Landowners and landscapes: the Knights Templar and their successors at Temple Hirst, Yorkshire

293 © British Association for Local History 2011

Wolfson BALH Lecture in Local History: February 2010

Landowners and landscapes:the Knights Templar and their

successors at Temple Hirst, Yorkshire

J O H N S . L E E

The Knights Templar were founded around 1120, after the First Crusade, to protectpilgrims travelling to Jerusalem. Their estates in England and other parts of westernEurope provided revenues for their work in the Holy Land, and were administeredfrom centres known as preceptories. In Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe the Templar Sir Briande Bois-Gilbert takes the Jewess Rebecca to the preceptory of the Knights Templar atTemplestowe, ‘seated amidst fair meadows and pastures, which the devotion of theformer preceptor had bestowed upon their order. It was strong and well fortified, apoint never neglected by these knights, and which the disordered state of Englandrendered peculiarly necessary. Two halberdiers, clad in black, guarded the drawbridge,and others, in the same sad livery, glided to and fro upon the walls’. At Templestowethe Grand Master of the Temple examines Rebecca, and the trial by combat betweenSir Brian and Ivanhoe, Rebecca’s champion, takes place outside its walls.1

Scott seems to have based Templestowe on the house of the Knights Templar atTemple Hirst in Yorkshire, lying on the left bank of the River Aire five miles south ofSelby and held by the Knights Templar from around 1152 until the Order’sdissolution in 1311. This paper examines that site, considering the Templars andtheir successors as landowners who shaped the landscape from the twelfth to thesixteenth centuries. It combines techniques from local history and landscape studies,taking both a multi-disciplinary approach, integrating documentary sources withevidence from archaeology, architecture and landscape, and a comparative one,drawing on research on similar estates, buildings and landscapes. Local history, as avillage study in the England’s Past for Everyone series recently noted, ‘now involvesan understanding of many different disciplines—of archaeology, landscape andsettlement, place names and architecture as well as the fundamental task of labouringin the archives’.2

Temple Hirst, in the southern part of the Vale of York, is today an area of high-quality farmland. The place-name ‘hirst’, from the Old English for copse or woodedhill, denotes a patch of slightly higher ground in the low-lying landscape, while theprefix ‘Temple’ indicates an estate of the Knights Templar: other examples areTemple Newsam (Leeds), Temple Balsall near Coventry, Temple Bruer inLincolnshire, and Templecombe in Somerset. The societies of the Inner and MiddleTemple, two of London’s Inns of Court, and Bristol Temple Meads Station alsooccupy Templar sites.3 From 1337 the Temple Hirst estate was owned by the Darcyfamily, until Thomas Darcy’s execution two hundred years later for his role in thePilgrimage of Grace against Henry VIII. The Darcys built a residence with a privatechapel and created a park and rabbit warren. The property now known as TempleManor incorporates the remains of a doorway from the preceptory of the KnightsTemplar and an octagonal tower from the brick house of the Darcys. This paper

294 THE LOCAL HISTORIAN/NOVEMBER 2011

shows how demands on the landscape changed, from the generation of income foran international religious order to an emphasis on prestige and pleasure for anambitious gentry family.

Temple Hirst is mentioned in a number of medieval documents. Many of the recordscreated by the Templars, such as their manorial accounts and court rolls, have beenlost, but there are two major sources. The Inquest of 1185 records the lands, tenants,services and properties held by the Order, although the entry for Temple Hirst isbrief.4 The National Archives hold early-fourteenth century inventories of goods andestate accounts from when the Templars were arrested.5 A few charters relating toTemple Hirst survive in the British Library,6 but another collection, formerly kept inSt Mary’s Tower, York, was destroyed during the Civil War and is now known onlyfrom seventeenth-century transcripts.7 The majority of the Darcy family documentsrelate to Thomas, Lord Darcy, and contain scattered references to Temple Hirst.These, together with accounts and court rolls from when the manor was confiscatedafter Thomas’s execution, are in The National Archives.8 Some of the richest recordstherefore survive from periods when the estate was confiscated by the Crown, in theearly-fourteenth century and again in the late-1530s.

Architectural and landscape studies set the estate in a wider context. The NorthYorkshire County Council’s Historic Environment Record at Northallerton andEnglish Heritage’s National Monuments Record at Swindon provide essentialstarting points. There have been no archaeological excavations at Temple Hirst, andaerial photographs show landscape features that have now been ploughed out, butthe standing remains of the preceptory and house of the Darcys were studied by H.E.Chetwynd-Stapylton and Reverend John Worsfold in the late- nineteenth century.9The site, known as Temple Farm, operated until the 1970s, then was derelict for aperiod, before being renovated as a public house and subsequently a nursing home,and renamed Temple Manor.

Important parallels can be drawn from similar estates. The Knights Templar havelong excited the popular imagination, from their depiction in Ivanhoe to their allegedrole in The Da Vinci Code, but there have been few historical and archaeologicalstudies and surviving evidence is very patchy. The only detailed excavation of anEnglish preceptory has been at South Witham in Lincolnshire, but there have beenarchaeological investigations at Denny (Cambridgeshire), Temple Newsam andTemplecombe.10 The most prominent surviving buildings are the great barns ofCressing Temple in Essex, and the Temple Church, London, with its round naverecalling the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Other significant survivingremains are at Temple Bruer, Temple Balsall, Denny and Foulbridge (Yorkshire).Detailed documentary research has been undertaken at Temple Balsall, SouthWitham and Rothley (Leicestershire),11 and there are landscape studies of the estatesat Temple Newsam, Cressing Temple and Penhill (Yorkshire).12 There have beenwider reassessments of the Templars in Yorkshire by Janet Burton, and nationally byEvelyn Lord and Helen Nicholson.13

The earliest known documentary reference to Temple Hirst is in a charter of c.1030,which states that all the land in the two Hirsts (later known as Temple Hirst andHirst Courtney) belonged to the archbishop of York.14 By the mid-twelfth centuryTemple Hirst had become part of the Lacy honour of Pontefract, which covered over500 square miles in south and west Yorkshire, with the castle and borough ofPontefract as its administrative and commercial centre.15 As with many preceptories,the foundation date of Temple Hirst is difficult to establish with precision. Ralph andWilliam Hastings gave Temple Hirst and another place called ‘Wyxham’ to the

Templars in 1152, according to Brother John of Stillingflete, who compiled amemorial of benefactions to the Hospitallers and Templars in 1434. Stillingflete doesnot give an authority for this date and the foundation charter does not survive.16However, Ralph’s gift was ratified by a charter from his lord, Henry de Lacy, and atranscript of this document survives. Ralph was probably related to Richard Hastings,Master of the Temple in England, in whose presence the charter was issued.17 Thiswas at ‘Bruge’, which Chetwynd-Stapylton suggested was either Castleford orFerrybridge, and Worsfold thought to be Bruges in Flanders, but more recenthistorians have identified as Bridgnorth in Shropshire. The occasion may have beenwhen Lacy was with Henry II at the siege of the castle held by Mortimer, the last ofthe barons to surrender to the new ruler, or after the capture of the castle when thebarons swore fealty to the king in July 1155.18 During this decade the Templarsarguably reached the peak of their popularity, as measured by the number of chartersgranting land to the Order in England, and this probably reflected their successes inthe Holy Land at this time.19

Temple Hirst was probably the first of five preceptories founded in Yorkshire duringthe twelfth century: the others were at Temple Newsam in the West Riding, andPenhill, Stanhow and Cowton in the North Riding. Such was the importance of theYorkshire estates that from the early-thirteenth century a preceptor of Yorkshire wasappointed, an intermediary between the heads of individual preceptories and theMaster of the Temple in England. By the early fourteenth century, the Templarslands in Yorkshire formed nearly one quarter of the value of all their Englishestates.20 The Temple Hirst preceptory was functioning by 1160, when Robert Pirou

1. The location of Temple Hirst and the estates held by the KnightsTemplar in the area south of Selby

LANDOWNERS AND LANDSCAPES: THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR 295


was described as its preceptor, or master of the house. The Templars acted as royalofficials and ambassadors and Pirou was one of three Knights Templar who witnesseda peace treaty between England and France, and was among those given castles inVexin (in northern France) pending the marriage of Henry II’s son to Louis VII’sdaughter.21 Together with brother William de Hyrst, Pirou also witnessed JordanFoliot’s grant to the monks of the Cluniac Priory of Pontefract, around 1160, and isnamed with the Templars as the recipient of a grant in 1175–1177.22 Pirou died aftertravelling to the Holy Land with Henry de Lacy in 1177.23

The preceptory buildingsArchaeological, architectural and documentary studies have shown that preceptorieswere modest complexes: more reminiscent of the manor houses of lay lords thanmajor monasteries or the castle-like complex described in Ivanhoe. The inventory ofthe goods at Temple Hirst in 1308 lists a hall or treasury, chapel, kitchen and larder,brewhouse, bakehouse, and dovecot, while another made in 1312 adds a dormitory,dairy, granary and forge. The preceptory was the centre for an estate of arable,meadow, pasture and woodland, with an emphasis on sheep farming: the inventorieslist cows, sheep, pigs, poultry, cart-oxen, horses, ploughs, carts and hayforks. Thefurnishings were mainly utilitarian, although there were charters in the treasury, andvestments and ornaments in the chapel. The main value of the property came fromlivestock and crops, with goods comprising less than £10 in a total valuation of £14618s 2d in 1308.24 The combination of military, domestic, ecclesiastical and agriculturalfeatures reflected the Order’s roles as knights, monks, landlords and farmers.

2. The house at Temple Manor (Temple Hirst) in 2009 (author)

The only surviving feature from the preceptory is the magnesium limestone doorway,of the late-twelfth or thirteenth centuries, and reset in the later brick building.25 Thecapitals have scallop-shell patterns, a symbol of pilgrimage (perhaps, as Chetwynd-Stapylton suggested, ‘the story of some early Palmer or knight-errant safely returnedfrom the Holy Land’). He also identified the thicker stone walls in some of the farmbuildings as part of the preceptory, but these were demolished during the 1970s.26 Arecent study identifies the octagonal brick tower at Temple Hirst as a Templarfeature, but it actually postdates the suppression of the Order by at least a centuryand a half.27 Local tradition says that a tunnel linked the house to Selby Abbey, over 5miles away, but this tradition derives from a blocked-up cellar which seemed toextend further below ground level than the building above. The riverside location ofTemple Hirst was significant. In 1308 the Templars had boats and fishing nets there;the grange at Potterlawe and the preceptory at Newsam were also close to the river,and Faxfleet lay on the banks of the Humber. More generally, the Templars acquiredproperty along major rivers, with houses along the Thames and in ports such asDover, Bristol and Shoreham.28

The estate and its assets The preceptory became the administrative centre for a significant estate, the originalgrant by Ralph Hastings (confirmed by Henry de Lacy in 1155) being followed bytwo acres in the field of Hirst, land in Eggborough and 13? acres in the assart ofSherwood from Roger de Roall in 1175–1177.29 Around the same date, Henry deVernoil granted 34 acres of land, the building of Randulf of Potterlawe, pasture for100 sheep in the common pasture of Eggborough, and his meadow between theRiver Aire and Shirefleet.30 Potterlawe, where the Templars developed a grange, layin the township of Eggborough, around the later site of Sherwood Hall and justacross the river from the preceptory. Six fields to the north of Sherwood are namedPotterleys on the Eggborough enclosure map of 1802.31 The Templars’ inquest of1185 also records lands in Kellington, Fenwick, Norton, Fairburn, Burghwallis, thechurch of Kellington and two mills at Hirst,32 and during the thirteenth century theyalso acquired properties in Hirst Courtney, East, Chapel and West Haddlesey,Osgodby, Thorne and Fishlake, Hensall, Smeaton and Burn.33

Some of the Templar estate can be identified in detail, for it remained in the manorof Temple Hirst for centuries. In 1304, the Templars exchanged meadow land withMiles Stapleton, who gave them just over 8 acres in Middle Haddlesey lying inRaufrode. This is likely to be Raw Royd Close in Chapel Haddlesey marsh, still heldby Lord Sheffield, lord of the manor of Temple Hirst, in the late-eighteenthcentury.34 John Bellaaqua granted the Templars 6 acres in the south copse of hiswood of Burn, to the north of the brethren’s lands in Hirst. This was probably BroomClose (measuring just over 5 acres) in Burn township, shown on a map of LordSheffield’s lands in the 1840s.35 In Osgodby, Samson de la Pomeray, his wife Dionise,and son John granted lands to the Templars.36 Land there was listed in a rental of theDarcy’s Temple Hirst estate in 1528, and in 1554 a yearly rent of 10d from the landsof the heirs of the Templars in Osgodby was granted by the Crown to the Constablefamily of Burton Constable.37 A nineteenth-century local historian noted that a familynamed Templar was long-associated with Osgodby, and suggested that they might‘have been copyholders of these lands, and in this way have acquired the name’.38

Many of the gifts to the military orders across Western Europe reflected family ties,bonds of lordship and estate boundaries, with patrons often imitating their lords or


neighbours.39 Most of the lands granted to the preceptory at Temple Hirst came fromtenants of the Lacy family. These included the initial grant of land at Temple Hirstfrom Ralph Hastings, as well as further grants made by the Roalls and Henry Vernoilat Eggborough and Roall, all confirmed by the Lacys. Other gifts to the Templars atHirst came from tenants of the Lacys: Jordan Foliot at Fenwick and Norton; Ottes deTilly at Fenwick; Henry Waleys at Burghwallis; Adam Fitz Peter of Birkin and AdamFitz Peter of Preston at Fairburn.40 Henry de Lacy went twice to Jerusalem and so waslikely to have been familiar with the Order’s work in the Holy Land.41

The Knights Templar, like the Cistercian monks, were often given land that neededimproving. Large areas of land were assarted around the preceptories of Garway(Herefordshire), Temple Brewer and Temple Newsam.42 Around Temple Hirst, themain work was clearance of woodland and improving drainage. An early-thirteenthcentury grant by John de Courtney refers to a ditch of the brethren in East Hirst(now Hirst Courtney). The same grant allowed the Templars to enclose or clear theirwood there.43 Field-names in Temple Hirst, such as hagg, stocking, rod and ridding,provide evidence of this woodland clearance. By the river were the Ings and theHolmes, Old Norse words for meadow.44 The term for an artificial watercourse in thisarea is a ‘drain’. Temple Drain, forming much of the western township boundary ofTemple Hirst and joining the River Aire at Temple Clough, just west of thepreceptory, was probably constructed by the Templars to drain their lands.Embankments to contain the river and prevent flooding were, and still are,prominent features in this low-lying landscape. Land in the neighbouring village ofChapel Haddlesey, which the Templars received in 1304, was provided with banks.45Similar drainage works were undertaken on other Templar estates. At Faxfleet,Temple Dam is thought to have been constructed by the Templars, and at Sutton inEssex, the Templars maintained coastal ditches to prevent flooding from the sea.46The Templars were therefore one of several ecclesiastical landowners who carried outdrainage works in marshland landscapes in this period: others included Selby Abbeyin the Vale of York, Glastonbury Abbey in the Somerset Levels, and the bishop of Elyin the Cambridgeshire fenlands.

It is not clear whether Temple Hirst was as well-defended as the fictional preceptoryof Templestowe in Ivanhoe with its moat, drawbridge and walls. The site seems alikely location for a moat, given their prevalence in the vicinity, including those alongthe northern bank of the River Aire at Drax, East Haddlesey and Birkin. Two majorexcavations have taken place at nearby moated sites associated with lay landlords—East Haddlesey and Wood Hall, Womersley. These moats seem to have had only aminor role in defence and drainage, and were mostly created for prestige.47 In thelate-nineteenth century Worsfold described the remains of a moat on the north sideof Temple Manor ‘with the narrow gateway through which only one mountedhorseman could pass at a time. This is another feature special to Templarestablishments’.48 There were moats at South Witham and Faxfleet, although thelatter might post-date the Templars. It has been suggested that surviving moats atWhitley and Fenwick may have been Templar properties, but there is no secureevidence for these.49 Boundary walls have been found at other Templar sites of SouthWitham and Templecombe, but the only evidence at Temple Hirst is the wall or fieldboundary shown on a late-eighteenth century map to the east and south of the site.50

Mills provided a means for landowners to generate valuable additional income. Anumber were granted to the Templars, including the urban sites of the Castle mills atYork, and mills on the Fleet and Lea in London, while two of the country’s earliestfulling mills operated at Temple Newsam and near Temple Guiting (Gloucestershire)


in 1185.51 At this date, the Templars held two mills at Hirst and one at Burghwallis.By 1308, there was a windmill at Temple Hirst worth 13s 4d, a windmill at Kellingtonworth 8s, and the watermill at Burghwallis was let for a year rent of 15s.52 In 1303, SirMiles Stapleton quitclaimed Calf Enge meadow, and a croft and windmill oppositethe door or gate of Temple Hirst, which the Templars already held of his fee inHaddlesey. This was probably the field known by the late-eighteenth century as CowClose.53 The township boundary of Temple Hirst diverges from Temple Drain toinclude this field, probably so that the mill was brought within the boundary. Asimilar feature can be seen at, for example, Temple Balsall.54

When Walter Scott described the ‘heavy bell of the church of St Michael ofTemplestowe, a venerable building, situated in a hamlet at some distance from thepreceptory’, he may have been thinking of St Edmund’s church at Kellington, a fewmiles from Temple Hirst, which had been granted to the Templars by Henry deLacy.55 Excavations in 1990–1991, ahead of works to stabilise the church to avoidmining subsidence, revealed several phases of building works while the church washeld by the Templars. These included the partial demolition of the first tower andthe extension of the nave westwards, by the late-twelfth century, and the constructionof a new tower, which seems to have been ambitiously decorated. Around 1250 thistower was replaced by the present one, possibly because it had become unsafe. Anorth aisle was added in the thirteenth century. Later alterations, including the

widening of the north aisle,the extension of the chancel,and the installation of thearcade, may have takenplace when the churchbecame the property of theKnights Hospitallers.56 StMary’s, Birkin, the medievalparish church for TempleHirst, was constructedaround the same time as theinitial grant of land to theTemplars at Hirst. On thisbasis it has been suggestedthat the church was built attheir expense,57 but there isno documentary evidence tolink this church with theOrder.

The many privileges of theTemplars included freedomfrom paying tithes. As somelater landowners continuedto enjoy this privilege, thepresence of tithe-free landcan sometimes be used totrace former Templarestates. Whether thisprivilege survived here is

3. Temple Farm, Temple Hirst in 1889 andsuggested plan of the preceptory (both from H.C.

Chetwynd-Staplyton, ‘The Templars atTemplehurst’, 1889)



unclear, as the rector of Birkin was allocated allotments of land in Temple Hirst inlieu of tithes in the enclosure award made in 1793.58 The manor appears to have heldthe right to prove wills, as in other Yorkshire manorial courts including TempleNewsam and Westerdale which were held by the Templars.59 The wills of AgnesHasard of Kellington and William Fauge of Campsall were proved at Temple Hirst inthe 1530s, and the court collected 2s 6d for the probates of William Stockall andIsabel Hodgeson in 1572.60 Like other monasteries, the accommodation in thepreceptories was shared with corrodians or pensioners who were given board,lodgings and a clothing allowance in return for their services or donations to theOrder. In 1313 the keepers of the Templar manor of Hirst were ordered to pay toWilliam de Couf of Ireland 2d daily for food, a robe at Christmas, a summer tunic,and 5s yearly for other necessities, which he ought to receive out of that manor,providing that he served in the manor for as long as he was able to.61

The end of the OrderThe Order’s wealth, power and privileges, coupled with a series of defeats in theHoly Land, led to increasing resentment. When Philip IV of France gave orders toarrest the Templars in 1307, it was widely believed that his motives were financial. InJanuary 1308, under the orders of Edward II, the sheriffs arrested the Templars inEngland and made an inventory of all their goods. By a writ of 3 April 1308 thesheriff of Yorkshire was to deliver the manor of Temple Hirst and the surroundingestates to Miles Stapleton, who held lands in the neighbouring townships ofHaddlesey and Carlton. There were only two brothers in residence at Temple Hirst,but most preceptories were small communities by this date: the largest numbers inYorkshire were a mere four at Faxfleet. During the trials informers gave evidenceagainst the Templars, among them John de Nassington, official of the archbishop ofYork, who was said to have formerly belonged to the Order and afterwards becametheir penancer. Nassington claimed that Miles Stapleton and Adam Everingham, twolocal landowners, had informed him that they were once invited with other knights toa feast at Temple Hirst where they were told that the Templars celebrated a solemnfestival at which they worshipped a calf. Such an account is typical of the hearsay thatwitnesses produced. Of the two Templars arrested at Hirst, Adam de Crayke,‘claviger’ (key-bearer) died before interrogation, while Ivo of Etton or Houghton,preceptor was assigned to penance in the diocese of York.62

When the Order of the Templars was dissolved in 1312, Pope Clement V decreed thattheir lands be transferred to a rival military order, the Knights Hospitaller. But thetransfer was slow and tortuous, and in several cases the families whose ancestors hadgranted property to the Templars took the opportunity to take the lands back intotheir own hands. This happened at Temple Hirst, where Thomas, earl of Lancaster,who had inherited the Lacy estates, seized the manor and granted it to William deHoland. On William’s death, his brother and heir Robert made further grants.63Robert Holland owed his advancement entirely to Thomas, earl of Lancaster. He roseto baronial status, and became manager of Lancaster’s estates, but desertedLancaster before the battle of Boroughbridge in 1322, substantially weakeningLancaster’s forces. On his surrender, Holland’s estates were confiscated by the Crown,and the former preceptory at Hirst was under royal ownership in December 1322,when the chapel was used by Brother Wautier de Mordon and the forge by farrierJohn Cole.64

The Darcy family and Temple HirstIn 1324 Thomas Larchier, prior of the Hospitallers, granted to the king the manorsof Temple Hirst, Temple Newsam, Faxfleet, Denny and Strood (Kent), except thechurches within these manors which had been appropriated to the Templars.65 Withthe exception of Faxfleet, these manors were regranted in 1327 by the king for life toMary of St Pol, the widow of Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke.66 Mary foundedPembroke College, Cambridge and transferred a community of Franciscan nuns toDenny Abbey. In 1337 the reversion of the estates at Temple Hirst and TempleNewsam after Mary’s death was settled on Sir John Darcy, steward of the king’shousehold, in recognition of his service in Ireland. The Hospitallers made twounsuccessful attempts to acquire Temple Hirst, in 1380 after the death of theCountess of Pembroke and accession of Philip Darcy, and in 1402 after the accessionof John Darcy, but the estate was to remain with the Darcy family for two centuries.67Sir John Darcy, his son John, grandson Philip, and great-grandson John, were allactive in royal service, but the family’s fortunes appear to have declined during thefifteenth century, and their successors achieved little prominence until Thomas Darcyinherited the estate in 1488. He served in military campaigns in France and on theScottish borders, was elevated to the peerage in 1504, and was steward of the honourof Pontefract, which had become part of the Duchy of Lancaster after 1399.68

Little is recorded about the Darcy’s early residence on the site, although a dowryassigned to the widow of John Darcy at Temple Hirst in 1435–1436 mentions a‘kyngeschamber’, chapel, stable, ‘kitchingardyn’, orchard and other closes of land.The private chapel is also described in an inquisition post mortem of 1428. Thomasde Selby recollected that John Darcy was ‘baptised in the chapel of St Mary, TempleHirst’. On the day of John’s birth, he was sent to check the furnishings in the chapeland ‘he found its altar hung with ten cloths of gold and its font adorned with silkenhangings’.69 The dedication of the chapel to St Mary was the same as the main altarin the Templar chapel, and may indicate that the same building was still in use.70Given his rise in status, it seems most likely that it was Thomas Darcy who wasresponsible for building the brick house at Temple Hirst during the later-fifteenth orearly-sixteenth centuries. A three-storey octagonal brick tower survives, housing anoak staircase with its newel or central post, and at the other end of the range is abuttress which may have formed part of another turret. In 1514, MarmadukeConstable of Hotham and Elizabeth Darcy of Temple Hirst were licensed to bemarried ‘in the chapel within the manor-house of Templehurst’.71 Thomas Darcyreferred to his ‘cabyn of Tempilhurst’, and the house is also described as the ‘goodlyplace of Lord Darcy’s ... standing nigh the river of Ayre’. An inventory of LordDarcy’s goods drawn up in 1520 lists rooms including ‘my lord’s study’, armoury,ewery, pantry, buttery, kitchen, larder and bakehouse.72 In 1565 there was a hall,pantry, larder, great chamber, ladies’ chamber, chapel chamber, and gallery.73

As rebuilt, Temple Manor was one of a series of brick residences constructed duringthe later fifteenth or early sixteenth centuries along the lower reaches of theYorkshire Ouse and Aire rivers. Others include brick additions to the palaces of thearchbishops of York at Bishopthorpe and Cawood Castle, Riccall Manor House (alate fifteenth-century three-storey brick tower and octagonal stair turret, part of theresidence of the prebend of Riccall), and Paull Holme (a three-storey brick tower onthe Humber estuary). There were also brick additions to the moated manor house atnearby East Haddlesey.74 The bricks for all these buildings are thought to have beenbrought by water from the brickyards of Hull or Beverley. Thomas Darcy also built abrick house at Temple Newsam, possibly started between 1490 and 1505 and



completed by 1521, but little is now visible as the house was extensively remodelledin the seventeenth century.75 Brick became a fashionable building material in easternEngland during the early Tudor period, used in the new Cambridge colleges andHampton Court Palace, as well as gentry houses like Temple Manor.76

To the east of Temple Manor lay a series of earthworks which have been identified asfishponds but may be features from ornamental gardens. They are shown on aerialphotographs taken in 1948–1949, and were surveyed in 1964, but have since beenploughed out.77 The earthworks have usually been considered as contemporary withthe preceptory, as at South Witham, but they have a very similar morphology to a siteat Kettleby, in Bigby parish in Lincolnshire, which may have been part of a formalgarden of the sixteenth century.78 Documentary evidence of formal gardens atTemple Hirst is contained in a letter from George Darcy to his father Thomas in1530, in which he complains that the ‘garthinges’ at Temple Hirst and TempleNewsam ‘could not be more out of frame’ and asks for a good ‘garthener’ with theskill of ‘garthing’ and the ‘hopgarth’.79

The river at Temple Hirst continued to be a source of both income through tradeand fishing, and expense through maintaining banks and drains. In 1528 the fisheryin the River Aire generated 40s per year. The toll of boats sailing or mooring wasfarmed for 10s, and with 4d charged for each ship and 2d for each boat, there wouldneed to have been at least 30 vessels paying toll during the year before the farmermade any profit.80 Following the confiscation of the manor by the Crown, the tenantsof Temple Hirst complained that they were being charged tollage at Selby, Barton(Lincolnshire), Grimsby and other places which they had never been charged duringLord Darcy’s time.81 The management of the riverbanks and drains continued duringthe sixteenth century. In 1540, four men spent five days ‘ravyng and bankkyng’ aclough (the outfall sluice of a drain), while four others were six days in ‘bankkyng’ theGreat Holmes and the Orchard. The same account also describes repairs to staithes,to withstand the loading and unloading of cargo from boats.82

John Darcy was permitted by the Crown to empark his woods at Temple Hirst in1345.83 Medieval parks included areas of wood and coppice, and clearings known aslawns for deer to graze in. The fields called Little Lawn, Great Lawn, and Lawn Foot,shown on the map drawn to indicate the enclosures made in 1793, lay across the roadfrom Temple Manor. Lodge Close may have been the site of a hunting lodge, whileLow Hall or Barn Close may also have been a building originally connected with thepark.84 Parks were surrounded by an oak palisade, fence or wall, on top of a highearthen bank and surrounded by a ditch, known as the pale. Traces of the pale whichsurrounded the park at Temple Hirst, and enclosures within the park, may be foundin the banks known as reins, some of which still form field boundaries. The park isshown on John Speed’s map of 1610.85

Many parks had rabbit warrens. The former grange of the Templars at Potterlawebecame a warren under the Darcys, producing £10 in yearly profits in 1528. Thisprobably included the fields called Potterleys and Warren closes, shown on theEggborough enclosure map of 1802. A warren house or lodge at Potterley ismentioned in 1585.86 Many parks also had towers from which lords could observetheir estates, and that at Temple Manor may have been for this purpose, for displayrather than for military use. We need to view Temple Manor, with its towers,fishponds, gardens and park, as part of a medieval designed landscape, intended toimpress visitors and create an aristocratic setting.87

Subsequent historyThe Darcys were major landowners. In 1526 they received £1834 in gross incomefrom holdings in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, and Northumberland,including coal mines at Temple Newsam and Roundhay, profits of ironstone andcharcoal at Silkstone, and the farm of fishing at Berwick. The estate at Temple Hirstproduced nearly £69 from rents, perquisites of courts and the profits of the rabbitwarren, with £14 in fees for the bailiff and receiver, warrener, chaplain, and two othermen.88 It included lands in Hirst Courtney, Potterlawe, Kellington, Osgodby andSmeaton.89 While there may have been some exchanges, sales or purchases, it is likelythat many of these holdings had been granted to the Knights Templar long before.But, as with any landowner, wealth and status were vulnerable to politicalmiscalculation.

Thomas Darcy was at Temple Hirst in 1536 when the rebellion known as thePilgrimage of Grace emerged in opposition to the policies of Henry VIII, notably thedissolution of the smaller monasteries. After surrendering Pontefract Castle to therebels, Darcy emerged as one of their leaders. Percival Creswell brought Darcy a letterfrom the Duke of Norfolk in November 1536, asking him to deliver Robert Aske, therebel leader, to the king, ‘if possible alive’. Creswell was first ‘brought into the garden’at Temple Hirst and then left in an ‘outward chamber’ while Darcy took the letterinto his own chamber. Darcy later summoned Creswell and told him that he couldnot carry out the instructions. Aske then arrived and Creswell retired to his lodging.Mass was celebrated in the chapel the following morning.90

Thomas Darcy was executed in 1537 for his role in the Pilgrimage of Grace and hisestates confiscated. In 1544 Temple Hirst and Temple Newsam were granted toMatthew Stewart, fourth Earl of Lennox and his wife, Lady Margaret, niece of HenryVIII. Margaret stayed at Temple Newsam, particularly during Edward VI’s reign,when her household became the centre for Roman Catholics in England, and TempleHirst appears to have been little used. When the properties were confiscated by theCrown in 1565, Temple Hirst was sparsely furnished, with only tables, trestles, forms,cupboards, and two bedsteads recorded, worth a total of just 10s. In contrast, TempleNewsam had over 20 rooms listed and sumptuous furnishings, with those in theGreat Chamber alone totalling £250.91 The Crown later granted Temple Hirst to SirDavid Foulis, a Scottish court official who accompanied James Stewart to Englandwhen he succeeded to the English throne in 1603.92

The later history of Temple Manor is still to be examined in detail. The houseappears to have been largely rebuilt in the seventeenth century and in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a succession of tenant farmers occupied thefarm.93 In August 1793 the York Courant advertised the sale of the property, describingit as ‘A most compact and complete freehold estate, tithe-free, consisting of a capitalmessuage called the Temple, with suitable and convenient barns, stables,outbuildings and offices, and about 300 acres of rich arable, meadow and pasture’.94In the early-nineteenth century, Sir Walter Scott’s friend, Mr Morritt of Rokeby,owned Sherwood Hall, the former grange of Potterlawe held by the preceptory, andthis may have been how Temple Hirst became the inspiration for Templestowe inIvanhoe, published in 1819.95 Alternatively, a writer to the Leeds Mercury in 1888stated that it was through an encounter with a retired Quaker living near Rotherhamaround 1815–1818 that Scott came to know Temple Hirst, Copmanthorpe,Conisbrough and other places alluded to in the novel.96



Temple Farm was acquired by Riley Briggs of Osgodby Hall in 1868 and purchasedon his death in 1919 by its tenant, Philip Everatt, for £8000. The sale notice of 1919described Temple House with ‘the ancient tower, which is in a splendid state ofpreservation’.97 However a new farmhouse was built in 1957 and in 1970 the oldhouse, buildings and farmland were sold.98 After a period of dereliction, the propertywas renovated in the late-1970s when the north wing was demolished, the cementrender removed, and new windows added. In 1980 it became a public house, and in1986 was converted to a nursing home and a further extension of bedrooms wasadded.99 The home closed in late 2009, and the following summer it was acquired bynew owners who plan to upgrade and reopen the nursing home.100

ConclusionThe preceptory at Temple Hirst, like Templestowe, was ‘seated amongst fairmeadows and pastures’ and may have possessed a moat and outer walls, even if it wasnot the extensive fortified complex that Scott suggests, or home to cruel and ruthlessknights like Sir Brian de Bois-Gilbert. The preceptory may have been the firstfoundation in Yorkshire, and its first known preceptor served the English and Frenchkings. But by the early-fourteenth century, like most of the English preceptories, ithad a very small community, with only two brothers resident.

4. Temple Manor: the north elevation c.1930 with the three-storey octagonalbrick tower from Thomas Darcy’s residence of the late-fifteenth or early-sixteenth

centuries incorporated into the later farmhouse. When the property wasrenovated in the late-1970s, the north wing and cottage to the right of this

picture were demolished and the cement render removed revealing thebrickwork (photograph by Arthur Hutchinson of Selby; author’s collection).

Over four centuries and two major groups of landowners, there were importantaspects of continuity at Temple Hirst. The estate that the Templars assembled seemsto have passed relatively intact to the Darcys. The preceptory became their residenceand some buildings such as the chapel may have continued in use. Managing waterwas always essential in this low-lying landscape, as reflected in references to ditchesand riverbanks in the Templar charters and the Tudor accounts. The River Airecontinued to provide an important communication link as well as fishing rights.More striking though, are the changes which took place. Under the Knights Templar,a small estate centre tried to maximise the income from the land to finance theactivities of a multi-national organisation. The Darcy family created a landscape ofprestige and pleasure, building an impressive residence with gardens, parkland and awarren. This study has tried to demonstrate the value of drawing together evidencefrom the landscape, maps, architecture and archaeology as well as documents, toexplore the local history of a historic Yorkshire site during and after the Middle Ages.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1 Walter Scott, Ivanhoe (1819, repr. Penguin,1986), p.390

2 John Chandler, Codford: wool and war inWiltshire (Phillimore, 2007), p.157

3 Evelyn Lord, The Knights Templar in Britain(Pearson Education, 2002), pp.18–19, 25

4 B.A. Lees (ed), The Records of the Templars inEngland in the twelfth century, British AcademyRecords of Social and Economic History, vol.9(1935), pp.133–135

5 Published in ‘Original documents relating tothe Knights Templars’, Gentleman’s Magazine(1857), part 2, pp.524–525; H.C. Chetwynd-Staplyton, ‘The Templars at Templehurst’,Yorkshire Archaeological Journal [YAJ], vol.10(1889), pp.432–433, 436–439; J.N. Worsfold,History of Haddlesey: its past and present (ElliotStock, 1894), pp.55–64

6 British Library [BL], Harley Ch. 83.G.12,Harley Ch. 83.C.39, Harley Ch. 84.A.42,Harley Ch. 84.A.44, Topham Ch. 40, EgertonCh. 638

7 Bodleian Library, University of Oxford,Dodsworth MS 8, fos.180v–188 (consulted atthe Borthwick Institute for Archives [BIA],University of York, microfilm MFE 505),published in Lees, Records, pp.271–276 and W.Farrar (ed), Early Yorkshire Charters [EYC](Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 1916),vol.3, pp.217, 287–289, 391–392 and Worsfold,Haddlesey, pp.11–22

8 TNA, SC 2/211/136, court rolls, 1538–1540;SC6/HENVIII/4306–17, 4319, 4418, accounts1536/1537–1544/1545

9 Chetwynd-Staplyton, ‘Templars’, pp.277,434–435; Worsfold, Haddlesey, pp.66–67

10 Philip Mayes (ed), Excavations at a Templarpreceptory, South Witham, Lincolnshire, 1965–67,Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph,vol.19, (2002); P.M. Christie and J.G. Coad,‘Excavations at Denny Abbey’, ArchaeologicalJournal, vol.137 (1980), pp.138–279; PhilHarding et al., ‘Archaeological investigationsat Templecombe, 1995’, Somerset Archaeology

and Natural History, vol.147 (2004),pp.143–163; Dave Wheldrake, The Templars andTemple Newsam: the Crusader knights and theirfarmstead near Leeds (West YorkshireArchaeology Service, 1995)

11 Mayes, South Witham, pp. 80-95; VanessaMcLoughlin, Medieval Rothley, Leicestershire:manor, soke and parish (unpublished Ph.Dthesis, University of Leicester, 2006); EileenGooder, Temple Balsall: the Warwickshirepreceptory of the Templars and their fate(Phillimore, 1995)

12 D.D. Andrews, (ed) Cressing Temple: a Templarand Hospitaller manor in Essex (Essex CountyCouncil, 1993); E. Dennison, ‘An historicalsurvey: the Swinithwaite estate, West Witton’,in R.F. White and P.R. Wilson, (eds),Archaeology and historic landscapes of the YorkshireDales, Yorkshire Archaeological SocietyOccasional Paper 2 (2004), pp.25–37; B.Yarwood, ‘The historical landscapes of Coltonand Newsam’, Leeds Art Calendar, vol.92(1983), pp.5–12

13 Janet E. Burton, ‘The Knights Templar inYorkshire in the twelfth century: areassessment’, Northern History, vol.27 (1991),pp.26–40; Lord, Knights Templar; EvelynLord, The Templar’s curse (Pearson Education,2008); Helen Nicholson, The Knights Templaron trial: the trial of the Templars in the British Isles1308–1311 (The History Press, 2009); HelenNicholson, A brief history of the Knights Templar(Robinson, 2010)

14 W.H. Stevenson, ‘Yorkshire surveys and othereleventh-century documents in the YorkGospels’, English Historical Review, vol.105,(1912), pp.1–25

15 W.E. Wightman, The Lacy family in England andNormandy, 1066-1194 (Oxford UP, 1966),pp.17–19

16 William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum,revised edn, J. Caley, H. Ellis and B. Bandinel(eds), (London, 1830), vol.6 (2), p.838.Examination of the original document



(College of Arms, MS L.17, fol.153(ii)v)suggests that the place that Dugdaletranscribed as ‘Wyxham’ could be ‘neyxham’for ‘Newsam’. This would correspond withStillingflete’s statement that the places werenow held by Lord Darcy, although there doesnot appear to be any other record of Hastingsgranting Newsam to the Templars, or thisvariant spelling of the place-name.

17 Lees, Records, pp.270–27118 Chetwynd-Stapylton, ‘Templars’, p.279;

Worsfold, Haddlesey, p.9; Lees, Records, p.271,n.6; Wightman, Lacy family, p.82

19 Lord, Knights Templar, p.13420 Burton, ‘Knights Templar in Yorkshire’,

pp.27–3121 Lord, Knights Templar, pp. 159–160; Burton,

‘Knights Templar in Yorkshire’, p.2822 R. Holmes (ed), The Chartulary of St John of

Pontefract, Yorkshire Archaeological SocietyRecord Series, vol.25 (1899), p.137; EYC, vol.3,no.1628, p.288

23 Lees, Records, p.273, n.5, p.276, n.624 ‘Original documents’, pp.524–525; Chetwynd-

Stapylton, ‘Templars’, pp.432–433; Lord,Knights Templar, pp.82–83, 89

25 English Heritage, National Heritage List forEngland, list entry for Temple Manor, TempleHirst, available at http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/

26 Chetwynd-Stapylton, ‘Templars’, pp.277, 43427 Simon Brighton, In search of the Knights Templar.

A guide to the sites in Britain (Weidenfeld &Nicolson, 2006), pp.192–193

28 Worsfold, Haddlesey, p.57; Lord, Templar’s curse,p.47

29 EYC, vol.3, no.1627, p.288; Lees, Records,pp.274–275

30 EYC, vol.3, no.1626, pp.287–288; Lees, Records,pp.273–274

31 North Yorkshire County Record Office[NYCRO], microfilm MIC 604, WRRD MapVol.2/16, Eggborough map; Worsfold,Haddlesey, pp.15–16

32 Lees, Records, pp.133–13433 Worsfold, Haddlesey, pp.16–22, 46, 60–65.34 BL, Harley Ch. 83.C.39; BIA, PR C/HAD/15,

Map and survey of Haddlesey, subsequent toinclosure, 1793

35 Worsfold, Haddlesey, pp.16–17; DoncasterArchives, DX/BAX/62020, plan of TempleHirst farms.

36 BL, Topham Ch. 40, Egerton Ch. 63837 TNA, E 36/161, rental 1528; Calendar of Patent

Rolls, 1553–1554, p. 14638 Thomas Burton and James Raine, The history

and antiquities of the parish of Hemingbrough in thecounty of York (Sampson Brothers, 1888), p.303

39 Alan Forey, The Military Orders: from the twelfthto the early fourteenth centuries (Macmillan,1992), p.103

40 Lees, Records, pp.133–134; EYC, vol.3, no.1508,pp.197–198

41 Burton, ‘Knights Templar in Yorkshire’, p.3242 Forey, Military Orders, p.11443 Chetwynd-Stapylton, ‘Templars’, p.283

44 A.H. Smith, The place-names of the West Riding ofYorkshire, English Place-Name Society(Cambridge UP, 1961), vol.4, pp.22–23, vol.7,pp.183, 206–207, 236, 238, 251

45 BL, Harley Ch. 83.C.39; Chetwynd-Stapylton,‘Templars’, p.286

46 Robert Van de Noort, The Humber wetlands: thearchaeology of a dynamic landscape (WindgatherPress, 2004), p.155; Nicholson, KnightsTemplar on trial, pp.85–86

47 H.E. Jean Le Patourel, The Moated sites ofYorkshire, Society for Medieval ArchaeologyMonograph, vol.5 (1973) pp.23–36, 122,124;The Wood Hall moated manor project: 1000 years ofcountry life in Yorkshire (Wood Hall moatedmanor project, 1995)

48 Worsfold, Haddlesey, p.6649 Mayes, South Witham, p.16; Le Patourel, Moated

sites, pp.111, 124, 129. 50 Mayes, South Witham, p.54; Harding,

‘Templecombe’, p.161; BIA, PR C/HAD/1551 Nicholson, Brief history, pp.204, 20752 BL, Add MS 6165, p.324; Lees, Records, pp.

133–134; Chetwynd-Stapylton, ‘Templars’,pp.437–438

53 BL, Harley Ch. 84.A.42 and 84.A.44; BIA, PRC/HAD/15

54 Gooder, Temple Balsall, pp.76–80; MichaelAston, Interpreting the landscape: landscapearchaeology in local studies (Batsford, 1985), p.42

55 Scott, Ivanhoe, p.49856 A. Josephs, The archaeology of Kellington Church

(1992)57 G.A. Poole, Churches of Yorkshire, vi: Birkin

(1843), pp.3–4, 15–16; Chetwynd-Stapylton,‘Templars’, p.284.

58 BIA, PR C/HAD/1559 Colin Blanshard Withers, Yorkshire probate

(Yorkshire Wolds Publication, 2006), pp.41–52 60 TNA, SC 2/211/136; Worsfold, Haddlesey,

pp.167–170; W.C. Boutler, ‘Court-rolls of someYorkshire manors, 1572–1573’, YAJ, vol.10(1889), p.410

61 Calendar of Close Rolls, 1307–13, p.400;‘Original documents’, p. 526

62 Chetwynd-Stapylton, ‘Templars’, 432, 438–440;Worsfold, Haddlesey, p. 68; Nicholson, KnightsTemplar on trial, pp.72, 205, 207; Rosalind Hill,‘Fourpenny retirement: the YorkshireTemplars in the fourteenth century’, in W.J.Sheils and D. Wood, eds., The Church andwealth, Studies in Church History, vol.24 (BasilBlackwell, 1987), pp.123–128

63 Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous, ii, no.582,p.147, no.618, p.155, no.623, p.156, no.735,p.183

64 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [ODNB],vol.27, p.689; James Conway Davies, ‘The firstjournal of Edward II’s Chamber’, EnglishHistorical Review, vol.30 (1915), pp.677–678

65 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1377–1381, p.444 66 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1327–1330, p.3767 Calendar of Charter Rolls, vol.4, p.428; C. Given-

Wilson et al. (ed), The parliament rolls ofmedieval England 1275–1504 (Boydell, 2005),vol.6, pp.160–162, vol.8, p.219

68 ODNB, vol.15, pp.122–123, 134–13769 TNA, C 47/9/43, Transcript of assignment of

dower to Margaret late wife of John Darcy, 14Hen IV. Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem andother analogous documents preserved in the PublicRecord Office, vol. 23: 6–10 Henry VI(1427–32), no.150, pp.86–87

70 Worsfold, Haddlesey, p.1471 J. Raine (ed), Testamenta Eboracensia, a selection

of wills from the registry at York, vol.3, SurteesSociety, vol.45 (1864), p.368

72 Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of thereign of Henry VIII, ed. J.S. Brewer, J. Gardinerand R.H. Brodie, 2nd edn (HMSO,1862–1932), vol.1(2), no.2914, p.1261,vol.3(1), no.1001(1), pp.366–367, vol.4(1),no.165, p.64, vol.11, no.1086, p.435

73 TNA, E 178/2538, inquisition and inventoryof goods of Matthew, earl of Lennox, 1565:published in E.W. Crossley, ‘A Templenewsaminventory’, YAJ, vol.25 (1920), pp.91–100

74 A. Emery, Greater medieval houses of England andWales, 1300–1500, vol.1: Northern England(Cambridge UP, 1996), p.403; Le Patourel,Moated sites, p.31

75 E. Miller (ed) Agrarian History of England andWales, vol.3: 1348–1500 (Cambridge UP, 1991),p.842; R. Fawcett, ‘The early Tudor house atTemple Newsam in the light of recentexcavations’, Leeds Art Calendar, vol.70 (1972),p.7

76 Jane A. Wight, Brick building in England from theMiddle Ages to 1550 (John Baker, 1972),pp.136–153, 396

77 Cambridge University Aerial PhotographyCollection, BH/82–83; DW/4–8; NationalMonuments Record, Swindon, OrdnanceSurvey Archaeology AO/REV/5925

78 Mayes, South Witham, p.16; P.L. Everson, C.C.Taylor and C.J. Dunn, Change and continuity:rural settlement in north-west Lincolnshire(HMSO, 1991), pp.70–71

79 Letters and Papers, vol.12(2), no.186(45), p.7180 TNA, E 36/16181 TNA, SC 6/HENVIII/4316.82 TNA, SP 1/162, fol.86, accounts of John Kyng,

bailiff at Temple Hirst, 1540.

83 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1343–1345, p.38284 BIA, PR C/HAD/1585 Henry Farrar, Sleepy Hollow? The former parish of

Birkin, including West, Chapel & East Haddlesey,Temple Hirst & Hirst Courtney (2010), p.23

86 NYCRO, MIC 604, WRRD Map Vol.2/16;Hatfield House, Cecil Papers, petitions 2437(consulted at the BL, microfilm M485/86)

87 Martin Hannson, ‘The medieval aristocracyand the social use of space’, in RobertaGilchrist and Andrew Reynolds (eds),Reflections: 50 years of medieval archaeology1957–2007, Society for Medieval ArchaeologyMonograph 30 (2009), pp.438–441

88 Letters and Papers, vol.4(2), no.2527,pp.1125–1126

89 TNA, E 36/161 90 Letters and Papers, vol.12(1), no.1013,

pp.457–458. Darcy’s role in the uprising isreassessed in Richard Hoyle, The Pilgrimage ofGrace and the politics of the 1530s (Oxford UP,2001), pp.256–281

91 ODNB, vol.16, p.699; TNA, E 178/2538:Crossley, ‘Templenewsam inventory’.

92 Calendar of State Papers Domestic, James I,1603–1610, (1857), pp.7, 72; ODNB, vol.20,p.542

93 English Heritage, Temple Manor list entry;Farrar, Sleepy Hollow, pp.68–69

94 York Courant, 12 August 1793, p.1. I amgrateful to Frances Chambers for providingme with a copy of this.

95 Chetwynd-Stapylton, ‘Templars’, pp.435–436;Worsfold, Haddlesey, pp.49–50

96 Leeds Mercury, 15 Dec 1888, p.1297 NYCRO, ZYX, Box 33, Temple Farm sale

notice, 191998 Sale notices for Temple Farm, 1970, and

Temple House, 1983, held by the author99 Selby District Council public access planning

application website, planning applications forTemple Manor, Main Road, Temple Hirst,http://publicaccess.selby.gov.uk/publicaccess/

100 Selby Times, 1 October 2009 p.7, 12 August2010 p.9

JOHN S. LEE grew up at Temple Hirst and studied history at the universities of Durham andCambridge. He has published Cambridge and its economic region 1450–1560 (Universityof Hertfordshire Press, 2005), and articles in Local Population Studies (2002), EconomicHistory Review (2003), Urban History (2010), and Business History Review (2011).


Landowners and landscapes: the Knights Templar and their successors at Temple Hirst, Yorkshire

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