Temple Manor

Temple Manor is a historic building that originally served as a hall for the Knights Templars in the early 13th century. It later became a farmhouse and is now recognized as an Ancient Monument under the care of English Heritage. After the suppression of the Templars, the manor passed to the Knight Hospitallers and then to the Countess of Pembroke, who granted it to her nunnery at Denny in 1342. Archaeological remains from this monastic period can still be found underground to the north of the site.

Following the Reformation, the manor eventually came into the possession of the Blake family, who added two storeyed brick extensions to the original hall in the 17th century. The main structure is built from ragstone and flint rubble, with the western and eastern extensions made of brick. The roofs are covered with Kent tiles, with the hall and western extension sharing a continuous roofline.

The early 13th-century hall features a first-floor layout. The hall was originally divided into a high-status room to the west, which is decorated with wall arcades on either side, and a simpler room to the east. The side walls are lit by single lancet windows, while the western wall has triple lancets, and there were likely originally triple lancets on the eastern side as well. A chimney stack was added in the 17th century.

The undercroft is notable for its quality, featuring three bays with quadripartite ribbed vaults and squared chalk infill, illuminated by smaller side lancets. Access to the upper floor was provided by an external staircase, reconstructed around 1950, leading through a doorway with one order, an inner roll moulding, and two subsidiary fillets.

The western extension has three storeys, primarily lit by large principal windows on the west side, with six lights on the ground and first floors and three lights in the attic. It includes a stair and entrance turret on the north side. The eastern extension features different moulding details and has a gazebo-like upper window along with original wooden modillion cornices. The roofs throughout the building date from the 17th century and later. The Ministry of Works restored the building in the early 1950s.