Monument record 0070400000 - HERMIT'S CAVE AT DINTON

JOHN BIGG, A NATIVE OF DINTON, TRADITIONALLY THE EXECUTIONER OF KING CHARLES. FOR SEVERAL YEARS, IN THE LATTER PART OF HIS LIFE, BIGG LIVED IN A CAVE (B1).
JOHN BIGG LIVED IN A CAVE WITHOUT EVER CHANGING HIS CLOTHES (B2).
SITE OF CAVE AT NGR (B3).



(SP 76501080) Hermit's Cave (NR) (site of) (B4).
John Bigg, traditionally the executioner of Charles I, became a hermit after the Restoration and is said to have lived in a cave at Dinton. After he died in 1696, one of his shoes is preserved at Dinton Hall, the other in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (B2).
The Dinton Hermit's Shoe. Handmade shoe which belonged to John Bigg, the 'Dinton Hermit' (1629-1696). Born and lived in Dinton, Buckinghamshire. He was clerk to Simon Mayne, magistrate and Member of Parliament for Aylesbury. Mayne was on of the judges at the trial of King Charles I in 1649 and it is said that Bigg may have been one of the hooded executioners of the king. Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Simon Mayne was tried and sentenced as a regicide and died in the Tower of London in 1661. John Bigg became a hermit at about the same time, living in an underground cave at Mayne's home, Dinton Hall, until his death. Some believe that Bigg lived as a hermit as he feared retribution for his involvement in the royal execution. Others suggest it was due to the remorse he felt over the king’s death. The shoe is made up of many hundreds of patches of leather and appears overly large and bulky. The reason for the large size (35 x 23.5 x 11 cm) is that when one piece of leather wore out he would simply nail another piece over the top. An eighteenth-century illustration of Bigg shows that the rest of his clothes were also made up from patches of leather and he wore a strange horned cloak. It is said that he lived by begging silently for food but only ever asked for leather (B5).
NRHE insert 1998, update 2014 (B6).

This record includes National Record of the Historic Environment Information provided by Historic England on 4 June 2025 licensed under the Open Government Licence.