| Administrative History | In January 1858, when quarrying the rock on a slope of the hill above the fishing town of Brixham, near Torquay, a cave was discovered. The owner of the quarry determined that the cave system had many branches and that it contained bones. William Pengelly approached the owner, Mr Philp, and found that he was willing to give the rights of working his cavern for a cost.
Pengelly had previously excavated Kent's Cavern under the auspices of the Torquay Natural History Society in 1846 and his initial proposal was to have a similar arrangement. However the Torquay society was were unable to afford the cost of the lease, despite Miss Burdett Coutts offering Pengelly £50 to help with the exploration. Instead, after a letter from Hugh Falconer to the Geological Society (after visiting the site in April 1858), the Geological Society set up a committee, with £100 funding provided by the Royal Society. Hugh Falconer was its chair and William Pengelly was placed in charge of excavations.
According to the letter very few members of the Committee, save for Falconer, actually visited the Cave. The issues surrounding Pengelly's report [not included] was caused by the death of Hugh Falconer who died in January 1865. |
| Publication Note | Joseph Prestwich presented the official report before a meeting of the Royal Society which was published as: "Report on the exploration of Brixham Cave conducted by a committee of the Geological Society, and under the superintendence of Wm Pengelly, Esq, FRS, aided by a local Committee; with descriptions of the animal remains by George Busk, Esq, FRS, and of the Flint implements by John Evans, Esq, FRS", published in 'Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society', vol 163 (1873). Pengelly's report was published as: Pengelly, William, "The Cavern discovered in 1858 in Windmill Hill, Brixham, South Devon", 'Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art', (1874). |