Temple () is a small village and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of

Blisland Blisland () is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is approximately five miles northeast of Bodmin. According to the UK census 2001, 2001 census, the parish had a population of 565. Thi ...

, on

Bodmin Moor Bodmin Moor () is a granite moorland in north-eastern Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is in size, and dates from the Carboniferous period of geology, geological history. It includes Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall, and Rough To ...

, in the

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

district, in the ceremonial county of

, England. The village is bypassed by the A30 road. In 1931 the parish had a population of 29.

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 The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

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

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

, 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, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there u ...

(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 known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

. In 1901 it was a

curacy A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () 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 who are ass ...

of Warleggan and on 1 April 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 is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

built c.1120 on land owned by the Knights Templar. It became famous as a place where marriages could be performed without banns or licence (similar to

Gretna Green Gretna Green is a parish in the southern Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, close to the town of Gretna, Scotland, Gretna, on the Scottish side of the English-Scottish border. It is accessed from the A74( ...

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) 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 or cross patty (, ), also known as a cross formée or cross formy, or even a Templar cross, is a type of Christian cross with arms that are narrow at the centre and often flared in a curve or straight line shape to be broader at th ...

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 Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

format)
Temple Church (from Church Plans Online)

Visiting Temple Church

About the Church
{{authority control Villages in Cornwall Former civil parishes in Cornwall 1120 establishments in England Bodmin Moor Preceptories of the Knights Templar