Menu
 
Portfolio
 
Terms of Use
 

Royston Cave is an artificial cave located in Katherine’s Yard, Melbourn Street, Royston, England. It is located beneath the crossroads formed by Ermine Street and the Icknield Way. It has been speculated that it was used by the Knights Templar, who founded nearby Baldock, but this is unlikely, despite its enormous popular appeal. There are numerous theories about the Cave covering Freemasons and Templars as well as possibilities that the Cave was a prison or an anchorite cell. However, none of these theories have enough hard evidence to warrant they’re being adopted by the Cave Trust.

It is a circular, bell-shaped chamber cut into the chalk bedrock. It is 8 meters high and 5 meters in diameter with a circumferential octagonal podium. The origin of this chamber is unknown. This cave is unique in Britain for its numerous medieval carvings on the walls; comparable examples exist only in former Czechoslovakia and Israel. Some of the figures are thought to be those of St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Lawrence, and St. Christopher.

Speculations

Royston Cave has been the source of much speculation, although it is hard to determine much about its origin and function.

Knights Templar: It has been recently[when?] speculated that the cave may have been used by the Knights Templar before their dissolution by Pope Clement V in 1312.[3] Although claims have been made that this religious-military institution of the Catholic Church held a weekly market at Royston between 1199 and 1254, the market charter was in fact granted to the
Augustinian Canons of the town. It has been speculated that the cave was divided into two floors by a wooden floor, the evidence consisting of a single posthole and what may be beam slots to secure the platform to the walls. Two figures close together near the damaged section may be all that remains of a known Templar symbol, two knights riding the same horse. However, as the image has been repaired in modern times, this cannot be confirmed.

Augustinian storehouse: It has been claimed it was used by Augustinian monks from the local priory, who would have required a cool store for their produce and a chapel for their devotions. The idea that it might have been a meeting place for recusant Catholics during the Reformation of the 16th century has little to recommend it.

Neolithic flint mine: this has also been put forward as an explanation of the cave.

 

More posts..

Alnwick Castle

Alnwick Castle is a castle and country house in Alnwick in the English county of Northumberland. It is the seat of The 12th Duke of Northumberland, built following the Norman conquest and renovated and remodeled a number of times.   Alnwick Castle guards a road

Read More
Orford Castle

Orford Castle is a castle in Orford in the English county of Suffolk, 12 miles northeast of Ipswich, with views over Orford Ness. It was built between 1165 and 1173 by Henry II of England.   Prior to the building of Orford Castle, Suffolk was

Read More
Bramber Castle

Bramber Castle is a Norman motte-and-bailey castle formerly the caput of the large feudal barony of Bramber long held by the Braose family. It is situated in the village of Bramber, West Sussex, near the town of Steyning, overlooking the River Adur.   Surveys indicate

Read More
Blackness Castle

Blackness Castle is a 15th-century fortress, near the village of Blackness, Scotland, on the south shore of the Firth of Forth.   It was built, probably on the site of an earlier fort, by Sir George Crichton in the 1440s. At this time, Blackness was

Read More
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
error: