Kinver Edge Rock Houses

Kinver Edge is a remnant of the Mercian forest, a high heath and woodland escarpment just west of Kinver, about four miles west of Stourbridge, and four miles north of Kidderminster. It is home to Kinver Edge Hillfort, an Iron Age hillfort, and Kinver Edge Rock Houses, a set of complete cave-houses which were the last troglodyte dwellings occupied in England. Over the centuries people carved their houses out of the rock along the length of the cliff.

The most famous of these dwellings are the Holy Austin rock houses, which was a hermitage until the Reformation, and were inhabited until the 1960s. The Holy Austin rock houses have been cosily restored in the Victorian style to help you soak up the atmosphere of these unusual homes.

The Martindale Caves, which are to the rear of Holy Austin have been restored to show what life was like in the 1930s.

Nanny’s Rock and Vale’s Rock haven’t been restored but they can be seen from the Rock Houses walking trail. You can climb into Nanny’s Rock and peer through the remains of the windows and wander around the five empty rooms.

The earliest definite historical mention of a cave dweller here was a lady called Margaret of the Foxearth who died in 1617 and lived in Nanny’s Rock. She is recorded in the burial records of St Peter’s church in Kinver. The first detailed description of a rock house here was by Joseph Heely in 1777 who visited Holy Austin Rock. He took refuge from a storm and was given shelter by a “clean and decent family”. He describes how the rock houses made good homes: “warm in winter, cool in summer”.

Although the earliest mentions of cave dwellings at Kinver Edge are from the 17th and 18th centuries, the rock houses likely existed for centuries before this. They could be medieval or even earlier but we have no way of knowing.

A local legend, now widely accepted, is that JRR Tolkien, author of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings visited the site and was inspired to come up with the idea of Hobbits and Hobbit Holes.