​

SELBORNE (Temple Sotherington) -

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

​

The Knights Templar at Temple Sotherington, Selborne

Just east of Selborne village, along Sotherington Lane, lies the historic site known as Temple Sotherington. In the Middle Ages this was one of the Hampshire estates of the Knights Templar, the military religious order founded to support the defence of the Holy Land. The place-name later shortened from “Temple of Sotherington” to simply Temple, a memory still preserved today in names such as Temple Manor, Temple Lane and nearby farm names.

The Templars held the manor of Sotherington by about 1240. Heritage records describe the site as a Templar preceptory or grange, though modern historians are cautious: the Hampshire Templar lands appear to have been administered through the Templar commandery of Sandford in Oxfordshire, so Sotherington may have functioned as a local manor, estate house, or camera rather than a large independent commandery. 

​

Land held by the Templars

The core Templar possession here was the manor of Sotherington, together with lands, meadows, tenements and rights in the wider Selborne area. In 1240, King Henry III granted the Templars six acres from his manor of Blackmoor. Around 1250, Robert de Sanford, Master of the Temple in England, granted to Selborne Priory the tenements, lands and meadows in Selborne which the Templars had received from Almeric de Sacy; the priory paid £200, intended to help the Templars buy other lands in aid of the Holy Land.

​

Other documents show the Templars connected with lands at Bradshott, roads and cattle-driving routes between Sotherington and Blackmoor, and rents due from the Templar “chamber” at Sudington/Sotherington. These records suggest a working agricultural estate, not merely a symbolic religious holding.

​

Buildings at Temple Sotherington

The medieval buildings have mostly disappeared. When the 18th-century naturalist Gilbert White wrote about the site, he recorded that remains of the old manor included a chapel or oratory and a hall, the latter measuring about 27 by 19 feet and formerly open to the sky. Heritage Gateway repeats this tradition, placing Upper Temple Farm / Temple Manoron the site of the former Templar manor.

​

The likely medieval complex would have included:

• a manor or estate house;

• a hall;

• a chapel or private oratory;

• barns, stables and agricultural buildings;

• an administrative “chamber” or camera;

• surrounding arable, meadow and pasture land.

There is no clear evidence that the Templars held the advowson of Selborne parish church. The advowson of St Mary’s, Selborne, belonged instead to Selborne Priory after its foundation in the 13th century. Claims of Templar links with graves or stones in St Mary’s should therefore be treated cautiously.

​

Who gave the land?

The known benefactors and grantors associated with the Templar estate at or near Sotherington include:

King Henry III, who granted land from Blackmoor in 1240.

Almeric de Sacy, who gave lands, tenements and meadows in Selborne to the Templars.

Robert de Sanford, Master of the Temple in England, who transferred the Sacy lands to Selborne Priory in exchange for £200.

The estate may also have absorbed smaller local gifts, rents and rights over time, as was typical of Templar landholding.

​

Brothers and officials present

Very few individual Templars can be securely linked with Temple Sotherington. The best-known names are:

Robert de Sanford, Master of the Temple in England, active in the mid-13th century.

Richard Carpenter, described by Gilbert White as a preceptor connected with Sudington or Sotherington.

There does not appear to be a surviving full list of Templar brothers resident at Temple Sotherington. This may be because the site was not a large independent preceptory, but a manor or grange managed under the wider Templar administration. Templar estates were often worked by tenants, servants, bailiffs and lay workers as well as by brethren of the order.

​

After the Templars

The Knights Templar were suppressed in the early 14th century. Much of their property eventually passed to the Knights Hospitaller, although the descent of Temple Sotherington was not entirely straightforward. By 1317 the manor of Sotherington, including Temple, was in the hands of the Earl of Hereford, and later evidence suggests Hospitaller interests in the area. 

​

What remains today?

Today the site is represented chiefly by Temple Manor on Sotherington Lane, a Grade II listed building. The present house is mainly post-medieval, with 18th- and 19th-century work, rather than a standing Templar building. Historic England lists it as Temple Manor, while Heritage Gateway records the tradition that it stands on or near the site of the medieval Templar manor. 

​

​Little visible medieval fabric is certain. Some older walling at the rear of the present house has been suggested as a possible survival from the earlier complex, but the chapel and hall described by Gilbert White have otherwise vanished. What remains most clearly is the historic landscape: Sotherington Lane, Temple Manor, nearby Temple place-names, and the memory of a small but important Templar estate on the eastern side of Selborne.

​

READ MORE ABOUT THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR AT SELBORNE (TEMPLE SOTHERINGTON) ON OUR BLOG SITE BY CLICKING HERE