Discover Alone ← Back to nearby map

← Back to the nearby map

Hermit's Cave, John Sparkes, and Thomas de Berkeley blue plaque

Blue plaque
View my places
No photo yet

Add a picture, leave a message or tell me about a missing place.

Earn 5 points after the picture is checked and accepted.

Add a pictureShare what you foundAdd a new place

What is recorded here

This blue commemorative plaque records: Quaker's Burial Ground. Hermit's Cave. This cave was a fourteenth century hermitage. John Sparkes, the first hermit, was installed here in 1346 by Thomas Lord Berkeley, to pray for him and his family. Successive hermits continued to occupy the cave until the seventeenth century. Inside the cave are 177 small Quaker headstones. Several famous Bristol names are represented, including: Alloway, Wall, Ring, Harford, Sturge, Smyth, Grace, Whitworth, Holden, Jennings. The earliest is 1669, the latest is 1923. The youngest was eight months, the oldest was 99 years.

A plaque record does not grant entry to a building or private land. View it from a public place unless permission is clearly given.