CONTEXT 178 : DECEMBER 2023 21 BUILDINGS IN THE COUNTRYSIDE Faringdon market, raising cash for the Beaulieu monks. Only the wool clip was transported to Beaulieu, and sold to Italian clothiers; the monastery had over 5,000 sheep altogether. The monastery’s own farmland in Coxwell brought in some six times more revenue than the tithes paid by the other farmers in the parish after the monastery appropriated them.⁶ The Barley Barn and the Wheat Barn at Cressing Temple are a vivid demonstration of the size of the Templars’ estate. Founded in Jerusalem in 1118 to protect pilgrims and to fight against the Turks at the time of the crusades, the Templars or the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon quickly gained support in England, being granted estates to support their work in the Holy Land. The Templars became very wealthy, acting as bankers and diplomats to the king, but became unpopular with monarchs, the Pope and the regular church, and were suppressed in 1312. The manor of Cressing and its church, and the manor of Witham and the administrative area around it, were granted to the Templars in 1136 by Maud, King Stephen’s queen.⁷ The Cressing estate was between 1,000 and 1,300 acres (405–526 ha). More than half of the land was occupied directly by the Templars as their demesne or home farm. There were a number of freemen with small holdings, as was typical of East Anglia, and some who were unfree or serfs, all of whom were obliged to work on the Templars’ demesne. They would have owed tithes to the Templars as rector of the church. In 1212, King John granted the Templars the right to have a market in Witham and a threeday fair, enabling them to sell their produce without paying market tolls. The Barley Barn was built about 1200, the Wheat Barn about 1280, dated by dendrochronology.⁸ It has been calculated that the two barns were able to hold the entire harvest, perhaps some 41,600 sheaves, from the Templar’s demesne.⁹ The main crops, as recorded in 1313, were wheat and beans, with some peas, dredge and oats. At that time there were 61 head of cattle and 461 sheep. A second order, the Hospital of St John the Baptist of Jerusalem or Hospitallers, founded to succour pilgrims in Jerusalem two years earlier than the Templars, was granted most of the Templars’ property after they were suppressed, including Cressing and Witham, but the name of the Templars was firmly attached to Cressing. The Hospitallers surveyed their property in 1338: they had 920 acres of land in Cressing and Little Cressing, pasture for 20 oxen and 12 cows, and for 600 sheep. In Witham they had 400 acres of land, and in Rivenhall another 120 acres. Altogether the estate was 1,440 acres (583 ha). The measurements can not be taken as necessarily accurate or comparable with modern methods, but study of the tithe surveys made as a result of the 1846 act generally confirms them. While some wheat was used in baking bread, and some barley malted for brewing ale for the small community in the manor house supervising the estate, most produce was sold in Witham market and money remitted to the Templars or Hospitallers. Wages were paid to the baker, cook, two grooms, two pages and three chaplains, one of whom was the warden. The steward was paid a fee. Cressing was a large economic enterprise. Beaulieu was suppressed in 1538 and the Hospitallers in 1540. In many cases the king sold the right to collect tithes to a layman, the ‘lay impropriator’, together with the former religious communities’ land. This certainly increased resentment about tithes. Tithes were certainly part of why monasteries built large barns, but the main clue is in the endowments of land which they received. Coxwell great barn was built near the grange to hold produce from Great and Little Coxwell. It was unusually lofty, the aisle posts being raised on stone plinths. The scaffolding holes were left for ventilation. The barn was constructed with a less usual method of assembly. (Photos: Anthea Jones) Anthea Jones was head of history and director of studies at Cheltenham Ladies’ College. Now retired, she is the author of several books on Gloucestershire history, most recently Johannes Kip: the Gloucestershire engravings. ⁶ Hockey, SF, editor (1975) The Beaulieu Account-Book, RHS. ⁷ Victoria County History of Essex, Volume 2. ⁸ Historic England. Dendrochronology has confirmed Cecil Hewitt’s dating of the barns as set out in The Development of Carpentry, 1200–1700 (1969). ⁹ Cressing Temple, a Templar and Hospitaller Manor.
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