HERMITAGES AND CAVES
abound in Worcestershire. One of the most interesting of them is that at Redstone, in a rock by the Severn, in the parish of Astley. It was said to be "a place of great resort for devotees of high quality in Papal times:" and the following remarks respecting it occur in a letter of Bishop Latimer, written from Hartlebury to Lord Cromwell, August 25th, 1538. The letter was printed in the Parker Society's edition of his "Remains," p. 401: "Hereby is an hermitage in a rock by Severn, able to lodge five hundred men, and as ready for thieves or traitors as true men. I would not have hermits masters of such dens, but rather that some faithful man had it." Habingdon says he had heard "that many who traffick'd on the river gave, as they passed by in their barges, somewhat of their commodities to charity at this hermitage; and to show how much great men have valued this place, there appear in the very front of the hermitage the arms of England, between those of Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, with his crosses croslet on the right hand, and those of Mortimer with an escutcheon ermine, quartered, as far as I can guess, with a cross on the left; but these monuments of honour are here so worn as they are instantly perishing." Nash states that the hermitage was anciently the inheritance of Sir T. Bromley, and, with two acres directly over the cell, was let to a poor tenant. It was afterwards sold and turned into an alehouse; and more recently it was converted into dwellings, but which were most unfit for human residences. Indeed, about thirty years ago a school was kept in a part of the rock! The entrance to the hermitage is through what is called the chapel; and an arched passage, with openings at the sides, seems to have led to the dormitories (now formed into dwellings), and to the right is the refectory. Over the doorway is an opening which is reached by some steps in the inside, and from which, according to tradition, one of the monks would address the people and pray for the safety of passengers crossing the ferry. Another tradition is, that a subterraneous passage once led from the hermitage to the priory, near the site of the present church.
Blackstone Rock, near the Severn at Bewdley, is also a most interesting relic. Here is an hermitage, cut in the rock, to which entrance is gained by a low doorway into the kitchen, which has for a chimney a circular hole cut perpendicularly through the rock; there are also a chapel, a pantry, with a chamber over, an inner room, closets with loft over, a study with shelves cut for books, and another opening in the rock, either for a belfry or chimney. Small and rudely cut openings in the rock served for windows. In the front of the cell is a seat carved in the rock, from which the hermit looked forth on the Severn (which then ran closer to the rock than it does now) and the beautiful meadows and wooded banks adjacent. There is a tradition that this was at one time a smuggler's cave; it has of late been used as a cider-making house, &c.
About a mile from Stanford church is Southstone Rock, said to be the largest mass of travertine hitherto discovered in this country, extending for half an acre. Its northern extremity terminates in a precipice, hanging over a most romantic dingle. Some cells were formerly hewn in the rock, and at the top was a chapel dedicated to St. John, on the feast of whose nativity there was a solemn offering, after which the assembly ascended, by stairs cut out of the rock, to the chapel, where they finished their devotions, and afterwards drank the waters of the well. This hermitage and land belonged to the abbey of Evesham. From the Jefferies Manuscript it appears that on St. John's Day a "pedling faire" was kept here, when the young people treated their acquaintance with roast meat, "ye smoke whereof yet remains upon ye rock," and that a wooden offering-post was fixed in the rock, having a cavity in it for money to pass into a hole underneath. The offertory dish in which these offerings were made (an exceedingly curious relic) was till lately in the possession of the Winnington family, but is now lost.
A hermit's cell may be seen in the parish of Hartlebury, cut in a rock in a secluded part of a meadow belonging to the glebe land; its roof is supported by two pillars, and two deeply splayed holes are cut in the wall.
A cave once existed on the top of Bredon Hill (as we are informed by Dr. Derham, who wrote about 1712); it was lined with stalactical stones on the top and sides; but this was believed to have been an ancient granary, as a quantity of wheat was found near there at the beginning of the present century, when a land-slip occurred. The cave was probably destroyed by one of these land-slips.
At Drakelow, near Cookley Wood, is a sandstone ridge, excavated and inhabited, that still bears the name of "Hollyaustin," corrupted, probably (as Mr. Lees suggests), from "holy Austin," or Augustine, a hermit that once resided there. There is a cave also in "The Devil's Spittlefull," on Blackstone Farm, in the Foreign of Kidderminster, and there was a hermit's cell at the old Sorb-tree in the forest of Wyre.
In the Red Cliff, near Suckley, Mr. Allies states, is a hole called "Black Jack's Cave," said to have been inhabited, about ninety years ago, by a convict named Farnham, who had returned from transportation before his time, and who used to climb up this cliff with all the agility of a cat, even when laden with the spoils of the neighbourhood.
The parish of Stone contains a rock in which is a cave called "The Devil's Den," and some horrifying tales are told of the fatal results which happened to persons who attempted to penetrate therein.
There is a hole in a rock, called "The Fairies' Cave," in the hamlet of Alfrick.