Crypt Flashcards
This is…
St George’s Crypt, part of St George’s Chapel and was founded in 1074 by the Norman Baron Robert D’Oilly to give the soldiers at the castle a place to pray. It is said however, that Robert did not build this church out of religion, he built it because he had a nightmare
According to legend…
Robert D’Oilly dreamt that he saw the Virgin Mary standing at the foot of his bed, pointing down at the floor. Taking this as a sign that he was condemned to hell, he rapidly called for St Georges’ Chapel to be built, to save his soul from eternal damnation
Despite its…
unusual roots, the chapel was a thriving establishment, supporting a small community of students. St George’s was the earliest institution for higher education in Oxford, predating the university by over a century. The Crypt underneath the chapel wasn’t used for worship or education. Rather, it was used to store dead bodies, meaning that it is supposedly the most haunted places in Oxford. Paranormal investigators have even visited here and have claimed that this corner is the most haunted. Be sure to let us know if you find any ghosts. One of the most famous scholars at St George’s Chapel was Geoffrey of Monmouth, a monk, a scholar and writer
In 1136…
Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote a book while he was a teacher in St Georges Chapel. The name of the book was ‘A history of the Kings of Britain’. You may not have heard of the book itself, but I’m sure you’ve heard some of the stories it contains. It features the first ever stories of Merlin and King Arthur, as well as the first mention of King Lear, who Shakespeare would later borrow for one of his famous plays
The book is…
available to purchase upstairs in our giftshop if you would like to purchase that after your tour. Geoffrey’s version of the King Arthur stories are very different from the ones we know today. For example, in Monmouth’s version Arthur and Merlin never actually met. Merlin simply prophesised the coming of the future king
St George’s Tower…
and its crypt would have been beautiful in their day. If you take a look at the six pillars around the crypt you will see that the four at the back of the room have carvings on them. These were carved by skilled craftsmen in 1074 and the pillars would have been painted in bright colours making St Georges a very vibrant space
Unfortunately St George’s Chapel…
was left in ruins after the English Civil War, before it was finally demolished to make way for the new prison buildings in 1785. The crypt below the chapel had been long forgotten about and was only rediscovered in the late 1790s by the Prison Governor Daniel Harris
If you observe…
the two pillars towards the front of the crypt, you will notice these are much less detailed, and appear older. They are in fact newer, as prison Governor Daniel Harris had his prisoners build these to extend the crypt and learn stone-masonry skills to help them boost their job opportunities after their release from prison
Harris did not just…
make his prisoners work in the crypt. He also had them working above ground to build D-Wing to replace the old castle gaol. In the old castle gaol, prisoners had been held in terrible and unsanitary conditions
But all of this was…
changed under Daniel Harris. By upskilling the prisoners, he used this prison labour to build a brand-spanking new building based on the latest prison reforms. Let’s visit these cells so I can tell you about some of our famous prisoners kept here over the centuries
