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The Yorkshire Templars by Trish Colton and Diane Holloway
In St Mary’s, a Norman church not far from the quiet village of Kirkby Fleetham, lies the well preserved effigy of Sir Nicholas Stapleton. He was the eldest son of a local, well-respected judge, Sir Roger Stapleton, Lord of the Manor of Kirkby Fleetham, who died in 1290 and whom Nicholas pre-deceased.
St Mary’s Church, Kirkby Fleetham The effigy was commissioned by Nicholas’ younger brother Miles and lies in a recess just before the altar rail. Its detail does not appear to have deteriorated at all in the 700 or so years it has been lying there. His chain mail protects his head and continues down to his hips, and he is also wearing a long linen surcoat. A thin band encircles his head just above his forehead and he has a belt round his waist. His shield bears the Stapleton coat of arms. All in all, this effigy is a good example of what a knight would have worn in the late 13 th century. But Nicholas wasn’t simply the son of a local dignitary. He was also a Yorkshire Knight Templar who belonged either to the local Templar community at Temple Cowton near Northallerton, or the one South of Selby at Temple Hirst.
Effigy of Sir Nicholas Stapleton The Templars were founded early in the 12 th century. The movement came to England and Scotland around 1128 when Hugh de Payens crossed the channel, having been given permission by Henry I to call men to arms and take the vows of the Knights Templar. This led to the formation of English and Scottish branches of the Order. They established themselves in London, initially building a complex in Holborn, before moving to a new site between the Thames and Fleet Street where their round church and its later additions can still be seen. The movement spread, with Templar communities settling across the country, from Bristol in the West to Dunwich on the East coast in Suffolk and from Dover in the South right up to Maryculter near Aberdeen in the North of Scotland. There were also communities in Wales and Ireland. The Templars reached Yorkshire around 1142. Although London became the administrative centre for the Order, it was Yorkshire that possessed the broadest swath of English property. The London Temple focused on financial aims, while the Yorkshire communities were fixed on agricultural activities. Not only was Yorkshire the biggest county in England, in Templar terms it was also the richest. They owned more land, property and people in Yorkshire than in any other county in Britain. The income generated there, and in the rest of the country, was used by the Order to sustain their operations in the Holy Land. Because of their many holdings in Yorkshire and their management of them, the county’s contribution was enormously important. Before going any further, it will probably be useful to describe the Knights Templar set-up in a little more detail. The communities mentioned earlier were known as preceptories or commanderies. This article will refer to them as preceptories. They sometimes held outlying manors, but these always came under the administration of their local preceptory. Just like any big modern multi-national organisation, the Templars had a very well defined command structure. They had a chief executive and various senior, regional and local managers. If they had had an organization chart, it would have looked something like this: The Grand Master The supreme head of the Knights Templar; this was a life-long appointment.
Provincial Master
There were 8 Provincial Masters including one in England based in London. The others were inAragon, Apulia, France, Hungary, Poitiers, Portugal and Scotland.
Preceptors
Each preceptory was headed by a preceptor, who was the equivalent of a modern area manager. The Preceptory of Yorkshire The Templars' holdings in Yorkshire were so important that a “chief” Preceptor was appointed to oversee all the Preceptories in the county, each of which had its own Preceptor. The postholders of Preceptor of the Preceptory of Yorkshire were : Walter Brito, c. 1220 By the time the Knights Templar in Britain were arrested in 1308, there were ten preceptories in Yorkshire. In order of establishment, these were: Temple Cowton (near Northallerton) Around 1142 Roger de Mowbray granted the Knights Templar timber from his forests at Nidderdale, Masham and Malzeard. One of the preceptories to be built as a result of this lay somewhere in the vicinity of East Cowton, about 8 miles from Northallerton. We know it was called Temple Cowton, but its exact location has been lost. However, there is a farm which goes by the name of Temple House Farm, so the preceptory may well have been built somewhere nearby. It is at this location that Sir Nicholas Stapleton may have spent his time as a Knight Templar. East Cowton lies comfortably among low, rolling hills between the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. The area is on the main route from South to North, which is probably why the Romans chose to build Dere Street nearby. It ran from York to the Firth of Forth in Scotland and parts of it still exist. The Knights Templar would have found it equally practical, giving them a staging post at Temple Cowton before heading North for their Scottish holdings. No doubt this is why they built their first Yorkshire preceptory here. The preceptory at Temple Cowton was not only important because of its location, but also for another reason. When the Templars were arrested, an inventory was made of all their possessions. A chest was found at this preceptory which contained all the charters relating to their estates in Yorkshire; in addition other documents were discovered concerning their various estates in both England and Scotland. Unfortunately for later historians, these chests disappeared en route from Yorkshire to London. People rich and not so rich fell over themselves to give the Templars land. It was perceived at the time that the more you gave to religious orders, the better chance you had of getting a favoured place in heaven. The Templars, with their reputation for protecting pilgrims and fighting the Saracens in the Holy Land, were therefore endowed with various gifts, including land. With the land went the people who lived on it. Although some of them would have been freemen and therefore not “belong” to anyone, this did not apply to the poorer classes. It is worth mentioning at this point that any gifts the Templars received were given to the Order, not to individual Templars or specific preceptories. Similarly, when the Templars were sued in local judiciary courts – as they often were – then it was the Provincial Master who was summoned, not the local Templars. In 1185 the Knights Templar made a countrywide survey of everything they owned which brought in money. People were included in this and the whole record survives, so we have a good idea of Templar holdings at that time. For instance, the following gift is recorded “ Near Cowton they have 6 carucates of the gift of Robert Chambard” . A carucate was as much land as one team could plough in a year which equates to about 120 acres, so this was a substantial gift. Tenants on this land not only had to pay rent, they also had to do work on a specified number of days, known as boonworks, for the lord of the manor (in this case the Templars). For example, “ Ralph Tait 1 bovate for a rent of 5 shillings and 2 hens, 20 eggs and 4 boon works” . A bovate was around 15 acres. A couple of miles away from East Cowton is North Cowton. There’s a field just outside the village which was known as “Scotch Graves” in the Middle Ages. The reason for this is that just two miles North of Northallerton the Battle of the Standard took place, but local legend has it that the Scots made their last stand at North Cowton. This may, perhaps, be why this fight is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the Battle of Cowton Moor, even though the major action took place eight miles away. Stand at the edge of one of the many rich arable fields in this part of Yorkshire, look towards the West, and in the far distance you will see the magnificent hill country that marks the Yorkshire Dales. You could almost make out the site of the next preceptory the Templars built at Penhill, just down the road from Leyburn. This time there is something to see – the remains of their chapel which was dedicated to Our Lady and St Catherine. To get there you have to walk through a field and up a rough path of huge chunks of limestone which follow a water course. This climbs up to a narrow plateau and the field where the Templar chapel is located.
Penhill chapel looking towards the altar This was excavated in 1840 and consists of four low stone walls about 4½’ thick. The chancel contains the stone base of an altar and three empty stone coffins whose cover slabs lie in the centre of the main area. There were human remains in the coffins when they were originally found, but these have long since disappeared.
Penhill chapel stone coffins Edward I was known to use the northern Templar preceptories as staging posts for his battles in Scotland, so they would have been busy places. All preceptories, no matter where they were built, had watch towers and other buildings, generally erected around a central courtyard. Some buildings were standard such as sleeping quarters, a dining hall and a chapel. Most of them had large barns and probably a smithy. Nearby there were generally fishponds, water channels and pits, probably used for part of the tanning process of animal skins. With one exception, all the Yorkshire preceptories were built on the highest point in the area. This was probably to give them a good defensive position. This is certainly true of Penhill preceptory which is close to the hillside’s summit and overlooks the valley, on the other side of which Bolton Castle can clearly be seen. The 1185 survey presents something of a problem when it comes to discerning which tenancies were administered from Penhill Preceptory. There is only one unambiguous reference and that says, “Near Penhill they have 2 carucates of land of the gift of William, son of Hervey, which they have in demesne”. But a little later in the document there is a whole raft of tenancies that are described as being “towards the North by York”. This has meant sitting with the survey details in one hand and a map in the other, trying to make an intelligent guess as to which preceptory “towards the North by York” took care of which tenants! To reach the location of the next Templar preceptory to be built, you would need to travel South, a few miles beyond Selby. Temple Hirst is now a small, sleepy village sitting in the middle of flat, agricultural country. Quite a contrast to Penhill! The contrast is even more marked when you realize that behind the site where the preceptory stood are the huge cooling towers of Eggborough Power Station. Strange to think that the Knights Templar probably owned the land on which the power station now stands. Look towards the opposite horizon and you’ll see Ferrybridge Power Station. We can’t help wondering what the Templars would have made of it all – on second thoughts they would probably have owned both of them and made a fortune selling the generated electricity. The Templars settled here in about 1152 with the grant being confirmed in 1155 by Henry de Lacy. The preceptory was in full swing by 1160 as records show that Robert Pirou was the Preceptor. By the time of the 1185 survey, Temple Hirst had done very well in receiving gifts of land including land at Norton 1160-1170 and Eggborough 1161-77 As usual, donations came pouring in from people hoping to benefit their soul in the afterlife. There was land in Kellington and later the church at Kellington, 40 acres at Fenwick near Doncaster given by Foliot to provide for a chaplain, to name a few. A much later benefactor was John de Curteney who gave a parcel of land in East Hirst which butted up the dyke that ran from the Templar lands to Carlton. In the same charter, he also gave up all the rights that he had in the Templar woods. The only part of the preceptory that is still standing is a Norman doorway, which has been incorporated into the present farmhouse. However, the spirit of the Templars lives on in its name, which is Preceptory Farm.
Preceptory Farm sign Next door is the nursing home of Temple Manor, standing on land which would once have formed part of Temple Hirst Preceptory. There is evidence to suggest that there had been a moat and outer defences surrounding the preceptory; with such a flat environment such defences would be deemed a necessity. Also it appears that there are remains of a ford with Roman tiles embedded on edge along the water course. These Roman tiles are still thrown up now and then when ploughing takes place. It is thought that the tiles are the remains of a Roman Road, possibly part of The Watling Street. In the fields opposite the farmhouse the Templars had a windmill. The track that was used to reach it is still there after more than 700 years, but today it simply leads deep into the farm’s fields. Just down the road between a pub and the River Aire are the Templars’ fishponds, now weed-choked and barely reconisable for what they were. Twenty-five miles to the West lies the city of Leeds. In leafy parkland which was landscaped by Capability Brown in the 18 th century, stands the magnificent Temple Newsam House. Back in 1154, this area was owned by the Knights Templar who built their fourth preceptory there. The Templars also owned the nearby villages of Colton and Skelton, and Whitkirk, which was then simply a parish, not a village.
St Mary’s Church, Whitkirk – much altered since the Templars owned it . How they came to own their land in this area is a useful illustration of how they often acquired their holdings. Sometimes it was gifted to them, as seen earlier in this article. But sometimes they purchased land, especially if it was usefully situated next to property that they already owned. They also sometimes exchanged land that they wanted for land they owned elsewhere. All these methods applied in the case of Temple Newsam. Around 1155 the Neuhusum (Newsam) area passed to the Knights Templar, though in some quarters a charter states that the Templars were granted free warren as late as 1248. It was also part gifted to them by William de Villiers, who had rented the land from Henry de Lacey. In part, it was exchanged for land previously gifted to them at Newbold in Nottinghamshire, and part of it was purchased. During excavations at Temple Newsam in 1991, archaeologists found the foundations of a huge barn about 150 feet long. They also found a number of pits some of which may have held freshwater fish and some which were evidently used in the tanning process. Traces of ditches were also found during the excavations, so a water course may have been dug from the River Aire to the encampment. There were a variety of land types within the whole area which consisted of woodland, arable land, meadows, pastures and the riverside.
Example of a Templar cross on the wall of The Pack Horse pub, Briggate, Leeds They built their next preceptory at Foulbridge, not too far from Malton in North Yorkshire. This is a place that sends shivers of excitement through anyone interested in Templar buildings, because their Great Hall still exists, but for a while nobody knew it was there! It is part of a private home which, for some time, formed two separate homes that eventually came under one ownership. Over the years, interior walls had been erected and it was only by accident that the present owner’s wife discovered the now lovingly restored hall. In fact if the Templars returned today, they would feel quite at home.
Interior view of the great hall at Foulbridge The river Derwent flows close to the preceptory hall. Foulbridge was the natural crossing point in medieval times, indeed the modern crossing is only about a mile away. Not very far distant is Yedingham Priory founded sometime before 1163 by Helewise de Clere. It is now in ruins with little of the original building still standing. It was a House of Benedictine nuns and had, by all accounts a rather ‘salty’ Prioress at one time. It is said that there were disputes between the Prioress and the Templars as to who should maintain the bridge over the river; the story does not say who ended up providing the repairs and bearing the cost. As with all preceptories, Foulbridge had its own chapel and would have had at least one chaplain. His job was to hear confessions and give absolution. It was necessary for the Templars to have their own chaplains as he was the only member of the clergy allowed to perform these duties without special permission from the Pope. Members of the Order, which included the chaplains, were answerable directly to the Pope, not to local bishops and archbishops or even their monarchs. So as well as being politically independent, the Templars were also spiritually independent. There were only two preceptories in the whole of England which had direct access to the sea. One of them was Dunwich in Suffolk, the other was Faxfleet on the banks of the Humber Estuary. Although there’s no hard evidence to support the theory that the Templars had their own docking facilities, it is reasonable to suppose that they may have done. Local legend suggests that there was once a small creek behind the preceptory site where the Templars had a dock. The Order certainly had its own fleet and you have to wonder if any of their ships visited this preceptory. A Royal document dated 5 September 1339 gives permission for the merchants of York to send their wool ‘by little ships to Faxfleet; export duty still to be paid’. So it would seem there was a dock after the Templar organisation ceased to exist. It is, perhaps, reasonable to suppose that there was one while they still lived there. Excavations in the late 1960’s on the farmland where the preceptory once stood revealed thirteenth century cobbled-chalk roadways, long granaries, a brew house and a central hall. A 14 foot wide cobbled roadway led to a circular oven, both of which were probably built by the Templars. These days, you would hardly notice that Faxfleet exists at all, as the community is sparse and scattered. But in the Templars’ day it was thriving, busy and important enough for Edward I to pay the Order two visits at the beginning of the 14 th century. From the Humber Estuary, head up country to the wild and beautiful North York Moors. There, about 19 miles inland from Whitby, is the hamlet of Westerdale. At the bottom of the road leading into it is a late 13 th century packhorse bridge, built too late for the Templars to have used, but a lovely little structure nonetheless.
Packhorse bridge near Westerdale Every other preceptory in Yorkshire was built on the highest ground in the area. Westerdale Preceptory is the only one which was not. It stood at the base of a small hill behind the present-day Westerdale Hall. The Hall is in private hands now, but at one time it belonged to the Youth Hostel Association. The son of one of the wardens was interested in archaeology and carried out a dig in the grounds behind the Hall in the hope of finding some remains of the Templar preceptory. He did! E vidence was found of a main chamber, a kitchen, a brewery, animal quarters and a chapel. Cobbled roadways were discovered dating from the earliest occupation by the Templars, together with a coin that dated to about the mid thirteenth century. As you drive into and out of Westerdale, you’ll see plenty of sheep grazing – just as they did when the Templars were in residence in the area. The Order recognised the economic potential in the wool trade, just as the Cistercians did. However most peasants also kept one or two sheep whose fleeces were added to those exported by the great monasteries. Some historians suggest that the wool supplied countrywide by these individuals exceeded the amount provided by the monasteries. At Pontefract and Pickering, stock-keepers were employed to collect the wool from the manors in their area, and this would have included those one or two from each of the manors’ tenants. There’s also a tradition of growing arable crops around Westerdale which would almost certainly have applied to the Templars’ tenants. As well as supplying the export market, customers would also have been found in local towns. Townsfolk would not have had the land needed to grow crops, so they would buy either at markets or from local cooks and bakers.
Recovered farmland near Westerdale Preceptory At the Western edge of the Vale of York and a few miles outside Wetherby, there’s a wide bend in the River Nidd. This river protected three sides of Ribston Preceptory. Most of the preceptory buildings have vanished, but their lovely chapel, dedicated to St Andrew, remains intact. However it now has the privately owned 17 th century Ribston Hall tacked on its side. It is possible to see glimpses of the chapel from a public footpath that runs alongside the grounds. The Templars are so often portrayed as a fearsome fighting force that it’s easy to forget that they were also pious men whose holy calling was extremely important to them. Hence every preceptory had its chapel and their chaplains also belonged to the Order.
Ribston chapel with Ribston Hall tacked on the side Founded in 1217, Ribston Preceptory included a manor, vill and mill together with the advowson of the church at Walshford and the vill of Hunsingore. At its height Ribston comprised more than 900 acres of arable land, 30 acres of meadow and four water mills. The Order also owned the whole of Wetherby, where they had mills and a chapel dedicated to St Mary, which were all right next to the bridge which leads into the town. The scene was painted by Thomas Girtin in the 19 th century and a print of it is hanging in the local supermarket. The buildings survived and were used for centuries, only to have been demolished at some time in the first half of the 20 th century. The Templars were also given a charter to hold a market at nearby Walshford. When this proved not to be economically viable, they moved it to Wetherby where a market has been held every Thursday since 15 November 1240. The right to hold a market was a privilege granted by the king to his favoured nobles. They then assigned those rights to their own people. These markets were checked by health inspectors who made sure that pies were freshly baked and not just warmed up leftovers; they also made sure that when the market finished, any rotting goods were properly disposed of. Other officials checked that weights and measures were accurate. Just South of the M62 and lining the A19 to Doncaster lies the village of Whitley. Most of the houses are relatively modern developments, making it difficult to imagine that the whole area might once have been administered by a Templar preceptory here. The words “might have been” were carefully chosen.The exact site of the preceptory is unknown, experts disagree about whether there actually was a preceptory there at all and it’s by no means certain that if indeed there was one, whether this Whitley is the right Whitley! To our minds, Whitley earns its place as a Yorkshire preceptory for one major reason – a man called Robert de Layton (or Langton) was described as its preceptor. If a named preceptor existed, we feel that in itself must surely indicate the existence of a preceptory. Added to that is the fact that when the Templars were arrested, Layton was definitely one of the prisoners at York Castle. It is therefore more than reasonable to suppose that this is the right location for Whitley Preceptory. It is thought that a manor or grange here may originally have formed part of the Temple Hirst estates and only became a preceptory in its own right much later on. Quite when its status was raised to that of a preceptory is unknown, although the beginning of the fourteenth century has been suggested. The manor of Whitley was certainly owned by the Templars prior to 1248 and in that year they were given a grant of free warren there. Free warren meant they had the king’s permission to kill certain species of game within a specified area. Atop a little hill, deeper into the countryside than the new village, lies a field surrounded by trees and blackthorn bushes. In that field is a raised, square grass-covered mound with the unmistakable signs of a moat around it, a moat which has long since dried up. The field itself would be an archaeologists dream as it is full of hummocks which so often suggest that buildings once stood there. This place is described as a “moated Templar grange” site and is a Scheduled Monument. Given its location on the highest point in the area and its defensive moat feature, one can’t help wondering if this was, in fact, the place where Robert de Layton carried out his duties as a preceptor. At some time prior to 1258, the Templars established their last Yorkshire preceptory at Copmanthorpe. Now there is a bustling village about half a mile from the field on Temple Lane where the preceptory once stood. An archaeological dig in September 2006 confirmed that this was indeed the right place and that the lane was aptly named.
Field at Templar Lane where Copmanthorpe Preceptory once stood The manor is mentioned as belonging to the Order in a charter by William de Ros. William Malbys gave the Templars Copmanthorpe and other lands and property on certain conditions. These were that they must support a chaplain to celebrate and pray for himself and the souls of his departed relatives in the chapel. So it may well be that Copmanthorpe was originally a manor, which was later elevated to the status of a preceptory. A document from 1292 shows that the preceptor of Copmanthorpe was also the keeper of the mills below York Castle, which had been given to the Order by Roger de Mowbray in 1185 - some considerable time before that preceptory came into existence. However, it was in 1292 that the preceptor, Robert de Rey, and the chaplain of the Castle Mills chapel were accused of setting nets below the mills to catch the king’s fish, so it was certainly an existing preceptory. On Friday, 13 th October 1307, every Knight Templar in France was arrested on the order of King Philip. This action was to have repercussions that stretched across the channel and reached up to touch the Order’s Yorkshire contingent. The major reason for the Knights Templar being established in the first place had been to protect pilgrims on their visits to the Middle East. They had developed into a fearsome, efficient fighting force that inspired both respect and hatred in their Saracen enemies. In 1291 Acre had fallen to the Saracens and this led to the Christian armies finally departing the Holy Land. But there were some people who placed the blame for the loss of the Holy Land squarely on the shoulders of the Knights Templar, accusing them of cowardice and fraternising with the enemy. After 1291 there was nobody for them to fight or protect and the only function left to them was in the world of commerce – and the wealth they had accumulated in that arena produced enemies much closer to home. Over the years they had made enemies both within and outside the Church. In Yorkshire, for example, the Cistercians frequently felt that land was gifted to the Templars which their own Order should have received. There were also many local disagreements, some ending amicably, but many others needing judicial intervention. Then there was the jealousy caused because the Templars did not have to pay tithes and taxes and nor did most of their tenants. Finally, there was the secrecy concerning initiation rites into the Order. This inevitably furnished their enemies with the opportunity to conjure up all sorts of charges, including the use of magic and witchcraft. However, the major charge against them was heretical practices. Philip’s motives for arresting the Templars have been hotly debated by scholars down the centuries, but there is no room to discuss them in this article. One thing is certain, he was absolutely determined to wipe out the entire Order. With this objective in mind,he wrote to all the heads of state who had Knights Templar communities and urged them to arrest all their Templars. King Edward II refused, saying that the Templars had not broken any laws in Britain and then he personally wrote to the other monarchs suggesting that they should also ignore Philip’s request. Under extreme and intimidating pressure from Philip, the Pope (resident in France at that time) then ordered the arrest of all Knights Templar on pain of excommunication of individual heads of state and an interdict being placed on their countries. This put everyone’s souls in mortal danger, so there was nothing for it but to obey the Pope’s order, which Edward did in January 1308. Most of Britain’s Templars were locked up in the Tower of London initially, before being moved to other prisons within London’s city walls. The Templars in Yorkshire, plus a few others, were taken to York Castle.
Clifford’s Tower, York Castle’s keep atop a Norman motte . Unlike their colleagues in the South, our Templars were free to wander round the city during the day, only being locked up at night. The king got wind of this and in March 1310 insisted that they too spent their days, as well as their nights, in safe custody. Eventually the Templars were tried and convicted on what was mainly heresay evidence that certainly would not stand up in today’s Courts. Many of the Order’s French brethren were burned at the stake, but this harsh punishment was not meted out in England. Our Templars were all given absolution, carried out penances and pensioned off. If they wished to, they were allowed to join other monastic Orders, which many of them did. The monasteries concerned weren’t entirely happy about this, but generally they had to put up with it. Kirstall Abbey was landed with Richard de Shefeld, but he’d had enough after a year and disappeared. The Cistercians were delighted to see the back of him as they found him surly and rude. Rievaulx Abbey refused to host a Templar at all and a Templar who chose to join Fountains Abbey was considered disruptive and insolent. Most of the Templar-owned property eventually went to the Knights Hospitaller, although King Edward II kept some and gave others to favoured nobles. Right from the start, most of the land the Templars owned had suffered from William the Conqueror’s “scorched earth policy”, or it was marshy or just generally in a very poor state. They put a lot of time and effort into reclaiming it all and making it fit to grow crops, keep animals and for everyone on it to live comfortably. They may not have left us beautiful abbeys such as those the Cistercians built, but their legacy lies all around us in our beautiful Yorkshire landscape.
The Knights Templar in Yorkshire by Diane Holloway and Trish Colton is published by The History Press at £12.99. The book is available in July 2008 from bookshops or at a discount from www.yorkshiretemplars.co.uk
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