Royston Cave: Templar chapel or Home to a Hermit?

Hello everybody welcome back to a brand new episode of decoding the unknown as always I'm your Dakota Simon say one of my writers this case ilza thank you else has written me a script Royston crave Templar Chapel or home to a Hermit Well normally I'm like that Templars aren't real but the Templars were real right that was a real organization pretty sure I've covered them in videos before so uh look maybe it was a chapel for them and whatever a weird variety of religion which I'm assuming Christianity they believed in anyway let's just jump into it shall we did I say I've not read this before that's the format of the show I'm gonna read it we're gonna explore we're going to decode together settle in [Music] on a dark and cold night in a very distant past Norman is hunched over a very important carving in the wall of a cave it's late and he's tired but the blank canvas of the cave wall is calling to him and with Nothing But Candlelight to work with and filled with divine inspiration he slaves away carefully he could have finished the unmistakable figure of a man hanging on a cross we don't know who the artist is or why he's carving the scene of the crucifixion into the wall of a man-made cave we don't even know if anyone other than the artists saw it before the cave was filled up closed off and forgotten for a mere couple of decades or maybe even hundreds of years there's no way to tell the cave has lost the artwork unseen and appreciated the mysterious cave and its Secrets lie buried beneath the bustling Market of Royston but the market is successful drawing more and more people in the town is growing fast then one morning a couple of workmen arrived with pickaxes and good intentions the market is expanding they need to build a bench for Traders From Here There and elsewhere they start digging a foundation this bench was being built to last they never finished it though instead of a bench the townspeople have Royston got something completely unexpected underneath their feet was a man-made cave filled with carvings it was a mystery then and it's a mystery now this sounds like a sort of thing that as a construction person would really annoy me is that your Diggy to your garden this ah no I found a cave there's gonna be archaeologists interested in this art I found some bones on a Crown oh God they're gonna be digging around in my bloody Garden for a year or two years all I wanted to do was build if I saw that allegedly I'd just be like what bones what Crown never saw anything what cave system what the hell are you talking about just before we continue with today's video I don't want to shout out foreo Sweden for partnering with me on today's video they have a wide range of innovative Beauty devices but I'm using you might be thinking Simon what's next you're gonna do a makeup palette Simon you're doing a beauty advert but look Barry approached me and I was like okay send me one of these like I'm not as young as I used to be you could send me a 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genuinely like made my skin more toned I got little bits and wrinkles on my forehead because apparently I'm always doing this and like smiling and creasing my eyes and this reduced the wrinkles um not just like oh yeah Placebo but oh no it really did it's um it's it's quite something so here we are they use something called T Sonic pulsations they're not only tone and fernless skin but also massage the face and brighten the complexion for a youthful glow do you see it it's also app connected so use it with the app it does this like workout thing it shows you what to do it's fantastic also this can make a fantastic gift for a significant other um I've done that so uh yeah even like my wife was like cool Simon you can get me one of these or what and I did I've got an extra one so you could get 21 off the foreo Bear by using the link in the description below it's uh yeah it's um like I say I went into this a bit skeptical and then I was like okay cool I'm sold so follow the link below and you'll get 21 off your bear and then back to today's video thanks to foreo for sponsoring it's definitely not now where I keep my why not at all definitely not in the 250 years since discovering Royston cave we haven't made much progress in learning anything about this peculiar find so what's the story behind Royston cave well let's find out shall we Elsa discovery of the cave like so many of the best Mysteries out there Royston cave was discovered by accident in August of 1742. workmen came across a millstone around 30 centimeters or 11 inches deep while digging a foundation for that bench but again in the unknown episode where a bench plays a crucial who builds foundations for a bench isn't a bet like oh I guess like benches can be like concreted down to stuff but this was the 1740s don't they just slap together some pieces of wood and call it a day the millstone had a hole in the center so the Curious Workman lowered a Plumb line a device used back then to determine the depth of water the line descended down around 5 meters or 16 feet by now thoroughly curious the Workman lifted the millstone to find a vertical well-liked shaft around 60 centimeters or 23 inches in diameter that's pretty tight you're not going to be fitting down there 60 centimeters could I fit down 60 centimeters what is that like this what is it it's about two feet isn't it right two rulers lengths yeah you could probably fit down there it'd be uncomfortably close though going down five meters in that I'd really worry about being stuck oh my God I heard this horrible story and here we go I think it was in Australia there was some dude who for some reason he like dropped his keys in like a a drain or something and then he was like oh I could fish those out I'll fish out those keys and he reaches into the drain and it's like somehow he falls into it with his head down in the drain reaching for the keys what and he gets stuck there and then it rains and he drowns in this thing and I'm like holy can you imagine a worse way to go I'm like reading this just after that Titan submersible implodes and I'm like Jesus Christ that's gotta be a pretty bad way to go like just down there and it's like oh God then it crushes you to death like to buy for Dolphin accident which uh if you don't know that don't don't Google buy for Dolphin accidents it's a nightmare uh but then I made a video about this and someone commented being like Oh yeah the force that was exerted on that submarine there's no chance they even knew what's happening it was just there one moment had gone the next because the amount of pressure was just like insane it would just crush it but look it's a YouTube comment mistake it take it take what you will from it but they said that that sub would be crushed at such a speed that the eyes wouldn't be even be able to send a signal to the brain like that's how fast it would have happened so you're there one moment and gone the next which honestly that's the way to do it rather than just be like you know you feel your body getting crushed in a submarine what are we talking about benches yes oh holes in the ground right yes sorry carrying on toe holes had been cut into the chalk on the opposite sides of the shaw forming a ladder a small boy was the first to be sent down the hall though how voluntary this was was up for debate there's no shot I'd be like no let me get get down there Lads and be like okay I'm sorry okay okay okay okay can I have a rope around get down there health and safety regulations just weren't the same back then when the boy returned alive and unharmed a thin man with a candle was sent down not sure if he volunteered either the first two Brave explorers discovered that the shaft was around 1.2 meters in length and opened up into what appeared to be an underground cave filled with loose Earth and other debris the first thought on everyone's mind was buried treasure so the enthusiastically set about the task of enlarging the shaft and emptying the debris in soil from the cave they hauled around 200 bucket loads of Earth to the surface we don't know the exact size of the buckets but that's a lot of Earth well they're not going to be bigger than 60 centimeters wide are they which is it's a lot of Earth but it's always surprising like how many buckets it takes and then you've got surprisingly small amount a small pile afterwards of course rumors of possible treasure spread like an August wildfire in South Africa and the workmen doing the digging had to work at night because of the daily growing crowd of Spectators the debris hauled out from the cave included a skull decayed bones a fragment of a small brown drinking vessel marked with yellow spots and an marked piece of brass all of this except the skull was considered useless trash and promptly trucked away sending any chance of finding out who made the cave or why to the nearest trashy never to be seen again is in the past they were like ah let's find some treasure they're like what about the historical relevant historical what what do you mean what about the treasure shut up you nerds the find was a great interest antiquarians of the time those nerds let's find the treasure and the Society of Antiquities sent Reverend George North to inspect North was a bit early to the party as the caves were still in the process of being cleared when he arrived so his report is incomplete however he did note that the ceiling Dome had either been repaired or strengthened at some point before the rediscovery and was about 30 centimeters that's 23 inches from the street above he also noted the top of an arch opposite the shaft the Workman discovered and concluded that it was probably an air vent or chimney to remove the smoke however he did note that the ceiling Dome had either been repaired or strengthened at some point before the rediscovery was about 30 centimeters that's 23 inches from the street above no it's not 30 said to read is not ready that's not all right is that right no 30 centimeters is the leg that we've already talked about rulers once 30 centimeters is about a foot right which is 12 inches look I remember it look I grew up in the UK so we had metric and Imperial a room is 30 centimeters 12 inches long so I don't know Wales got 23 inches from it's not correct smart he also knighted the top of an arch opposite the shaft the Workman discovered and concluded that it was probably an air vent or chimney to remove the smoke from candles and lamps since it was simply too narrow to be anything else it was for tiny children to go down today this is known as the Eastern shaft Reverend North came to the conclusion that the cave had Revolt probably around the time that the town itself was founded the next antiquarian's visit was Dr William stuckley who arrived in Royston on October the 19th in 1742. he was one of England's first field archaeologists but this was way before archeology was considered an actual field of science by this time the cave had been cleared in the carvings in the lower part of the cave revealed it's Darkly is like yo what's so where's all the stuff you dug out from here like the bones and the brass and there are we chucked it away didn't we mate doctor's off of sake no one takes me seriously and they're like yeah but you're an archaeologist basically a wizard isn't it oh look he could tell what's going on in the past oh look at the river doctor stuckley nerd starkly believed that the cave had most certainly been built as a place of worship in the earliest times of Christianity he made sketches of the cave and carvings which he published in a 1743 book paleographica Britannica or discourses on Antiquities in Britain number one being more of a scientist is drawings of the carvings were not exact a still fairly good compared with what we have today he also discovered a seal made of pipe clay and marked with a fluid lease and described the skull as female in 1790 during a particularly harsh window when work was scarce a local building contractor Thomas Watson employed his men to cut a 22 meter or 70-foot passage into the cave through the only place on the wall where there were no carvings to make it easier for visitors up to that point the only way to enter a bin at the opening via the top using either a rope Lander or by being lowered into the cave on a rope finally the original entrance found in 1742 was sealed description of Royston cave circular and bell-shaped Royston cave is relatively small only about eight meters high and 5 meters in diameter that's 26 feet by 16 feet our one study suggests that the cave might have been divided into two levels with a wooden frame that supported a raised platform there's also some speculation that there might have been walkways from the cave leading to a church but nothing like that has ever been found probably thrown away stuckily for God's sake there was all that debris it could have been Woods I'd have known about the second platform and people in my fantastic exactly fascinating as a second platform no one cares stuckly it's the past stuckley look like I care no this do I look like I care no at the base of the cave is a raised octagonal step those leaning toward the idea that the space had some religious significance believed the step was possibly used for kneeling and prayer several large niches have also been carved into chalk and probably held some kind of light source like lamps or candles and perhaps even relics just a weird memory remember the guy's been to church we have those kneeling cushions like when I went to school we had a chapel run told the story before I went to like religious school and in the chapel there were they kneeling cushions and they were all like decorative and stuff like very nice looking and I don't think we ever use those because to be like the the Reverend or whatever be like and let us pray and everyone would just like lean over no one would ever get down on their knees if you did get down on your knees you're almost certainly doing it as a joke and then the teachers couldn't be like don't get down on your knees because then it'll be like I'm just praying extra hard I just want to pray on my knees to Jesus and yeah it's not funny let's just move on sensation thanks that pointless aside Simon feel free to share more of your random memories with us when the cave was initially discovered the Dome ceiling was partially tiled at some point the original Dome ceiling was destroyed and replaced by Brick sadly whatever was left of the tiles was also chucked into the same landfill as the bones and the cut fragments you just stuck these inner person is just screaming what makes Royston caves are extraordinary is not the fact that it's a man-made cave beneath the road it's the carvings the walls of the cave are covered with unusual carvings the carvings were most likely colored at some point as one visitor in the mid-19th century reported Saint Catherine wearing a yellow dress and some red on the carvings depicting the Holy Family however due to age and damage over the years only small traces of color Remain the carvings have been described as detailed but I think that's being a bit generous it's unlikely that they were made by just one person and whoever made them probably didn't have any training in carving or sculpting so we're not looking for an artisan or an artist that doesn't make them any less interesting or valuable though the biggest mystery however is what these carvings are meant to represent and there are quite a few interpretations many of the carving things appear to be Christian in nature there are some crucifixion scenes and enough crosses to make a vampire very nervous one panel seems to focus on the death and the resurrection of Jesus there appears to be a resurrection scene with Mary Magdalene or an angel sitting on a stone rolled away from the entrance of what is presumably the grave of Jesus I like ourselves like yeah yeah they're pretty crudely drawn but that doesn't make them any less valuable I kind of does doesn't it because if there were a better draw would be like wow yeah that's Mary magda's not an angel it's not an Angel that's not an attempted a wing that's just a poofy jacket I don't know look obviously if they were super detailed and had lots of writing on them they would be like oh look we know exactly what they are above that is the hand of God releasing a dove which many interpret as the Holy Spirit beneath the dove was the body of a shrouded figure however only the head remains today some theorize that this might represent the body of Jesus within the holy smoker prior to Resurrection since the kid like these the Elsa's like yeah they're not very detailed I'm like the idea that I could draw a dove being released by our hand is absurd like my daughter was like the other day Dad I wanted I want a color in a unicorn and I'm like okay let me draw a picture of a unicorn and it looked it looked so bad it's so bad it's like I can't believe how badly I draw it looks like some sort of horse that like was just born prematurely and didn't have all its parts completed yet and it for some reason has a massive back leg and no tail I don't know what's wrong with me I just can't draw at all I sat here is that me no no it's nice it's so nice oh I've never looked better there are also a whole lot of saints including Saint Catherine holding a representation of a spiked wheel associated with a martyrdom son Loris who is also referred to as the Grail Saint and martyrd on a Gridiron holding said Gridiron and Saint Christopher considered to be the patron saint of Travelers with the Child Jesus on his shoulder and a staff in his hand finally we have a figure with the sword this could either be some Michael loss and George the patron saint of England was the sword of the saint that could either be Michael or George points to 13 figures which might represent Apostles 12 of the figures are out the same size while a 13th is smaller and appears at the back toward the right hand end of The Carving this is apparently Judas three figures that appear to be two adults and a child are also considered to be the Holy Family Joseph Mary and the Child Jesus this doesn't sound very like coherent does it it just sounds like some dude went into a cave and was like let's carve some pictures it's like well I forgot for reference I love Jesus he's just like he's just having a good time covered some bad pictures why is this so interesting why are we so into this cave it just sounds like I mean I don't want to be like dismissive of history and stuff but this is just a cave someone found underneath a road where some dude was just like scribbling some pictures into the walls it would kind of be like someone discovering like an old Road tunnel in a thousand years and being like Oh I wonder what that means and we're just looking at it and be like it's graffiti it's a tag it's just a media who sprayed it in spray paint can we please forget about it there are more figures that can't be identified some are marked with crosses which could suggest Saints while some are marked with hearts which could indicate Martyrs two small figures below San Catherine could possibly be Richard the first or Richard the lionheart and his wife Queen barangaria the Queen's Crown is floating above her head unlike the other figures whose crowns are on their heads yes that sounds like it doesn't he's I drew the high through the face too low which might refer to the fact that she was never actually crowned as Queen beneath Saint Lawrence is a figure with raised arms that has been interpreted either as King William of Scotland or King David of the Bible a similar figure can be found on a 13th century illuminated manuscript of part Psalm 69 currently held in Trinity College library Cambridge sowing King David rising from the water apparently Psalm 69 is a plea for help and to lament about being misunderstood I'm sure Royston cave can relate some of the carvings also depict what might be the Cavalry scenes with Mary and John to the left of King David or King William depending on your school of thought is a carving some interpret to be a memorial to Jacques de molet the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar oh yes about Knight's Templar okay oh however there are some alternative interpretations one author Nigel Penick argues I heard a stat about Knight the name Nigel the other day apparently no one's called Nigel anymore really it's quite a popular name like there's lots of old people called Nigel or like maybe middle-aged people but apparently there were there was like zero people who called their child Nigel last year in the UK and I'm like what's wrong with Nigel it's not like oh yeah yeah there's way less adolfs in 1945 like there's no like you know hitler-esque character called Nigel is there did I miss out on a dictator called Nigel tonight or like you know um who's that who's that pedo guy um super famous British Dude Looks super sketchy but everyone Jimmy Savile like oh Jimmy's a super popular name though because it's just James but you know it's like yeah your nickname's Jimmy after my favorite TV guy uh so there's Nigel dude argues that while most Scholars interpret these carvings as Christian iconography we tend to forget the origin of many Christian Saints and symbols one example would be the depiction of Saint Catherine according to Legend Catherine was tied to a wheel and tortured oh is that where we get Catherine wheel from that thing that spins round and like with fireworks in it and in Christian Traditions Saints are depicted with the instrument of their martyrdom which in her case happened to be a wheel however God that's morbid Catherine wheels are super fun they're just like these bright things that spin rounds and he's like yeah and it's like yeah yeah you know represents the torture of this this woman they like broke her on the wheel until she died however the figure of a woman holding a wheel can also be found on pre-christian vases depicting Persephone the queen of the underworld I can find examples of this in most images of Persephone that I could find she's holding a Sheaf of grain or a torch but I don't have access to a lot of pre-christian vases Pena also mentions Fortuna a Roman goddess who is often depicted holding a wheel symbolizing The Wheel of Fortune The Wheel of Fortune apparently there are a few sun wheels in the cave which could be Will's a fortune and this takes us back to the Roman occupation another Saint depicted in the carvings that has Pagan Roots is Saint Christopher the patron saint of Travelers the Greek goddess herpes nope Hermes by that and the Roman god Mercury they were the protector of Travelers among other things Greek and Roman gods have a diverse portfolio yeah yeah it's always like oh what's this the the god of oh well yes the god of um pies and also prostitute that's what it'll be yeah it's just so horrendous randomly assigned yet another interesting interpretation just yes that in one image a long sword appears to have a three-lobed pommel which would possibly make it a Viking sword the carvings next to the sword could be the lineage of the Normans who occupied Britain and France while some interpreters the Holy Family could be a reference to William Long's or the second ruler of Normandy who reigned from 927 to 942 his Viking father Rollo and his French mother popper of Bayo they all cut all from one carving of a very long sword oh my god well I'm glad okay so there's lots of carvings in this in this cave let's get to I want to know about the the blah blah blah the what was mysterious about this cave it just sounds like some dude went in there and just carbs them up who built Royston cave and why here we go today some details just I just want somewhere to go and like draw pictures of Jesus I don't have any friends who exactly built this cave and for what purpose is very much a mystery without any written records about the cave that before it was founded in 1742 it's unlikely that we'll ever know what the carvings mean or who carved to be the first place of course uncertainty tends to give his rise to conspiracy theories here we go so there's a whole lot of theories ranging from slightly possible to downright ridiculous now I've decided not to bother with a Freemason suit or go into the significance of the cave being important Ley lines rather we'll be considering a few theories I find interesting at least somewhat plausible so let's kick it off with everyone's favorite Ancient Aliens no I'm just joking as the Knights Templar but I bet there's someone out there who's been Lies made by aliens History Channel's probably done a whole money spinning series on it the Templars built it the Knights Templar was a religious order initially founded in 1118 with the aim to protect pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem and The Holy Land the order was persecuted in France by King Philip IV around 1307 and finally disbounded by Pope Clement the by Pope Clement in 1312. wasn't it because they wanted all the money they were like let's get rid of them and take all their money because they were like rich and stuff and they the king just was like yeah I just want that I'm just gonna take it and I'm the king so I can do what I want it's the benefit of being King is that he's got that Primus Juris noctire whatever it is he's gonna like I'm gonna sleep with all the peasants and also take them Templars money because I'm King King can do whatever he likes as we know the Templars were a wealthy order and they had strongholds all over Europe and England one of these strongholds was a nearby Baldock a town apparently founded by the Templars in the 1140s around eight miles from Royston many proponents of the Templar Theory believe that the carvings alone prove a Templar connection one carding looks like it could be two Riders on a single horse which was the symbol of the Templars despite the order being wealthy individual Knights were not so they had to fit two nights per horse really like no Rufus you have to ride today however this has been greatly disputed let's imagine these 10 ah I was like we have to share horses it's lame however this has been greatly disputed all that you can really see are two figures close together on a damaged section of the wall the carving was also altered sometime during the mid-20th century attempts at renovation so really it could be anything there's also a carving that Templar groupies firmly insist is none other than the Grand Master of the order Jacques de Malay who met his maker by burning the stake three small figures huddling together in the main other May three main Engineers of the downfall full of the Templars King Philip IV of France Pope Clement V and the Grand Master of the hospitals I've got no idea how the hospitals fit into the picture but I'm no Templar expert they probably don't it's probably just like oh yeah we're those three of them let's just uh this guy was also bad conspiracy theories where you take facts and you twist them and RAM them so hard that eventually they fit your theory even though they don't fit your theory and it's stupid a smaller figure holding a skull in his right hand and his cat and a candle in the left represents a candidate for the initiation into the order a number presumed to be a date 1347 has also been uncovered most Scholars agree that the carving seems genuine which suggests that salt was in the cave in 1347. according to the Templar Theory the Templars used the cave to meet in secret after their order was disbanded back in 1312 and only stopped using the cave in 1347 after which they filled it up and moved to Scotland or Nova Scotia or wherever homeless Templars go a firm believer in the theory that the Templars were connected to the cave was local Audrey archaeologist Sylvia Beeman who spent decades researching The Cave Beeman believed that the Templars stationed in Bardock close to Royston weren't fighting Knights they were administrators Artisans and Farmers looking after the local Templar Estates around the 12th century a market sprang up in Royston the temple sold their produce at the Royston cheese and butter Market between 11 49 and 1254. in 1199 the Templars had a dispute with the local Priory as they claimed to be exempt from tolls in English Markets so we have document to proof that the Templars most certainly were in Royston they even believed that the cave was a pre-existing structure that the knights just repurposed and had a dual function a wooden platformed via the space and the upper part was used as storage for their butter and cheese and may also appear where they've been where they stayed over for the night before returning home you know smelly so we did that there's no Refrigeration I have to sleep in the room with the cheese and the butter yeah your entire body smells a beat they weren't welcome in The Priory anymore but a brother needs to sleep the lower part of the cave was possibly used as a chapel for their daily prayers and maybe even for initiations she argued that the carvings in the cave are similar to the ones found at other Templar sites across Europe such as the Tour de cordray in the Chateau de shinon in France where a number of Templars including the last Grand Master were imprisoned before he met their maker in 1308. the circular design she interprets as a reference to the hurt Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem the small step that might have been used for prayer or contemplating the carvings was also a common feature in round churches and can be seen in the Temple Church in London and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Cambridge sounds like not a bad Theory to be honest I'm a bit skeptical about the Templar cave Theory okay but for the most part beaman's work is fairly solid however when there are templates involved the theories will become more elaborate one theory states that the cave and an entirely ritualistic purpose it was a meeting place where the Templars assembled to pledge their loyalty to one another and be initiated into a secret underground order because the Templars are apparently not mysterious enough as is this sounds like okay so you've got one researcher he's like yeah it could be this look at this this circular thing the things are quite similar and you're like yeah yeah okay and then someone else comes along and be like yeah yeah and also what if it was like the secret rituals and stuff yeah and the person at Cambridge probably like well no no that's not what the hell is that I'm gonna write about it on the internet and then the next thing you know people are like it's a mysterious cave for Templars doing rituals maybe there's child sacrifice and then you know you're down the rabbit hole aren't you a reception was possibly held on the upper level where the initiates were prepared before being allowed to access the lower chamber by ladder similar to how candidates are prepared for degrees in masonry on the floor of the cave after descending a very short lad at the initiate probably underwent some kind of ceremony which required him to pass through the structural grave of the cave to signify death and spiritual Rebirth of course some of us are a little skeptical about this Templar Theory I'm skeptical about it because it's like yeah now you're just guessing you're not looking at stuff like the academic person and being like this looks like this this looks like this this could be this you're like just you're just telling a story aren't you a stylistic examination of the caves was done in 2012 by the Royal armories Museum in Leeds according to this analysis the male costumes and headdressers is oh well as the hairstyles of the women's address the carvings were made between 1360 and 1390 by which time the Templars had already been disbanded other reports have also pointed out that plate armor worn by some of the figures wasn't commonly available in the 11th and 12th centuries but rather shows up in the 15th and 16th centuries the report also concluded that it was highly unlikely that any of the carvings were made before 1350 a century after the Templars were visiting the market in Royston in a few decades after they were persecuted and disbanded it's also worth noting that while the carvings appear to be religious in nature they don't depict some of the symbolism mostly associated with the Templar such as two knights on a horse the carvings psych body [Music] the carvings found at Templar sites across Europe including heart stars of Davids and geometrical patterns but images that were common at the time and thus not unique to the Templar order meaning the carvings in the cave are not uniquely Templar either the floor plan of the cave is round and the Templars like to build round churches however much like the carvings they weren't the only ones doing it oh well this is kind of like when I first read about the Cambridge academic person I was kind of like oh that's pretty compelling they were the same as these other Templar churches and it's like yeah but lots of other people doing it as well it's like well okay so what makes it more likely to be the Templars than what the other random people is there something in support of that because I don't remember anything finally the Templars weren't a Subterranean order sure tunnels have been found under Templar strongholds but once again this isn't a practice limited to the Templars in a time when your stronghold could end up besieged for months it was useful to have a back door the Templar theory is still the most popular Theory and unfortunately many people seem to accept this as fact there's no way to prove whether the Templars used the k or not but if we immediately accept this as the only truth we lose out on so many other interesting possibilities what are those other possibilities well I'm so glad you are Simon it's just a dude it's just some deities I gotta go Digger the helm uh helmet helmet was in the title of this piece this is just a dude who dug out a cave and then carved some into some chalk otherwise being like yeah I love Jesus I just call the picture of Jesus and this Jesus is a baby it's Jesus is an adult Jesus on the cross Jesus having dinner you know it's just that's it it's just a dude home to a Hermit here we go the Templar Theory might be the most popular but to me the hermit Theory seems more plausible in the SAT yeah it's like of course it's more popular because it's more interesting that's like some TV shows are more popular than others doesn't mean that you know one's more truthful than the other in the saxophone period it was common it was a common practice for a Hermitage to be by the side of a road a Hermitage is basically a place where a person would live in religious seclusion so it's the dude drawing Jesus I said what I said and then I'm not changing on it okay some researchers as The Travelers would pay the hermit to pray for a safe journey and since Royston is at the crossroads at two important roads it would be a good place for a Hermit to spend his days hermiting in 1742 William stuckley observed that crosses and hermitages were common in a time when people were more religious than literate the cross would remind the faithful to pray while the hermit could tell them which road would take them to their final destination the image of Saint Christopher harmies or Mercury the protector of Travelers depending on your religion certainly supports this Theory some of the less notable and unidentified figures among the carvings in Royston could represent some of the hermit's more generous benefactors according to a medieval rule for Herbert the crucifixion scene was considered the only essential piece of furniture for a Hermit which would greatly simplify interior decorating it could be one explanation for the crucifixion scene and Crosses carved into the walls wait do they know what furniture is the only essential piece of furniture is a picture that's crazy to be like I wanted a bed where am I going to sit just on the floor what the in 1184 in August stinian Priory was built in Royston and quarrying for stone could be a plausible reason for the creation of Royston cave once The Priory had the cave it's within the realm of possibility that they decided to use the cave either as a storm or a Hermitage depending on whether they had a Hermit on staff as we've already stated the carvings were not made by a skilled artist and probably more by more uh more than one person which would explain the occasional repetition and why there doesn't seem to be any particular order to the carvings if the cave was indeed a Hermitage the carvings were possibly inspired by visions the inhabitants had while spending their days in darkness I like isolation sometimes but I'll take the cabin in the woods over a hole in the ground anytime soon yeah and after a while you're just gonna go crazy like if you're left alone without social contact like people survive this right till they start imagining like um what's his face Tom Hanks talking to Wilson in that movie Castaway that must happen right I'd be taught I talk to myself just alone in my office just like wandering around just sometimes I'll catch myself and I'm like if someone was listening to you right now they'd think you're mad just like just be wandering around talking to myself if I was actually left alone like abandoned somewhere in the forest I think I'd be mental within a week in 2020 Keith Fitzpatrick Matthews archaeologist and curator of the local Museum provided more proof to back up this Theory right which Theory uh the Oh The Hermitage Theory sorry tiny brain Fitzpatrick Matthews dated the carvings in the cave to the late 15th century based on similarities between the carvings in the cave and carvings and paintings in churches of the period if you accept this date we have a possible candidate for who made the cave in the varied or in the very least lived in the cave at some point and made the carvings on the wall in 1506 a Royston hermit died unfortunately we have no name and in 1540 a Hermitage in the parish was sold or we could have at least written like you know name of hermit was here or something in the world couldn't have then we'd know just look you graffitied the out of the place anyway why not write your name on it the documentation doesn't specify what or where this Hermitage was but Royston cave is certainly a strong Contender The Hermitage was bought by Robert Chester the same person who built a prison house on Street around 1550. fun side fact there the cave would have made an ideal prison cell no one is going to be escaping from a man-made cave with only one entrance if the carvings weren't the work of a board yet determined hermit they might have been done by bored prisoners Fitzpatrick Matthews also pointed out that the fragments of the brown cup that were thrown away when the cave was rediscovered doesn't match any known star from the medieval period however it does match the description of slipware earthenware used in the 16th and 17th century the pipe Play Seal found later in the cave is also unlikely to have been made before the 16th century this suggests that the cave was probably filled during the late 16th or early 17th century possibly because the carvings were considered Catholic and the country was now Protestant while this Theory seems more likely it's still speculation in 1536 to 1541 Henry VII closed monasteries priorities and convents in England Ireland and Wales and The Priory of Royston was one of many to fall with the dissolution of The Priory any records of a connection between The Priory and the cave were destroyed or lost so thanks a lot Henry you Bell yeah I mean I just think it's this is this is sorry that's the end of this section and I just think it's that I think this is it it's just some random dude in the cave making drawings on the wall it's got nothing to do with the Templars that's just people's overactive imaginations they read something that some academics editors are that's an interesting similarity and went wild with it a noble Chapel to understand where this Theory comes from I first need to look at the history of Royston specifically how it's got its name today Royston cave is located beneath Melbourne Street but hundreds of years ago the town looks slightly different Melbourne Street was icknield way an Iron Age track running all the way from East Anglia to Salisbury Plain then around 2000 years ago the Romans built a mine street that ran from York or ebarakum in the north to London or londinium in the South these two prehistoric roads crossed at Royston in Roman times it was common practice to erect shrines at important Crossroads later Christians would replace these shrines with Christian shrines or more commonly crosses in 1184 we find the first mention of a cross at the crossroads called The Crew row AZ so according to Legend the cross was placed by Lady Rozier or rohesia the base of the Cross can still be seen in the Town Square today leaving it in the middle of the crossroad would of course some minor traffic delays yeah yeah because now we have like Fast Vehicles eventually it became rocia's cross and then Rosie as town and finally Royston it's theorized that this same lady roycer used Royston cave as a private Chapel during her lifetime and finally as a crypt oh it was her bones and they're just like throw in the bed let's find that treasure William stuck even thought that the Scully found in the cave belonged to the mysterious lady Rosia so who was this important Lady of the cave well as with most aspects of the mystery we don't know but there are a few contenders for the title one possibility this is that she was the wife of Willian the conquerors Steward Udo dapatha he was a very important man who owned land in Royston around 1066 now the possibility Israel devir the wife of Jeffrey de Mandeville uh the first Earl of Essex who passed away in 1170. a third lady this could be referring to is rahis De malbre daughter of Richard declar a man with a long list of titles among them fifth Earl of Hertford she was also known as Rozier and she died in 1299. so to recap one of these Fair ladies or possibly none of them put up a cross at a crossroad used the cave as a chapel and finally a resting place and eventually gave the town its name if only someone had thought to make a note of the exact lineage of Our Lady of the cave I still think it's the Hermits this is a fine Theory I mean it's better than like Templars but it's a dude it's the dude it's the hermit in the cave just drawing some pictures of Jesus it is I swear okay we have one final theory that I think it's gonna beat out the dude in the cave one of the many things the Roman soldiers brought with them to Britain was their worship of mithras the origins of this mystery culture a bit complex but suffice to say he was one of many Roman gods honestly I don't know much about the Romans in Britain other than they managed to lose a legion in Scotland so I found this Theory particularly interesting I don't really I mean yeah I know that Romans were Britain and stuff mostly you're reminded of it today because you're just driving along the site that is an incredibly straight road they just built these super we call them Roman roads they're just like Mega straight let's just go on into the distance I remember the school the road between where I went to school and where I lived it was just one like enormously straight road just like miles and miles of just straight road uh we do know that Roman legionaries were more than just fighting men they were competent engineers and could construct roads and forts the legionnaires building the road from London to York certainly would that the skill and dime to excavate the cave from the soft chalk bedrock and used it as a temple to mithras it also wouldn't be the only mythrea mythrium in England another important myth room was discovered in London in 1954. according to Legends mithras killed a bull in a cave so mithriam is usually an adapted or natural cave or Cavern or a building imitating a cave that was mostly built underneath existing buildings most temples to mithras have a vent in the ceiling to create a source of light much like the Eastern shaft at Royston cave in 1852 Joseph Bedlam an English historian and writer noted that the niche is carved into the walls assumed to be made to hold lamps or candles resembled similar features seen in Roman Etruscan and Phoenician tombs it was also common practice to decorate a mythrium with carvings and painted scenes and we know that the carvings in Royston were colored at some point in time one thing that puzzled me about this cave is the fact that it is full of carvings except for one section where the new entrance was dug that seemed mightily convenient to me however a mythrium him would explain this the central mystery of mithras's Celebration was a seven stage initiation these stages would sometimes be marked on the floor in Mosaic or in relief on the walls an eight-sided cave would allow room for the seven stages and a blank side meant for the Altarpiece the cave was probably looted at some point and loose relics and alter pieces were stolen or perhaps the Roman soldiers took it with them when they left Britain actually this sounds super reasonable I don't think it's quite as likely as the uh the dude in the cave Theory but this isn't bad the carvings in Royston cave are mostly interpreted as Christian but the religion of mithras and Christianity were contemporaries so they shared symbolism also these carvings are not exactly that detailed so what some consider to be the dove of Christ could be the Raven of mithras and like Jesus mithras had 12 companions the Gridiron held bison Lawrence could indicate the stages of initiation however some of the most prominent symbolism of mithras is missing a depiction of mithras slaying the bull is very important but nowhere to be found in Royston cave the worship of mithras was considered a rival to Christianity in practitioners of this Faith were persecuted until the practice was eliminated in Rome so it's possible that the cave started out as a temple to mithras but once the Romans left the original carvings were altered by Christians leaving us with a puzzle on our hands conclusion uh just before we get into illness conclusion I I definitely think alarm 80 I'm 70 sure it was a man in the cave and it is not I'm 29 sure that it's the um you know the the the cave we just talked about that that with the eight-sided thing and then maybe I'm one percent like yeah it's a Templars but it's not is it so we know there was someone in the cave in 1347 if the date found is not a forgery at some point after that the cave was probably filled in when it was abandoned either to hide it or simply because it was no longer being used of course considering the skull and bone fragments it could have been a crypt that was sealed up and forgotten I don't think we'll ever know who built it but as for who used it I have a little theory of my own based on the most likely theories well why not all of them the cave is a pretty permanent structure it won't rot away like wood or get raised the ground in a Siege the Romans left England in 383 C oh that makes sense yeah it was like maybe the Romans made it and then the Hermitage dude came in later okay yeah you got a point if they were the ones who built it they certainly didn't need us anymore I don't see why a lady Rosa couldn't have used it as a chapel there's no tunnel linking the cave to The Priory so I find it unlikely that The Priory used the storeroom it would just be impractical however I can see the Templars using it when visiting the market and to her bit moving in after the Templar stopped coming around but I don't really think there's much evidence for it being the Templars it's just like a couple of coincidences and other people were doing similar stuff like as the Templars design wise at the same time so I just don't I think like that's someone trying to jam the Templars into history because that's conspiratorial and fun or whatever but I just think it's the more boring options some old lady or what some important old lady used it as a chapel and then was buried there and then a Hermit later on came along and chilled down in there because that's what Hermits do that's what I think is likely if every group that used it and perhaps the odd peasant taking shelter along the way to a market or visiting relatives added their own little bit of graffiti that would explain the mashup of symbolism and religions and the fact that there doesn't seem to be any particular Rhyme or Reason to the carvings themselves at the end of the day all we want to do is be remembered we all want to Mark our time spent on this Earth in one way or another and since not all of us will have successful YouTube channel leaving my important mark on the world sometimes the only way to do that is to kind of a crude picture on a cave wall or quote Shakespeare on the door of a bathroom stall yes and that's where we end today's video thank you so much for being here if you enjoyed it please leave a review on Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast and if you're watching this on YouTube you got to saw my brilliant picture of a unicorn uh like subscribe and I'll see you next time thanks for watching thank you [Music]

Channel: Decoding the Unknown

Views: 160,986

Keywords: royston cave, knights templar (order of chivalry), cave (geographical feature category), templar, templars, history, england (country), cave, interesting, books

Id: dc6fy66TnHs

Length: 45min 28sec (2728 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 07 2023