Faxfleet Preceptory

Faxfleet (near Hull). Faxfleet itself is situated west of Kingston-upon-Hull, approximately 20 miles south of Youlthorpe and twenty-five miles south-west of Beswick. It was one of Yorkshires greatest preceptories originally built upon land provided in 1185 by the Crusader knight, Roger de Mowbray, Lord of Northumberland who was ransomed by the Templars from the Turks who were holding him prisoner. At that time (1185), it is recorded that Odo, Serlo, Gille, Stephen, Harvat and Ucca were Templars tenants, each farming two acres of land under the strip farming system. Gille paid an annual rental of two shillings per annum with the provision that he also supplied a cockerel and ten eggs. In 1290 Geoffrey Jolif was preceptor or commander of the Knights Templar at Faxfleet (until 1301) and Robert de Halton was master of the bailiwick of the Temple in the same County. Jolif was not amongst those arrested at Faxfleet in 1308, those that were, were sent to York, and were eventually sentenced to do penitence in the Cistercian Order. The preceptory which was closed in 1308 was valued at that time at over £300, the equivalent of over £100,000 today. It stood on lands which are now part of Thorp Grange Farm and are largely buried under a field to the west of the farm known today as Temple Garth.