The tibia shows lines due to arrested growth. This woeful individual seems to have experienced periodic bouts of starvation. Photo credit: Wilson (1937).

Lastly Bramwell looks at the cave’s stratigraphy and palaeoclimate: “With regard to the interpretation of the strata which composed the floor of' the cave, we find no easy parallel in either Thor’s or Old Hannah’s. These latter caves had red clay above and sandy material underneath, whereas in this cave we have several types of cave earth covering a deep bed of clay. The useful series of animal bones recovered by the excavators do, however, give a clear picture of the climatic succession. The lowest laminated clay vas undoubtedly laid down in still pools witch, represents a long wet period in the cave’s history. Then followed a drier period indicated by the breccia and the Tundra and Steppe forms such as giant red deer, horse, reindeer and bears. Above was the bed of stalagmite which could indicate damp conditions again with abundant drip but might equally be due to some slight alteration in the drainage of the cave. We then have a suggestion of stream conditions, followed by a typical Bronze Age assemblage with wolf, red deer, and bear, this being replaced by the characteristic pastoral fauna of the Iron Ago with goat, sheep and ox. The dog, occurring in the Bronze Age horizon bears out similar discoveries in other local Bronze Age deposits. The later history of the cave thus seems to indicate a prolonged drier condition making possible an almost uninterrupted occupation till the beginning of the Dark Ages.”

Giant deer antler mentioned in the text. Is this in fact part of a Megaloceros giganteus antler? Photo credit: Wonders of the Peak (2021c)

The age of the deposits containing the reindeer was confirmed by Burleigh et. al. (1983), they give a date and some notes "20,100 ± 1900 BM-1807 on the calcaneum of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) from Buxton Museum collection, labelled as from Thor's Fissure, Manifold Valley, Staffordshire, England (53° 5' N, 1° 55' W, Natl Grid Ref SK 090540). Collected in 1950 by D Bramwell, Peakland Archaeological Society and submitted in 1980 by him, and R Jacobi, Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Lancaster. Jacobi commented “result suggests presence of reindeer in south Peak District at time of max spread of Devensian ice-sheet.”

The date of collection fits with the time Bramwell was preparing his paper, Cave Dwellers and Dens of Late Pleistocene Animals in the Manifold Valley. Bramwell, presumably must have visited Thor’s Fissure Cave as well as the other caves examined in that paper. He collected the reindeer antler above submitted to the British Museum for radiocarbon dating at that time.

This brings us to a further inconsistency in the history of collections from the cave. The Heritage Gateway website (2012) gives a list of fauna excavated from the cave, explicitly referencing Wilson (1937) as their source. Their list is as follows: “human, dolphin, bear, reindeer, dog, wolf, small ox, ox, sheep, goats, polecat, brown bear, birds, water vole, bank vole, field vole, field mouse, fox, pig, frog, hare, and cat.”

Whereas Wilson (1937) clearly states: “At least 15 species were collected..” and goes on to give an account: Bear either brown bear or cave bear; red deer, reindeer, ox, some of small size possibly from Bos longifrons; goat; sheep; pig; fox; wolf or dog; horse possibly the ancient species Equus caballus; polecat and dolphin. 

He does not mention birds or rodents nor hare or cat. There are two possibilities here, either a later re-examination of his collection found these species, or they were excavated by Bramwell in 1950. The first seems unlikely as Wilson 1937 states of his bone collection “As no other record of this cave will be published we hope to include sufficient exact detail to make it of some scientific value..”

Therefore I can only conclude that Bramwell excavated the additional species in 1950.

Of Wilson’s (1937) comment that “Work in the Fissure cave carried on at intervals through several years, ceased for the present at Whit week 1933, but sections 5 to 7 will be taken lower when opportunity offers. Here we have struck into a fine laminated clay. Further examination during the summer of 1934 will decide the matter.”, I can find no record. We know he excavated in 1934 and 1935, but what the results were of the further excavation in the fine laminated clay he left no record. It is possible that the additional species were unearthed then. We will never know for certain.

A last thought: it is almost certain that neither Wilson nor Bramwell excavated the cave to bedrock throughout its length. My own visit in 2020 confirmed this, there being abundant deep, deposits remaining. It is thus a tantalizing prospect to imagine what lies beneath the rest of the finely laminated clay, as it was in just such a situation in the adjacent Thor’s Cave that a horn possibly 25,000 years old, and worked by human hands was found (see here).

A word of warning. The approach is extremely steep. Only sure-footed and experienced ‘cragsmen’ as Wilson would put it, should attempt the path down from Seven Ways Cave. Personally, I chose to zig-zag down the steep slopes about 15m left of the path when looking down. This has the double advantage of lush vegetation to hang onto and exquisite, sights of the rare plants Nottingham Catchfly and Jacob’s Ladder.

Flowers of the Manifold. Top: Jacob’s Ladder. Bottom: Nottingham Catchfly seen on the descent to Thor’s Fissure Cave. Both photos, the author. 

References:

Bramwell D. (1950). Cave Dwellers and Dens of Late Pleistocene Animals in the Manifold Valley, Staffordshire. Transactions of the Cave Research Group of Great Britain, 1950, Vol 1, Issue 4, p. 43-52

Burleigh, R., Ambers, J. & Matthews, K. (1983) British Museum natural radiocarbon measurements XVI. Radiocarbon 25 (1): 39-58. 

Wilson, G. H. (1937) Cave Hunting Holidays in Peakland, Chesterfield.

Wonders of the Peak (2021a) at: https://www.wondersofthepeak.org.uk/objectrecord/?id=10151 accessed 07.06.2021

Wonders of the Peak (2021b) at: https://www.wondersofthepeak.org.uk/objects/1-81/ accessed 07.06.2021

Wonders of the Peak (2021c) at: https://www.wondersofthepeak.org.uk/objectrecord/?id=10192 accessed 07.06.2021