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The Hellfire Club Of West Wycombe

"Hung like a Hartlepool horse" is a phrase I may use in my next
small ad. Whether offered or required must be a matter of
conjecture . . .

"Hung like a Hartlepool fishwife" is altogether more confusing.

Suspending by the neck is always for some pedantic reason "hanged".

Ah well, I can remember when radishes were hotter you know. ;)
 
hell-fire club at west wycombe

Just wondered if any of our intrepid forteans had ventured into the Dashwood's hellfire caves, and whether they had any stories relating to there visits. Apparently our great leader (m pilkington) has been - HELL-FIRE FRANCIS.
 
Blather

Excellent Blather article.

hell-fire clubs were for debauchery

Bacchus - imbibing, and Venus - wenching

fun fun fun

A dank cave woule be JUST the place... for horny teenagers. Unless of course fine Persian rugs and heavy furniture were dragged in, hm?
 
Wycomb ghost

My brother was stationed there, and he took a picture of what appears to be a cowled ghost reaching out towards him. If I can get it scanned, I'll post it here. All I know is that he doesn't know enough about photography to intentionally fake it.

When I went, it was a creepy experience, particularly the heads carved into the sides of the wall. My brothers ex grew up in the area, and she refused to go in.
 
Post the Picture

Sounds creepy and cool. By all means post the picture.

Describe for us in more detail what you found and experienced there, hm? Setting, sensations, and so on.
 
I've been to them caves - It's a pity that the mausoleum up the top is covered with rascist graffiti. my granny lives near wycome but i know it's not her that does it, she's enlightened :p
 
Faggus's Imagery

Interesting images on your post, Faggus --

Wicker Man

Alex (Malcolm MacDowell) from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

Kevin McCarthy and "wife" fleeing in INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

The endless road from the very first OMNI magazine cover, and as featured in posters of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND.

And Tom Hulce as Mozart in AMADEUS.

Your grannie MUST be enlightened, to put up with the likes of you, eh? LOL Cool set of images.

What's it SAYING, though? Dare we translate for those who don't get it?
 
My experience

1. Can't find the pix yet. If I do, I'll try to either post it here or online somewhere.

2. My experience with the Caves: My brother's ex grew up in the area and always heard it was haunted - so of course we had to go. It was semi touristy when we got there, so I wasn't expecting much.

But once you enter the caves, it's a different experience. The walls are smoother, and in long sections there are human heads carved out of the limestone, which look exactly like faces in torment. At the bottom, it levels off, and you can see a few of the places where the Hellfire Club had their meetings, up to the end of the cave, where there is a moat that is caged off and where most the the hard core debaucery took place.

What seemed most scary is how quickly it got quiet when the tours would come through. Me & my brothers were wandering around with about 20 other people, looking at the bottom of the caves the public could explore, and slowly people were leaving. Eventually, my brothers and I were the only people in the bottom, and it was very quiet and very creepy, like a tomb. Maybe the limestone adsorbes sound better than most caves, but rather than having a life of its own (most caves being a living ecological system of sorts) the Wycomb cave seemed dead, and faintly ominous. Then the next group came down, and everything was normal again.

It's definately worth looking into if you are in the area.
 
Caverns & Me

Good account, and a bit creepy. Do the tour guides tell you what went on, or is that left to one's imagination? Or aren't there guides?

I don't get on well with caverns, but I've been in a few, and find them fascinating.
 
Opp ak

It's been a few years, but I think you just pay a fee at the gate and you are given some kind of little pamphlet about the caves and you just go in. But this was 1990, so it's been a goodly while...

And I don't recall any guides, but I want to say there are informational plaques at a few locations as well.
 
went on sunday - quite interesting but there was a consensus that the rather scruffy looking dolls etc diminished the spookiness rather than adding to it. Also the voice over commentary, cleverly triggered by lasers or somesuch, was over the top and would've been better if you could have worn headsets if you wanted to. Doubly annoying was the barred gate when you get down the bottom, the carousing room was off limits and made for an anticlimax - I'd've loved to've gone inside and soaked up the atmosphere.

All in all I enjoyed it tho', the surrounding grounds and mausoleum were interesting, the layout of the caves intriguing and the lighting was suitably gloomy. If anyone is thinking of going there, buy a book or print out some info to read as you wander round, as the plaques are fairly interesting but miss out most of the juicy stuff and bang on about benjamin franklin too much.
 
Franklin and Straub

Ben Frankllin was probably the most famous patron of a Hell-Fire club, at least that we have on record.

Anyone here read the turgid, miasmic, and disappointing Hell-Fire Club by Peter Straub? He's so self-consciously literary, in his own view, that all one gets from the book is the general impression that little Peter wants to be a writer when he grows up.

Which raises the question: Has anyone used Hell-Fire Clubs as the basis or background for a good horror or suspense or historical novel? If so I can't think of any, and that strikes me as odd.

Too bad Dickens didn't write about them, eh?
 
you can't beat a baboon dressed as satan scaring the life out of a high court judge!

Would make a great setting for a book - how a bout 'the lord of hell-fire' for a title?
 
Google searches for Hellfire club is murder.

Even entering in Dashwood or wycombe does'nt seem to filter out the fetish crap.

I for one would be very interested in a good result from anyone who has found a decent site.
 
The Blather site has some fascinating stuff on the Hell Fire Clubs,
especially the Irish ones. The URL is on the FT Links page. :)
 
Have you been to the original caves yet?

They are absolutely amazing! They take you a half mile into the base of a large hill and so therefore you have a mile to walf in and out. It is lit in an atmospheric manner and the protection on the walls and cieling is not to obvious or garish. It is like a spiders web of tunnels and in the center is a great hall with perhaps 4-6 doorways leading in and out. At the end however, you will find the river styx which was originaly crossed by a small ferry boat which took you to the inner temple where lads and lassies would drink and cavort the way lads and lassies should.

Unfortunately the cave is filled with dummies in poses that are supposed to emulate Dashwood and his chums. I could never stick that sort of rubbish. It would be better if the tunnels were empty. You cant enter the inner temple but you can stand for a while over the Styx which is crammed full of genuine stalactites and stalagmites.

You have to go!

I cant remember how much it was to get in but once you are in, you are on your own and you can wander as long as you like.

I went with two friends and after taking it in we came back to the surface and I let my pals walk through the turnstyle of no return. (they would have to pay again)

I stayed and went back down the tunnels alone.

Hahahahahahaha:p
 
Three Hellfire Club threads merged into this one. (Go to Page 1 for earliest posts.)

Reminder: please try Search before starting new threads - the info you want may already be here!
 
It is Chalk rather than limestone and as such is much weaker than lime stone. The walls are constantly damp and the faces could have been carved with the finger tips. They have been clearly smoothed over the years by probing fingers.

The caves are incredibly dangerous because of the leaching and inherent weakness of chalk. Many thousands is spent on their upkeep but I believe that they recieved a grant or two to prevent them being closed forever.

There is a legend of a hidden tunnel somewhere in the comlex and the roman numeral inscription does indicate, along with the poem a certain mystery.

I picked up a handbook that was written by a descendant of Dashwood but I will have to go and look it out. The monkey is in there but the author has done much to squash the associations with sex, drink and debauchery. He is quite mistaken though.

I will go and look it out.....anyone particularly interested in some scans or quotes?
 
I have just been again, this morning. I took my new digital camera to try in the gloom of the caves and the results were very good.

Is there anyone who would consider hosting the images for all to see?

I have a few faces and some good tunnel profiles. I found an image that I first thought was a grail and set-square but on deeper thought, I concluded that it was a wine glass and set-square. There was a masons mell or chisel next to it with numerous other numbers and figures.
 
Thankyou for the kind offer but I have managed to get 'em hosted so you will see them soon.

I will remember that you offered though, thankyou!
 
Ohmigawd! It's full of spooky red dots!
 
Most Haunted is there tonight, hooooooooooooooo!!!!! :eek!!!!:

It's only just started but it's melodramatic already.
 
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