Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1907 — The Old Round House. [ARTICLE]

The Old Round House.

St Albans is said to possess the oldest Inhabited house. This distinction Is said to belong to the old Round House, now the “Fighting Cocks” inn, which stands close to the river Yer. It is a curious structure—of octagonal shape—of early Saxon origin, having been built as a boathouse to the ancient monastery founded at St. Albans by King Offia about the year 795, and is thus over 1,100 years old. A subterranean passage, now blocked up, runs from the basement to the ruins of the monastery, a distance of about 200 yards. There In a shed at the back of the house where,' It Is said, Oliver Cromwell stabled his borne, himself once sleeping under Its roes during the civil war.—Westminster Gazette.