How Devon’s natural history sites can change our past, present, and future

History, undeniably, defines our relationship with the world: shaping our past, present and future. So, what if there was a historical place that could give us a mammoth amount of information about all this, right beneath our feet?

Picture the scene: 400 million years ago [i], and the Earth is a dramatically different place to where we find ourselves today. 170 million years before the dinosaurs [ii] – and the national treasure Sir David Attenborough was enjoying his early childhood. In a humble county now known as Devon, a cave is formed. But Kitley Caves in Devon is so much more than this. Over those 400 million years it has become a library of information that can inspire us and enable us to create change.

The finds here are incredible. To look back and be able to observe herds of woolly mammoths, and a complex ecosystem that has been home to rhinos, horses, bison, hyena, and bear [iii] is remarkable. But the impact that these finds have had in terms of scientific understanding has altered our society today.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the term ‘natural history’ as ‘the natural development of something (such as an organism or disease) over a period of time’ [iv]. But what is really undervalued about these finds is how much they can teach us about the ‘natural development’ of human society.

We can see this in 1834, when Dr John Bellamy begins to publish notes on fossils collected from the caves [v]. What remains of the collection now is only a fraction of what was once present on the site [vi]. However, with just the few finds we have available, we can have the same fascination he once felt, in an age of discovery.

The caves continued to be excavated. Handwritten notes suggest that sub-fossil teeth and bones were sent to William Buckland and his wife Mary [vii], who was responsible for her own ground-breaking research. While William Buckland is generally credited with much of their work finding and labelling fossils, Mary was in fact responsible for labelling finds at the Oxford Museum [viii] and perhaps some finds at Kitley [ix]. She also did work on marine zoophytes [x], and was a huge part of this revolutionary time. She too was remarkable despite the challenges she faced as a woman and the lack of recognition her work gets.

The discoveries at Kitley were examined and named around the year 1835 [xi]. At this time, William Buckland is credited with revolutionary developments in natural history, and was part of a revolutionary time in which archaeological evidence was able to prove theories of evolution [xii]. Discoveries at sites like this mark a complete shift in attitudes to nature that is comparable to the present day and must be recognised as such.

Kitley was at the heart of a revolutionary time. William Smith became the founder of biostratigraphy [xiii]. Darwin and Wallace published their theory of evolution [xiv], and William Buckland became Oxford’s first reader in geology [xv], just some of the incredible developments. And Kitley was shaping minds in this revolutionary time like our own. Why do I say that? Because Kitley became part of a ‘natural development’ in our understanding of the natural world, and it can do the same today.

Not only can finds like these inspire us, but they can give us invaluable information about how to restore our ecosystems so that they can be sustainable. To paraphrase Pete Burgess (Head of Nature Recovery at the Devon Wildlife Trust), it is the archaeology in the area that can tell us how wild boar would have brought in seed, and what that area would have looked like, or perhaps details like how animals browsed scrub. This provides insight into how we can replicate ecosystems within urban spaces, rewilding a city and reviving our relationship with nature [xvi].

Language has always told us about how a society interacts with the world. So just as ‘paleontology’ marked a new era of understanding as it described a new means of understanding our world in the early 19th century [xvii], a new relationship was evident when ‘rewilding’ emerged in the 1990s [xviii].

Aside from Kitley, there are other remarkable finds in Devon. Take, for example, Cattedown Man’ discovered in 1886 and believed to be Plymouth’s oldest inhabitant [xix], or the oldest human bone found in Britain, a human jawbone, found in Kents Cavern in 1927 [xx]. But what really excites me about the natural history sites in Devon is that they put us on a timeline, at a time in the present where our understanding of our relationship with the natural world is changing forever.

The extent of the history available at Kitley is incredible. But its real world uses in the past and the present for understanding and shaping our relationship with the natural world are what is truly fantastic. And this new understanding isn’t just happening in Devon. Take, for example, Carrifran Wildwood in Scotland, aiming to restore the woodland landscape of 6000 years ago as part of a community led rewilding project which has inspired a community as well as drastically increasing biodiversity in the area [xxi].

We are a generation of young people who see our natural world in peril. But to give us the history of a site like Kitley is to inspire us with the future of our relationship with nature. By examining the history of the natural world like this, we can be the ones to make its history tomorrow.

Besides the enthrallment that the natural world can bring, I hope that just as humans forged a new relationship with nature before, we can learn this: that just like studying a castle, battlefield or dungeon, looking at a historical place right beneath our feet can teach us about ourselves and our relationship with nature through the past, to enlighten us in the present and improve our future.

Photograph: Kents Cavern (Wikimedia)

References

 
[i] Quayle, T. (2021, August 22nd). Inside South Hams' forgotten tourist attraction Kitley Caves. Plymouth Live, Hidden Plymouth. Retrieved from https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/history/inside-south-hams-forgotten-tourist-5768293 

[ii] Davis, J. Where did dinosaurs come from? Retrieved from https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/where-did-dinosaurs-come-from.html 

[iii] Heritage Gateway. Devon and Dartmoor HER. Retrieved from https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MDV56358&resourceID=104 

[iv] Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Natural history. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/natural%20history 

[v] Freedman, J. (2015). Willima Buckland’s Connections to the Last Surviving Pleistocene Collections from Yealm Bridge Caverns, Devon. The Geological Curator, Volume 10, No.4, 150, 149, 153, 151

[vi] Freedman, J. (2015). Willima Buckland’s Connections to the Last Surviving Pleistocene Collections from Yealm Bridge Caverns, Devon. The Geological Curator, Volume 10, No.4, 150, 149, 153, 151

[vii] Freedman, J. (2015). William Buckland’s Connections to the Last Surviving Pleistocene Collections from Yealm Bridge Caverns, Devon. The Geological Curator, Volume 10, No.4, 150, 149, 153, 151

[viii] Frith, U. (2011 February 7th). Females, fossils, and hyenas – part 1 [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://royalsociety.org/blog/2011/02/females-fossils-and-hyenas-part-one/ 

[ix] Freedman, J. (2015). Willima Buckland’s Connections to the Last Surviving Pleistocene Collections from Yealm Bridge Caverns, Devon. The Geological Curator, Volume 10, No.4, 150, 149, 153, 151

[x] Frith, U. (2011 February 7th). Females, fossils, and hyenas – part 1 [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://royalsociety.org/blog/2011/02/females-fossils-and-hyenas-part-one/ 

[xi] Freedman, J. (2015). Willima Buckland’s Connections to the Last Surviving Pleistocene Collections from Yealm Bridge Caverns, Devon. The Geological Curator, Volume 10, No.4, 150, 149, 153, 151

[xii] Pavid, K. (2018 April 9th). The giant fossil mammals that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Retrieved from https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2018/april/giant-fossil-mammals-inspired-charles-darwin-theory-evolution.html 

[xiii] Macomber, RW. (2024, April 9th). William Smith British geologist. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Smith-British-geologist 

[xiv] BBC Bitesize. Evolution – WJEC Darwin and Wallace. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zwvpsg8/revision/1 

[xv]

[xvi] Green Minds Plymouth. (2023 June 19th). GM Conference: Rewilding – The Role of Urban Landscapes in Nature Recovery [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-HdJaiOYm0&t=313s 

[xvii] Britannica. Paleontology. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/science/paleontology 

[xviii] Oxford English Dictionary. (2010 March). Rewild. Retrieved from https://www.oed.com/dictionary/rewild_v?tl=true&tab=meaning_and_use 

[xix] Moore, E. (2017 August 6th). Inside the top secret Cattedown Bone Caves - Plymouth's mysterious national treasure. Plymouth Live, Partner Stories, Cattedown. Retrieved from https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/special-features/inside-top-secret-cattedown-bone-287484 

[xx] Kents Cavern Prehistoric Caves UNESCO Global Geopark. Jawbone. Retrieved from https://www.kents-cavern.co.uk/jawbone 

[xxi]