Site of Preceptory of Knights Templars, Castle Park

Description of this historic site

The site of a preceptory of the Knight Templar during the Medieval period. Documentary evidence notes that a manor house surrounded by a moat was given to the Order in the 1100s. The house had been demolished by 1786 and it stood in Castle Park, Warwick.

Notes about this historic site

1 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 (PRN 5521). 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.
2 Remains of a moat are shown at the above grid reference on a map of 1695. This may be the site of the preceptory. Site now Castle Park. No surface indications.
4 Aerial photographs indicate location of a rectangular moat and other enclosures which probably indicate the site of the preceptory. The moat and traces of possible buildings lie to the W of the old Banbury Road (PRN 4615), the side ditches of which show on aerial photographs. In the vicinity of the moat and road and to the W are a series of rectangular enclosures which may be contemporary.
5 A small town manor, given to the Order by Roger, the first Earl of Warwick, before his death in 1153. It was in the area now called Bridgend, with adjoining land on its S side, W of the later Banbury Road, a small-scale property with 29 tenants, 7 of them trademen, plus one ale-wife. It was probably one of the earliest Templar possessions in the county.

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