Templar History

Templar Tomb

During the excavation for the buttresses in 1951 a 13th Century coffin lid of Clipsham stone was unearthed and placed inside the church. The coffin lid is that of a Knight Templar.

The Knights Templar were a monastic military order formed at the end of the First Crusade with the mandate of protecting Christian pilgrims on route to the Holy Land. Never before had a group of secular knights banded together and taken the monastic vows. In this sense they were the first of the Warrior Monks. The Templars fought along side King Richard I (Richard The Lion Hearted) and other Crusaders in the battles for the Holy Lands.