# Knights Templar Gravestone



## BFG316 (Apr 30, 2008)

I thought that I would follow up on my Rosslyn and Temple report with some pics of other Knight Templar & Masonic Headstones I have found on my travels. Hopefully these will be of better quality as some of them were taken with a digital camera. They are from a few years ago up till now. I plan do have a look at a few more local graveyards which are alleged to have KT headstones and the likes in them. 

Anyway on with the pics.

I took this picture of a very weathered KT gravestone in St. Aidan's church in Bamburgh. The church was originally built on this site in 633 AD. It is also the place of Grace Darling's resting place, unfortunately I didn't get a pic of that!







The next were taken at Ancroft in Northumberland. St. Anne's Church. This chuch was built in the 12th century and a Pele Tower was added in the 13th century for defensive purposes. 












Ancroft has a lot of history, in 1667 plague struck the village and the victims were placed in the fields and covered with branches of broom which made basic huts and then both the huts and the bodies burned in an attempt to stop the spread of the disease. The field that stands opposite St. Anne's is known still as Broomie Huts and it has an undulating appearance to the surface of the field, the field has never been ploughed and the trees that are planted at the top of the field are said to represent each of the familes that lost members to the plague.

These were taken at Belford roughly at the same time as the visit to Rosslyn.


























My partner is from Berwick and her family still live there so I had a look around the church yard of Berwick Parish Church. What was interesting was the presence of a green man sculpture over the main door to the church. Rosslyn chapel has an abundance of green man carvings inside and outside the chapel so I found it strange that this was present. The original church was built here around 1190, but the KT's had a presence here at Berwick Castle, which is now the railway station and the ruins of the castle were used in building this church so perhaps that is where the greeman came from!






After looking around the church I picked up a leaflet which tells of a Viking gravestone which is now situated in the wall at the bottom of the church yard. It stated that it is a woman's grave as it shows a pair of scissors beneath a skull!!!!!

Hmmmm. Looks more KT to me!











A Masonic Gravestone.






Another Masonic Gravestone, this time at Wooler.






A while back I went with my brother-in-law to Cornhill, my partner and his wife took his daughter to a dance exam and we had a look around St. Helen's church and graveyard. 






Inside the church there was a plaque to the Collingwood family and would you believe a skull and crossed bones at the bottom of the picture.






A bit closer to home and a bit more recently. I visited Seaham to have a look around St. Mary's graveyard. There has been a church here since around the 7th century. St. Mary's is dated around 1100-1150.
There are a few old grave stones here and one looks curiously like KT! By the way the dates on the photos is totally wrong!






These didn't have the skull and crossed bones but had some symbolism to them.












This one had nothing but a date 1714! 






















O decided to have a look at anoth old church in the Seaham area at Dalton-le-Dale. The church of St. Andrews was originally built around 1200. It is said that Oliver Cromwell marched through Dalton-le-Dale going from Sunderland to Easington!

Anyway I found 1 gravestone that was really unusual. I have seen a lot of KT stones in the past but I have never seen one like this. It is well covered in moss and hard to pick out. I really didn't fancy scraping moss of a 300 year old stone, I thought I would get wrong! But on it you can see the skull and crossed bones but on the crest above there are 3 Fleur de Lis. I have never seen these on stones before.
















Anyway I am planning to visit Rosslyn and Temple later this year and a few other local old church sites that I have been told about. 

Hope you like the photos! 

Regards.

BFG


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## Foxylady (Apr 30, 2008)

That is a fantastic report, BFG. It's really interesting to see all those KT headstones plus the history behind the sites.
The Green Man carving above the Berwick church door might not be the green man in the pagan sense. There are two distinctly different kinds. There's the pagan green man which usually has a wreath of leaves around his head or the face itself is made out of leaves. Then there is one which is a later, Christian addition, where the leaves just protrude from the corners of the mouth and is intended to represent eternal life (heaven, as opposed to reincarnation). This one looks like the Christian kind, which would fit in with the KT influence. I do believe those might be keys either side of his face which could possibly represent the keys to heaven.
You've really piqued my interest with this and Im going to have to do some research. Damn!


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## Neosea (Apr 30, 2008)

I agree with Foxy, its an excellent post. 

The green man has also been labelled as the devil or horned god found in Wicca. The church does have a bias towards pagan rituals so it may also have something to do with that.


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## BFG316 (May 1, 2008)

Foxylady said:


> That is a fantastic report, BFG. It's really interesting to see all those KT headstones plus the history behind the sites.
> The Green Man carving above the Berwick church door might not be the green man in the pagan sense. There are two distinctly different kinds. There's the pagan green man which usually has a wreath of leaves around his head or the face itself is made out of leaves. Then there is one which is a later, Christian addition, where the leaves just protrude from the corners of the mouth and is intended to represent eternal life (heaven, as opposed to reincarnation). This one looks like the Christian kind, which would fit in with the KT influence. I do believe those might be keys either side of his face which could possibly represent the keys to heaven.
> You've really piqued my interest with this and Im going to have to do some research. Damn!





Neosea said:


> I agree with Foxy, its an excellent post.
> 
> The green man has also been labelled as the devil or horned god found in Wicca. The church does have a bias towards pagan rituals so it may also have something to do with that.



Cheers for the feedback guys.

Wow Foxy didn't know about the different types of Greenman! 

I know what you mean after posting my Rosslyn report I have the bug again!!!!

Regards.

BFG.


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## RedDave (May 1, 2008)

If you're interested in that sort of thing, you might want to go to Inchinnan. There are about a dozen gravestones, believed to be for Knights Templar, at St Conval's Kirk on Old Greenock Road. They were taken from the old graveyard opposite Glasgow Abbotsinch Airport. The original church (opposite the airport) was used by the Knights Templar until they were disbanded. It was demolished around 1800 and replaced by a new church.

You can see three of the gravestones in the Paisley On Line Inchinnan page, second from the bottom, on the left.

The graveyard from which they are taken can be visited with permission. It now belongs to BAA, so don't trespass. There were (and presumably still are) skull and crossbone gravestones there.


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## King Al (May 1, 2008)

Great report BFG, some very interesting stones there, like the church to


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## Bax__ (May 1, 2008)

BFG,

There are quite a lot of Templar graves a Elgin Catherdal,I only took a couple of photo's they are on my thread...http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=4755 The Knights Templar were present in Elgin for some time.

Andy


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