Beverley

Beverley is a market town, civil parish and the county town of the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Beverley Preceptory, Knights Hospitaller

founded c.1201, manor of the Holy Trinity and other endowments granted by Sybilla de Valoniis;
dissolved 1540; granted to William Berkeley 1544/5

A preceptory was established at Beverley at the beginning of the 13th century, probably in 1201, when Sybil de Beverley, second wife of the third Lord Percy, gave to the Knights Hospitallers the manor of Holy Trinity, east of Beverley, the manor of North Burton and other lands.  In 1338, besides their house and grounds at Beverley, the knights had some 350 acres at Burton, 150 acres at Fitling, 120 at Walsay, 270 at Cleving, and about the same at Dalton. The voluntary offerings collected in the district were reckoned at £20, the whole issues being rather over 125 marks. From this had to be deducted various expenses for the exercise of hospitality, as enjoined by the founders, and for the support of the establishment, consisting of a preceptor, Simon Fauconer, knight, and two brethren, Simon Belcher, knight, and Philip Ewyas, sergeant, two chaplains and clerks employed to collect the voluntary offerings, a steward and the usual retinue of servants. The clear yearly profits amounted to 60 marks. The estates of the Templars' preceptory of Westerdale were at a later date put under the commander, or preceptor of Beverley, and the total value of the preceptory of Beverley was returned in 1535 as £164 9s. 10d. John Sutton was preceptor at this time, as he had been in 1528, and continued to hold the post until the suppression of the order in 1540, when he was given a pension of £200.

The Church of St. Mary, Beverley, is supposed to have had upon its site, a Chapel of Ease dedicated to St. Martin by Archbishop Thurston, of York, between 1114-42; it is certain, however, that it was constituted a Vicarage of St. Mary in 1325. The Nave was built about 1450, and consists of six bays and seven clerestory windows, but in 1530 the upper part of the central tower fell upon the Nave with
much loss of life. Its pillar was erected by the Guild of Minstrels, which like that of the Masons, claimed to date from Saxon times; it has upon the fluted cornishes five figures of the Minstrels with their instruments, of which only two respectively with guitar and pipe are intact; and stands on the north side facing the pulpit. The "Misere" stalls in the chancel are of the 15th century, with carved bas reliefs under the seats; one of these represents a "fox" shot through the body with a woodman's arrow, and a "monkey" approaching with a bottle of physic.

Around 1450 the will of a mason from Beverley gives a tantalising glimpse into the emergence of masonic regalia. An inventory of John Cadeby's possessions mentions several zonas, or girdles. Two were silver mounted, and one of these had the letters B and I in the middle, indicating Boaz and Jachin, the twin pillars of Solomon's Temple.

The Templars are everywhere

The arrest of the Templars in 1307, the suppression of the order in 1312 and the execution of Jacques the Molay in 1314 saw the end of the order in the eyes of academic historians. Nevertheless, the order did not cease to exist. Given the number of knights who escaped, who remained at large or who were acquitted, it would be surprising if it had.

Although King Philip's seizure and destruction of Jacques the Molay and the French Templars was quite efficient, there is no record of hid finding the Templar treasure in Paris of the secret archives of the order or its fleet, based mainly at La Rochelle in Brittany. Much evidence and some tradition points to the removal of the treasure and most of the archives on ships, with refugee Templars taking these to Portugal and to the west and east coasts of Scotland, where they were welcomed.

There is documented history for the Templars in Scotland. Following the foundation of the order in c.1119, Hugh de Payens came to England in 1128. King David of Scotland invited him to come north of the border and probably gave him land at Balantrodoch, to the south of Edinburgh. This is now known as Temple, and is where one of the order's two Scottish preceptories was founded, the other being Maryculter on the River Dee to the south-west of Aberdeen. The order also had posessions in Lothian, Falkirk and Glasgow.

Only two Templars were arrested in Scotland, Walter Clifton and William Middleton, a native of Northumberland, born near Newcastle.

In Portugal, the Templars took the name of the Knights of Christ. Columbus's father-in-law was a member of this order and it was with nautical charts inherited from this relative that Columbus undertook his voyage of discovery.

Who and when?

The date of the story is of course uncertain, but nine ascending generations from the late General Lambton, in whom popular tradition affirmed the curse to expire, would exactly reach to Sir John Lambton, Knight of Rhodes, of whom this curious entry stands in an old MS pedigree, lately in possession of the family of Middleton of Offerton:

'Johan Lambeton that slewe ye Worme was Knight of Rhoodes and Lord of Lambeton and Wod Apilton efter the dethe of fower brothers sans esshewe masle'.

That the knight ever succeeded to the family estates however contradicts the proven pedigree.

"The history of the holy, military, sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem; or, Knights Hospitallers, Knights Templars, Knights of Rhoades, Knights of Malta"  :

Sir William d'Aunay the Turcopolier, and Sir John Lambton, are selected as of the most renowned
knightfif of the English language in 1454.

Ancient and Modern Malta: Containing a Description of the Ports..., Vol. 3, by Pierre Marie Louis de Boisgelin de Kerdu, Priors and Grand Priors of England, Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem and of Rhodes:

Sir William d'Aunay the Turcopolier in the year 1453

Hospitaller Sources, calendar for 1450:

23 December, 1450
The Master Fr Jean de Lastic and the Convent to Fr John Langstrother preceptor and receiver in the priory of England: inform him that Fr John Lambeton has rendered account in front of the administrators of the Treasury about his preceptory Beverley and his expenditures as lieutenant turcopolier and for the English brethren in the Convent; from this it follows that they owe him 107 fl. 11 asp. 14 d. Rhodesian currency; Fr Langstrother shall pay him from the first incomes from mortuaria and vancantiae in England without using the responsions.

Ancient and honourable family of Lambton

John de Lamtun was witness to the charter of Uchtred de Wodeshend between 1180 and 1200.

Robert de Lambton, Lord of Lambton son and heir of William son of Robert, occurs in an inquisition in 1350, then aged 24 years. His son, William de Lambton, married Alice daughter of Salcock of Salcock, Lancaster. He was succeeded by his son, William de Lambton.

William de Lambton was born on 1 Jan 1390 in Lambton, Durham, England, son of William de Lambton and Alice Salcock. He married Elizabeth about 1405 in Lambton, and died before 1432/1433.

The Church of Chester-le-Street - on a brass plate in the Lambton pew, in the South aile, now removed:

Orate pro animabus Wiltimi Lambton, arm. qui obiit 20 July 1430, et Alicie uxoris ejus quæ obiit 143., quor. animabus propitietur Deus.

(Pray for the souls of Wiltimi Lambton, arm. who died 20 July 1430, and Alice, his wife who died the 143., whose. for merciful God.)

Arms, Lambton, impaling, Argent, three dunghill-cocks Gules, Salcock

William and Elizabeth had the following children:
Robert Lambton- born in 1406 in Lambton, Durham, England. Married Joanna. He died after 11 Mar 1442 in London, Middlesex, England, and was buried in Church Of The Friars Carmelites, London. Will dated 11 March 1442, proved 1443.

Thomas Lambton-1408

William Lambton-born about 1410 in Lambton, Durham, England. Named in his mother’s will 1439 and that of his brother Thomas 1442, Master of University College Oxford 1461.

John Lambton- born about 1412 in Lambton, Durham, England. Named in his mother’s will 1349 and his brother in 1442, then Knight of Rhodes.

Alice Lambton-born about 1414 in Lambton, Durham, England. Mentioned in her mother’s will in 1439.

 Elizabeth Lambton- born about 1416 in Lambton, Durham, England.
             
In the 1500s, a John Lambton married Agnes Lumley, of Ludworth, forming a link between the Lumleys and Lambtons, and this also added some royal blood to the Lambton line because Agnes was a great-granddaughter of King Edward IV.

The Lambtons were a family of good and valorous repute long before the date of their family legend, which only ascends to the fourteenth century and it does not appear that the hero of the tale reaped any thing from his adventure, except the honour of the achievement and a very singular curse on his descendants to the ninth generation.

Popular tradition assigns the chapel of Brugeford as the spot where Lambton offered up his vows before and after the adventure (this foundation however it has been shown existed at a period antecedent to the earliest date assigned to the legend).

In the garden house at Lambton are two figures of no great antiquity. A knight in good style armed cap-a-pee, the back studded with razor blades, who holds the Worm by one ear with his left hand, and with his right crams his sword to the hilt down his throat, and a lady who wears a coronet with bare breasts &c in the style of Charles II Beauties, a wound on whose bosom, and an accidental mutilation of the hand, are said to have been the work of the Worm. A real good Andrea Ferrara, inscribed on the blade 152,1 notwithstanding the date, has been also pressed into the service and is said to be the identical weapon by which the Worm perished .

Penshaw Hill

Penshaw Hill is a hill fort so far missed by archaeology because of a later addition - A mock Greek temple. Because of this little is known about it other than the physical and some limited documentary evidence. Penshaw is the only triple rampart Iron Age hill fort known to exist in the north of England. It has a similar feel to Almondbury, and probably dates from the early to mid Iron Age. To add to the mystique, Penshaw Monument, which is built on top, may have been built using stone taken from a Roman dam at Sunderland.

 

Plan of the Ramparts and Monument

 

 

 

 

1864 OS Map entry for 'Painshaw Hill'

The Lost Hill Fort

 

As a consequence of the building of the monument, as well as previous quarrying on both sides of the hill, most of the earthworks were lost, today only the side closest to the nearby road has visible remains of the hill fort, even these have been assumed to be related to the monument or the quarries and little attention has been paid to the significance of this ancient site. Even the OS map of 1864, published twenty years after the erection of the monument, notes the earthworks simply as 'old quaries'

 

The first evidence as to the age of the earthworks themselves comes from a surprising source - local myth. Local legend has it that the dragon slept whilst coiled around the hill, which is how the hill got its rings. It's not often that legend plays a part in evidence for the existence of a hillfort but this legend, since it mentions the crusades does at least indicate the both the antiquity of this feature and its appearance prior to the quarries and monument.

 

The triple ramparts can be clearly seen in the photo above. In the grassed area the ramparts have been flattened and the ditches filled, but these are much better preserved in the tree covered areas to each side.

 

The main footpath leading to Penshaw Monument rises sharply up the steep side of the hill, it crosses three earth 'steps' which on further investigation are revealed to ramparts of an apparently Iron Age hill fort, each rampart having a ditch behind it. Ramparts such as these, but on a larger scale are preserved at Maiden Castle in Dorset.

Unfortunately although the rampart is highly visible in the woods to either side of the track, on each side they disappear into extensive quarry areas. Until recently this was thought to be all that existed of the ramparts however investigations to the north east of the Monument have revealed that the three banks of the rampart can be seen running between the quarry and the wood to the north. The banks are today only a few inches high and their path through the woods is now obscured.

A further indicator that this is a place of antiquity lies in its name - Pen is a pre-roman name meaning top, hill or head.

View at top of first rampart, clearly the original fort had a considerable rampart, most of which has been eroded to fill the ditches either side.

 

 

A Roman Monument?

 

 

Opus Revinctum and Lewis holes at Penshaw Monument

More detailed investigation of the Penshaw Monument has revealed startling evidence that the monument itself mat has been created by the demolition of an earlier Roman structure. The strongest evidence is located in the 'debris' stones that lie beside the monument, these seem to be in there original shape and have Roman type 'Opus Revinctum' and Lewis Holes. It is known that this combination of stones features makes these stones highly likely to have been Roman in origin, Opus Revinctum or iron strapping was extensively used with Roman river works and was forgotten as a building method after the decline of the Roman empire.

 

 

One of the many Lewis holes in the base of Penshaw Monument

The base of the temple has a great many lewis - holed stones visible, although they have been filled, they indicate that there is a good chance that the base of Penshaw Monument was built from the same stone that was put alongside the monument.

 

Hylton Roman Dam

The possibility exists that Penshaw was built using stones recovered after the demolition of the Roman Dam at Hylton, Sunderland. It's a possibly tenuous link, but it is known that at the same time as the monument was built by craftsmen based in Sunderland, a large damlike structure across the Wear was being demolished to improve keelboat navigation. In his book 'Chester-le-Street and its place in history' Ray Selkirk makes a significant step in proving the Roman origin of this structure.

 

Circular anomaly

At the base of the hill, with one of the footpaths running though it is clearly a circular anomaly, about 8m in diameter. Nothing further is known about it but given the sites lineage this feature could well be important.

 

 

Picture of the circular anomaly at the foot of Penshaw Hill

 

Penshaw Monument

The monument was built in 1844 in honour of John George Lambton, the first Earl of Durham.

The Monument stands 136 metres above sea level. It was designed to be a copy of the Theseion, the Temple of Hephaestus, in Athens. It has also been linked with the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. It is built twice the size of the original. It was designed by Newcastle architects, John and Benjamin Green and built by Thomas Pratt of Sunderland. The Monument is the best preserved model of a Doric Hexastyle temple in Britain. The Marquess of Londonderry presented Penshaw Hill as a suitable site.

The foundation stone was laid by the Marquess of Zetland on 28th August 1844, four years after the death of the Earl. An inscription which has since been erased read as follows:

This stone was laid by Thomas, Earl of Zetland, Grandmaster of the Free and Accepted Masons of England, assisted by the Brethren of the Provinces of Durham and Northumberland, on August 28th 1844 being the Foundation Stone of a memorial to be erected to the memory of John George, Earl of Durham, who after representing the County of Durham in Parliament for 15 years was raised to the Peerage, and subsequently held the offices of Lord Privy Seal, Ambassador-Extraordinary and Minister of the Court of Petersburg and Governor-General of Canada. He died July 28th 1840, in the 49th year of his age. This monument will be erected by the private subscriptions of his fellow countrymen, admirers of his distinguished talents and exemplary private virtues.

The structure consists of four major parts. The stylobate is the base and foundation that supports the rest of the structure. The smooth columns, of which there are eighteen in a four by seven arrangement, are known as Doric columns. This was the first and oldest order of Greek architecture characterised by massive columns without ornament at the base or top. The columns are solid except one which contains a spiral staircase providing access to the upper walkways. This was originally open to the public but was permanently closed after a fifteen year old boy fell to his death.

Resting on the columns is the entablature which itself can be split into three main parts. The architrave, the main spanning beam across the tops of the pillars. Above the architrave is the frieze, the central patterned section. Then the cornice is the upper part which projects outwards. Finally, the pediments are the triangular facings at each end of the Monument.
              
It is 100 feet (30 metres) long, 53 feet (16 metres) wide and 70 feet (20 metres) high. The columns are each 6 feet and 6 inches (2 metres) in diameter. 

The Order of the Knights of Rhodes and the Legend of the Dragon of Rhodes

In “The Curse of the Lambton Worm”, a possible connection between the legend of the Lambton Worm to a 14th century legend about the Dragon of Rhodes is mentioned. Sir John Lambton, as a Knight of Rhodes himself, would have been fully aware of the legend and would no doubt have recounted the story on his return to England. The legend of the Dragon of Rhodes, and details of the Order of the Knights of Rhodes is expanded below:

The Order of the Knights of Rhodes was founded from the Order of St. John, or the Hospitallers, which was an order of sworn brethren which had arisen at the time of the first Crusades. The Order of St John was begun in Jerusalem by monks who assisted penniless pilgrims who arrived at the city by not only feeding and housing them, but also doing their best to cure the many diseases that they caught on the journey. The Hospitallers obtained permission from the Pope to become warriors as well as monks so that they could further the Christian cause in Jerusalem. They were thus all in one – knights, priests, and nurses; and their monasteries became both castles and hospitals; where the sick pilgrim or wounded Crusader was sure of medical care, and, if he recovered, an escort to safety.

Around 1309 the island of Rhodes became home to this Order, and they became known as the Knights of Rhodes, in existence until 1522.

A few years after the Order of the Knights of Rhodes was founded on the island, Rhodes was ravaged by an enormous creature living in a swamp at the foot of Mount St. Stephen, about two miles from the city of Rhodes. It devoured sheep and cattle when they came to the water to drink, and even young shepherd boys went missing. Known locally as a dragon, it has been suggested that a crocodile or serpent might have been brought over by storms or currents from Africa, which could have grown to a formidable size unnoticed among the marshes, or grown with the re-telling of the story! Pilgrims visiting the Chapel of St. Stephen, on the hill above its lair, put their lives at risk as it was rumoured that they may be devoured by the dragon before they could climb the hill.

Several brave knights had tried to kill the creature, but the dragon was said to have been covered with impenetrable scales and all had perished in the attempt. At last the Grand Master, Helion de Villeneuve, forbade any further attempts to kill the creature.

A young French knight, however, named Dieudonné de Goza (also known as de Gozo or de Gozon), who had seen the creature but had never managed to attack it, was unwilling to give up. He requested leave of absence, returned to his father’s castle in Languedoc, and had a model made of the monster. He had noticed that the creature’s belly was unprotected by scales, but was impossible to reach due to its huge teeth and lashing tail. He made the stomach of his model hollow and filled it with food, then trained two fierce young mastiffs to attack the underside of the monster, while he earfuld attacking the monster from above, mounted on his warhorse.

When he was satisfied that the horse and dogs were trained, he returned to Rhodes, landing in a remote part of the island for fear of being prevented from carrying out his plan. Having prayed at the chapel of St. Stephen, he left his two French squires, instructing them to return home if he were slain, but to watch and come to him if he killed the dragon, or was injured by it. He then rode down the hill towards the haunt of the dragon. It roused itself as he came, and at first he charged it with his lance, which was useless against the scales. His horse was quick to notice the difference between the true and the false monster, and reared up, so that Dieudonne was forced to leap to the ground and was knocked down by the monster’s lashing tail; but the two dogs attacked the creature as they had been trained, and the knight, regaining his feet, plunged his sword into the creature. When the servants finally arrived, they found the knight lying apparently dead under the carcass of the dragon, but they managed to revive him and brought him into the city amid the ecstatic shouts of the whole populace, who conducted him in triumph to the palace of the Grand Master.

There was, however, a great moral to be learnt from this tale – which was probably recounted to all the succeeding probationary Knights of Rhodes, including Sir John Lambton – for despite praising the knight for his brave actions, the Grand Master, Villeneuve, was angry with his disobedience and dismissed him from the Order. As he pointed out, the discipline of the Order of Rhodes was humility and implicit obedience to the Grand Master, and Dieudonné had broken this vow and followed his own self-will. Dieudonné was, however, eventually reinstated, and the dragon’s head was set up over the gate of the city, where historians allegedly saw it even in the seventeenth century, describing it as larger than that of a horse, with a huge mouth and teeth and very large eyes. Dieudonné de Goza was elected to the Grand Mastership after the death of Villeneuve in 1346, and was reputed to be a great soldier, much loved by all the poor peasants of the island, to whom he was exceedingly kind. He died in 1353, and his tomb is said to have been inscribed with these words:
“Here lies the Dragon Slayer.”