Early Explorers

Father John MacEnery : 1825

Chaplain to the Cary family who lived at Torre Abbey manor, MacEnery found bones and flints and realised that what he had found was in contradiction to his religious beliefs.

Drawings of his findings were prepared for publication but he could not raise the funds to publish his muddled manuscripts. He needed to arrange his recordings but he found them such a jumbled mass of contradictions that he ended up convincing himself that man had not been in the caves more that 6,000 years ago.

William Pengelly : 1865 - 1880

The work carried out by Pengelly and his team between 1865 and 1880 laid the foundation stones for modern archaeological work. They meticulously recorded every object they found, its location and its level in the cave earth.

Pengelly was a prolific writer and would send the results of his findings from Kents Cavern around Britain and overseas. The hand axes, which have now been dated to 450,000 years old, were found during this work.

Arthur Ogilvy : 1925 and 1941

His greatest find was the jaw bone from homo sapiens, now dated at 31,000 years old and the oldest piece of bone from modern man found in Britain.

Continuing Research

Since 1970, specialist advisory committees have been involved in research material from Kents Cavern including members of the Natural History Museum and British Museum in London, members of the Torquay Natural History Society and curators at Torquay Museum.

Future Secrets

Kents Cavern has still many secrets to reveal about the History of Ancient Britons. Unlike many other important sites in Britain, Kents Cavern has a history of uninterrupted occupation starting 700,000 years ago right through to today. There are very few sites in the world that fit into the same category.

A Family Business for Five Generations

Kents Cavern has been under the custodianship of, and operated by, the same family for five generations. George Smerdon was appointed custodian of the caves following the 1865-1880 excavation. He rented the site, neighbouring woodlands and quarry from Lord Haldon, (Sir Lawrence Palk). In 1903 the Haldon estate was sold and George Smerdon persuaded his son-in-law Francis Powe to acquire the site.

Francis Powe was a carpenter/joiner and used the caves to made beach huts for nearby beaches at Anstey's Cove and Meadfoot. His son Leslie Powe (1903-2001) spent his working life creating the attraction seen today, laying concrete paths, installing electric lighting and building visitor facilities for the increasing number of visitors to the seaside resort of Torquay as well as encouraging the work of Ogilvy to uncover more of the Kents Cavern story.

In 1987, Leslie's son John Powe (1932-2000) took over the business and updated the visitor facilities by installing an exhibition area and digital sound and light display inside the caves. He commisioned the Kents Cavern Advisory Committee to further research the mysteries of the caves, which accurately dated the 31,000 year old jaw bone from the Ogilvy collection. John's eldest son Nick Powe took over running the business in 2000.

Regulatory & Statutory Bodies

The importance of Kents Cavern in the history of ancient Britons was recognised in 1957 when Kents Cavern became a Scheduled Ancient Monument giving the site a statutory scheduling by English Heritage. In fact Kents Cavern is the oldest scheduled ancient monument in Britain giving it record holder status in the Guinness book of records.

The hillside, woodlands and the internal landscape of the caves are designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, SSSI under the statutory regulations of English Nature.