Temple Manor

Temple Manor is a house with a complex architectural history spanning several centuries. The present building dates primarily from the 17th century but incorporates masonry from a Knights Templar Preceptory of the late 12th to 13th century and a 15th to 16th century tower from the fortified manor house of the Darcy family. The property underwent extensive renovations and alterations around 1980, first as a public house and subsequently as a nursing home.

The tower is built of reddish-orange narrow brick, while the house itself is constructed in pinkish-brown brick laid in irregular English garden wall bond. Both sections feature magnesian limestone dressings and a plinth beneath a pantile roof. A reset Norman magnesian limestone doorway has been incorporated into the structure.

The house is of two storeys with a through passage plan. To the east of the passage is a single bay with a stack backing onto the passage, and to the west are two bays, the westernmost having an end stack. The southern entry to the through passage is accessed via a two-storey porch, while the single-storey porch serving the northern entry is modern and not of special interest. Attached to the east gable is a three-storey octagonal tower with a two-storey lean-to to the south. A modern extension at the west gable is not of special interest.

The south elevation features a two-storey gabled porch with low, dentilated parapets to the sides. The porch has stone quoins and a dentilated brick storey band. The doorway is Norman Romanesque with a single order of nook shafts with eroded capitals supporting an inset moulded arch with a further moulded arch beyond, flush with the wall face, protected by a hoodmould. The first floor window is a modern six-pane insert.

The two bays to the west have six-over-six hornless sash windows to both floors with brick cills and modern lintels faced with brick. The dentilated parapet continues from the porch, though the storey band does not. The upper brickwork is regular and has a higher proportion of dark coloured bricks than the ground floor, probably indicating the extent of late 20th century rebuilding. To the west is a stepped buttress incorporating stonework thought to survive from the 15th or 16th century fortified manor house. The end stack is brick.

The bay to the east of the porch has an inserted French window to the ground floor and a six-over-six hornless sash window to the first floor. Brickwork around this window suggests it was originally a shorter, wider window, probably mullioned. A vertical break in the brickwork on the ground floor to the west of the French window may indicate a further previous window opening. The ridge stack on the western side of the bay is brick. The east gable is stone quoined, as is the lower part of the two-storey lean-to to the tower, which is slightly set back from the main elevation. This lean-to is under a continuous roof with the main part of the house and also has a dentilated storey band and parapet. Its two windows are modern six-pane inserts.

The tower has a higher stone plinth than the rest of the house, cut by an inserted doorway to the east. There is a small, square-headed, chamfered window to the second floor in the north eastern wall, and two larger and similarly detailed windows in the north wall at ground/first floor and first/second floor levels. The tower is topped by a modern rebuilt battlemented parapet surrounding a plain tiled conical roof.

Apart from the tower, the east gable is blind. The gable is raised and coped.

The north elevation lacks the stone plinth and first floor band but has a dentilated low parapet. The brickwork is mainly stretcher bond, probably indicating modern rebuild. The windows, four to the first floor and three below, are similarly detailed to the sash windows of the south elevation. The off-centre single-storey porch is entirely modern and not of special interest, though reasonably sympathetic.

The ground floor of the west gable is concealed by the modern extension, which is not of special interest, with the rest concealed by modern render. The end stack, which is not rendered, is partially external to the gable.

The interior of the house has been extensively altered and retains little of special interest. Access to the roof was not possible at the time of inspection, but any surviving pre-19th century roof structure will add to the special interest of the building. The tower retains a partially collapsed oak newel stair ascending from the first floor, which contributes to the interest of the building.

The stonework incorporated into the building is thought to have been derived from a preceptory of the Knights Templars who acquired the site in 1152, developing it into an administrative centre for a large estate with property spread across several parishes in the Vale of York. The Order of the Knights Templars was suppressed in 1312 and Temple Hirst was forfeited. In 1337 it was granted by the king to Sir John Darcy and was held by the Darcy family as their principal residence until the execution of Thomas, Lord Darcy in 1537 as a result of his involvement with the Pilgrimage of Grace. The Darcy family was a minor gentry family who nonetheless had a succession of members with close connections to the crown. The tower and possibly the western buttress survive from the fortified manor house built by the Darcy family in the 15th century and is one of a number of similarly dated high status brick houses in the region, others being Riccall Manor house, Bishopthorpe Palace, Cawood Castle and Paull Holme Tower. Although there are a number of historical records concerning Temple Hirst in the 16th century and earlier, it is not known who held Temple Manor in the 17th century when the fortified house was extensively rebuilt. The 1789 Enclosure Plan shows additional buildings that were demolished in the 20th century which 19th century writers thought incorporated remains of the medieval preceptory. 19th century Ordnance Survey maps show additional farm buildings which have also been subsequently cleared. It is suggested that Temple Manor was the inspiration for Templestowe in Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe.

The house will overlie buried remains of the Templar Preceptory and further remains of the later fortified manor house of the Darcys. At the time of inspection these buried archaeological remains could not be included within the listing although they contribute to the special interest of the standing building. Although English Heritage guidance is that all positively identified preceptories with surviving archaeological remains are regarded as being of national importance and thus eligible for scheduling, the extent of survival at Temple Hirst is currently too poorly understood for a scheduling to be proposed. The preceptory will have extended over an area far beyond the footprint of the current building, possibly as far as the current road to the north, a marked break of slope to the south and an area of former medieval fishponds to the east. However currently there is insufficient evidence for archaeological survival within the surrounding area to justify formal designation by scheduling.