Robert of Knaresborough

[1] Seeking a life of solitude, he visited a knight-hermit who lived in a cave by the River Nidd at Knaresborough, hiding from Richard I.

He continued to live there for some years, until a wealthy widow, Juliana, offered him a cell at St Hilda's Chapel in nearby Rudfarlington.

Robert manages not only to herd the deer into his barn as if they were a tame flock of sheep but also harnesses them to his plough and sets them to work.

He urged his followers to resist them, which they did, and so St Robert was buried in his chapel cut from the steep rocky crags by the river, where, it was said, a medicinal oil flowed from his tomb; pilgrims came from near and far to be healed by it.

[7] Robert lived in various places in the vicinity of Knaresborough before taking up residence in a cave by the River Nidd (then known as St Giles' Priory).

[5] Michael Calvert's History of Knaresborough (1844), describes St Robert's Well as being near the York Road, about one mile from the town.

[10] An 1850s OS map marks a "Cold Bath" near the York Road, as described by Calvert, and this site was connected by a track to St Robert's cave and chapel 400 m (1,300 ft) to the south-west.

Seven stained-glass panels of his life, originally from Dale Abbey, survive at St Matthew's Church in Morley, Derbyshire.