Temple ( kw, Tempel) is a small village in the parish of

Blisland Blisland ( kw, Blyslann) is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is approximately five miles northeast of Bodmin. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 565. This had increased to 608 at th ...

Bodmin Moor Bodmin Moor ( kw, Goon Brenn) is a granite moorland in north-eastern Cornwall, England. It is in size, and dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history. It includes Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall, and Rough Tor, a sl ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

, England, UK. The village is bypassed by the

A30 road The A30 is a major road in England, running WSW from London to Land's End. The road has been a principal axis in Britain from the 17th century to early 19th century, as a major coaching route. It used to provide the fastest route from Lond ...

History and antiquities

Temple derives its name from the

hospice Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life b ...

or preceptory founded by the

Knights Templar , colors = White mantle with a red cross , colors_label = Attire , march = , mascot = Two knights riding a single horse , equipment ...

s who built a refuge for pilgrims and travellers, en route to the

Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...

, in the 12th century. On the suppression of the Templars it passed into the hands of the

Knights Hospitallers The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

(in 1314), who held it until the religious houses were suppressed by

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

. In 1901 it was a

curacy A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

Warleggan Warleggan or Warleggon ( kw, Gorlegan) is a civil parish on the southern edge of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish is roughly oblong in shape with hamlets near the church and at Mount. The River Warleggan, a tribut ...

and in 1934, the parish of Temple was incorporated into Blisland parish.

Church

Temple Church is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

built c.1120 on land owned by the Knights Templar. It became famous as a place where marriages could be performed without

banns The banns of marriage, commonly known simply as the "banns" or "bans" (from a Middle English word meaning "proclamation", rooted in Frankish and thence in Old French), are the public announcement in a Christian parish church, or in the town co ...

or licence (similar to

Gretna Green Gretna Green is a parish in the southern council area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on the Scottish side of the border between Scotland and England, defined by the small river Sark, which flows into the nearby Solway Firth. It was histo ...

until the early 20th century). This came to an end in 1744 when the church first came under episcopal jurisdiction. By the mid-19th century, it had become a ruin and a final service was held on 29 January 1882, in front of a ″large congregation″ led by the Reverend J Brown. It was rebuilt (by

Silvanus Trevail Silvanus Trevail (11 November 1851 – 7 November 1903) was a British architect, and the most prominent Cornish architect of the 19th century. Early life Trevail was born at Carne Farm, Trethurgy in the parish of Luxulyan, Cornwall on 11 No ...

) in the following year. The church is dedicated to St Catherine. The church contains several references to its links with the Knights Templar, including a

cross pattée A cross pattée, cross patty or cross paty, also known as a cross formy or cross formée (french: croix pattée, german: Tatzenkreuz), is a type of Christian cross with arms that are narrow at the centre, and often flared in a curve or straight ...

in the east window and a depiction of a mounted knight in the north window of the church tower.

Crosses

Arthur Langdon (1896) recorded the existence of eight stone crosses in the parish, including two cross slabs, all in the churchyard. Several of these crosses were subsequently incorporated into a stone outbuilding on the south side of the church.Temple Church Bodmin Moor, Church Welcome Leaflet

Gallery

File:St. Catherine's church, Temple - geograph.org.uk - 750143.jpg, St Catherine's Church and churchyard File:East window of the church at Temple, Cornwall.jpg, East window showing the cross pattée of the Knights Templar File:Templar2.jpg, Detail of stained glass window in the church tower showing a mounted knight File:Outbuilding of the church at Temple, Cornwall.jpg, Stone outbuilding incorporating early stone crosses File:Temple War Memorial - geograph.org.uk - 1542426.jpg, Temple war memorial

References

External links

GENUKI entry for Temple

The History of Temple Church
(in

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

format)
Temple Church (from Church Plans Online)

About the Church
{{authority control 1120 establishments in England Bodmin Moor Knights Templar Villages in Cornwall