Inside St Mary’s Church in Aldworth there are several stone effigies made in honour of a family of giants who once lived in the fields surrounding the town. The giants were known as John Long, John Strong and John Never Afraid. There was a fourth giant called John Ever Afraid but he was buried inside the walls of the church.
Legend has it that 600 years ago John Ever Afraid sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for worldly riches. The bargain was that the Devil would claim his soul whether John Ever Afraid was buried inside or outside the church and so burying his body within the church walls meant that the Devil was cheated of his prize.
After visiting the Church at Aldworth I realized that the nine effigies were similar to those in the Temple Church in London and saw that, as in the case of Sir Philip De La Beche (Aldworth), the effigies was with crossed legs and were therefore Knight Templar. In London six of the effigies are with crossed legs and I suspect (although some badly damaged) there were a similar number at Aldworth.
ReplyDeleteWhen the original Knights returned from excavating under Temple Mount Jerusalem they brought back much treasure that was concealed at various locations known only to those Knights and successive Grand Masters. The secret of the treasure sites was recorded on the Chess Board which symbol became the Templar Banner. One of the sites is the ‘key’ to the rest. Of the other eight sites six are identified as being on black squares, depicted by the Knight Effigies with ‘crossed legs’.
In reality then the same clues have been set out at Aldworth and therefore makes the story they tell all the more unique. There is however one other part to the story. Originally there were ten effigies at Aldworth; the tenth was in the arched recess in the south wall, but was lost during renovation works. Somehow it found its way to St Lawrence’s Church Hungerford where it is known as Sir Robert De Hungerford.
Geoffrey Morgan
Thats Interesting Geoffrey I will have to visit St Lawrence now for my Blog
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