Cressing Temple

Cressing Temple is an ancient monument situated between Witham and Braintree in Essex, close to the villages of Cressing and White Notley. It was amongst the very earliest and largest of the possessions of the Knights Templar in England, and is currently open to the public as a visitor site. It is the location of three Grade I listed Medieval barns, one of which is the oldest standing timber-framed barn in the world.

The manor of Cressing was granted to the Knights Templar in 1136 by Matilda of Boulogne, the wife of King Stephen close to the main road between London and Colchester, and the road between Witham and Braintree. The Templar estate received further grants soon after its founding in the form of the manor and half-hundred of Witham sometime between 1138 and 1148, although the church of Witham, which had previously been granted to the church of St Martin's Le Grand in London, was not included. The Preceptory of Cressing was therefore one of the very earliest Templar estates in England, and was placed first in a detailed list of Templar holdings in 1185. It was the largest of their estates in Essex. Later, King John confirmed to the Templars at Cressing the land of Berecholt on 14 July 1199, and the land of Newland on 8 June 1214, as well as a market on Thursdays and a three-day-long fair at the feast of the Decollation of St. John the Baptist at the new town of Wulnesforde in the parish of Witham. Later, sometime before his death in 1255, the Templar Peter de Rossa granted over 100 acres of the manor of Rivenhall to Cressing, a parish in which he was parson and lord.

The original 14,000 acre site was a considerable agricultural enterprise, and was led by a Templar Preceptor, accompanied by two or three knights or sergeants, together with a chaplain, a bailiff, numerous household servants overseeing around 160 tenant farmers. The manor had a mansion house, bakehouse, brewery, dairy, granary, smithy, gardens, a dovecote, a watermill, and a windmill, with a chapel and associated cemetery dedicated to St Mary. The proceeds from the Cressing Temple were all diverted to fund Templar activities in the Crusader states in the Middle East.

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Wikipedia