The Tunnels of Hertford -
I have read all the local history books, spent more than a few hours with tired eyes scouring the Internet and all I can offer as regards the Knights Templar in Hertford is this paragraph from H C Andrews ‘The Chronicles of Hertford Castle’.
‘In January, 1308, the whole of the Knights Templars in England were arrested by the King’s orders, so in February a sorry group of six of the brethren arrived from their Preceptory at Temple Dinsley near Hitchin as prisoners at Hertford Castle; and during their incarceration there, from 14 February to 12 June, Temple Dinsley manor was charged with the cost of their maintenance. Two of them were perhaps the Richard Peltevyn and Henry de Paul who were afterwards sent to the Tower of London.’
That is it. That is all that connects Hertford to the Knights Templar. There is no mention anywhere if they were imprisoned in the cells, the dungeons or in one of the state rooms.
There is nothing of what happened to them on their release, of the other four if indeed two were sent to the Tower. There is nothing about any treasure brought to Hertford with them and confiscated. There is no mention of the Holy Grail.
There is nothing more that can be said as there is no more information. Everything else is conjecture; including the Holy Grail. That is not to say there is no connection in Hertfordshire with the Knights Templar; there is evidence at nearby Bengeo where they held land, at Hitchin and Royston but Hertford? Nothing.
Treasure? Well maybe this little story helps, care of the Hertford Oral History Group
and ex-
In 1609 a servant reported to the lessee of the castle that treasure had been discovered in the grounds during some demolition work. Whilst excavations were going on a local preacher John Deacon reported seeing a golden object with lettering but it was lodged in such a way that it was impossible to recover it. A week later it was uncovered and denounced as a forgery being a plain chamber pot. Deacon was found guilty of spreading a rumour and committed to gaol from Friday to Monday as an imposter.
That too is the only mention of buried treasure within or outside the grounds of Hertford Castle.
The Knights Templar
The Freemasons
Of the Freemasons there is more substantial evidence.
THE HERTFORD LODGE, NO. 403
Reproduced from the programme for the 175th Anniversary meeting
There was no lodge in Hertfordshire in 1829, so a group of members of the Grand Master’s Lodge, No. 1, supported two of their brethren who lived in Ware, in the petition to the Duke of Sussex, M.W. Grand Master, for the formation of a lodge in the county town. Without delay His Royal Highness issued a warrant, dated the 31st of August 1829, and the Hertford Lodge was constituted. The Consecration Meeting took place at the Salisbury Arms Hotel on the 8th of September, under the direction of Bro. John Bott, PJGD. Bro. Francis Crew, a bookseller of Lamb’s Conduit Street, London, was installed as its first Master.
Within a month, Crew had written to the Duke of Sussex requesting a dispensation, “in consideration of this being a new and most prosperous Lodge”, to initiate a number of gentlemen, including the Most Noble The Marquess of Salisbury of Hatfield House who in 1833 became Provincial Grand Master.
John Norris,
Director of Ceremonies
The getting of wisdom
The Salisbury Arms Hotel
The chimney at Sheffield Chemist
Close up of the owl
To my certain knowledge lodges still meet at the Salisbury. I once entered both meeting rooms on the first floor of the Salisbury on a misunderstanding that the Hertford Fun Day committee had booked one of them. I interrupted many a member tying on his apron and was greeted by a chorus of ‘Good Evening John’ by the majority of the members in both rooms. I was not then, nor am now a member of any Freemason Lodge. They do meet regularly and there is very little secrecy about it.
I always thought I knew most about our county town until standing outside the Corn
Exchange in 2008 talking to another resident about the Tesco exhibition that was
being held there. She expressed her own surprise at not having seen it before but
directed my gaze to the opposite side of Fore Street above Sheffield Chemist. They
have been trading there since 1804 but the shop front is of 1820-
On the chimney stack that is shared by Sheffield Chemists and the Nationwide is the figure of a stone owl. This is the mason’s symbol of wisdom. For now and then photos of Fore Street with another view of this owl see Fore Street page.
The owl can only be seen within a limited angle of vision. It appears to face the Corn Exchange and can best be viewed from the doorway of this building and a few yards in either direction east and west. Otherwise it is hidden once you reach the traffic island in the middle of the road or continue further east or west along Fore Street. Odd!
Tim Acheson appears to give the centre of the labyrinth of tunnels and passages under Fore Street as No 42 Fore Street which is now Lussmans restaurant. This is an interesting early nineteenth century building built in the Egyptian Revival style fashionable about the time of Nelson’s Egyptian campaign during the Napoleonic Wars.
It seems more likely that the centre of any secret organisation established at that
time would be No 64 Fore Street, ie Sheffield Chemist given that the frontage is
dated about the same time as the establishment of Hertford Lodge No.403 and that
the symbol of wisdom the owl, sits above it looking over at the centre of Hertford’s
booming trade in malting and brewing – the Corn Exchange. Visit BBC Shop for all your history needs.
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Tunnels 3 The Hoax
