IS KING JOHN'S LONG-LOST TREASURE BURIED IN A BACK GARDEN IN GRIMSBY OR CLEETHORPES?

 

EVERY English schoolchild is taught that King John lost his treasure while crossing The Wash estuary between Norfolk and Lincolnshire.



But are the history books correct? Is this the correct location? What gems and precious metals were included in the treasure? What is the current value of the booty? Why has nothing ever been discovered?



These questions are explored in the publication,  Sucked Down by The Whirlpool - The Quest for King John's Long-lost Treasure.



It runs runs the rule over many of the bizarre theories that have been born of the fateful incident on an October's day some  803 years ago - including one that the treasure, or some of it, might be buried in a back garden somewhere in the Grimsby area.



Just days before the crossing, King John visited Wisbech, formerly a port town, in order to arrange the transportation of goods and merchandise by boat to Great Grimsby.



Grimsby was one of his favourite towns, partly because of his friendship with the abbot of the town’s Wellow Abbey (which extended to 650 acres of surrounding land) and partly because he enjoyed hunting in Bradley Woods - as reflected in Ralph Baucham’s impressive panoramic painting which hangs in the Assembly Rooms within Grimsby Town Hall. 



John liked to store some of his jewels at secret places in the grounds of abbeys whose clerics he trusted, so where better than Wellow? Could some of the gems have been included in the mystery “cargo” from Wisbech?



The abbey has long since been demolished, but its heritage is recalled in such places names as Wellowgate, Abbey Road and Abbey Drive. 

A popular pub in Cleethorpes is named The Wellow. Meanwhile, Eleanor Street in Grimsby is named after the king’s mother, Eleanor of Acquitaine.



Could precious heirlooms of English history lie buried in the foundations or in the gardens of some of the smaller houses that have since sprung up on the land in Grimsby which was once home to a monastic community?

  

Fanciful thinking? Perhaps, but not nearly  so bizarre as an alternative  conspiracy theory that the treasure was discovered during construction of the power station at Sutton Bridge, near The Wash,  by energy giant Enron, then smuggled out of the country to the United States!



Also examined is the character of John - for instance, his love of hunting, especially falconry, and his promiscuity. His second wife, Isabella of Agouleme, is thought to have been only 12 when he married her. Was the union prompted by political factors or was there some perversity in his appetite for the opposite sex?



The strange circumstances surrounding the death of King John, aged 49, are also explored - for instance whether he might have been poisoned by monks when he stayed at an abbey in Swineshead, near Boston. 

King John hunting in Bradley Woods - section of the painting in Grimsby Town Hall

*Sucked Down by the Whirlpool  can be ordered from bookshops or is available at £2.50, plus postage, from online retailers such as Amazon and ebay (buy-it-now).