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Royston b&b, guesthouse and hotel accommodation

Visit Royston and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

Royston, Hertfordshire. This small town, with its narrow streets and old inns and houses, lies at the crossing of Ermine Street and the old Icknield Way.

Below this crossroads is a strange monument, the bottle-shaped Royston Cave, discovered in 1742. Cut out of chalk, it is about 28 ft deep and 17 ft across. On the walls are crude carvings of, among others, St Christopher and the Crucifixion, but the date of their origin is in dispute. The cave, reached by a winding passage, is below the ground.

The remains of James I's palace are in Knees-worth Street, with two large original chimneys, the rest of the building having been rebuilt in the 18^th century. In the same street are Georgian houses, the white-bricked Rookery and the red-bricked Yew Tree House, with segment-headed windows.

West of the crossroads is a large Victorian workhouse and in Melbourne Street are several interesting red- and purple-brick houses, and the white-brick Banyers Hotel, part 17^th- and part l8^th-century with massive Ionic pilasters and mullioned windows in two gables. Then comes the Victorian Town Hall in yellow brick.

In the High Street are many buildings of character including the early Victorian Bull Hotel of yellow brick, and in John Street a small Victorian Court House in Italian style. Next is the Priory, an enlarged Georgian building, on a site which was probably originally part of the monastery.

St John's and Thomas's Church, which lies on the corner of the old and new roads of the town, was originally l3^th-century and later, but was greatly changed in the Victorian era. The west wall is of the old monastic church. There is oak panelling of the 14^th century, a l3^th-century font bowl on a base of a later period, and the piscina is genuine 13^th-century. The exact dates of much of the rest of the church seem to be in dispute. Of the monuments, an effigy of a knight with angels at the head is 14^th-century and a thin brass cross in the chancel is 15^th-century.

To the west of the town is Therfield Heath on which are five round barrows and one long one, the only one of its kind in the county.

Sandon Mount at Notley Green is covered by a clump of trees. It is 87 ft in diameter, surrounded by a wide ditch in which there is an entrance. It was probably used as a look-out in the 13^th century.

Nearby cities: Cambridge

Nearby towns: Baldock, Biggleswade, Letchworth, Hertford, Saffron Walden

Nearby villages: Ashwell, Barkway, Barley, Chrishall, Elmdon, Fowlmere, Foxton, Heydon, Kelshall, Meldreth, Nuthampstead, Reed, Sawston, Therfield

Have you decided to visit Royston or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:

• a Royston bed and breakfast (a Royston B&B or Royston b and b)
• a Royston guesthouse
• a Royston hotel (or motel)
• a Royston self-catering establishment, or
• other Royston accommodation