This unique historical artefact consists of two chambers, side by side, chiselled out of the sandstone hillside by medieval hermits. The entrances would have originally overlooked the Friarwood Valley towards St Richards Dominican Friary, but in 1880 Pontefract Dispensary was built over the site and it is now hidden in the building’s Victorian basement. The Hermitage entrance leads to a remarkable spiral staircase of 63 steps, cut into the rock and descending through 4 complete turns to a shallow basin of fresh spring water 51 feet below the centre of Southgate, immediately below the central reservation with the lamp post. The hermits’ chisel marks are clearly visible in the walls of the barrel-vaulted passage which has 4 alcoves for candles that would have been the only form of lighting. Near the bottom of the staircase is a bas-relief carving of a skeleton in the wall, probably medieval, but the graffiti scratched around the basin are certainly much later.
Acknowledgement: Pontefract Heritage Partnership