The Enterprising Vicar

Canon Michael Pryor is appointed to Holy Trinity and pays considerable attention to the Caves. He sets about cleaning up and revitalising them as a tourist attraction, instituting many ‘improvements’, such as building convenient stairways and cutting a new entrance from the vicarage cellar. He is also responsible for the first photographs of the Caves, produced in 1908.

This letter appears in Keble’s Gazette in 1902:

“…there is a large cave or series of caves running under the garden of the Holy Trinity Vicarage [by now Northumberland House had been divided into two houses – one the vicarage the other a school, original carriage drive served both houses]. The caves are entered from a cottage at the rear of the Trinity Schools and although now closed to visitors, permission can be obtained from the owners of the adjacent stables to explore them.”