Royston
Royston is a small market town in North Hertfordshire, near the Cambridgeshire border, about 13 miles south-west of Cambridge and around 40–45 miles north of London. Royston makes a surprisingly good budget day out, with a historic town centre, a free museum, ancient burial mounds, a Grade I listed church, gardens, countryside walks and the strange underground world of the Royston Cave.
Royston dates back to the 12th century. In 1189, King Richard I granted a Royal Charter allowing the Priory to hold a weekly Wednesday market and a fair during Pentecost week.
It is a gorgeous little place to explore if you like history, old half timbered buildings, local museums, odd details and ancient places that make a casual day out feel much more interesting than planned.
The main shopping street is lovely to wander along, with old buildings, independent shops and enough historic detail to keep making you stop and look properly.
Royston Museum FREE ENTRY
- Royston Museum.
- Entry: Royston Museum says entry is free which is perfect for a free day out. Check opening times before you go as usually it is open Thursday through to Sunday.
- What is in it: The museum tells over 2,000 years of Royston’s history, including ancient burial mounds, a Roman crossroads, the medieval priory, James I’s palace, and Royston Cave. It has just under 20,000 objects in its collection.
- Museum history: Royston’s museum history goes back to 1856, when the Royston Institute Museum was formed. The current museum celebrated 40 years in its present Sunday School building in 2024.
Therfield Heath / Royston Heath FREE ENTRY
- The proper name is Therfield Heath, though people may casually call it Royston Heath.
- Why it matters: It is an important archaeological landscape, with monuments ranging from a Neolithic long barrow to later earthworks. There are not many places where you can casually go for a walk and realise you are moving through a prehistoric landscape. Burial mounds / barrows: Royston Museum says the large long barrow is Neolithic, from around 4000 BC, and is the only upstanding example of its type in Hertfordshire.
- More mounds: The Heath also has Bronze Age burial mounds and Iron Age banks and ditches. Finds from archaeological digs have included skeletons, cremations, ingots, tools, pots and urns, with some objects displayed at Royston Museum.
Church of St John the Baptist FREE ENTRY
- Church of St John the Baptist, on Melbourn Street.
- Historic status: It is a Grade I listed building built around 1162 and dedicated to St John The Baptist and St Thomas of Canterbury.
- Priory connection: The church is connected to Royston’s Augustinian Priory. The existing parish church developed from the former priory church after the Dissolution.
- Priory dates: Royston Priory existed from roughly 1162 to 1537.
- An absolutely gorgeous ancient historic church to wander through the chapel and explore the grounds outside. Walking around a church with roots in the 12th century, on an ordinary budget day out, is exactly the sort of thing I love about travelling in England.
Priory Memorial Gardens FREE
- Priory Memorial Gardens. (next to the St John the Baptist Church)
- When it was laid out: The gardens were purchased by public subscription and laid out in 1948 to a design by local architect Arthur Whydale. The churchyard amalgamated with the gardens in the 1990s. A War memorial was unveiled in 1922.
- The gardens are a perfect place to sit down whilst enjoying a picnic or a coffee after you have had a relaxing stroll around the gardens.
Royston Cave PAID ENTRY
- Royston Cave.
- What it is: An underground chalk cave with extensive medieval-style carvings. It is one of Royston’s strangest and best-known historic attractions. There is no official age placed on the cave as yet but there are theories they are related to the Knights Templar and King James 1. What the cave was actually used for is also up for debate which only deepens the mystery of the cave, how old is it and what was it used for?
- Carvings: The carvings are mainly Christian and include the Hand of God, crucifixion scenes, St Katherine and St Christopher.
- Other symbols: The cave also includes carvings interpreted as a horse and an Earth Goddess, which have been suggested as Pagan fertility symbols.
- What was found inside: When the cave was discovered, it reportedly contained a human skull and fragments of a drinking vessel. It is definitely worth paying the entry fee. After walking down the stairs beneath the main street of Royston, you find yourself inside a chalk cave covered in carvings. There is so much to look at that your eyes do not quite know where to land first or where to look first. It is an absolute must if you are visiting Royston for kids and adults alike to visit the caves.
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