Scotts Road, SG12

Image: © Mike Quinn Taken: 23 Apr 2015

Just to the south, on the west (left hand) side of the road, is Scott's Grotto, a series of interconnected chambers lined with shells, flints and pieces of coloured glass, extending some 67ft into the chalk hillside. John Scott came from a Quaker family; he was born in London in 1731 and the family moved to Amwell in Hertfordshire in 1740 to find cleaner air. Scott was a poet, and a friend of Dr Johnson. He inherited the Amwell estate in 1768. The grotto is rumoured to have cost Scott some £10,000 and is thought to have taken 30 years to complete. On top of the hill above the tunnels there is a summer house which would have commanded a wonderful view over the town of Ware http://www.scotts-grotto.org/ . The Grotto is open from 2 pm to 4.30 pm on each Saturday and Bank Holiday Monday between the beginning of April and the end of September. Additionally the Grotto is open between 2 pm and 5 pm on two days during the annual Civic Trust Heritage Open Weekend http://www.scotts-grotto.org/index.php/visit-us/ . The grotto is Grade I listed http://list.historicengland.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1238171 . Photos of the Grotto that I took in June 2016 are at http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=64833569 .

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