Rabbit hole leads to incredible 700-year-old Knights Templar cave complex

An outstanding discovery was made when a 700-year-old Knights Templar cave was found beneath a farmer’s field in Shropshire, England, in a complex known as the Caynton Caves network.

The Knights Templar was a major catholic order which was popular during the Crusades and their name comes from Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The Knights Templar were first created in 1129 according to the order of the Pope, and it was their first duty to help religious pilgrims who visited the Holy Land and Jerusalem.

The photographer Michael Scott, from Birmingham, saw a video of the 700-year-old Knights Templar cave in Shropshire and decided to visit the Caynton Caves network to witness them for himself.

Some of Scott’s photographs of the cave have been published, including those in The Mirror, and these show an exotic candlelit labyrinth which Fox News note looks extremely similar to scenes straight out of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Michael Scott explained that as you walk through the farmer’s field in Shropshire, you would have no idea that there was a Knights Templar cave directly beneath it if you didn’t know it existed in the first place, which would have made it the perfect meeting place in the past.

“I traipsed over a field to find it, but if you didn’t know it was there you would just walk right past it. I had to crouch down and once I was in it was completely silent.”

The Knights Templar cave was carved out of sandstone, and the Caynton Caves network is found in woodland by Shifnal, and the entrances to the caves are so small they could almost be mistaken for rabbit holes.

Some of the chambers of the caves are also so narrow that visitors have to get on their hands and knees to move around inside of them.

The history of the Knights Templar is such that once the Holy Land was lost, the influence that the Knights Templar once held waned, although they remained extremely wealthy.

In 1307, King Philip IV of France decided that he wanted to expunge the debts that he owed to the order and plotted to bring about the end of the Knights Templar.

He did this by accusing members of many false things like heresy and had them locked up or burned at the stake. In 1312, Pope Clement V made the decision to permanently disband the Knights Templar.

The Caynton Caves network in Shropshire where the Knights Templar cave is also has a darker history, and it is alleged that there were once ceremonies involving Black Magic here, the Birmingham Mail reported. 

The Shropshire Star note that at one point the caves were filled with graffiti, rubbish and other debris and because of this, the owners of the caves sealed off the entrance in 2012.

The Knights Templar cave, along with the entire Caynton Caves network, is said to be extremely popular with Pagans and Druids and is also frequently visited during times like Halloween and the Winter and Summer Solstices.

There is much history to be found in this part of Shropshire, and the Knights Templar cave isn’t the only place in this area that is linked to the Templar.

For instance, the Norman temple inside Ludlow Castle may have also been used by the Knights Templar.

There is also Penkridge Hall in Leebotwood, where Lydley Preceptory once stood. This was used by the Templars in 1158 and shut down in 1308 at the end of their order.

Half-Eaten Cookie Found Inside 16th Century Tudor Manuscript

One timid schoolboy is believed to be leafing through the book which seems to be a chocolate chip cookie about 50 years ago. The manuscript — which dates back almost 500 years — was given to the university by a grammar school in 1970.

The 1529 volume from the complete works of St Augustine is stored inside the university’s rare books archive, where no food, drink or even pens are allowed.

Emily Dourish, the deputy keeper of rare books and early manuscripts, discovered the biscuit.

She explained to The BBC: “It was probably a schoolboy looking at the book over 50 years ago who then accidentally dropped a biscuit and it was forgotten about.”

“When we received the book, somebody will have had a brief look at it, then stored it away. Nobody has properly looked at it since.”

“I was stunned. When we gave it to our conservationist, his jaw dropped.”

Restorers were able to remove the decaying “dry and crumbly” biccie — but it has left a greasy stain on a handwritten page.

The university’s special collections library tweeted: “For future reference, we have an acid-free paper to mark your place. Please don’t use baked goods.”

Bones hidden in church revealed to be remains of one of England’s earliest saints

First scientific tests on bones in a Kent Church for decades prove they are really are relics of one of the earliest English saints, Eanswythe, patron saint of Folkestone.

She was a Kentish royal Anglo-Saxon princess who is said to have founded one of the earliest English monastic communities as a teenager but died in her teens or early 20s.

If the findings of further studies are authenticated, hers are the earliest identified remains of an English saint, and the only remains identified of a member of the powerful Anglo Saxon royal family.

Eanswythe cannot have been born any later than 641 AD since her father king Eadbald died in late 640. She is believed to have died by 663. The radiocarbon dating results, which would indicate the latest date of her death, give a high probability that the bones date from between 649 and 673 AD.

“My hands were literally shaking when I opened the email with the results,” says Andrew Richardson, the archaeologist who led the Finding Eanswythe project. “The dates could have been inconclusive, or blown the project completely out of the water, but instead they are the best we could possibly have hoped for.”

The diocese of Canterbury gave special permission for the work on the bones, which were examined by archaeologists in the 1980s but not tested.

Apart from one bone fragment and a single tooth sent for radiocarbon to Queen’s University Belfast, they stayed in the church during the work, with the archaeologists and scientists sleeping in the church to guard them.

Most of the team including Richardson come from Folkestone and had known the story of the teenage saint since childhood, apart from US-born conservator Dana Goodburn-Brown who is still working on fragments including minute scraps which may be the gold thread from precious fabric once covering the bones.

The relics had disappeared for centuries before workmen found them in 1885, hidden inside a wall near the altar, presumably to save them from the iconoclasm of the Reformation, which destroyed most of the oldest monuments.

They were still in a curious battered oval lead container, one of a handful of known Anglo Saxon examples made from recycled panels cut down from a high status decorated Roman coffin. They have remained where they were reinterred in 1885, in a niche behind an alabaster and brass fronted door, part of an elaborate Victorian redecoration of the church.

Eanswythe’s grandfather Ethelbert was the first English king to convert to Christianity, under the mission to Kent of Saint Augustine: his tomb and others of the royal family were destroyed with Augustine’s church in Canterbury.

She is said to have founded a monastic settlement, near the present medieval church of St Mary and St Eanswythe which stands on the cliff above the sea high above the old town of Folkestone.

Early accounts of her life say her body was moved when some monastic buildings tumbled over the cliff into the sea and moved again when the new church was built.

In a 13th century life, she was credited with some admirably practical miracles, illustrated in Victorian stained glass in the church, including diverting a stream to flow uphill to supply her monastery, and ordering a flock of birds to spare their crops.

The Anglo Saxon history of the area will be celebrated in events at the nearby town museum during British Science Week from 6-15 March. The Finding Eanswythe project is fundraising for further tests, which the team hopes will include extracting DNA which should reveal more about her diet, background, and appearance.

Experts amazed after ‘incredibly rare’ Roman artifact found in Lincolnshire field

Over recent years, metal detectorists have made a wonderful collection of historical discoveries. In the UK a detector has discovered in a plowed field a very rare and beautiful Roman Brooch. It is only the second of its kind to have even been found in the country.

The search was carried out on a field in Lincolnshire, East England, near the village of Leasingham.

Jason Price, 48, is a former member of the British military. He was participating in an event called ‘Detecting for Veterans’ according to the Sleaford Standard. This was a charity event, to raise funds for veterans and took place in the summer of 2019.

On the last day of the event, Mr. Price found the Roman brooch. “It was the last field of the weekend and it was heavily plowed – so I didn’t hold out much hope of finding anything”. Suddenly his detector starting buzzing and the excitement of a potential find mounted.

Mr. Price found the Roman brooch on the last day of the event. The Daily Mail quotes him as saying that, “It was the last field of the weekend and it was heavily plowed – so I didn’t hold out much hope of finding anything”. Suddenly his detector starting buzzing and the excitement of a potential find mounted.

He started to dig carefully and some 8 inches (20 centimeters) in the earth he found something he thought was only a piece of junk. Mr. Price told the Sleaford Standard that “At first I thought it was a piece of litter, but as I cleaned it off, my jaw dropped open. There it was – a horse brooch. I was shaking”.

The veteran knew he had found something remarkable. In the past, he has unearthed several items including some coins. As required by law, Mr. Price notified the relevant authorities about his find.

The Daily Mail quotes Lisa Brundle, who oversees such finds for the local Lincolnshire County Council, as saying “This brooch is an exciting and rare discovery”. There is only one other known to have been found in Britain and it is currently held at the world-famous British Museum.

A preliminary analysis of the brooch indicated that it was made of a copper alloy and probably dated to 200-400 AD when Britain was a province of the Roman Empire. The Roman brooch is in remarkably good condition and it still has its original pin attached.

It is approximately 2 inches (5 centimeters) long and weighs about 0.80 of an ounce (23 grams). It depicts the horse in great detail and even shows it with a saddle. Originally the horse would have had a gold finish and many of its details would have been enameled with bright colors.

The brooch is considered to be somewhat more detailed than the one found in the British Museum. It is also decorated somewhat differently. Ms. Bundle told The Times that the Roman brooch “is in a league of its own”. The artifact has been called the ‘Leasingham Horse’ after the location where it was found.

Such a brooch was probably worn by a Romano-Britain of some social standing as it would have been quite valuable. This item would have been most likely pinned to a robe. Ms. Bundle told The Daily Mail that “It would have been a spectacular sight on someone’s robe”.

This item would have been something of a status symbol. The gender of those who would have worn the item is not known, but the horse design may mean that it was worn by a male.

How the item came to be buried in the field is something of a mystery. It may have been lost or deliberately buried during one of the many raids by barbarians on Roman Britain. Mr. Price is not going to cash in on his amazing discovery.

According to The Daily Mail, “the brooch has been sent out on a permanent loan by Mr. Price to the Collection Museum in Lincolnshire”. The item will undoubtedly become a very popular attraction with local people and visitors alike.

Secret doorway in Parliament leads to a historical treasure trove

Renovation workers have uncovered a forgotten passageway in the UK’s Houses of Parliament. Built over 1,000 years ago, the historic seat of government in central London has seen kings and queens, prime ministers and foreign dignitaries come and go time and again over the centuries.

While it might seem as though all of the building’s secrets would have been found by now, this week there was a surprise in store when renovation workers uncovered a secret door leading to a hidden passageway that dates back over 360 years.

Believed to have been originally built for the coronation of Charles II in 1660, the passageway would have enabled guests to attend a celebratory banquet in the neighboring Westminster Hall. It went on to be used by countless MPs before eventually being blocked up and concealed. It was even rediscovered briefly in the 1950s before being sealed up again.

“To say we were surprised is an understatement – we really thought it had been walled-up forever after the war,” said Mark Collins, Parliament’s Estates Historian.

Liz Hallam Smith, the historical consultant to Parliament’s architecture and heritage team, said: “I was awestruck because it shows that the Palace of Westminster still has so many secrets to give up. “It is the way that the Speaker’s procession would have come, on its way to the House of Commons, as well as many MPs over the centuries, so it’s a hugely historic space.”

The current occupant of the Speaker’s chair, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, said: “To think that this walkway has been used by so many important people over the centuries is incredible. I am so proud of our staff for making this discovery.”

A brass plaque, erected in Westminster Hall in 1895, marks the spot where the doorway once was but, says Dr. Hallam Smith, “almost nothing was known about it”. It lay behind thick masonry, on the hall side, and wooden panelling, running the full length of a Tudor cloister, on the other side.

Up until three years ago, the cloister had been used as offices by the Labour Party, and before that, a cloakroom for MPs. It was Dr. Hallam Smith who discovered evidence of a small, secret access door that had been set into the cloister’s panelling, during Parliament’s last major renovation in 1950.

“We were trawling through 10,000 uncatalogued documents relating to the palace at the Historic England Archives in Swindon when we found plans for the doorway in the cloister behind Westminster Hall.

“As we looked at the panelling closely, we realized there was a tiny brass key-hole that no-one had really noticed before, believing it might just be an electricity cupboard.” The team turned to Parliament’s locksmith for help and, with some difficulty, he was able to open the wood panel door, to reveal a tiny, stone-floored chamber, with a bricked-up doorway on the far wall.

They discovered the original hinges for two wooden doors 3.5m high, that would have opened into Westminster Hall. They also found graffiti dating back to the rebuilding of Parliament, in a neo-Gothic style, following the fire in 1834 which destroyed much of the medieval palace.

The scrawled pencil marks, left by men who helped block the passageway on both sides in 1851, read: “This room was enclosed by Tom Porter who was very fond of Ould Ale.” It then names the witnesses of “the articles of the wall” – evidently architect Sir Charles Barry’s masons who had joined bricklayer’s labourer Thomas Porter in a toast to mark the room’s enclosure. The men can be traced in the 1851 census returns as Richard Condon, James Williams, Henry Terry, Thomas Parker, and Peter Dewal.

Finally, the graffiti notes: “These masons were employed refacing these groines…[ie repairing the cloister] August 11th, 1851 Real Democrats.”

This reference to “real democrats” suggests the group were part of the Chartist movement, which campaigned for every man aged 21 to have a vote, and for would-be MPs to be allowed to stand even if they did not own property.

“Charles Barry’s masons were quite subversive,” said Dr. Hallam Smith.

“They had been involved in quite a few scraps as the Palace was being built. I think these ones were being a little bit bolshie but also highly celebratory because they had just finished the first major restoration of these beautiful Tudor cloisters.”

The team are keen to trace the descendants of Tom Porter and his colleagues and have already discovered that the workers lived in lodgings near Parliament. There was another surprise for the team when they entered the passageway – they were able to light the room.

A light switch – probably installed in the 1950s – illuminated a large Osram bulb marked ‘HM Government Property’. The team is eager to learn more about the history of this hardy bulb. Dr. Collins said further investigations made him certain the doorway dated back at least 360 years.

Dendrochronology testing revealed that the ceiling timbers above the little room dated from trees felled in 1659 – which tied in with surviving accounts that stated the doorway was made in 1660-61 for the coronation banquet of Charles II.

This is in contrast to the words on the brass plaque in Westminster Hall, which state the passageway was used in 1642 by Charles I when he attempted to arrest five MPs, which the researchers believe is not accurate. Dr. Collins said the plans that led to their discovery will now be digitized as part of the Parliament’s Restoration and Renewal program.

“The mystery of the secret doorway is one we have enjoyed discovering – but the palace no doubt still has many more secrets to give up,” he added.

“We hope to share the story with visitors to the palace when the building is finally restored to its former glory, so it can be passed on down the generations and is never forgotten again.”

Secret Roman road and treasure discovered on York construction site

A previously unknown Roman road has been found by the archaeologist under the Guildhall as work continues to restore and redevelop the buildings. 

The York Archaeological Trust (YAT) also discovered Currency and ‘an abundance of Roman pottery’ have also been found at the riverside site.

York Archéological Trust members have been working on behalf of the City of York Council for the past six months to monitor and record any archaeological deposits or features that are exposed through the ongoing redevelopment and restoration work at the site.

Some significant discoveries have already been made such an area of cobbled surface also dating back to the Roman period.

Buried over 1.5m below modern street level, the surface contained an abundance of Roman pottery and a silver coin. Furthermore, the excavation of a small trench revealed that three distinct surfaces had been laid, suggesting that it remained in use for a considerable period.

Cllr Nigel Ayre said: “ We’re delighted to see that as we restore and redevelop this collection of buildings, to secure its future in our 21st-century city, that we have the opportunity to unpack more of its history thanks to the expertise of York Archaeological Trust.

“As the city evolves and pioneers to address modern challenges and seize new opportunities, it is vital that we protect its unique heritage and share the stories we uncover along the way.”

The Guildhall restoration began in September 2019, initiating vital restoration and redevelopment of the Grade I, II* and II listed buildings, to offer office space, community use, and a riverside restaurant.

The project received £2.347 million from the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership, delivered in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, through the Leeds City Region Growth Deal – a £1 billion package of government investment to accelerate growth and create jobs across Leeds City Region.

The site is due to reopen to the public in Spring 2021.