A perilous game of hide and seek: the history of priest holes and hunters

Why were priest holes needed?

The creation of priest holes can be traced back to the Reformation. When the Pope refused to grant Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, he split from the Catholic Church and founded the Church of England.

His son, Edward VI, in an effort to continue his father’s work and solidify England as a Protestant state, commissioned Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in 1549 to write the Book of Common Prayer.

However, Edward was soon succeeded by his half-sister Mary in 1553, who restored England to Catholicism. Those who refused to renounce their Protestant faith were burned at the stake, earning her the divisive nickname ‘Bloody Mary’.

When it was Elizabeth I’s turn to rule, she reverted back to Protestantism, restoring the Church of England her father had established and passing the Act of Uniformity in 1559.

Originally, non-conformists faced fines and imprisonment, but as plots emerged to overthrow Elizabeth in favour of her Catholic cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, the penalties became harsher.

From 1559, it became high treason for a Catholic priest to even enter England, and anyone aiding them faced severe punishment.

“Many people, wealthy and poor in England, believed that Catholicism was the true faith and attempted to keep practising it,” explains Stephanie Barczewski on an episode of the HistoryExtra podcast. “So priests would sneak into the country, very much at peril of their own lives, and would then find refuge in the houses of wealthy people.”

What were priest holes used for?

Priest holes were secret hiding spots built into people’s homes, to conceal Catholic clergy during government raids. These hides also stored Catholic paraphernalia such as candles, crucifixes and incense.

The hiding places would often be very small, and came in a variety of forms: they could be behind wall panels, or high up in the attics of a house.

Those using these priest holes would have to escape pursuivants, or ‘priest hunters’. The people in this role conducted thorough searches under Elizabeth I’s orders. Pursuivants would compare the number of windows outside and inside, rip up floorboards, and tap walls to detect hollow spaces.

They even pretended to leave to see if anyone would emerge, or stayed in the vicinity of suspected hideouts for weeks to force hidden priests to reveal themselves. Unable to escape for fear of being executed, many died of starvation.

Those who were found met a gruesome end: “You would have these episodes of terrible violence where they would be dragged out,” explains Barczewski. “[They were] usually not executed on the spot, but would be taken away, put on some sort of trial which there was a foregone conclusion as to how it was going to come out and then they would be executed, not in a humane way […] beheaded, drawn, quartered, the full early modern spectacle.”

What did priest holes look like?

The design of priest holes varied greatly, but they had one thing in common: these hides were often cramped, allowing no room to stand or stretch.

Harvington Hall in Worcestershire showcases a great range of priest holes. Among the seven known to exist in the house, there is one above a bread oven packed with a layer of earth to prevent burning, another hidden behind a wall accessed via a swing-out beam covered with panelling, and a hide in an attic reached through a false chimney.

Underground hides were rare but did exist, such as the one at Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire, which is located below the house in the original sewers. It was accessed via the shaft of a garderobe (a medieval toilet).

Who was the most famous priest hole maker?

Nicholas Owen was known for his masterful priest holes. He began designing and building them in the 1580s – and was known for his ability to baffle even the canniest of priest hunters.

He worked under the alias of ‘Little John’, usually in the dead of night or under the ruse of a different construction project, to avoid detection.

Owen is also credited as the mastermind of Jesuit Father John Gerard’s escape from the Tower of London in 1597. Despite Gerard’s hands being mangled from torture, he managed to pull himself across a rope suspended over its moat.

However, Owen was captured by the Queen’s forces in 1606, during the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot, and taken to the Tower of London.

By this point, he had suffered from ill health – including a limp from a poorly set bone. There were rules in place to prevent the torture of those with physical impairments, but this didn’t stop Robert Cecil demanding that Owen be taken to the Tower of London and tortured to encourage him giving up knowledge.

Richard Topcliffe – an infamous torturer in the Tower of London under Elizabeth I – put Owen on the rack.

After several days of torture, he remained silent, so the torturers kept adding weight to his feet in frustration. Eventually, Owen’s intestines bulged out through a hernia. Topcliffe ordered that they be secured by a metal plate, which led to Owen bleeding to death in his cell and dying the next day. The state announced that he had taken his own life.

He was canonised in 1970 as St Nicholas Owen, the patron saint of illusionists and escapologists.