Today we take a wander in the Old Town. The museum has limited opening and is shut today. His is a shame, it would be nice to see if there is anything there about JMW.
Above is The Tudor House, also shut, but presumably exactly what it says on the can! Pretty, anyway! Next time!
The Shell Grotto is open and quite interesting. The earliest reference to it's discovery appears in an article in the Kentish Gazette of 22 May 1838, announcing the forthcoming opening as a public attraction.
It has remained in private ownership ever since. The grotto is an ornate subterranean passageway, the surface area of the walls and roof is covered in mosaics created entirely of seashells, totalling about 190sq metres of mosaic, or 4.6 million shells. The Grotto is a Grade I listed building and is open to the public for a small fee. There is a cafe and shop attached.
The age and purpose of the grotto remain unknown. No scientific dating has been undertaken to my surprise. In addition, the purpose of the structure is unknown, and various hypotheses have dated its construction to any time in the past 3,000 years. The theories include:
It was an 18th or 19th-century rich man’s folly
It was a prehistoric astronomical calendar
It is connected with the freemasons.
To me, it has a spiritual component. It reminds me of the baños arabes in Spain, and my own theory is that, unbeknown to historians, Moors arrived in Britiain and constructed this subterranean Mosque.
In front of the Premier Inn is a pool, which I assume is for sea water swimming but later discover to be a boating lake. Silly!
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