[1] Development in the early 13th century led to a "regularly laid-out farmstead complex" comprising "two halls, a chapel, kitchens and agricultural and industrial buildings".

[2] The preceptory, at its largest, was: "Set about a great court, they had included a gatehouse on the north, a fine range of barns on the west, a domestic complex with hall, chambers, chapel and kitchen on the south-east, and a workshop area, with its ovens and kilns on the east.

[2] After the arrest of the Knights Templar in 1308, and the sequestering of their lands by the Crown,[7] records show the preceptory was occupied by eight famuli, or farm servants,[7] twelve ploughmen, a bailiff and three shepherds, all paid from nearby Temple Bruer.

[1] The lands passed to the Knights Hospitaller, who, in 1338, held a messuage (dwelling of some kind), eight carucates (units of ploughland) and moiety, in this case half the endowment,[10] of the South Witham church,[9] but are believed to have left the former preceptory uninhabited, and eventually incorporated the landholding into their estate at Temple Bruer.

[12] Until their disbandment in 1312, the Knights Templar were major landowners on the higher lands of Lincolnshire, where they had a number of preceptories on property which provided income, while Temple Bruer was an estate on the Lincoln Heath, believed to have been used also for military training.