Outbuilding, At Wilbraham Temple

This outbuilding is the late 15th-century solar wing of a manor house, originally associated with the Knights Hospitallers, successors to the Knights Templars, from which the site derives its name. It is now part of Temple House. The building is timber-framed and has a plaster rendering with a gabled roof covered in plain tiles. It comprises a single range of three bays, with a later outshut added to the rear, and a stack inserted between the outshut and the wing at the same time. Originally two storeys and an attic, it is now two storeys high. While the three front windows, the doorway, and the window in the right-hand gable end are 19th or 20th-century replacements, the doorway in the left-hand gable end is original, featuring a four-centred hollow moulded arch within a square head. Some inserted studwork is visible in the left gable end wall.

Inside, the ground floor has ogee-moulded intersecting main beams and principal posts. The first floor is divided into three bays, with the bay closest to the present house possibly originally a bed chamber, divided from the central bay by a partition wall and having an attic storey above, similarly separated from the other bays. Mortices for the studs of the partition wall are visible in the tie beam and collar. The wall plate in this bay is richly carved with a double cornice of double ogee moulding, separated by a band of folded leaf ornament. The ceiling has been removed, but the ends of the main beam over this bay survive within the tie beam, displaying hollow mouldings with a roll to the soffit. Similarly, only the ends of the joists of the same ceiling remain within the wall plate, with identical but smaller mouldings. The wall framing is of fine, close-set studwork, and one wall plate features a tabled scarf joint. The other two bays at first floor level were originally open, and there is no evidence of an attic storey above them. These bays are characterised by plain chamfer stops to the wall plate and cambered tie beams. The building’s original heating method remains uncertain. A 17th- to 18th-century inglenook fireplace is on the ground floor, likely replacing an earlier hearth, possibly that of the original hall. Above the inglenook, there are signs of a fireplace, although the wall plate has regularly spaced pegholes indicating a framed wall. The roof is of tenoned side purlin construction, with short curved wind braces between the principals and the purlin. Both tie beams and collars are cambered. It is conceivable that this building once formed part of the private apartments of a Knights Hospitallers commandery.