Another Wonderful Find in Our Chapel

The torso of a 13th Century statue, a 19th Century pistol and a late medieval stone dog - once we'd found these three in the course of our Chapter House and Chapel restoration project, we thought we'd uncovered all the secrets of the ancient site.

But no! Yesterday our building team found yet another wonderful artifact from bygone times - and in fact it's our biggest yet. Because, on taking an apparently rough stone lintel out of a wall needing radical repair work, we found that the inside face is beautifully worked.

From the shape carved out by the medieval craftsman, it is clear that the long and substantial stone is  part of a window cill. Even better, the ornamental lines chiseled into the fine quality stone show that it was from a very important and high status structure - an ecclesiastical building.

So we will reinstate this remarkable piece of history - with the worked face showing - in the certain knowledge that it is a recycled part of of one the main buildings of the Cistercian Monastery, which is recorded as having stood just a few hundred yards away.

What could be more fitting than having a piece of decorative stonework from a monastic complex built on the command of St. Bernard de Clairvaux - the spiritual guide and co-founder of our Templar Order - gracing the first Knights Templar chapel built in over 700 years?

For the full story of St. Bernard's crucial role in the foundation of the Templars, and the much bigger, dramatic history of the Order throughout the turbulent Crusades, read Pilgrims of the Sword - the Official History of the Knights Templar. This beautifully produced, lavishly illustrated and rollicking good read is available from stock, for immediate dispatch. So get into our onone shop and order YOUr copy TODAY!

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