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THE TEMPLARS
IN WARWICK
Roger, Earl of Warwick (1119-53) granted a small manor beyond the bridge on the S side of Warwick to the Knights Templars. This was eventually transferred to the Knights Hospitallers in 1314. In 1549 it was reunited with the Castle estates. The buildings of Temple Farm stood on the outskirts of Bridge End beside the old Banbury Road and within a moat. It seems that the templars abonded their lands in Warwick in around 1148.
In 1585 they consisted of fourteen bays of buildings, but four of them were burnt down around 1590. The remainder of the farmhouse stood until 1744 and the house is known to have gone by 1786.
The Manor of Balsall was granted to the Templars in the reign of Stephen, by Roger Mowbray their long time generous supporter.
TEMPLE BALSALL - Preceptory
Temple Balsall became one of the most important centres of the Knights Templar in medieval Warwickshire. Originally part of the manor of Hampton-in-Arden, the estate was granted to the Order by Roger de Mowbray, son of Nigel d'Aubigny, during the reign of King Stephen in the mid-twelfth century. The Templar survey of 1185 confirms Mowbray as the donor, by which time Balsall was already a well-developed agricultural estate.
During the early thirteenth century Balsall grew in importance and gradually replaced the Templars' earlier house at Warwick as their principal administrative centre in the county. By around 1220 it was operating as a recognised preceptory, administering both its own extensive manor and a wider network of Templar property across Warwickshire.
The Preceptory and its Buildings
Temple Balsall was a substantial working estate rather than simply a residence for the brethren. Medieval records and archaeology indicate a complex of buildings grouped around the preceptory, including a great hall, chamber, kitchen, buttery, pantry, brewhouse, bakehouse, barn and chapel.
The surviving Old Hall, traditionally known as the Templars' Hall, retains important medieval fabric and represents part of this former domestic complex.
The present Church of St Mary the Virgin is principally late thirteenth century, traditionally dated to around 1290, towards the end of the Templar occupation. Archaeological evidence suggests that it replaced an earlier twelfth-century Templar church whose foundations may survive beneath the existing church and churchyard.
The estate also possessed a substantial watermill on the River Blythe. Water was diverted along a leat to the mill before being returned to the river, and traces of this medieval system survive in the landscape. Large ponds and a millpond formed part of the same water-management system and probably also provided fish for the community. A dovecote is likewise recorded amongst the assets of the estate.
Lands and Agriculture
By 1185 Temple Balsall had already developed into a considerable agricultural estate. The surviving evidence has been interpreted as showing approximately 640 acres of arable land, with around 67 tenant holdings, in addition to land retained and farmed directly by the Templars as demesne.
The estate included arable fields, meadow, pasture, woodland, livestock, mills, ponds and rented holdings. Crops and animals were managed by a combination of permanent servants, hired labour and the obligations owed by tenants.
Surviving accounts indicate that Balsall employed at least nineteen full-time agricultural workers, including ploughmen, stockmen, two foresters, a dairyman, miller and a worker responsible for the stud or horses.
The preceptory therefore supported a sizeable rural community of tenants, servants, craftsmen and estate officials alongside the Templar brethren.
Laymen, Servants and Dependants at Balsall
Several laymen connected with the preceptory are preserved by name in surviving accounts, pensions and corrodies — arrangements under which individuals received food, clothing, accommodation or money, sometimes in return for service or an earlier payment.
Among those recorded are Adam del Oke, Adam de Westerdale, William de Alton, William Dering of Faxfleet, William de Howum, John de Bonyngton, John de Sibford, Richard Carpenter of Balsall and Richard de Poleford.
Some of their arrangements survive in useful detail:
Richard Carpenter of Balsall received food, clothing and an annual allowance on condition that he continued to serve the Templars as a carpenter while physically able. His record is particularly valuable because it identifies one of the skilled craftsmen permanently attached to the preceptory.
John de Sibford received an annual payment of five shillings, together with food at the squire's table and clothing.
John de Bonyngton was similarly maintained in recognition of long and faithful service.
Adam de Westerdale paid the substantial sum of twenty marks in return for a lifetime maintenance agreement.
Richard de Poleford was also supported by the house, receiving maintenance at the squire's table together with a financial allowance.
The records also name William de Alton, William Dering of Faxfleet, William de Howum and Adam del Oke, although the surviving summary does not preserve the same level of detail about their individual arrangements.
These men illustrate the wider household that existed around the Templar brothers. Balsall depended upon skilled craftsmen, agricultural workers, estate servants and long-serving retainers as well as the religious community itself.
The Warwickshire Estate
By the thirteenth century the preceptor at Balsall was responsible for a much wider network of Templar property.
Holdings associated with the Warwickshire administration included property at Warwick, Sherbourne, Studley, Cubbington, Chilvers Coton, Wolvey, Harbury, Tysoe, Fletchamstead and Newbold Pacey, amongst other places.
These holdings varied considerably. Some consisted of substantial agricultural estates, while others comprised individual fields, rents, messuages, woodland, churches or mills. Income from these properties ultimately formed part of the wider estate administered through Temple Balsall.
Templar Brothers and Commanders Recorded at Balsall
The surviving evidence allows several Templar brothers to be connected with Temple Balsall, although an important distinction has to be made between men who were resident or serving there and men who are known principally because they were received into the Order at Balsall.
An early officer appears in records around 1224 under the name Brother Ernisius. He was sufficiently senior to act as an arbitrator in a dispute involving Nuneaton Priory, indicating that an established Templar administration was already functioning at Balsall by this date.
Later reconstructed lists also associate Robert English and Alan de Haeton with the command of Balsall. The precise dates of their periods of office require confirmation from the individual charter evidence, so they should be treated more cautiously than the brothers named directly in the later trial material.
The most important body of evidence comes from the investigations into the Order after the arrests of the Templars in 1308.
John de Coningeston stated that he had been received into the Order at Balsall approximately thirty-six years earlier, placing his admission there in roughly the early 1270s. His testimony shows that Balsall was already being used as a formal house of reception during the later thirteenth century.
Thomas le Chamberlayn is also recorded amongst the brothers connected with the house, although the surviving summary does not provide further details of his office or period of residence.
William de Warewyk is specifically identified as a Templar chaplain. His presence demonstrates that Balsall maintained clerical brothers responsible for the religious life of the community alongside its knightly and serving brethren.
William de Burton, Robert de Sautre, John de Euleye and Roger de Dalton are likewise named among the Templars associated with or received at Balsall. The surviving summary does not securely identify their individual offices, and it would therefore be misleading to describe them specifically as knights without further documentary evidence.
Another clearly identified clerical brother was John de Stoke, a Templar chaplain. He recalled having been admitted into the Order at Balsall approximately seventeen years before the trial proceedings, placing his reception there in approximately the early 1290s.
The recorded brethren connected with Balsall therefore include:
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Brother Ernisius — senior Templar officer recorded c.1224;
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Robert English — associated in reconstructed lists with the command of Balsall;
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Alan de Haeton — similarly associated with the commandery;
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John de Coningeston — received into the Order at Balsall, probably in the early 1270s;
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Thomas le Chamberlayn — Templar brother associated with Balsall;
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William de Warewyk — Templar chaplain;
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William de Burton — brother associated with or received at Balsall;
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Robert de Sautre — brother associated with or received at Balsall;
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John de Euleye — brother associated with or received at Balsall;
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Roger de Dalton — brother associated with or received at Balsall;
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John de Stoke — Templar chaplain, received at Balsall around the early 1290s.
The unusually high number of recorded admissions is important. It suggests that Temple Balsall was not simply an agricultural manor with a handful of brethren, but an established house at which men could formally enter the Order.
Temple Balsall Today
Although much of the medieval preceptory has disappeared, the site remains unusually readable.
The Church of St Mary, the medieval fabric of the Old Hall, the churchyard, surviving watercourses, fishpond earthworks and traces of the mill landscape all preserve elements of the former Templar estate. Beneath the modern landscape, archaeological remains of further medieval buildings are also believed to survive.
Temple Balsall was therefore far more than an isolated religious house. By the thirteenth century it had developed into the administrative and agricultural centre of the Templars' Warwickshire possessions, from which a commander oversaw land, tenants, mills, livestock, churches and revenues spread across the county.
Its surviving records are particularly valuable because they preserve not only the names of Templar brothers but also those of the ordinary men who served and depended upon the house. Together with the surviving church, hall and medieval landscape, they allow an unusually detailed picture of the community that once lived and worked at Temple Balsall.
CUBBINGTON
The Knights Templar acquired an estate at Cubbington, Warwickshire, in the late thirteenth century, and it became one of the dependent properties administered through their preceptory at Temple Balsall.
The manor had been associated with Henry de Seymour and his wife Ermegarde. In 1276, after Henry fled overseas, the estate came temporarily into royal hands for Ermegarde's maintenance. Shortly afterwards, Ermegarde granted property at Cubbington to the Knights Templar.
By 1279, records show that the Templars held three yardlands in demesne at Cubbington together with an enclosed grove. The demesne land was farmed directly for the benefit of the Order rather than being held by tenants.
In 1280, an agreement was made through Robert de Turvill, Master of the Temple in England, under which the Templars agreed to pay Ermegarde and her husband an annual rent of four marks of silver for her lifetime. Remarkably, payments to Ermegarde continued even after the suppression of the Templars.
Cubbington formed part of the wider network of Warwickshire estates administered from Temple Balsall, alongside properties at places such as Tysoe, Harbury, Wolvey, Sherbourne and Studley. Its principal value to the Order appears to have been agricultural, providing productive land and woodland whose income contributed to the Balsall estate.
Following the suppression of the Knights Templar, their Cubbington property passed into the hands of the Knights Hospitaller. By 1332 the Hospitallers are recorded holding the manor, which later remained associated with their commandery at Balsall.
What remains today?
Unlike Temple Balsall, there are no known surviving Templar buildings at Cubbington. The medieval estate eventually passed into secular ownership after the Dissolution, and part of the former manor became known as St John's Holt, a name which probably reflects its later association with the Knights Hospitaller of St John.
Today the Templar connection is therefore found primarily in the documentary history and historic landscape rather than surviving medieval structures. Nevertheless, Cubbington provides an important example of the smaller agricultural manors that supported the larger Templar administration centred on Temple Balsall.
HARBURY
The Knights Templar held a substantial estate at Harbury, recorded in medieval sources as Herbebure, and the connection survives today in the place-name Temple End. Harbury formed part of the wider network of Warwickshire properties administered through the Templar preceptory at Temple Balsall. Medieval estate lists identify Harbury as one of the Order’s manorial holdings rather than simply a small rent or isolated field.
The Templar holding was primarily agricultural, comprising demesne land, pasture and associated farm property. Later descriptions of the Balsall estate suggest that Harbury was particularly useful for livestock management, with animals moved between the Order’s Warwickshire estates according to the pasture available. Harbury should therefore be seen as a dependent farming manor supporting the larger administrative centre at Temple Balsall.
The 1185 survey of Templar property confirms that the Order was established at Harbury by that date. Older summaries of the Warwickshire possessions specifically describe Herbebure as a Templar manor. The precise original donor of the Harbury holding is less securely identified in the readily accessible evidence, and it would be safer not to assign the gift to a particular individual until the relevant 1185 entry or Warwickshire charter can be checked directly.
Following the suppression of the Templars in the early fourteenth century, the Harbury estate passed into the possession of the Knights Hospitaller of St John, along with many of the former Templar properties administered from Balsall. The estate continued as a distinct manor through the later Middle Ages.
Temple End and the medieval manor
The strongest surviving reminder of the Templars at Harbury is Temple End, on the western side of the historic village. Stratford-on-Avon District Council’s conservation study specifically notes that Temple End takes its name from the Knights Templar, who held the manor there, and that the lands of the manor historically helped keep Temple End and Binswood End distinct from the main settlement.
The medieval estate would have required the usual buildings of a working manor: accommodation for the estate officials, agricultural buildings, barns or granaries and facilities for managing the demesne. Later tradition associates the site with a manor house known as The Temple, although the surviving buildings at Temple End are later than the Templar period and should not themselves automatically be described as Templar structures.
What can be seen today?
There are no securely identified standing buildings at Harbury that can presently be dated to the Knights Templar occupation. The most important survival is therefore the historic landscape and place-name.
Visitors can still follow Temple End, where the former Templar manor lay. The area retains Temple House, the Manor House, historic stone walls, cottages and older property boundaries, all within the part of Harbury historically associated with the military-order estate. Modern mapping still preserves names such as Temple House, Temple Cottage and New Temple House along Temple End.
Harbury is therefore an important example of the agricultural estates that supported Temple Balsall. Although little survives above ground from the Templar period itself, the name Temple End still marks the area of a manor held by the Order more than seven centuries ago.
(Lower) TYSOE - Lands
The Knights Templar held land at Tysoe in south Warwickshire, and this property formed part of the wider group of estates administered from their preceptory at Temple Balsall. By the later twelfth century the Order had acquired a substantial holding here, and the 1185 survey of Templar property records land at Tysoe associated with grants by Robert de Stafford and Henry de Clinton. Later summaries describe the holding as amounting to around four or five hides of land, making it a significant agricultural estate rather than a small isolated rent.
The Templar property appears to have been concentrated particularly around Lower Tysoe. Its main value would have been agricultural: arable land, pasture and tenant holdings whose rents and produce contributed to the wider Balsall estate. Tysoe was not a separate preceptory; it was a dependent estate managed as part of the Temple Balsall administration, alongside properties such as Harbury, Sherbourne, Studley and Cubbington.
After the suppression of the Knights Templar in the early fourteenth century, their Tysoe property passed with the other Balsall estates to the Knights Hospitaller of St John, who continued to administer the land as part of their Warwickshire possessions.
What remains today?
No securely identified Templar domestic or agricultural buildings are known to survive at Tysoe. The connection is instead preserved through the historic landscape and documentary record.
The most important medieval building is St Mary's Church at Middle Tysoe. Although the church itself was not necessarily a Templar foundation, it contains medieval fabric and a remarkable carved knightly corbel. The church also preserves medieval graffiti, including several cross forms sometimes locally associated with crusaders or the military orders. These are intriguing survivals, although they should not be presented as proven Templar marks without further evidence.
The Templar estate itself is generally associated with the Lower Tysoe area, where the Order's agricultural land and tenant holdings once lay. Modern development has removed much of the visible medieval landscape, but the name and documentary evidence preserve Tysoe's place within the network of estates that supported Temple Balsall.
In short, Tysoe was an important agricultural dependency of Temple Balsall, granted to the Templars in the twelfth century by Robert de Stafford and Henry de Clinton, and later inherited by the Knights Hospitaller. Its surviving significance lies less in standing Templar buildings than in the medieval church, landscape and documentary evidence for the Order's substantial landholding there.
WOLVEY - Messuage
The Knights Templar held a small but important agricultural estate at Wolvey, north Warwickshire, which formed part of the wider network of properties associated with Temple Balsall.
The clearest documentary evidence dates from 1257, when two virgates of land and two tofts at Wolvey were granted to Robert de Saunford, Master of the Knights Templar in England. The surviving Historic Environment Record does not identify the original donor in its published summary, so it is safest not to attach a name to the grant without the underlying charter.
A toft was a house or building plot, usually with a yard or associated enclosure, while a virgate was a substantial agricultural holding. Together these indicate that the Templars possessed both occupied farm sites and working farmland at Wolvey rather than simply receiving a small rent.
The estate included a large fishpond, and later evidence also points to a milling interest connected with the manor. The property was essentially agricultural and would have produced food and income for the wider Templar estate centred on Temple Balsall. Local historical evidence still associates this holding with the modern Temple Farm on Temple Hill, about half a kilometre north of Wolvey.
Following the suppression of the Templars in the early fourteenth century, the estate passed to the Knights Hospitaller of St John, who continued to hold it until the Reformation. By 1570 it was being described as the manor of “Temple Wolvey.”
What remains today?
The strongest surviving link is Temple Farm, Temple Hill, on or very close to the medieval manorial site. Warwickshire’s Historic Environment Record identifies the site as that of a medieval manor house, with the present farmhouse containing several later phases; its oldest surviving element may be a stone chimney of fifteenth- or sixteenth-century date.
Older descriptions also record earthworks and traces of former gardens around the site, while the traditional association with a substantial fishpond survives in the local landscape.
There is no evidence that Wolvey was an independent Templar preceptory. It is better understood as a dependent agricultural manor or farm within the Temple Balsall estate, consisting by 1257 of at least two virgates, two tofts and associated agricultural resources, later developing into the property known as Temple Wolvey.
Today, Temple Farm and its surrounding landscape provide the clearest physical link with more than three centuries of Templar and Hospitaller ownership at Wolvey.
STUDLEY (Washford Mills) -
The Knights Templar established an important estate at Studley in Warwickshire, administered as part of the wider network of properties associated with their preceptory at Temple Balsall.
Their presence at Studley can be traced to before 1185, when Peter de Studley granted the Templars land together with a mill. During the 13th century the Order enlarged its holding. In 1233 the Templars reached an agreement with Amice, widow of William Corbucion, concerning land at Studley, while in 1246 Richard de la Holte and his wife Agnes made a further grant to the Order.
By the time the Templars were suppressed in the early 14th century, their Studley estate included land, two mills and rents worth around 30 shillings a year. These were productive agricultural properties rather than a separate Templar preceptory: Studley formed part of the economic estate supporting the Order's principal Warwickshire centre at Temple Balsall.
The mills were particularly important. Water power from the River Arrow could be used to grind grain and support the surrounding estate. Archaeological work near Washford Mill also revealed a substantial system of medieval fishponds, leats and channels. The Warwickshire Historic Environment Record dates the fishpond complex probably to the 13th century, noting that it appears to have been constructed when the mill was owned by the Knights Templar.
After the suppression of the Templars, their Studley property temporarily reverted to the overlord and was recorded in the possession of the Earl of Warwick in 1315. It subsequently passed to the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem, who retained the estate until the Reformation.
What remains today?
The surviving buildings at Washford Mill are not themselves Templar buildings: much of the existing mill complex dates from the 17th and 18th centuries. However, the location preserves a much older milling landscape. The restored waterwheel, millrace and surrounding watercourses reflect centuries of water-powered industry, while archaeological evidence from the nearby medieval fishponds provides a particularly interesting physical link with the period when Studley was part of the Knights Templar estate.
It is therefore safest to describe Washford Mill as a strong candidate for the location or continuation of part of the Templars' Studley milling estate, rather than state that the present building is definitively the mill granted to them before 1185. The documentary evidence confirms that the Templars possessed mills at Studley, but linking an individual medieval mill continuously with the present Washford Mill remains uncertain.
CHILVERSCOTON -
The Knights Templar possessed an important agricultural estate at Chilvers Coton, near modern Nuneaton, forming part of the network of Warwickshire properties associated with their principal regional establishment at Temple Balsall.
The Templars were certainly in possession of land here by 1185, when Chilvers Coton appears in the great survey of the Order's English estates. The property subsequently remained within the demesne of the military orders: first the Knights Templar and, after the suppression of the Templars in the early 14th century, the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem. The Hospitallers continued to own the estate until the Reformation, although portions were leased during the later Middle Ages.
A Templar manor farm
Chilvers Coton was not apparently a major independent preceptory like Temple Balsall. Instead, it developed as a substantial manorial and agricultural centre, producing food, livestock and income for the Order.
Documentary evidence indicates that the medieval complex included a hall, chapel, granary and a number of other agricultural buildings. Together these would have formed a working manor farm, probably arranged around yards and approached by tracks running through the estate.
The hall would have been the principal domestic and administrative building. It was probably where the Templar official or estate steward conducted the business of the manor, received tenants and accounted for rents and produce.
The presence of a chapel is especially significant. This suggests that the estate had its own place of worship for those administering or working on the property. However, no surviving excavated structure can yet be identified conclusively as the Templar chapel.
The granary and other farm buildings reflect the overwhelmingly agricultural purpose of the estate. These buildings would have stored grain, tools and produce and probably stood alongside barns, animal shelters and other working structures.
What did the archaeologists discover?
Excavations beginning in 1967 and 1970, followed by further investigations in the 1990s and a substantial archaeological excavation in 2004, located the medieval settlement close to Bermuda, centred approximately on SP 353 898.
The earliest medieval structures discovered included large post-holes packed with stone, together with slight traces of masonry walls. Archaeologists considered these remains likely to belong to the period when the estate was occupied by the Knights Templar. They suggest that some of the earliest buildings were substantial timber-framed structures, their upright posts secured within large stone-packed foundations.
These early buildings were later replaced by more substantial structures constructed upon stone foundations. Further buildings were discovered to the east, associated with cobbled yards and a trackway, giving a much clearer impression of an organised medieval farm complex rather than a single isolated manor house.
Large quantities of 13th- and 14th-century pottery were recovered from these areas, much of it probably produced at the well-known medieval pottery kilns of Chilvers Coton. Beneath a later building excavated in 1970 were 13th-century rubbish pits, providing direct evidence of occupation during the period in which the Templars controlled the estate.
Water management and the manor pond
The excavation also revealed that the inhabitants carefully managed the natural watercourses crossing the estate.
A series of stream channels was maintained and modified during the medieval period, while a substantial pond was created on the southern side of the complex. Timber stakes and a large stone construction reinforced one bank. Archaeologists suggested that this stonework may represent the abutment of a small bridge, while another collapsed stone feature nearby may have been the base of a corresponding pier.
This gives us an unusually detailed picture of the Templar estate: buildings and yards were connected by tracks, while controlled waterways and perhaps a bridge allowed movement across what was clearly a carefully organised agricultural landscape.
From Templars to Hospitallers
Following the suppression of the Knights Templar, Chilvers Coton passed into the hands of the Knights Hospitaller.
Archaeology shows another phase of development during this period. Additional stone buildings, lighter timber structures and cobbled working surfaces were constructed across the site, indicating that the manor continued to function as an important agricultural centre under Hospitaller ownership.
By 1481 the property was regularly described as a manor, and its later medieval and early post-medieval history shows continuing occupation before the site increasingly gave way to industrial activity. Mining and brick production subsequently damaged or destroyed many of the medieval remains, while much of the reusable stone was robbed from the abandoned buildings.
What remains today?
There are no standing Templar buildings at Chilvers Coton today. The importance of the Bermuda site lies beneath the modern landscape.
The archaeology has nevertheless revealed the footprint of a substantial medieval estate comprising timber and stone buildings, working yards, tracks, drainage channels, a pond and possibly a bridge, alongside documentary references to a hall, chapel, granary and associated agricultural buildings.
It is important not to confuse this site with the later property known as Temple House. Earlier antiquarians believed Temple House marked the Templar manor, but subsequent documentary research demonstrated that it lay outside the medieval Templar demesne. The genuine medieval estate is instead associated with the archaeological site around Bermuda Park.
Chilvers Coton therefore provides one of Warwickshire's most interesting archaeological glimpses of the working economy behind the Knights Templar. Rather than a great castle or fortified commandery, the evidence reveals a carefully organised manor farm whose buildings, crops, livestock and rents helped support the wider Templar establishment centred upon Temple Balsall.
SHERBOURNE - Manor & Church
The Knights Templar held one of their most valuable Warwickshire estates at Sherbourne, south-west of Warwick, forming part of the wider network of lands administered from their important preceptory at Temple Balsall.
The estate appears to have originated in the 12th century, when Roger de Newburgh, Earl of Warwick, granted the Templars a substantial portion of the manor of Sherbourne. By the great survey of Templar possessions in 1185, their holding was already firmly established. Later accounts describe an estate of approximately 360 acres, together with valuable rights and revenues from the village.
The Manor and Farmland
The Sherbourne holding was primarily a working agricultural manor. Its extensive arable and pasture lands would have produced grain, livestock and rents, helping to support the Templars' religious and military activities and their Warwickshire headquarters at Temple Balsall.
Sherbourne was therefore not simply a detached farm. The combination of manorial land, church income and milling rights made it a particularly productive component of the Templar estate.
The Church of All Saints
The Templars also possessed the church of Sherbourne. A church was already standing here at the time of Domesday, and it was subsequently granted to the Order. In the Templars' survey of 1185, the church was valued at one markannually.
Possession of a church was financially important. The Templars could receive income associated with the rectory and tithes while providing for the spiritual needs of the parish through a priest or vicar.
After the suppression of the Templars, the church passed with their other possessions to the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem, who retained the appropriation until the Reformation. The vicarage was valued at £5 in 1291 and again in 1340–41, and in 1428 it was united with the rectory of nearby Fulbrook.
The present Church of All Saints, Sherbourne has been heavily rebuilt and restored since the medieval period, so it should not be described as a surviving Templar church in its present form. Nevertheless, it occupies the historic parish church site whose revenues were once controlled by the Order.
The Templar Mill
Another important source of income was a watermill. The Templar survey of 1185 records a mill at Sherbourne, held of the fee of the Earl of Warwick, producing an annual income of approximately 7 shillings.
A mill was an extremely valuable manorial asset. Tenants were commonly required to bring grain to the lord's mill for grinding and pay a proportion as toll, providing a dependable source of revenue.
The probable medieval mill site has been associated with land around Castle Farm, close to the River Avon. Earthworks and water-management features have been identified there, including the remains of what appears to be a dam or millpond, a narrow stone-lined feature that may represent a sluice, and a second pond downstream. These remains are consistent with a medieval water-powered milling landscape, although the surviving features cannot all be securely dated to the Templar period.
After the Templars
When the Knights Templar were suppressed in the early 14th century, their Warwickshire estates became contested. Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, took possession of the Sherbourne lands around 1313–14, holding them until his death in 1315. The property ultimately passed to the Knights Hospitaller, who continued to hold the former Templar estate until their own suppression under Henry VIII in 1540.
The manor later passed through a succession of secular owners. In 1553 Edward VI granted the estate to Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, and ownership subsequently passed through the Burgoyne, Webb and Ryland families.
What Remains Today?
No identifiable Templar manor house survives above ground at Sherbourne, but the medieval landscape can still be traced through the village, the historic church site, surviving field patterns and the probable mill complex near Castle Farm.
A particularly interesting feature traditionally associated with the Templar estate is an old stone cross incorporated into a later wall. It has sometimes been described locally as a Templar or tithe marker, although this interpretation should be treated cautiously unless further archaeological evidence can establish its original purpose.
Sherbourne is therefore an excellent example of how a Templar estate operated economically. Here the Order possessed the three principal sources of medieval manorial wealth — land, a church and a watermill — all contributing income and produce to the wider Templar estate centred upon Temple Balsall.
FLETCHAMPSTEAD - Messuage & Mill
The Knights Templar held an important estate at Fletchamstead, on the south-western outskirts of medieval Coventry, which later became associated with their major Warwickshire preceptory at Temple Balsall.
The origins of the estate pre-date the Templars. During the reign of Henry I, between 1100 and 1135, land at Fletchamstead was granted to a priest and hermit named Gerard. The grant comprised a hermitage or chantry, a chapel and one carucate of land with its appurtenances. Gerard lived there for the remainder of his life, apparently establishing a small religious community or settlement around his chapel. When he died, he was buried within the chapel that he had dedicated at Fletchamstead.
From Hermitage to Templar Estate
The later Stoneleigh Leger Book preserves a particularly interesting account of how the site passed into Templar hands.
After Gerard's death, the hermitage was granted to a priest named Brian, who was the brother of a Templar called Peter Lomsey. Brian was subsequently sent to Ireland on business connected with the Order and died there. The Templars then occupied the hermitage.
During the reign of Henry II, 1154–1189, the king granted the hermitage to another priest, Robert, for his lifetime, with the property to pass afterwards to the Knights Templar under the terms of a royal charter.
Fletchamstead therefore developed from a small royal hermitage into a Templar agricultural estate or camera, probably administered as part of the wider Temple Balsall estate.
The Templar Mill
By 1185, the Templars were receiving income from a mill at Fletchamstead. The great Templar survey of that year records:
de molendino de Flighamstede, iiij sol.
— indicating income of four shillings from the mill of Fletchamstead, associated with a royal grant.
The mill would have been an important part of the estate. Medieval mills provided both food production and regular income, as local tenants brought grain to be ground and paid a proportion as toll.
Its exact medieval location has not yet been securely identified, but its presence confirms that Fletchamstead was already a developed economic estate by the late 12th century.
The Manor and Farmland
The Templars gradually expanded their holding around Fletchamstead. By 1279, the Master of the Temple was recorded as holding Fletchamstead as a hamlet of Stoneleigh.
In 1293, an agreement with Stoneleigh Abbey gave the Templars a further 200 acres of waste land at Westwood in exchange for relinquishing rights of pasture elsewhere in the manor.
The estate would have consisted of agricultural land, farm buildings, the chapel, the mill and accommodation for those administering the property. Coventry's Historic Environment Record consequently identifies the site as a possible Templar camera, a smaller estate centre subordinate to a larger preceptory.
After the Knights Templar
Following the suppression of the Templars in the early 14th century, the Abbot of Stoneleigh initially seized the chapel lands. They were subsequently transferred to the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem, and Fletchamstead became part of the Hospitallers' estate associated with Temple Balsall.
The Hospitallers retained the property until the Reformation.
Following their suppression, the Fletchamstead estate passed through the Crown and was associated for a time with Queen Katherine Parr. It was eventually acquired in 1564 by Sir Thomas and Dame Alice Leigh. Their family developed the estate and constructed the later Fletchamstead Hall, which survived in altered form until the 20th century.
What Remains Today?
No confirmed Templar buildings survive above ground.
The likely medieval estate centre is believed to have stood around the Torrington Avenue and Wolfe Road area of modern Coventry. Coventry's Historic Environment Record places the possible Templar camera close to the later Fletchamstead Hall site.
The original chapel of Gerard the Hermit, in which he was buried, has disappeared, as has the medieval mill. However, the area's medieval history is still remembered in modern place names including Gerard Avenue, Templar Avenue and Templars Field. Coventry City Council specifically links these names to Gerard and the Knights Templar.
Fletchamstead is therefore particularly important in the story of the Warwickshire Templars. Its history began not with the military order but with a solitary 12th-century hermit named Gerard, whose chapel and small estate ultimately developed into a productive Templar property containing a chapel, agricultural lands and a valuable mill, linked to the wider Templar administration centred upon Temple Balsall.
WARWICK - Messuage & Mills
The Knights Templar established one of their earliest Warwickshire houses at Warwick, on land lying south of the River Avon and beyond the medieval bridge, in an area later absorbed into Warwick Castle Park.
The house was founded during the first half of the 12th century, probably between 1123 and 1142, by Roger de Newburgh, 2nd Earl of Warwick, who granted the Order a small manor on the south side of the town. Warwick appears initially to have functioned as a small Templar preceptory, before Temple Balsall developed into the principal Templar centre in Warwickshire.
The Manor and Templar House
The Templar estate lay close to the old Banbury Road at Bridge End, within what later became Warwick Castle Park. The medieval complex appears to have included a substantial residence or manor house, agricultural buildings and associated farmland.
The site later became known as Temple Farm and was enclosed by a moat, showing that this was a substantial manorial complex rather than a simple farmstead.
By the late 16th century the former Templar property was still an important working estate. In 1585, Temple Farm was recorded as containing fourteen bays of buildings. A bay was a structural section of a timber-framed building, so this does not mean fourteen separate buildings, but rather several substantial ranges totalling fourteen structural bays.
Around 1590, four of these bays were destroyed by fire. The surviving farmhouse remained standing until 1744, and by 1786 the buildings had disappeared completely.
The late-16th-century Exchequer inquisition TNA E 178/2351, compiled in 1590 following the death of Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, specifically lists Temple Farm and Ford Mill among the possessions of the Warwick estate. Although the manuscript is badly faded and damaged, it confirms that both properties remained identifiable and economically important long after the Templars had disappeared.
The Templar Chapel
As a functioning Templar house, Warwick would have required its own chapel, where the brothers could observe the daily religious offices of the Order.
The precise archaeological location of this chapel has not been securely identified, and it should not be confused with the nearby parish Church of St Nicholas. The Templar establishment lay close to St Nicholas, but there is no firm evidence that the parish church itself belonged to the Order.
After the suppression of the Templars, the Knights Hospitaller continued to maintain a religious presence at Warwick. In 1338, the former Templar estate supported a chaplain, bailiff and pensioner, showing that the site still retained both religious and administrative functions.
The Mills
Milling was an important part of the Warwick estate.
The 1185 Templar survey records the mill of Alstanesford, held of the fee of the Earl of Warwick and producing an annual income of 26 shillings. Later financial records refer to two mills held from the Earl of Warwick, demonstrating that milling formed a significant part of the Templars' local economy.
These watermills would have provided regular income through the grinding of grain produced on the estate and brought by local tenants.
By the late 16th century, Ford Mill was still sufficiently important to be listed separately alongside Temple Farm in the 1590 Exchequer inquisition. It was also a recognised Warwick landmark in 1572, when records of Queen Elizabeth I's visit to Warwick describe the royal route passing Ford Mill.
Although the exact relationship between Ford Mill and the earlier Templar mills cannot yet be proved, its survival within the same riverside estate makes it an important part of the later landscape inherited from the medieval manor.
From Templars to Hospitallers
The Knights Templar were suppressed in the early 14th century, and their Warwick estate subsequently passed to the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem.
The Hospitallers continued to administer the property for more than two centuries, maintaining the former Templar manor as a productive agricultural estate.
Following the suppression of the Hospitallers in the 16th century, the estate returned to secular ownership and was eventually absorbed into the wider lands of Warwick Castle.
What Remains Today?
No standing Templar buildings survive at Warwick Park.
The former Temple Farm site lies within Warwick Castle Park, close to the old Banbury Road and Bridge End. The moat shown on a map of 1695 has largely disappeared, and archaeological inspection in the 20th century found no obvious standing remains.
Nevertheless, the documentary evidence allows us to reconstruct something of the scale of the site. This was once a substantial moated manor complex with a chapel, agricultural ranges, farmland and important watermills, later surviving as the fourteen-bay Temple Farm.
Warwick Park therefore represents an important early stage in the development of the Knights Templar's Warwickshire estates, before Temple Balsall became the Order's principal regional headquarters.
HERDEWYKE - Church & Three Messuages
The modern village of Temple Herdewyke, near the Burton Dassett Hills in south Warwickshire, preserves the memory of a medieval estate once held by the Knights Templar. In medieval records the settlement appears under several spellings, including Herdewyke, Herdewyk, Herdwick and Hardwick.
Hardwick formed part of the wider manor of Dassett and originally belonged to the powerful de Sudeley family. Sir William Dugdale recorded that Ralph de Sudeley granted land at Hardwick to the Knights Templar during the reign of Henry II, while other members of the Sudeley family may later have added to or confirmed the estate.
By 1185, the Templar property at Hardwick was worth 40 shillings a year. A later survey of 1279 recorded four yardlands and eleven tenants, showing that Hardwick was an established agricultural estate supporting the wider activities of the Order.
Hardwick and Temple Balsall
Hardwick appears to have formed part of the Templars’ wider Warwickshire estates, administered through their important preceptory at Temple Balsall.
Temple Balsall acted as the principal administrative and agricultural centre for Templar possessions across the county. Estates such as Hardwick provided rents, crops and agricultural income which helped support the Order.
Evidence from the early fourteenth century strengthens this connection. Records made after the arrest of the Templars show that the commander of Warwickshire made an annual payment connected with the advowson of the church of Herdewyk.
This demonstrates that the Templars held not only agricultural land and tenants at Hardwick, but also ecclesiastical rights associated with its church or chapel.
St Leonard’s Chapel
The medieval settlement of Hardwick possessed a chapel dedicated to St Leonard.
By the seventeenth century, Dugdale recorded that the settlement had been depopulated and the chapel had fallen into ruin. Warwickshire’s archaeological records place the probable site of the medieval village and chapel roughly south-west of modern Temple Herdewyke, within the landscape later occupied by Owlington and Marlborough Farms.
It is possible that St Leonard’s was the “church of Herdewyk” referred to in the surviving Templar accounts, although the medieval record does not give the dedication and the identification cannot be regarded as certain.
Importantly, St Leonard’s Chapel does not survive today as a private house. Its precise site has not been archaeologically confirmed and much of the surrounding medieval landscape was later absorbed into the military estate.
A separate medieval chapel nearby is sometimes confused with St Leonard’s. This is St James’s Chapel at Dassett Southend, or Little Dassett, later known as Chapel Barn. Substantial medieval fabric survives there and the building has been incorporated into a private residence, but it is a different chapel from the lost St Leonard’s at Hardwick.
Owlington, Marlborough and Frog Hall
By the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the medieval settlement of Hardwick had disappeared and the surrounding landscape was characterised by three main farmsteads:
Owlington Farm, Marlborough Farm and Frog Hall.
These are later farm names rather than names recorded for medieval Templar farms, but they are important for identifying the landscape once occupied by the Templar estate.
The probable medieval settlement and St Leonard’s Chapel lay around the area of Owlington and Marlborough Farms, while Frog Hall formed part of the wider agricultural landscape.
During the Second World War the area changed dramatically with the construction of a major military depot. Marlborough Farm gave its name to Marlborough Farm Camp, while Owlington, Frog Hall and much of the surrounding historic landscape were eventually absorbed into the military complex.
Burton Dassett Hills
Immediately east of Hardwick rise the distinctive Burton Dassett Hills.
The hills formed part of the wider medieval landscape of Dassett, which contained a number of settlements including Burton, Hardwick, Knightcote and the former market settlement of Southend or Chipping Dassett.
The Templars should not be described as owning the whole of Burton Dassett Hills. Their documented possession was the estate at Hardwick within the manor of Dassett, while other lands in the area belonged to different secular and religious landholders.
Nevertheless, the hills would have formed a prominent part of the landscape known to the Templar tenants who lived and worked at Hardwick.
All Saints’ Church, Burton Dassett
Standing prominently on the hills is All Saints’ Church, Burton Dassett, a remarkable medieval building with origins in the twelfth century.
The church would certainly have been familiar to the Templars and their tenants at nearby Hardwick, but All Saints was not a Templar church.
The church of Dassett was associated with the de Sudeley family and Arbury Priory, while the Templars possessed their separate estate at Hardwick together with ecclesiastical rights connected with the church or chapel of Herdewyk.
The surviving medieval crosses, carvings and architectural details at All Saints therefore form part of the wider religious landscape in which the Templar estate existed rather than evidence that the church itself belonged to the Order.
After the Knights Templar
Following the suppression of the Knights Templar in 1312, their property at Hardwick passed, along with many former Templar estates in England, to the Knights Hospitaller of St John.
The Hospitallers retained the estate until the suppression of the religious houses during the reign of Henry VIII.
Hardwick therefore became associated with both of the great medieval military religious orders: first the Knights Templar and later the Knights Hospitaller.
What remains today?
Very little of medieval Hardwick survives above ground.
The original village has disappeared, St Leonard’s Chapel is lost, and the later farms of Owlington, Marlborough and Frog Hall were largely removed or absorbed into the twentieth-century military landscape.
The nearby surviving medieval chapel incorporated into a private house is St James’s Chapel at Dassett Southend, not St Leonard’s of Hardwick.
Yet the Templar connection survives in one particularly striking way: the modern name Temple Herdewyke.
Beneath the Burton Dassett Hills once stood a small but productive Templar estate where eleven tenants worked four yardlands of land, providing income to the wider Warwickshire Templar organisation centred upon Temple Balsall.
Today, Temple Herdewyke remains an important reminder of the extensive network of estates, farms, tenants and churches that supported the Knights Templar throughout medieval Warwickshire.
RADFORD SEMELE -
The village of Radford Semele, east of Leamington Spa, once contained lands belonging to the Knights Templar. Although this was a relatively small holding, it formed part of the wider network of estates administered from Temple Balsall, the Order’s principal centre in Warwickshire.
The Gift to the Templars
The Templar connection dates from before 1185.
The manor of Radford was held by the de Simely or Semele family, from whom the village takes its name. William de Simely permitted William Pludieu to grant land at Radford to the Knights Templar, making Pludieu the donor and Simely the lord who authorised the gift.
This was during the period when Temple Balsall was developing into the main centre of Templar administration in Warwickshire.
What Did the Templars Own?
The surviving evidence points mainly to agricultural land rather than a manor house, chapel or separate preceptory.
There is no evidence that the Templars owned the whole manor of Radford Semele or maintained a permanent community of knights there. Instead, the estate was probably worked by local tenants and labourers, with rents and agricultural produce contributing to the income of Temple Balsall.
Radford therefore fitted into the same wider Templar estate system as their other Warwickshire holdings, where smaller parcels of land supported the main preceptory.
Who Was There?
No individual Templar brother can currently be identified specifically as resident at Radford Semele.
The property was probably supervised through Temple Balsall, rather than by knights living permanently at Radford. This was common for smaller Templar estates, which were often worked by tenants while being managed from a nearby preceptory.
The de Simely family remained important local landholders. In the thirteenth century Geoffrey de Simely, son of William, continued to hold land at Radford and later made grants connected with the Hospital of St John at Warwick.
After the Templars
The Knights Templar were arrested in England in 1308 and the Order was formally suppressed in 1312.
Many former Templar estates subsequently passed to the Knights Hospitaller of St John, including those associated with Temple Balsall. Radford’s former Templar land would therefore have become part of this wider Hospitaller estate network.
What Is There Today?
No surviving building at Radford Semele can presently be identified securely as a Templar structure, and the exact location of their medieval land has not yet been established.
The historic village remains centred around St Nicholas’ Church, which has medieval origins and would have formed part of the landscape known to the Templars, although there is no evidence that the church itself belonged to the Order.
Nearby Radford Hall may occupy the general site of the medieval manor associated with the Semele family, although the surviving building is largely later.
Radford Semele is therefore another example of the quieter side of Templar life in Warwickshire: a small agricultural estate granted before 1185, worked locally, and administered as part of the wider Temple Balsall network.
NEWBOLD PACEY -
The small Warwickshire village of Newbold Pacey, south of Warwick, once contained a substantial agricultural estate belonging to the Knights Templar. By 1185 it formed part of the network of lands associated with the Order’s great Warwickshire centre at Temple Balsall.
What Did the Templars Own?
The Templar survey of 1185 records the estate under the heading “De Nevbald” – “At Newbold.”
Eight tenants each held one virgate of land, giving the Templars eight virgates, traditionally equivalent to approximately two hides. In addition, the survey records a separate demesne which the Templars held themselves, valued at eight shillings.
This means Newbold Pacey was more than a collection of rented fields. It was a substantial working estate consisting of tenant farms together with land retained under the Order’s direct management.
Such a demesne would probably have required a central messuage or farmstead, with a house for the estate manager, barns, livestock buildings, storage and agricultural yards. Later records support this, as in 1553 a “messuage and lands” at Newbold Pacey were still recorded as belonging to the former Preceptory of Balsall.
Who Gave Newbold Pacey to the Templars?
The estate was already in Templar possession by 1185, although the surviving Newbold entry does not specifically name its original donor.
Its position within the 1185 survey is interesting. Newbold follows lands recorded “from the gift of Roger de Mowbray” at Balsall and its dependencies, before the document introduces a new donor for the following estate at Morton. This raises the possibility that Newbold formed part of the wider Mowbray benefaction to Temple Balsall, but without a separate surviving grant this cannot yet be regarded as certain.
The safest conclusion is therefore that the Templars received Newbold Pacey before 1185, probably as part of the developing Balsall estate, but the individual donor has not yet been securely identified.
Who Was at Newbold Pacey?
The 1185 survey actually names the people occupying the Templar lands:
Richard son of the priest, Richard son of Utard, Simon son of Roger, William and Baldwin, Alan of Hantona, William son of the clerk, Hugh de Chaddeswich and Gilbert le Noreis.
Each tenant held one virgate and paid 30 pence annually.
Interestingly, no Templar knight or brother is recorded as permanently resident at Newbold Pacey. The estate was probably worked by these local tenants and supervised by a reeve, bailiff or estate servant, with overall administration coming from Temple Balsall.
Newbold was therefore not a separate Templar preceptory, but a productive agricultural dependency supporting the larger Balsall commandery.
The Link with Temple Balsall
Temple Balsall developed into the principal Templar administrative centre in Warwickshire, controlling numerous estates, farms and rents across the county.
Newbold Pacey fitted perfectly into this system. Its tenant rents and the produce of its directly managed demesne would have contributed to the economic resources of the Order.
The later reference to the messuage and lands belonging to Balsall provides particularly strong evidence that Newbold continued to be regarded as a dependency of the Balsall estate.
After the suppression of the Knights Templar in 1312, their estates eventually passed to the Knights Hospitaller of St John, who continued to administer Newbold Pacey as part of their Balsall possessions.
What Is There Today?
No surviving building at Newbold Pacey can presently be identified securely as the Templar farmstead.
The medieval settlement was centred around the area of St George’s Church, Newbold Pacey Hall, the Vicarage and The Elms. Warwickshire’s Historic Environment Record notes that these later buildings may overlie parts of the earlier medieval settlement. An L-shaped pond and possible earthworks also survive within the historic settlement area, although there is presently no evidence proving that these features belonged specifically to the Templars.
St George’s Church has medieval origins, with surviving twelfth-century fabric incorporated into the nineteenth-century rebuilding, and would have been familiar to the Templar tenants. There is, however, no evidence that the church itself belonged to the Order.
Newbold Pacey therefore preserves the story of an important but largely forgotten part of Templar Warwickshire: by 1185 the Order held eight tenant virgates and its own demesne here, administered as a productive agricultural estate within the wider network centred upon Temple Balsall.
MIDDLETON - Messuage
Hidden within the historic Middleton Hall estate in north Warwickshire is one of the county’s most intriguing surviving connections with the Knights Templar. The Order held land at Middleton by 1185, while medieval stonework surviving in the nearby Tudor Barn dates from the period traditionally associated with their occupation.
Geoffrey Marmion and the Templars
During the twelfth century the manor of Middleton belonged to the powerful de Marmion family, who held the estate from around 1120 until 1291. The de Marmions were important royal servants, traditionally holding the offices of King’s Champion and Standard Bearer of England.
The great Templar survey of 1185 records the Middleton property:
“De elemosina Galfridi Marmiun. In Mideltona…”
meaning:
“From the gift of Geoffrey Marmion. At Middleton…”
The record states that Richard, son of the widow, held two virgates of land, for which he paid the Templars four shillings a year.
This provides firm evidence that Geoffrey Marmion granted land at Middleton to the Knights Templar before or by 1185. Middleton Hall’s own history similarly records that part of the estate was in Templar occupation from 1185.
The contemporary record describes the property as a gift or benefaction. It does not specifically state that Geoffrey Marmion gave the Templars an existing hall or other buildings.
The Templar Building and the Medieval Chimneys
The most fascinating evidence survives close to Middleton Hall itself.
North-east of the main Hall stands the building now known as the Tudor Barn, today close to Middleton Hall’s courtyard of independent shops and café. Although much of the visible timber-framed building dates from a major reconstruction in 1604, its origins are considerably older.
Recent research by Middleton Hall dates the original building to around 1220, when it consisted of a single-storey medieval longhouse built upon substantial red-sandstone foundations. Two large stone chimney structures formed part of this earliest phase.
This date is particularly significant because it falls directly within the period traditionally associated with the Knights Templar at Middleton.
Warwickshire’s Historic Environment Record specifically notes that the two medieval stone chimneys are attributed to the Templars, whose occupation of the site is traditionally dated from 1185 to around 1247.
We cannot prove from a surviving charter that Templar brothers personally built the longhouse or chimneys. However, the building dates from precisely the period when they were associated with Middleton, making it an important surviving feature of the Templar-period landscape.
Who Was at Middleton?
The only person specifically named in the 1185 Templar survey as occupying the Middleton property is:
Richard, son of the widow, who held the Templars’ two virgates and paid four shillings annually.
No individual Templar knight or brother is named as permanently resident at Middleton in this record.
It is therefore possible that the property was principally an agricultural holding worked by tenants, while the substantial c.1220 longhouse may have provided accommodation connected with the estate. Middleton Hall has suggested that the quality of the building raises the possibility that it could have accommodated visitors or travelling knights, although its precise medieval function remains uncertain.
Middleton and Temple Balsall
Middleton was not an independent Templar preceptory. It belonged to the much wider network of Templar properties spread across Warwickshire.
The Order’s principal administrative centre in the county became Temple Balsall, from which estates, farms, rents and agricultural holdings elsewhere in Warwickshire were managed. Middleton should therefore be understood as one of these smaller income-producing properties rather than as a separate commandery.
The two virgates at Middleton provided rental income, while any associated farm buildings would have formed part of the practical agricultural economy that supported the Order.
What Can Be Seen Today?
Unlike many smaller Templar estates where nothing survives above ground, Middleton retains medieval fabric dating from the period of Templar occupation.
Visitors can still see the Tudor Barn, situated close to the present shopping courtyard at Middleton Hall. Beneath its later timber-framed appearance survive the foundations of the c.1220 medieval longhouse, together with the remains of its remarkable stone chimney structures. During the rebuilding of 1604 the original foundations and chimneys were deliberately retained.
The present Middleton Hall complex has developed around centuries of later building, alteration and restoration, but these surviving sandstone remains provide a rare physical connection with the landscape known during the Templars’ time.
Middleton therefore offers an unusual glimpse into Templar Warwickshire: land granted by Geoffrey Marmion by 1185, a named tenant called Richard, son of the widow, and medieval structures dating to around 1220, when the Knights Templar were associated with the estate.
More than eight centuries later, the surviving longhouse foundations and great stone chimneys remain an intriguing reminder of their presence at Middleton Hall.
MORETON -
EDSTONE -
CHESTERTON -
TEMPLAR FIGURES AT WARWICKSHIRE
The Knights Templar at Warwickshire
CLICK HERE FOR FULL INFORMATION ON THE PRECEPTORY OF TEMPLE BALSALL
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Amoldon (Hameldon) (Robert of) - arrested in January 1308, penance at the priory of Monkton Valley
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John of Wirkeleye (Wakeley or Wakerley) - Balsall Templar, arrested in January 1308, sent in penance to the diocese of St Davids
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John Wergrave - Templar at Balsall, arrested in January 1308, sent in penance to the Diocese of Worcester
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Robert of Amoldon (Hameldon) - Tnight-time Knight in Balsall, arrested in January 1308, penance at the priory of Monkton Valley
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Scurlagge (William): - Chevalier in Balsall, arrested in January 1308, his coat was in Newtemple, London, died some time after his arrest
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William of Winchester (Winton) - Prior to Balsall, arrested in January 1308, penitence in the diocese of Norwich
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Thomas of Walkington - Commander of Balsall and Rothley, arrested in January 1308, Sent in penitence in the Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield
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Thomas de Lynlee - Chaplain at Balsall
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Ernulf de Oisunville - Temple Balsall Preceptor 1220-1226
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Robert English - Temple Balsall Preceptor 1229-1248
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Alan de Haeton - Temple Balsall Preceptor 1259-1260
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Simon Dyseny - Knight
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John de Sprottelee - Serving Brother (not a Knight)
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Thomas of Walkington - Commander of Balsall and Rothley, arrested in January 1308, Sent in penitence in the Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield
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Robert Mallory
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John Beaufitz - Farmer
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Brother Petrrus de Warewiche - Became Master Aimeric de st Maur 1200-1216
When the order was suppressed in 1308, there were amongst the brethren arrested eight who had been received into the order in the house of Balsall. Of these, John de Coningeston had been admitted some thirty-six years before, and would seem to have remained at the Warwickshire house most of the time, as he is mentioned as present, with others, at the reception of Thomas le Chamberlayn, William de Warewyk, chaplain, William de Burton, Robert de Sautre, John de Euleye, and Roger de Dalton. Next to him in seniority was John de Stoke, chaplain, admitted at Balsall seventeen years since; he was one of the few to bear witness against his order, saying that he was upon one occasion compelled to abjure Christ.
The name of the preceptor and the number of the brethren resident here in 1308 are alike unknown, but several persons are recorded as being in receipt of various corrodies and pensions. John de Sibeford received 5s. yearly, his sustenance at the squire's table, and a tunic made from the cloth given by the preceptor to his retainers, and so did John de Bovyngton. In the latter case the privileges had been granted in return for his long and faithful service, but Adam de Westerdale paid 20 marks for a similar allowance, while a grant of food, half a mark yearly, and a tunic of the style of the free servants, was made to Richard le Carpenter of Balsall, on condition that he should serve as carpenter so long as he was able.
Another pensioner was Richard de Poleford, who was first granted bread and water and poor clothing, but was subsequently admitted to the squire's table and given an allowance of 5 marks.
The only preceptor whose name has survived appears to be 'Frater Ern[isius]' who acted as arbitrator in a suit between the priory of Nuneaton and the lords of Marton, c. 1224.
CITATION:
Houses of Knights Templar: Preceptory of Balsall', in A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 2, ed. William Page( London, 1908), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/warks/vol2/p99