50 000 Hits, Leyland and the knights Templar

Hi Chaps,

Thank you all for achieving a milestone for me with 50 000 hits. What a ride! In the time that I have started this blog I have been blown away by the quality of work that you chaps generate week in and week out...you are simply amazing. So with the Oscar type speech over I would like to share with you a little bit of history.

Leyland is probably best known for producing cars of a somewhat dubious quality and the Centurian tank which was quality. On one of my early morning walks (usually 5AM ish) I spotted some medieval grave markers in ST Andrews church, a couple of these were unmistakably military graves so I took a picture and resolved to find out more.

On the left of the grave as you look at it is a sword which is faint and on the right is clearly an axe. I have seen quite a few of these grave markers but never one with an axe on it! Maybe this fellow was a real bad ass? I have a meagre A level in archaeology so someone out there will be able to explain this marker in more detail....

Anyway Leyland was given to the Knights Templar in 1212 as basically no one owned this backwater but the guys who came to oversee the gathering of crops/paying of tythes etc certainly left their mark. It is such a pity that the local council make nothing of this. Instead we have a marker to celebrate the worlds first fireproof cinema built using materials produced in this town, Leyland paint, Leyland rubber etc. the cinema burned down in 1929 thank fully with no casualties. Am I the only person to see the humour in this irony?

Anyway thanks again for the 50 000 Chaps you are stars.