A man who spent his childhood exploring the prehistoric caves owned by his parents, is now managing them as a tourist attraction. The Stump Cross Caverns in the Yorkshire Dales, filled with awe-inspiring stalagmites and stalactites, served as his personal playground. Oliver Bowerman, 26, was bought up in caves after his parents purchased them when he was just five years old after spotting an advertisement in a newspaper. Now, the university graduate has taken over the management of the caves, which were first discovered in 1860.
"I remember it vividly – I was five years old when they decided to buy the caverns," Oliver recalled. "They actually had no tourism experience at all – my mum was a paediatric nurse and my dad was a brewer. "We lived in Northumberland, but they had family back in Yorkshire and wanted to have a business and move back, and get out of the corporate world. They saw the advert in the newspaper – 'cave for sale for the first time in generations' – and my dad said as a joke almost, that he wanted to go and buy it. My mum said, 'go on then,' and they actually went and bought it.
"I remember being told we were moving to a cave, and at that age, I had no concept of what a cave was other than the book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. I remember the first day I came to visit it was after we bought it. We went down to the caves, and I saw a big picture of a wolverine at the entrance – and within five minutes, I thought the wolverine was going to eat us and had to go back up.".
