Not even sure if this would count as urban exploring - it's off in the Warwickshire country side but unless you know it's there, and how to get to it, most people will never have seen it. So I hope some find it interesting...
Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall (c. 1284 – 19 June 1312) was an Englishman originally from Gascony, and a favourite of Edward II of England. Most will know of him from the grossly innacurate character of "Philip" who was the effiminate companion of the young prince in the movie Braveheart. It's based on all the sordid and probably untrue rumours that the mediavel smear machine spat out..
Pruned from Wikipedia, because they write it better than me, and are reasonable accurate....
At a young age he made a good impression on King Edward I aka "Longshanks", and was assigned to the household of the King's son, Edward of Caernarfon. The prince's partiality for Gaveston was so extravagant that Edward I sent the favourite into exile, but he flipped back and forth through varying exiles in various countries. When in the country, Gaveston's exclusive access to the King provoked several members of the nobility, and in 1307 the King was again forced to send him into exile. Edward managed to negotiate a deal with the opposition, however, and Gaveston returned the next year. Upon his return his behaviour became even more offensive, and by 1311 was decided that Gaveston should be exiled for a third time, to suffer outlawry if he returned. When he did return in 1312, he was hunted down and executed by a group of barons, led by Thomas of Lancaster, and the Earl of Warwick - Guy de Beauchamp.
Wikipedias entries for him detail the last days and his death...... When Warwick found out about Gaveston's whereabouts, he immediately rode out to capture him. The next morning he appeared at the rectory, where he took Gaveston captive and brought him back to his castle at Warwick. Pembroke, whose honour had been affronted, appealed for justice both to Gaveston's brother-in-law Gloucester and to the University of Oxford, but to no avail. At Warwick, Gaveston was condemned to death for violating the terms of the Ordinances, before an assembly of barons, including Warwick, Lancaster, Hereford and Arundel. On 19 June, he was taken out on the road towards Kenilworth as far as Blacklow Hill which was on the Earl of Lancaster's land. Here, two Welshmen ran him through with a sword and beheaded him.
Gavestons tomb is lost to time, however the location of his execution was memorialised with a cross in sandstone. It was erected at Blacklow Hill in 1823 by someone called Bertie Greathead, and is on the site believed to be the location of Gaveston's execution. Apparantly when it was placed you could see the cross from the front windows of his manor house at Guy's Cliffe and even read the inscription with a telescope from a mile off. However the entire site of overgrown and wooded now which stops that - even finding the cross can be tricky.
Getting to it is interesting. The local farmer is known to be a bit of an nightmare and likes to faff about with guns "rabbiting" if he thinks people are in the woods. So getting there is a bit of a camo up sneak through the fields. It doesnt help that the only access route is a bit obvious and dumping your car at the end of it is a dead giveaway unless it's a high end Jag or prefereably a Maserati to blend in. I don't have either so I decided to stage a "breakdown" and leave it with hazards on a half mile off and walk to the site. You can get to a path through the woods unseen off the cycle track, and then it's a snek through good cover. That path dumps you at a fence on the field and then it's over and leg it for the wood before you are spotted, or you can worm your way a bit closer in some scrubby woods full of brambles. It's tucked up right by the A46 where the north turn off to Warwick is and that constrains entry too unless you fancy bashing through a ditch by the dual carriageway and a steep climb up bramble slopes.
Sneak however was done successfully and all was going well until I found his secret weapon. The woods are public land surrounded by his farm, (with no right of access to them - ho hum) but the git had only kicked the fence down and turned his pigs out in the woods. I got charged by a couple of fat pink porkers all big yellow teeth and foaming saliva and instant death if I was trampled as they defended their little oinkers. I thought the little sods had gone rabid for a while. I might be a lardy arse but I climbed a tree for the first time in thirty years when one of them came snorting after me. I'd got the photos and after deciding I wasn't going to be pig supper and was made of sterner stuff I had to decide how to get rid of it.
So I used a lifeline and phoned a friend...
His stunning advice was to whip the old man out and pee on the porker. Just don't try and fall out the tree while you do it. Dubious of this, despite the fact he used to farm, I gave it a go... Stunningly it worked, and it distracted porcine grunting death long enough for me to leg it for the main fence, and hurdle it, leaving behind my snap tin and my dignity and letting me slither down a scratchy bramble bank to the road.
Hope you like them all, not much but I chuffing had to work for them!
Heres the first glimpse as you approach through the woods, this is the back side of the cross.
It's gloomy and damp, there are lots of trees all over the place but this side is clear.
The other side has a small hollow in which the beheading was done. Don't fall into it, there are a lot of quarried out holes in the hill.. I'm standing right on the lip of the hollow to get this photo, which is why it's a bit squashed.
Closeup of the plate for you.. It's a few seconds after I took this that I heard grunting. The sword is recent, so someone else is obviously visiting here....
Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall (c. 1284 – 19 June 1312) was an Englishman originally from Gascony, and a favourite of Edward II of England. Most will know of him from the grossly innacurate character of "Philip" who was the effiminate companion of the young prince in the movie Braveheart. It's based on all the sordid and probably untrue rumours that the mediavel smear machine spat out..
Pruned from Wikipedia, because they write it better than me, and are reasonable accurate....
At a young age he made a good impression on King Edward I aka "Longshanks", and was assigned to the household of the King's son, Edward of Caernarfon. The prince's partiality for Gaveston was so extravagant that Edward I sent the favourite into exile, but he flipped back and forth through varying exiles in various countries. When in the country, Gaveston's exclusive access to the King provoked several members of the nobility, and in 1307 the King was again forced to send him into exile. Edward managed to negotiate a deal with the opposition, however, and Gaveston returned the next year. Upon his return his behaviour became even more offensive, and by 1311 was decided that Gaveston should be exiled for a third time, to suffer outlawry if he returned. When he did return in 1312, he was hunted down and executed by a group of barons, led by Thomas of Lancaster, and the Earl of Warwick - Guy de Beauchamp.
Wikipedias entries for him detail the last days and his death...... When Warwick found out about Gaveston's whereabouts, he immediately rode out to capture him. The next morning he appeared at the rectory, where he took Gaveston captive and brought him back to his castle at Warwick. Pembroke, whose honour had been affronted, appealed for justice both to Gaveston's brother-in-law Gloucester and to the University of Oxford, but to no avail. At Warwick, Gaveston was condemned to death for violating the terms of the Ordinances, before an assembly of barons, including Warwick, Lancaster, Hereford and Arundel. On 19 June, he was taken out on the road towards Kenilworth as far as Blacklow Hill which was on the Earl of Lancaster's land. Here, two Welshmen ran him through with a sword and beheaded him.
Gavestons tomb is lost to time, however the location of his execution was memorialised with a cross in sandstone. It was erected at Blacklow Hill in 1823 by someone called Bertie Greathead, and is on the site believed to be the location of Gaveston's execution. Apparantly when it was placed you could see the cross from the front windows of his manor house at Guy's Cliffe and even read the inscription with a telescope from a mile off. However the entire site of overgrown and wooded now which stops that - even finding the cross can be tricky.
Getting to it is interesting. The local farmer is known to be a bit of an nightmare and likes to faff about with guns "rabbiting" if he thinks people are in the woods. So getting there is a bit of a camo up sneak through the fields. It doesnt help that the only access route is a bit obvious and dumping your car at the end of it is a dead giveaway unless it's a high end Jag or prefereably a Maserati to blend in. I don't have either so I decided to stage a "breakdown" and leave it with hazards on a half mile off and walk to the site. You can get to a path through the woods unseen off the cycle track, and then it's a snek through good cover. That path dumps you at a fence on the field and then it's over and leg it for the wood before you are spotted, or you can worm your way a bit closer in some scrubby woods full of brambles. It's tucked up right by the A46 where the north turn off to Warwick is and that constrains entry too unless you fancy bashing through a ditch by the dual carriageway and a steep climb up bramble slopes.
Sneak however was done successfully and all was going well until I found his secret weapon. The woods are public land surrounded by his farm, (with no right of access to them - ho hum) but the git had only kicked the fence down and turned his pigs out in the woods. I got charged by a couple of fat pink porkers all big yellow teeth and foaming saliva and instant death if I was trampled as they defended their little oinkers. I thought the little sods had gone rabid for a while. I might be a lardy arse but I climbed a tree for the first time in thirty years when one of them came snorting after me. I'd got the photos and after deciding I wasn't going to be pig supper and was made of sterner stuff I had to decide how to get rid of it.
So I used a lifeline and phoned a friend...
His stunning advice was to whip the old man out and pee on the porker. Just don't try and fall out the tree while you do it. Dubious of this, despite the fact he used to farm, I gave it a go... Stunningly it worked, and it distracted porcine grunting death long enough for me to leg it for the main fence, and hurdle it, leaving behind my snap tin and my dignity and letting me slither down a scratchy bramble bank to the road.
Hope you like them all, not much but I chuffing had to work for them!
Heres the first glimpse as you approach through the woods, this is the back side of the cross.
It's gloomy and damp, there are lots of trees all over the place but this side is clear.
The other side has a small hollow in which the beheading was done. Don't fall into it, there are a lot of quarried out holes in the hill.. I'm standing right on the lip of the hollow to get this photo, which is why it's a bit squashed.
Closeup of the plate for you.. It's a few seconds after I took this that I heard grunting. The sword is recent, so someone else is obviously visiting here....
