The Hermitage

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SE 4521 NE 8/61

PONTEFRACT SOUTHGATE (south side) The Hermitage

I

Hermitage. 1386. By Adam de Laythorpe and his son Robert. Hewn out of carboniferous sandstone. Situated below ground under what is now Pontefract General Infirmary. There are two chambers, side by side but on different levels, out of the lower one leads a short passage to a spiral staircase descending vertically to a well. The chamber to the west, known as the Oratory is thought to be the later of the two, and contains a fireplace with a rock-hewn flue, with a low stool next to it, a bench, and a bed shelf. In the centre is a large C19 brick pier. Access is through a pointed-arched doorway, probably reused in C19 from the nearby site of the Priory of St Richard, founded in 1256. The eastern chamber is entered by an original basket-arched doorway, rebated for a door and bolt-holes. From it a barrel-vaulted passage leads to the staircase of 72 steps, with clearly-marked pick/hammer chisel marks. There are four candle niches. Near the bottom is a has relief figure of Death, a skeleton with prominent rib-cage and foreshortened legs, carrying a spear. (There is a third chamber, no longer visible, said to have the letters "DITIS" carved on the lintel). At the bottom is a basin filled with water, this being the water-table. Outside the doorway are late C15 window heads, probably from the Priory Church of St Richard. In front of the Hermitage are three C19 Tudor-arched brick doorways. The security devices protecting the well are thought to have been intended to prevent the holy water being taken for withcraft. Pontefract is known to have had a hermit in the early C13, and the tradition seems to have continued for about three centuries.

Listing NGR: SE4566721793