THE KNIGHTS HOSPITALLERS
IN YORKSHIRE
COMMANDERY BEVERLEY
The Knights Hospitallers of Beverley: One of Medieval England’s Wealthiest Commanderies
Hidden beneath modern Beverley lies the site of one of the most important houses of the Knights Hospitallers in England.
Founded soon after 1201, the preceptory was established when Sybil de Valloines (de Valines) gifted the Order the Manor of the Holy Trinity on the east side of the town. This was a major act of patronage, giving the Hospitallers a substantial urban estate from which they built one of only three urban commanderies in the country.
Over time, Beverley grew into one of the wealthiest of the Order’s sixty or so English houses, still flourishing until its dissolution in 1540 under Henry VIII.
The surviving manorial records give us a remarkable glimpse into what they held here.
At Beverley itself there was:
• a built manor house with garden and courtyard
• four dovecotes
• 6 acres of meadow
• a separate pasture
• a fulling mill
At nearby Burton, they also held:
• a garden
• another fulling mill
• 242 acres of land
• 12 acres of pasture
• 104 acres of common land
These holdings show that the preceptory was not only a religious institution, but a major agricultural and commercial estate. The fulling mills in particular suggest income from Beverley’s important medieval cloth trade.
The commandery itself was an impressive enclosed complex, including residential buildings, service ranges, a church, and a burial ground, all surrounded by a moat and entered through a formal gateway.
Who was here?
The site would have been occupied by the preceptor (the commanding knight), fellow Hospitaller brethren, chaplains, servants, estate officials, labourers, and tenants. Archaeological and documentary evidence confirms continuous occupation from the early 13th century until suppression in 1540.
So what remains today?
Although no medieval buildings are visible above ground, the site survives as a Scheduled Monument, with important archaeological remains believed to survive below the former railway embankment and goods yard.
Even in 1856, the northern and eastern sides of the original moat were still visible, and the eastern arm was shown on an 1892 Ordnance Survey plan before later infilling.
Today, while the stones are hidden, the ground beneath Beverley still preserves the footprint of one of the greatest Hospitaller houses in England.
COPGROVE
FOULBRIDGE -
For more information on the Former Templar Preceptory of Foulbridge please view by CLICKING HERE
COPMANTHORPE
FAXFLEET
For information on Faxfleet Please view information by CLICKING HERE
Mount St John - Preceptory
Mount St John: The Knights Hospitallers Preceptory of Felixkirk, Yorkshire
In the North Riding of Yorkshire, the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem established an important preceptory at Mount St John, in the parish of Felixkirk.
The estate’s origins date back to the early reign of King Henry I (c. 1100s), when William Percy, known as Algernon, gifted the Hospitallers lands amounting to five knights’ fees. This endowment allowed the Order to establish a fully functioning preceptory, dedicated to St John the Baptist, and it remained a key regional centre until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century.
Medieval records show the preceptory included:
• a messuage / dwelling, later described as ruined
• 208 acres of arable land
• 12 acres of meadow
• church of Felixkirk, appropriated to the bailiwick
• profits from assize rents, the Fraria (flexible rents), and manorial courts
Total annual receipts were valued at 47 marks 8s. 4d., a substantial income for a northern religious house.
Who was present?
The preceptory would have housed the preceptor (commander), brethren of the Order, chaplains, and lay servants, who managed the lands, collected rents, and oversaw agricultural production. The church of Felixkirk also served the local community under Hospitaller administration.
What survives today?
While much of the preceptory itself has vanished above ground, the site at Mount St John remains archaeologically significant. Field evidence, historic maps, and the church of Felixkirk preserve the memory of this once-flourishing northern commandery.
TEMPLE HIRST
For More Information on Temple Hirst Please head over to our Knights Templar Page by clicking here
ETTON (Temple Garth) -
For more information on Temple Garth please view our Templars Page by CLICKING HERE
COWTON
NEWLAND & Houghton - Preceptory
Knights Hospitallers at Newland: Yorkshire’s Medieval Commandery
Hidden in the Yorkshire countryside lies a story of medieval devotion, land, and legacy—the Commandery of Newland, once a foothold of the Knights Hospitallers.
The Hospitallers, a military and religious order founded in Jerusalem during the Crusades, were famed not just for fighting but also for managing lands across Europe to fund their charitable and military missions. One such estate was the Bailiwick of Newland in Yorkshire.
What They Held
At Newland, the Hospitallers held:
-
One modest manor, worth just 5 shillings with its garden—a simple dwelling by medieval standards.
-
200 acres of land, producing about 66 shillings and 8 pence annually, along with 26 marks from fixed rents.
-
Additional lands totaling 400 acres, worth £4 per year.
-
Meadows: 16 acres at Newland (26 shillings 8 pence) and 18 acres at nearby Hoton (36 shillings).
-
Pasturelands for 20 cows and 300 sheep, generating 46 shillings at Newland and 20 shillings at Hoton.
The Hospitallers also benefited from various court profits, escheats, and customary payments, bringing the total annual income of the Newland Bailiwick to £54 5s. 4d.—a significant sum in medieval times.
Who Was There
As a commandery (or preceptory), Newland would have been home to a small community of knights and brothers. These men balanced spiritual duties with the management of the estate, collecting rents, overseeing farming, and ensuring the order’s wealth supported their broader mission across Christendom.
Legacy and Today
While the medieval structures are long gone, the landscape still whispers of the order’s presence. Fields, pastures, and local place names hint at centuries-old boundaries once managed by the Hospitallers. Newland today may appear quiet, but beneath its pastoral charm lies a story of medieval strategy, piety, and land management.
Exploring Newland is a chance to step into the medieval world of the Knights Hospitallers, imagining the knights who rode out for the Holy Land and the community they built right here in Yorkshire.
PENHILL
For More Information on Penhill & The Knight Hospitallers Please head over to our Knights Templar Page by clicking here
RIBSTON
TEMPLE NEWSAM
For More Information on Temple Newsam Please head over to our Knights Templar Page by clicking here
WESTERDALE
For more information about the Preceptory at Westerdale - Please see our Knight Templar page on Westerdale by clicking here
KELLINGTON - Church of St Edmund King and Martyr
HUNTINGTON - CAMERA All Saints Church
HUNSINGORE - St John the Baptist Church
WETHERBY - St James Church
WHITKIRK - St Marys Church
ALVERTHORPE
BEEFORD - Beeford, aliris Byford (Beford), Yorkshire, the
manor of, belonging to the Hospitallers of Westerdale,
The village of Beeford, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, preserves an often-overlooked connection to two of the most famous medieval military orders: first the Knights Templar, and later the Knights Hospitaller.
In the 12th century, the manor was held by Ernald de Montbegon, who possessed six carucates of land at Beeford as part of the Aumale fee, together with another six carucates at nearby Dunnington. A carucate was a substantial unit of medieval land measurement, broadly representing the amount that could be worked by one plough team in a year.
Before 1185, Ernald granted his lands at Beeford to the Knights Templar. This gift likely included not only the agricultural land itself but also a chief house or manor house, together with approximately 1 carucate and 4 bovates of demesne land — land retained directly for the lord’s own use and income. The military service once owed to the Count of Aumale was also transferred with the estate, an important sign of the Templars’ growing landed power in Yorkshire.
This was more than a symbolic grant. Like other Templar estates, Beeford would have functioned as an income-producing manor, with arable fields, rents from tenants, and a principal house from which the lands were administered. While there is no evidence of a large preceptory complex here on the scale of Temple Hirst, the presence of a manor house strongly suggests a local estate centre where officials, tenants, and visiting brethren may have been present.
Following the dramatic suppression of the Knights Templar in 1312, their English lands were transferred by papal decree to the Knights Hospitaller, the Order of St John.
By 1316, the Hospitallers are specifically recorded as one of the two lords of Beeford manor, demonstrating that the estate had formally passed into their possession. They retained control of the manor for more than two centuries, until the Dissolution of the religious orders in the 16th century, when their estates were seized by the Crown under Henry VIII.
Although the names of individual resident Hospitaller brethren at Beeford are not clearly preserved in surviving records, it is highly likely that the manor was managed by estate stewards, reeves, and tenant farmers, rather than serving as a permanent knightly residence. The Hospitallers’ English estates were often organised through local bailiffs and officials who collected rents and supervised agricultural production on behalf of a larger regional commandery.
So what remains today?
Unlike sites such as Temple Hirst, there is no clearly surviving standing Hospitaller or Templar building at Beeford. The medieval manor house has long since disappeared, and later village development has largely obscured the original manorial landscape.
However, the historical legacy survives in the documentary record of the manor, in medieval feudal surveys and manorial references, and in the continued occupation of the village itself, whose landscape likely still follows ancient field and property boundaries first established in the medieval period.
Beeford therefore offers an important glimpse into how the great crusading orders operated not only through famous preceptories, but also through working manors that sustained their wealth and influence across Yorkshire.
CLEUNYG - Manor - a limb of the preceptory of Beverley
Location Unknown
There is there one dwelling with a garden, valued at 4 shillings per year.
-
Also one dovecote, valued at 6 shillings per year.
-
6 acres of land, each acre valued at 6 pence, worth 13 shillings per year.
-
7 and 3/4 acres, each acre valued at 3 pence, worth 35 shillings 9 pence.
-
6 acres of meadow, each acre valued at 20 pence
STEYNTON
A Remote Stronghold in the North York Moors
Hidden within the sweeping landscape of the North Yorkshire moorlands lies Westerdale—a place of quiet beauty today, but once home to a functioning preceptory of the Knights Templar. Though no visible remains survive, Westerdale was once part of a wider network of Templar estates that helped sustain the Order’s mission across England and beyond.
A Gift from Guido de Bovingcourt
The origins of the preceptory date to 1203, when the lands at Westerdale were granted to the Templars by Guido de Bovingcourt. Such gifts were common in this period, as noble benefactors sought spiritual favour and prestige by supporting the Order.
Westerdale became one of approximately ten Templar preceptories in Yorkshire, alongside important sites at Faxfleet, Foulbridge (Dalton), Ribston, and Wetherby. While not as wealthy or prominent as some of its counterparts, its location suggests it played a valuable role in managing upland resources and agricultural production.
The Estate and Its Buildings
Like most Templar preceptories, Westerdale would have been a self-contained estate, combining religious, administrative, and agricultural functions. The complex is believed to have included:
-
A hall, serving as the administrative and domestic centre
-
A chapel, where daily prayer and religious observance took place
-
A kitchen and service buildings
-
Various outbuildings, barns, and storage structures
The surrounding land would have been used for grazing, particularly sheep, as well as limited arable farming suited to the moorland environment. The estate likely included enclosed fields, pasture, and rights over the surrounding landscape.
The People of Westerdale
At the head of the preceptory would have been the preceptor, a senior Templar responsible for managing the estate, overseeing tenants, and ensuring the smooth running of both spiritual and economic life.
Beneath him were a small number of Templar brethren, along with lay servants and labourers. The estate would also have relied heavily on local tenants, who held land in return for rents and agricultural service, much like those recorded at other Yorkshire preceptories such as Foulbridge and Faxfleet.
While specific names connected to Westerdale are scarce in surviving records, its structure and function would have closely mirrored these better-documented estates.
The Fall of the Templars
Westerdale’s time under the Templars lasted just over a century. In 1307–1308, the Order was suppressed across Europe, following accusations of heresy and misconduct. In England, Templar properties were seized, and by 1312 the Order was formally dissolved.
Like all their estates, Westerdale passed into the hands of the Knights Hospitaller. The Hospitallers administered the property from their regional centre at Beverley, continuing its agricultural use and maintaining its role within their network.
The Hospitaller Period and Dissolution
Under Hospitaller control, Westerdale remained an active estate for over two centuries. Though less is recorded about this period, it is clear that the land continued to be worked and managed as part of a wider system of income-generating properties.
This continuity came to an end in 1538, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. The preceptory was dissolved, and its lands passed into private hands, marking the end of its religious function.
What Remains Today?
Today, there are no visible structural remains of the Westerdale preceptory. The hall, chapel, and associated buildings have long since disappeared, likely dismantled or absorbed into later agricultural development.
Yet the landscape itself still tells part of the story. The pattern of fields, the quiet isolation of the valley, and the enduring agricultural use of the land all echo its medieval past.
A Silent Witness to History
Westerdale may lack the standing ruins of more famous Templar sites, but its significance lies in what it represents: the everyday workings of the Order in rural England.
Here, far from the battlefields of the Crusades, the Knights Templar lived, prayed, and worked the land—supported by local tenants and sustained by the generosity of their benefactors. Later, the Knights Hospitaller continued this legacy, ensuring the site remained active for centuries.
Today, Westerdale stands as a silent witness to this layered history—a reminder that even the most powerful institutions leave behind places that, though now quiet, once played their part in shaping the medieval world.
PICKERING - Messuage
The Knights Hospitallers at Pickering: The Messuage and Hospital of St Nicholas
On the western edge of Pickering, North Yorkshire, in a field still known as Chapel Close, lie the buried remains of one of the town’s lesser-known medieval institutions: St Nicholas’s Hospital, a site closely associated with the Knights Hospitallers and their landed interests in the wider region.
Situated approximately 550 metres east of Brick Yard Farm, on the south side of present-day Street Lane (grid reference SE 7842 8460), the site preserves the memory of a medieval messuage, hospital, and chapel that once served both the sick and travellers entering the royal liberty of Pickering.
Origins and Patronage
Unlike the royal grant of the Hospitaller manor at nearby Steynton (Staintondale), the Pickering holding appears to have been centred on St Nicholas’s Hospital, rather than a full preceptory or camera.
The precise donor of the original land is not securely recorded in surviving sources, but the hospital was certainly in existence by 1301, when it is mentioned in the Lay Subsidy Roll.
Because Pickering lay within the Royal Liberty of Pickering, and the hospital was later associated with the Duke of Lancaster, it is likely that its lands were granted or confirmed under royal or ducal patronage.
By 1374, John of Gaunt granted custody of the hospital, together with its lands and assets, to Roger de Benyngton, chaplain of the castle chantry chapel, on condition that he fund repairs to both hospital and chapel.
What Lands and Property Did They Hold?
The reference in the Steynton survey to “one messuage in Pikering” worth 5 shillings strongly suggests that the Hospitallers held a rent-producing dwelling or tenanted property in Pickering itself, probably linked administratively to the Staintondale camera.
A messuage in medieval legal terms usually referred to:
a dwelling house
its yard and outbuildings
adjoining curtilage or garden land
This may have served as:
a tenant property generating rent
a lodging for chaplain or steward
an urban support property connected to the hospital site
The hospital precinct itself was larger.
Archaeological evidence indicates a close measuring roughly 70m by 30m, enclosed by ditches and banks, containing:
the hospital hall or infirmary
an attached chapel
possible chaplain’s lodging
associated outbuildings
likely garden or medicinal herb plots
Excavations in 1940 revealed a building approximately 51 feet by 18 feet, comprising:
a central hall or infirmary nave
an eastern chapel
a western lodging room, probably for the resident chaplain
Preceptors, Chaplains, and Tenants
No named Hospitaller preceptor resident at Pickering survives in the record, suggesting this was not a principal house of the Order.
Instead, it was probably administered as a dependent holding, possibly linked to the Hospitaller lands at Staintondale or another Yorkshire commandery.
However, the site clearly had a resident chaplain, especially by the 14th century.
The known figure is:
Roger de Benyngton, custodian and chaplain in 1374
The site would also have relied upon:
tenant farmers
local rent-paying occupiers
servants and labourers
attendants for the sick and poor
Given its dedication to St Nicholas, patron saint of travellers and mariners, the hospital may also have received wayfarers and pilgrims.
What Remains Today?
Today, no standing medieval structures survive above ground, but the site is a scheduled monument and remains one of Pickering’s most important buried medieval sites.
The remains survive as:
low earthworks
buried masonry
enclosure ditches
archaeological deposits beneath Chapel Close
Historic England describes the site as nationally important because significant evidence of the internal layout and wider hospital close still survives underground.
Though invisible to most passers-by, this site preserves an important link between medieval charity, pilgrimage, and the wider ecclesiastical landscape of Pickering.
A Forgotten Hospitaller Presence in Pickering
While overshadowed by the castle and parish church, the messuage and hospital at Pickering form an important part of the town’s medieval history.
Together with the Hospitaller lands at Staintondale, it shows how the military orders maintained small but strategically placed properties across Yorkshire, supporting religious, charitable, and administrative work.
Beneath the quiet field of Chapel Close lies the memory of a medieval house of care — one that once served the sick, the poor, and the traveller.
(EAST) COWTON - Messuage
The Knights Hospitallers at Cowton, Yorkshire: A Medieval Manor of the Order
In the historic county of Yorkshire, the village of Cowton preserves the memory of a lesser-known estate of the Knights Hospitallers, the military-religious order formally known as the Order of St John of Jerusalem. This site, recorded in medieval surveys as a messuage of Cowton, illustrates how the Hospitallers maintained a network of manors across England to support their charitable and crusading missions.
Origins and Patronage
The exact origins of the Hospitaller holding at Cowton are not fully documented, but it likely dates from the 12th or early 13th century, during the height of the Order’s English land acquisitions. Such properties were typically granted by local lords or nobles, or confirmed by royal authority, to support the Order’s work caring for pilgrims, the poor, and the sick, as well as funding their military activities in the Holy Land.
Cowton, like other Hospitaller holdings in Yorkshire, formed part of a broader network of estates that included Steynton (Staintondale) and Pickering, generating income and providing strategic land for administration.
Lands and Property
The Cowton messuage included a ruined or dilapidated manor, along with extensive lands and ancillary holdings. A medieval survey records:
-
Pasture of the manor – worth 6s 8d per year
-
200 acres of land at 8d per acre
-
200 acres of land at 6d per acre
-
100 acres of land at 4d per acre
The total recorded value of these lands was 20 marks.
Additional assets included:
-
A water-mill at Sourby, valued at 9s
-
Assize rents, customs, and services, which had formerly brought in £40 annually but were then valued at £36
-
Separate pasture – worth 9s
-
Pleas and perquisites of the courts – 20s
-
The church of Kirkeby Fletliam, valued for Hospitaller use at 40 marks
This combination of arable land, pasture, mills, and church revenues provided a significant and diversified income stream for the Order.
Administration and Tenants
Cowton was administered under the Hospitaller system of dependent estates. Unlike a major preceptory, the messuage likely did not host a resident knight-brother, but may have had:
-
a steward or bailiff managing the lands
-
local tenants and villeins working the fields
-
a chaplain or cleric overseeing religious obligations connected to the church of Kirkeby Fletliam
-
labourers tending the mill and pastures
The Hospitallers’ holdings at Cowton illustrate how the Order relied on a network of estates and tenants to sustain both local and international operations.
What Remains Today
Little survives above ground of the medieval Cowton messuage. Archaeological evidence is limited, and the manor is described in historical surveys as ruined or dilapidated.
What endures today is mainly in place names and landscape features, along with documentary memory preserved in:
-
medieval surveys recording the lands and their value
-
records of water-mills and church endowments
-
the association with the Knights Hospitallers’ wider Yorkshire estates
The site remains an important reminder of the Hospitallers’ presence in rural England, linking the local landscape to the international crusading and charitable mission of the Order.
Cowton in Context
The messuage at Cowton was part of a strategically dispersed network of Hospitaller estates in Yorkshire, generating income for hospitals, chapels, and the Order’s crusading efforts abroad. Together with holdings at Steynton and Pickering, Cowton demonstrates how even small manors and watermills contributed to the medieval economy and charitable work of one of Europe’s most famous military orders.
