Kinver, Staffordshire

At the rock housesWhen I first went to school we were taught that the very first human homes were in caves and that these were clearly damp, dark, unpleasant places to live, soon superseded by tents, wooden huts, and other such shelters. Today, we have a great deal more knowledge of early human habitations around the world, from houses built on frames of mammoth bones to bark-walled dwellings. But along with this knowledge goes an awareness that we are in fact ignorant of the lives of many people thousands of years ago…and of more recent communities.What’s perhaps surprising is that in some places people were living in caves – or at least houses made by modifying caves – well into the 20th century. One of the most remarkable places where this happened was on the sandstone ridge known as Kinver Edge in Staffordshire. People hacked out large volumes of rock to make shelters and then deeper caves and built permanent brick or stone walls in front, to keep out the elements. The National…