TEMPLE COWLEY - (Templecouelee)

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​On the eastern side of Oxford lies Temple Cowley, once a thriving medieval preceptory of the Knights Templar. Founded in 1136, the estate began with four hides of land (around 480 acres) gifted by Queen Matilda, wife of King Stephen.

Over the next century, the Templars expanded their holdings. By the 14th century, the estate included two watermills, a fishery, and a church at Sibford (granted to them in 1153 by Agnes of Sibford). In 1141, the Empress Matilda also granted the knights extensive pasture rights in Shotover Forest—today known as Akemere Wood—stretching beyond the village of Horsepath and covering land on the slopes of Otmoor. This amounted to a substantial estate of at least 880 acres.

Temple Cowley flourished as a busy settlement, but its importance declined after Thomas de Sandford’s gift of Sandford-on-Thames to the Templars in 1239. The preceptory gradually fell into disuse, eventually being reduced to a smaller administrative unit known as a camera.

When the Knights Templar were suppressed in 1312, their Cowley lands briefly passed to Queen Margaret, before being transferred to the Knights Hospitaller, who continued to hold them until the Dissolution in the 16th century.

Today, little survives of the medieval estate, but Temple Cowley’s name still recalls its fascinating Templar and Hospitaller past—linking modern Oxford to one of the most powerful religious orders of the Middle Ages.

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The Lands at Templecoulee, in the 1188 report of Brother Philip de Thame, Knight Templar included the following:

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• “Est ibidem unum gardinum et valet .”
  → There is there one garden, 

• “Item ij. Columbaria que valent”
  → Also, two dovecotes, 

• “Item xj. acre prati, pretium acre iij s., et summa”
  → Also, eleven acres of meadow, the price per acre 3 shillings, 

• “Et pastura separalis, que valet”
  → And separate pasture, 

• “Item CO. acre terre, pretium acre xij d.”
  → Also, 100 acres of land, the price per acre 12 pence.

• “Item apud Westbury in Cliercliecouelee iiij acre vj d.”
  → Also, at Westbury in Cliercliecouelee, 4 acres, 6 pence.

• “Item j. molendinum aquaticum quod valet”
  → Also, one water mill, 

• “Item vij. acre prati, pretium acre ijs.”
  → Also, 7 acres of meadow, the price per acre 2 shillings.

• “Item apud Garsyngdon et Bokenesfeld sunt Ix acre vj d.”
  → Also, at Garsington and Bokenesfield there are 9 acres, 6 pence.

• “Et perquisita curiarum valent ....Et de redditu assiso in eisdem placeis”
  → And the court fines … and from the assessed rent in the same places.

• “Item opera et consuetudines Nativorum valent, XX s, . yj s. xxiii s. . xiij s. iiij d.”
  → Also, the labor and customary services of the tenants are worth 20 shillings, 6 shillings, 33 shillings, and 13 shillings 4 pence.

• “Summa x li.”
  → Total 10 pounds.

• “acre terre : pretium Summa xl s. . XXX s. Summa xviij s. acre terre, pre- . XXX s. XV s. vj li. xij s. ob. iiij li. xj s. ob.”
  → [This section totals land value in various parcels:]

  • Acre of land: price… total 40 shillings, 30 shillings, 18 shillings, acres at 30 shillings, 15 shillings, 6 pounds 12 shillings and 4 pounds 11 shillings.

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