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The Hunt For Admiral Benbow - Part 1
Oct. 23rd, 2011 02:04 pmI mentioned yesterday that we were told to find a Benbow-related gravestone in the burial ground of Old St Chad's, so sure enough we went hunting for Benbows.
And we found this:-
The inscription is hard to read at the best of times, let alone on a photograph. But thankfully, our 19th century forerunners have provided us with a helpful transcription:-
Not Admiral Benbow, but a Benbow of equal valour and worth - Captain John Benbow, who played a role in the Royalist defence of Shrewsbury during the Civil War of the mid-17th century. Following the defeat of the town, the poor chap was shot by the Parliamentarian forces at Shrewsbury Castle in 1651.
So was it a case of mistaken identity? Or were we destined to find two Benbows for the price of one in Shrewsbury?
All will be revealed in the near future....
I'm not promising many posts next week, as I think I'm going to be living a virtual zombie existence, and all in the name of archaeology. I suppose one's meant to suffer for one's art, but personally I'd rather be sitting nice and warm in a cosy office than traipsing around a coniferous plantation trying not to break my neck whilst carrying a staff with a prism on the top while my Able Assistant (perhaps we should call her the Great Surveyor) stands by a machine pressing buttons and generating all manner of beep-beep noises.
I'm sure the plan, when it's done, will look very pretty, and be well worth the angst and the discomfort. In the meantime, I'll just have to grit my teeth and think of Caledonia.
And we found this:-
The inscription is hard to read at the best of times, let alone on a photograph. But thankfully, our 19th century forerunners have provided us with a helpful transcription:-
Not Admiral Benbow, but a Benbow of equal valour and worth - Captain John Benbow, who played a role in the Royalist defence of Shrewsbury during the Civil War of the mid-17th century. Following the defeat of the town, the poor chap was shot by the Parliamentarian forces at Shrewsbury Castle in 1651.
So was it a case of mistaken identity? Or were we destined to find two Benbows for the price of one in Shrewsbury?
All will be revealed in the near future....
I'm not promising many posts next week, as I think I'm going to be living a virtual zombie existence, and all in the name of archaeology. I suppose one's meant to suffer for one's art, but personally I'd rather be sitting nice and warm in a cosy office than traipsing around a coniferous plantation trying not to break my neck whilst carrying a staff with a prism on the top while my Able Assistant (perhaps we should call her the Great Surveyor) stands by a machine pressing buttons and generating all manner of beep-beep noises.
I'm sure the plan, when it's done, will look very pretty, and be well worth the angst and the discomfort. In the meantime, I'll just have to grit my teeth and think of Caledonia.
