July 1216 A.D. – Building Complete

The Abbot left his house and greeted the master mason waiting patiently for him outside.

“It’s ready?”

The mason nodded in the affirmative.

“To plan?”

The builder looked affronted.

“Of course Abbot.”

But Ambrose needed to check with his own eyes. He was still mindful of the exhortation from the Pope to provide all possible assistance. The Abbot had handed the plans from London over to the craftsman the previous autumn. And then he had left him alone. The Templar had emphasised the need to get the work complete before the end of the summer. And the Abbot had in turn passed that date on to the builder.

Ambrose had emphasised the importance of the construction to the master stonemason. He had performed wonders on the Abbey building itself. But this work was not to be observed as a thing of beauty for the monks and the local worshippers. Rather, it was to stay hidden from prying eyes. Nonetheless, it was a fairly complex plan, and had needed a lot of meticulous work from the craftsman and his team.

The Abbot walked into the nave, in the rear of the Abbey church. He could make out one of the builder’s team standing beside the back wall. He was holding up a stone hatch, using a thick rope attached to a sturdy metal ring. The lay mason was carrying a lit torch and beckoned Ambrose forward. As he approached the raised flagstone, the older man could make out the start of a narrow wooden staircase.

All three men descended to the room below. As the Abbot’s eyes adjusted to the flickering light from the torch fire, he could see the result of all the craftsmen’s labours. The roof of the room was low and he could not reach his full height. But the chamber, in which he was crouching, was large, around forty feet long and twelve feet wide.

There was a stone bench that encircled the entire room. Along one side and above the bench were a series of recessed lockers. A wooden door covered each of them. The man holding the torch moved over to the nearest locker, and demonstrated how solid the construction was, by crashing it shut and turning the key. Ambrose walked over to the door and thumped it with his closed fist. It felt very secure. He turned to the master mason.

“Perfect.”