Cressing Temple

[1][3][5][6][7] The manor of Cressing was granted to the Knights Templar in 1136 by Matilda of Boulogne,[8] the wife of King Stephen.

[2] Later, sometime before his death in 1255, the Templar Peter de Rossa granted over 100 acres of the manor of Rivenhall to Cressing, a parish in which he was parson and lord.

[2] The original 1400-acre site was a considerable agricultural enterprise,[3] and was led by a Templar Preceptor, accompanied by two or three knights or sergeants, together with a chaplain, a bailiff and numerous household servants overseeing around 160 tenant farmers.

[3] The manor had a mansion house, bakehouse, brewery, dairy, granary, smithy, gardens, a dovecote, a watermill, and a windmill,[3] with a chapel and associated cemetery dedicated to St Mary.

[2] The proceeds from the Cressing Temple were all sent to fund Templar activities in the Crusader states in the Middle East.

It was targeted in 1381 during the Peasants' Revolt, when on Monday 10 June a large group of rebels attacked Cressing and carried away armour, vestments, gold and silver, and other goods to the value of £20 belonging to the Hospitallers, and burned books to the value of 20 marks.