Temple

The Channel 4 "documentary" (the inverted commas indicating the word is used in its loosest possible sense) on the crusades recently has made me curious to examine the crusader involvement in the history of the county. At least five preceptorys are known to have existed in the county. Yesterday I went to look at the remains of one of these preceptorys.

A preceptory was an area headquarters of the Knights Templars. The Templars were not strictly "crusaders" as they took a different (and permanent) vow, and lived in a sort of military monastic order. The preceptorys raised enormous amounts of money to finance Templar operations in the Holy Land.



Above: place name evidence shows Templar activity on the limestone heath in the centre of the county.



Above: driving out to the area, the main road was clear but the side roads were covered in ice and the fields were under about a foot of snow.



Above: I arrived at Temple Farm and walked along the drive (covered in about an inch of ice) towards the farm buildings. This was not a straight track but undulated condsiderably so that I had to walk slowly to avoid slipping over. In the bright sun the ice was melting and running off the shed roofs to create sparkling beads of water falling to the ground.



Above: the farm is a centre of the local hunt, and so there were lots of horses (obviously these are hunters).



Above: also lots of barking dogs, excited to see someone.



Above: the track went entirely around the back of the farm buildings to the site of the preceptory. Only one tower remains. Originally there were two towers and a characteristic round temple church.



Above: a short flight of ice-encrusted steps led into the tower.



Above: inside there was an impressive 12th century arcade, a vaulted roof and a weathered Templar tomb lid.



Above: many masons' marks were on the walls - this one is possibly a double-headed axe.



Above: a research student was also in the tower, doing some work on the masons' marks. She had produced a small booklet on her findings. We chatted for a little while.



Above: on the wall was a plan of the site, which was excavated at the end of the Victorian period. The amateur archaeologist had found (supposedly) underground chambers. Because of the snow it was impossible to discern any of the preceptory remains other than the tower.



Above: an 18th century engraving shows some of the round church was still standing.



Above: also on the wall was a "reconstruction" of what the preceptory might have looked like. I climbed a narrow winding staircase up to the next floor in the tower. It was an empty stone room with no ceiling so that you looked right up to the roof.



Above: apart from a few farms and cottages the only other building in the "village" is a small Victorian church with a schoolroom attached. I thought I would take a look at this while I was in the area. As you can see on the map above, the church is in the middle of nowhere at a point where five roads meet (this is supposedly a very significant spot associated with ley lines and the winter and summer solstices).



Above: one of the five roads is a "green lane" - covered in snow.



Above: the crossroads. On the way there I saw a car half-in a ditch with two men trying to push it out. I stopped to help them, and after some effort we pushed the car back onto the road.



Above: the little remote church.



Above: it was dedicated to St John the Baptist which made me think (the Templars were supposed to have venerated the mummified head of St John the Baptist).



Above: the church was locked. I walked through the deep snow round to the back and looked in through a window (spattered with raindrops) into the small schoolroom. What is the significance of the date written on the blackboard?



Above: what is the connection between the tiny village and the temple site in Jerusalem? During the second summer vacation at university I went on a British School of Archaeology excavation at a crusader site in Israel. I stayed at the British School and went up onto the Temple Mount almost every day - the Templar activities there have not been properly examined or recorded.

Note: someone who has seen these photographs has put forward the theory that the Knights Templars discovered the Ark of the Covenant during their excavations on the Temple Mount, and moved it for safe-keeping to the remote preceptory in the county, where it was hidden in an underground chamber. Re-discovered during the amateur late-Victorian excavations, a special church was constructed by the local landowner (that at least I can verify) and the Ark was moved there during secret ritual ceremonies on 11th November 1898. I add this note in the smallest type, in the faintest grey, because I am afraid of being classified with the "crazies".