GRIM TREASURE HUNT.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18637, 5 August 1930, Page 7

GRIM TREASURE HUNT.

MONKS’ GOLDEN ALTAR. “CURSE ON THOSE WHO DIG.” The quest for an altar of gold, missing for centuries, a network of subterranean tunnels, which emulates London's Underground in extent, and the ghost of the woman who saw- her sweetheart murdered, are all forming exciting features of a treasure hunt in the peaceful village of Rodbourne Cheney, near Swindon. Wiltshire. The tunnels which stretch for miles under the countryside, have not yet been explored, but already discoveries have been made of mediaeval glass and pottery. A piece of glass with a heraldic design on it has been sent to the Herald’s College for inspection. The golden altar, however, still awaits discovery. “I hope we will find the altar,” said Rev. Cecil Brown, the vicar, “for it would be useful. lam appealing now for 50,000 pennies for my church. The fine old church of St. Mary, Rodbourne Cheney, which dates back to the twelfth century. might be likened to the axle of a wheel and the tunnels as the spokes. A stone staircase in the church, at present bricked up owing to foul gases from undeiground, leads to a tunnel which after a few yards branches into four vaulted passages, discovered by laborious spadework. One tunnel leads for a few hundred yards to Rodbourne Manor House, another for three miles to the ruins of Blunsdon Abbey, a third to a farmhouse at Rodbourne, a couple of miles away, and the fourth in the direction of Lydiard Trigose. This fourth tunnel has not been fully surve"ed, but is is believed to lead to Lydiard Park, the historic residence of Lord Bolingbroke. Time of the Reformation. It is in one of these tunnels that Mr Reede, the verger of St. Mary’s Church, hopes to find the golden altar which the monks of St. Mary’s hid from despoiling hands at the time of the Reformation. Local tradition is strong that this altar is hidden underground. Its value is said to be enormous, for not only is it of gold but it is studded with precious stones. Mr Reede showed a visitor some mediaeval pottery, glass, and ancien* ear-rings, which he had discovered in

e of the tunnels. He said he had refused an offer of £25 from an antiquarian for one small object.

“I have not been through all the tunnels,” said Mr Reede, “but I am sure of their direction because I have explored for miles across the fields, digging down to vaultings with a spade. If I had a pocket deep enough I could make a proper job of it.” The visitor motored to the picturesque ruins of Blunsdon Abbey, where, guided by Mr Reede, he found one of the exits from the tunnels blocked with rubble and overgrown with brambles. Here was learned the story of the ghost of Sir Ferdinando Blunt’s wife, who before her marriage saw her lover, the curate of the parish, murdered at the old rectory near by. New knowledge of the secret tunnels now associates the murder with the sinister hidden approach. Shunned Gardens. The villagers always, on October shun the rectory gardens, where 'e ghost of Lady Blunt is supposed to appear. The Manor House, at present the residence of Rev. Vernon Herford. a regionary bishop of the Evangelical Catholic Communion, forms another terminus to one of these mysterious tunnels. Mr Herford. who was busy in his garden, turned over the ground with a snade to show where the vaulted roof of the tunnel passed under his ground. “It comes up in the cellar,” Mr Herford said; “but the entrance is sealed. I have been here only a few months, and have not done any exploring. Mv housekeeper tells me u nt, when sitting in the house on Sundays she has frequently heard the strains of the church organ coming through the floor, which shows that the tunnel broadcasts the sound. We are too far from the church to hear the organ from the garden.” Finallv the investigator met an old farm labourer, who laughed grimly at the treasure hunt. “Aye, I heard my father talk of the golden altar. It may be underground there,” he said, “but there wall be a curse on those who dig for it. The old monks who buried the treasure knew a thing or two.”

Water Diviner at Work. A later report states that a waterdiviner, Mr Cook. of Rodbourne Cheney, claims that he is hot on the trail of the golden altar. Mr Cook with his divining twig has been tracing hidden tunnels all over the neighbourhood. Starting with the old church at Rodney, from which underground passages appear to radiate, like spokes from the hub of a wheel, his twig showed that a tunnel led to a garage in a Swindon street.

There appeared a verification of Mr Cook’s assertion in a statement made by a mason who helped to put down the petrol pumps at this spot. He said that the pumps were set in an old brick-built passage which was unearthed. This was about 10 feet wide by 15 feet high. Over fields, bridges and ditches Mr Cook’s twig led him presently to the Rodbourne Recreation Ground. Then the trail was picked up at the Great Western Railway carriage and waggon paint shop, and carried to the Great Western Railway works.

Local people remembered that about there several years ago human remains were brought to light by a child when digging in the garden. This spot is practically in a straight line with St. Mary’s Church. Rodbourne, and the ruins of Swindon (Old Town) Parish Church, now in the grounds of The Lawn, Swindon. Mr Cook claims to have traced passages from the Great Western Railway works in many directions to various parts of Swindon. The opinion expressed by Mr Cook is that there are several cellars of various sizes and descriptions linked up by the tunnels. The whole neighbourhood is keenly interested in the matter. Did the monks of Rodbourne, in fear* of desecration and pillage, hurriedly remove their jewel studded golden altar, convey it through a net work of subterranean retreats and deposit it in one of these deep cellars? And what other rich ecclesiastical booty may have been hidden in those burrows when Cromwell’s soldiery were bent on confiscation and pillage?