The Cave is a Grade II* listed building in the Buckinghamshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 9 January 1954. Landscape feature.
The Cave
- WRENN ID
- little-panel-evening
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Buckinghamshire
- Constituency
- Wycombe MP: Emma Reynolds (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 9 January 1954
- Type
- Landscape feature
- Address
- The Cave, West Wycombe
- OS grid reference
- SU 829 948
- Coordinates
- 51.646, -0.80265
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Cave is a notable structure built between 1750 and 1752, forming part of Sir Francis Dashwood's 18th-century landscape design that includes the surrounding park and hillsides. It features U-shaped retaining walls made of flint rubble, which create the entrance to manmade caves that extend for about a quarter of a mile beneath the hill. The yard is partly hidden by a modern wooden hut that occupies one third to half of the yard area. The walls are adorned with gables and pinnacles, and they include both round and pointed arched niches. There is a pointed arched doorway leading into the caves, which are believed to have been the site of meetings for the infamous Hell-Fire Club.
Local climate
The Cave sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 720 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 84% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 87% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 37 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 69% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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- No EPC on record for this property
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