Another historical find! A secret chamber for early Masons?

[Classical]

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-21577807

Canons Ashby 'masonic' chamber discovered after 400 years

• 25 February 2013
  
• From the section Northampton

Image captionThe entrance to the secret room was found inside a cupboard in a panelled room
A secret chamber, hidden for 400 years and with possible links to early freemasonry, has been discovered.

The entrance to the room, which has plastered walls, was found inside a cupboard at the National Trust-owned house Canons Ashby, near Daventry.

It is a panelled room with walls showing crests of local families and enigmatic symbols.

Laura Malpas, of the trust, said there was "speculation" the room had been an early masonic lodge.

Ms Malpas, community manager for the trust, said it was "a fascinating and puzzling space" with walls that include "frankly odd Latin texts".

Image captionThe room's panelled walls include enigmatic symbols which may relate to freemasonry
"[They] tell the reader things such as 'Do not eat of those things with a black tail' or 'Check your tongue, your belly and your lust, the best thing is to enjoy someone else's madness'."

She said the house manager Edward Bartlett made the discovery after deciding to investigate the cupboard while locking up for the night.

"With a torch he discovered an entrance to a small concealed chamber, hidden in the panelling of the room," she said.

"Clearly not a natural void left during the building process, this tiny chamber is floor boarded and the walls have been plastered from the inside to create a space that could hide a person and a sizeable amount of objects the owner of the house might want to keep hidden away from public view."

"It is believed the Dryden family may well have been part of a society that evolved into what we now recognise as the freemasons."

She added: "There has been speculation that this room was used as an early form of Masonic lodge before Freemasonry was established in England some 130 years later in 1717."

It would not have been a hole to hide priests as the Dryden family were puritans, she said.

The room is about 6ft (1.82m) high with 6ft (1.82m) by 5ft (1.52m) floor space.

 

[hanzosbm]

Very interesting. I wish I could find more detailed information on this.

I'm skeptical about it being a lodge though. 6 feet square is hardly big enough to fit 4 men and why would you need a devoted space? The room it is attached to could just as easily have been used. The according to this article ( http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/n...dden-secret-chamber-at-canons-ashby-1-4925741) it mentions that the main room was the one that has a lot of odd things on the walls, not the secret room. I'd be interested to see some of those symbols. Also, the dating is a bit strange. It says 130 years prior to 1717 (so 1587), but I'm curious how close that date actually is or what it's based on.

 

[Bloke]

Sounds a bit like a Priest Hole to me...

 

[alterian]

I know I read a book, "Born in Blood" it stated that early lodges were just that, Lodges. It attempted to make connections between historical events, the KT and other historic figures. Now not saying that any of that is true but I have a thought about it. Could this be a place to hide some members on the run?

 

[hanzosbm]

I know I read a book, "Born in Blood" it stated that early lodges were just that, Lodges. It attempted to make connections between historical events, the KT and other historic figures. Now not saying that any of that is true but I have a thought about it. Could this be a place to hide some members on the run?

I hear what you're saying, and I definitely think that using it to hide people is likely, but in terms of the whole Born in Blood/Templar thing, the attempted murder/dissolution of them happened in 1307 and the article dated the building of the room to around 1587, so it wouldn't have been used for them per se.

 

[alterian]

True, there's a huge time gap, I mean there are a million things it could've been used for other then what article says, that was just a quick thought.