PLACES OF INTEREST

Below you can see information on areas that have significant interest with the Quest Project.

Royston Cave

Clothall Church

Therfield Heath

The cave was discovered by accident in August of 1742 by workmen erecting a bench in a butter market in the Merchant House, which has since been demolished. A millstone was found in the ground, which when lifted disclosed a vertical, well-like shaft....

Being at the crossing of two ancient roads, Royston is likely to have been a very early settlement. Nearby, on Therfield Heath, are a Neolithic longbarrow and five bronze age barrows.

Denny was home to Benedictine monks for only ten years from 1159 until it was handed over to the Knights Templars. For this mysterious religious order, known as

Templecombe derives its name from Combe Templariorum, after the Knights Templar who established a preceptory in the village in 1185.

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. Jewish Midrash holds that it was from here that the world expanded into its present form, and that this was where God gathered the dust He used to create the first man, Adam. The Torah records that it was here that God chose to rest His Divine Presence....

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is an ancient edifice of stone and flint, chiefly in the Perpendicular style, and consists of chancel, nave, with a chapel on the south side, and an embattled tower at the south-west angle containing two bells, inscribed but undated: the entrance to the church is under the tower: in the east window there remains a fragment of old stained glass, representing St. Mary Magdalene.....

Cottered has a handsome church dating principally from the 15th century with an embattled tower and a lofty spire. The fine old timbered roofs and medieval wall painting should be noticed.

Guildford Castle

The great hall is thought to have been located at the site of the two houses at the bottom of Castle Hill and was made of stone. In the 12th Century the main bailey buildings would have been completed which included the hall.

St Marthas On The Hill

St Martha's Church, also known as St Martha-on-the-Hill, sits atop the hill and is accessible only by foot. It lies on the Pilgrim’s Way

St Catherines Hill

This is the remains of St Catherine’s Chapel. Records state that this particular building, constructed in 1301, by the Rector of St Nicholas, one of the three parish Churches in Guildford, stands on the site of a much earlier chapel, built by Henry II.

Temple Balsall

The rewards for the undoubted bravery of the Knights Templar in the Holy Land Crusades included gifts of land across Europe. The Manor of Balsall was one such donation. The donor was

Warwick Castle

Warwick Castle overlooking the River Avon, lies in the town of Warwick of the English county of Warwickshire. It is traditionally associated with the earldom of Warwick, one of the oldest in England.

Technically not a castle but a rampart, the history of Warwick Castle began in the 10th century.

Rothley Temple

There is a vast amount of documentation about the Manor and Soke of Rothley and what follows is a fragment of history to show how Rothley Temple, or Rothley Preceptory, and its Chapel.

Chilworth Manor

St. Nicholas Church Compton

ST. MARTHA'S Chapel, a well-known landmark for all the countryside, standing upon the top of a ridge of Greensand Although called a chapel, it seems always to have possessed the rights of a parish church;

At the time of the Domesday Survey CHILWORTH belonged to Bernard Pauncefoot, to whom it, with four other manors in Hampshire, had passed from Earl Godwin. Then, as in the time of King Edward, it was assessed at two hides, and amongst its appurtenances were three houses in Southampton.

Roger de Mowbray in 1145 gave to God and the church of St. Mary 'de Novo-Burgo,' and the canons there serving God, the site itself and all the east part of 'Cukewald' (Coxwold) beyond the fishpond (vivarium), the church of St. Mary of Hood, with the land and wood under the adjoining hills, as the monks of Byland had formerly possessed it. Also the church of Coxwold, with its subordinate chapels, viz.: Kilburn, Thirkleby, and Silton, the church of Tresc (Thirsk), together with the chapel of St. James.

Byland was founded as a Savigniac house in 1134, but was brought within the Cistercian family in 1147, when Savigny and her affiliations were absorbed by the Cistercian Order.

The abbey of Rievaulx was founded in 1132. It was built to be the first Cistercian outpost in the North, an abbey from which the White Monks could reform and colonise northern England and Scotland. St Bernard of Clairvaux was the inspiration for the foundation; in March 1132 he sent a colony of monks from Clairvaux, under the direction of his secretary, William, to establish monastic life in Yorkshire.

During the first century of its existence, it founded six monasteries, and despite the members thus sent away, it had 70 monks and 120 lay brothers in 1187.

Walsingham

The Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham was established in 1061, when according to tradition Richeldis de Faverches prayed that she might undertake some special work in honour of Our Lady. In answer to her prayer

Island of Lundy

The name Lundy is believed to come from the Old Norse word for "Puffin Island”, however an alternative explanation has been suggested with Lund referring to a copse, or wooded area.

Garway

The Templar Preceptory at Garway, just north of Monmouth. The small church of St. Michael sitting in the Monnow Valley is all that remains from the original preceptory.

Skenfrith Castle (Welsh: Ynysgynwraidd) is a medieval castle located in Monmouthshire, Wales. The castle is the centre of the village of Skenfrith, located on the banks of the river Monnow,

John Marshall, ancestor of the Earls Marshall and Earls of Pembroke, gave 1 hide of land in Rockley (Ogbourne St. Andrew) to the Knights Templars in 1155-6.

The Church contains a great display of monuments, but we look first at the outside. The church is largely rebuilt in 1635 at the expense of Sir Edward Beckam.

The Castle that dominates castle acre and gives it its name to the village is inextricably linked with the fortunes of the Norman earls of surrey. Little is known about the site before the Norman conquest,

The Earl of Warenne, the founder of the great Cluniac house, of Lewes, founded a priory of the same order at Castle Acre between 1087 and 1089, making it subject to Lewes, as Lewes was subject to Cluni.

History of the castle.

From its position high above the banks of the River Wye, Goodrich Castle commands an ancient ford crossing of the river. This route is thought to be the original Roman road from Gloucester to Caerleon via Monmouth.

There is no Cornish saint, and there are many, whose life story is of greater interest to most westcountry men than that of St. Petroc.

Grimes Graves

Grimes Graves is a large Neolithic flint mining complex near Brandon in England close to the border between Norfolk and Suffolk. It was worked between around circa 3000 BC and circa 1900 BC, although production may have continued well into the bronze and Iron Ages

Llanthony Abbey

Llanthony Priory is a picturesque, partly ruined Augustinian priory in the beautiful and secluded Vale of Ewyas, a steep sided once glaciated valley within the Black Mountains area of theBrecon Beacons National Park

Creake Priory

In a meadow of forty acres, on the right of the road leading from North Creake to Burnham Market, a house of Austin Canons was founded in 1206, in honour of the Blessed Virgin, by Alice,

Avebury

The Wiltshire village of is to the largest prehistoric stone circle in Britain and one of the most popular megalithic sites. The monuments of Avebury has been designated a World Heritage Site.

Slipper Chapel

The Slipper Chapel, or Chapel of St. Catherine of Alexandria, is a Roman Catholic chapel built in 1340 as the last chapel on the pilgrims' route to Walsingham in Norfolk.

St Nectan's Church

After Nectan's death, a considerable cult grew up around his shrine and this continued to be popular throughout the middle Ages, supported both by Saxon kings and Norman lords.

Grosmont Castle

Grosmont Castle is a remarkably well-preserved three phase fortress. It was quite possibly founded by EarlWilliam Fitz Osbern during his invasion of South Wales in 1070. Earl William was killed the next year and his son Roger was stripped of his lands in 1075.