Famous Turin shroud 'actually a tablecloth made in the Midlands' claims Brit historian
dailystar.co.ukJesus’s followers wrapped his body in after the crucifixion.But David Adkins has a different theory. He claims it is in fact a tablecloth - made in Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire.The anthropologist and historian has come to his shocking conclusion after studying the lives of medieval monks in Burton, and researching their dealings with the Knights Templar.The Templars were outlawed in 1307 and many of them fled to England.
It is “almost beyond doubt,” David says, that, after the Templars brought their hoard to Burton, they would have created a statue in memory of the event.“To the medieval mind there could only be one possible symbol of the fabled hoard and the Holy Grail - and that was the Fisher King," says David. "At some point after 1307, when the hoard arrived in Burton, I believe the skilled local craftsmen of Burton Abbey set about carving a life size statue of the Fisher King to house within the abbey”.David told Birmingham Live that the statue would have had pride of place at Burton Abbey until 1350, the some major renovation work was done.“Many fine statues and effigies in the abbey would have been placed into storage,” David says.Wrapped in cloth and linen, the statues would have been sorted for over a decade.“However, when the monks came to unwrap it,” theorises David, “they noticed that the alabaster had reacted with chemicals in the mustiness of the cellar and left an image of the Fisher King on the old linen cloth.
This is where the story of the Turin Shroud begins.“No doubt one of the monks noticed a similarity between the features of the Fisher King impregnated onto the cloth and those of Jesus Christ and came up with a plan to present it as the shroud of Christ himself.
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