HOUSE OF KNIGHTS TEMPLARS
14. THE PRECEPTORY OF LYDLEY
The Templars, who had acquired estates in Shropshire by 1158, (fn. 1) owed their original endowments to
William FitzAlan (I) and Herbert de Castello. Some
time between 1155 and his death in 1160 the former
granted them the townships of Cardington and
Enchmarsh, half of Chatwall, a pension of 3 marks
from Cardington church, and 5s. from Cardington
mill. (fn. 2) At about the same time Herbert de Castello
granted them a carucate at Lydley and two virgates
in the adjoining township of Botville, a portion of his
wife's inheritance. (fn. 3) Since the order chose to
establish its preceptory at Lydley the latter may
have been the earlier of the two grants. A few outlying properties were added in the next 25
years. Two messuages in Shrewsbury were given by
William FitzAlan and a virgate at Cound by his
brother Walter. Brian and Roger of Brampton
granted a virgate at Kinlet, and a half messuage in
Bridgnorth had come into the possession of the
preceptory by 1185. (fn. 4)
The hamlet of Lydley, which seems to have
shrunk to a single farm in the earlier 17th century
and is now represented by a derelict range of
cottages known as the Day House, stood alongside a
stream, near but not on Watling Street. (fn. 5) Although
the Templars built a mill in the hamlet shortly
before 1185 (fn. 6) and seem also to have had fishponds
there (fn. 7) the preceptory buildings apparently stood on
the site of Penkridge Hall, (fn. 8) an isolated farmstead
half a mile south-east of the hamlet which in the
12th century was situated at the junction of the
forest of Botwood and the open commons of the
Lawley. Their initial endowments had provided the
Templars with a compact estate on the northern and
southern slopes of the Lawley and Caer Caradoc
hills and, like Haughmond Abbey in neighbouring
Leebotwood, (fn. 9) they were quick to realize its economic
potential.
Throughout its history the preceptory maintained a large demesne. In 1185 this comprised nearly
the whole of Lydley township and other lands,
presumably assarts, in Botville. (fn. 10) Since their tenants
were excused from all services, apart from the
obligation to surrender a third of their goods at
death, it is evident than in 1185, as later, the
demesne was being worked by a large staff of
permanent farm servants. Excluding the sums
received from Cardington church and mill and rents
of 12s. 4d. from the four outlying properties, the 60
tenants on the Lydley estate in 1185 paid rents
totalling £7 11s. ½d. for 17¾ virgates and 173½ acres.
The latter were assarts, held on life-tenancies for
rents of 2d. an acre, which were waived during the
first three years after clearance. The standard
holding was the half virgate but a third of the
tenants held assarted lands in addition and a further
third held assarts only. Although income from
assarts represented only a quarter of the total rents,
their extent, the favourable terms on which they
were held, and the high proportion of recent settlers
are a clear indication of the Templars' lively interest
in forest clearances.
Soon after 1185 the Templars were able to appropriate Cardington church (fn. 11) and in the early 13th
century they extended the Lydley estate further
into the upland country south of Caer Caradoc
and the Lawley. In 1232 they obtained a carucate at
Holt Preen. (fn. 12) A half hide at Stoneacton was acquired
about 1240, (fn. 13) while Comley had been added to the
estate by 1255 (fn. 14) and Willstone by 1274. (fn. 15) The order
was rather less successful in its efforts to expand into
the wooded lowlands to the north of the hills. The
boundary with Longnor was probably defined in
1222, when a portion of Botwood was surrendered
to the lord of that manor in return for exclusive
rights of common in the remainder. (fn. 16) The respective
common rights of Lydley and Leebotwood tenants
in Botwood were regulated in 1273, when the
Templars were given the right to fish in the Cound
Brook. (fn. 17) Their claims to assarts in the southwestern portion of Botwood, which lay in Church
Stretton manor, were still a subject of dispute in
1292. (fn. 18) Less resistance was encountered to the east
where, taking advantage of the lax administration of
Langley manor in the earlier 13th century, (fn. 19) they
had taken possession of the woods of 'Tywleshey'
and Harlith, north and south of Causeway Wood. (fn. 20)
Their rights here were, however, challenged in
1273 (fn. 21) and a similar attempt to usurp woodland in
the part of Chatwall township outside the Lydley
estate was foiled in 1276. (fn. 22) The Templars were
granted free warren on their demesne at Lydley in
1302 (fn. 23) and were employing a forester there in 1308. (fn. 24)
Apart from an outlying property at Turford in
Richard's Castle, which apparently belonged to the
Templars in 1227 but had passed by 1255 to the
Hospitallers of Dinmore, (fn. 25) Lydley's remaining
acquisitions after 1185 were in Corvedale. Most of
them were held in demesne and this development
can be seen as an attempt to complement the upland economy of the home estate at Lydley with
land more suited to cereals. The earliest of these was
Lawton mill in Diddlebury, acquired before 1192, (fn. 26)
but their principal Corvedale property was some six
miles up the valley at Stanton Long. Four virgates
were granted by Robert Walensis, c. 1225, (fn. 27) and a
tract of moorland was acquired, c. 1255, from Thomas de Stanton, (fn. 28) who conveyed the remainder of
his estate here to the Templars soon afterwards. (fn. 29)
In 1266 they made an unsuccessful claim to the
advowson of Stanton Long. (fn. 30) Of greater potential
value was the adjoining manor of Castle Holdgate,
with its barony, which was leased to the Templars of
Lydley from c. 1263 until shortly before 1284. (fn. 31)
Like earlier and later lords of this manor they seem
to have held it in demesne; Templar corn from
Castle Holdgate was seized c. 1274 by Sir John
Giffard of Corfham while it was being carried to
Ludlow. (fn. 32) It is clear from the reports of the hundred
jurors in 1274 and from the lawsuits in which the
Templars were involved about this time that they
were exercising with some vigour their suzerainty
over the numerous manors within the barony, most
of which lay in Corvedale. (fn. 33) Lydley's interest in
Corvedale may explain the appearance of the
Ludlow merchant Roger de Hayton as one of their
tenants in avowry in 1255. (fn. 34)
The preceptor and two serving brethren witnessed a deed in 1273. (fn. 35) It seems likely that this was
the normal number of brethren in permanent residence at Lydley, apart from aged members of the
order to whom corrodies had been assigned. Two
corrodiaries, who had been granted board at the
serving brothers' table, 5s. a year, and a robe in
1304 and 1307 respectively, (fn. 36) were found at Lydley
when the preceptory was committed to the sheriff's
custody in January 1308, (fn. 37) following the suppression of the order. The Templar Henry of Halton,
who was described as Warden of Lydley and had
assumed the duties of the preceptor, was still living
there at Michaelmas 1308. (fn. 38) It is possible that his
former superior was Stephen of Stalbridge, Templar
of Lydley, who was arrested in 1311 at Salisbury,
not far from the Dorset village from which he took
his name, and subsequently sent to do penance at
Merton Priory. (fn. 39)
The Crown took over an estate which, though
more modest than it had been in the third quarter
of the 13th century, was still flourishing. (fn. 40) Rents,
with income from commuted labour services,
terciary payments, and profits of courts, produced
£30 13s. 10d., of which only about £4 was derived
from the shrunken Corvedale estate and other outlying properties. Cardington church, which was not
accounted for in 1308, had been valued at £13 6s. 8d.
in 1291, (fn. 41) so that Lydley's gross annual income
from rents and tithes was about £44.
Income from its demesnes, however, was clearly
of greater relative importance in the preceptory's
economy, particularly at Lydley itself, where there
were 16 farm servants. Half of the latter were ploughmen and the livestock included 26 oxen, while 80 qr.
wheat and 124 qr. oats were harvested in 1308 and
44 qr. maslin had been found at Lydley in January
of that year. (fn. 42) Although no cows were found at this
time 13 were sold later in the year. Two shepherds
tended the substantial sheep flock to be expected
on such a site; 280 sheep and 96 lambs were found
in January 1308 and that year's shearing produced
254 fleeces. A dovecot had just been built and stone
was being sold from a quarry. The demesnes at
Holt Preen and Stanton Long, said to include 100 a.
and 140 a. of arable respectively in 1338, (fn. 43) appear to
have been more exclusively devoted to corn growing. Six of the nine farm servants on the two manors
were ploughmen and, apart from six heifers at Holt
Preen, the livestock were all plough-beasts. Wheat
and oats were the sole crops grown.
By 1314 the Templar estate in Lydley and most of
that elsewhere in Cardington parish had come into
the hands of Edmund, Earl of Arundel, (fn. 44) who had
some claim upon it as heir of one of the founders (fn. 45)
and whose title was confirmed by the Hospitallers in
1324. (fn. 46) Cardington church, with Holt Preen and
Stanton Long, passed to the Hospitallers of Dinmore. (fn. 47) Shortly after 1324 Arundel set the demesne
of Lydley, with the preceptory buildings, on a
stock-and-land lease to a syndicate of four persons (fn. 48)
and, under the name of Lydley Hays, it was always
leased as a single farm until the 17th century. (fn. 49)
The existing house on the site of the preceptory,
called Penkridge Hall by 1770, (fn. 50) was apparently
built by its tenant Rowland Whitbrooke in the
1590s (fn. 51) and does not contain any remains of earlier
structures.
Preceptors of Lydley
John de Houton, occurs 1261. (fn. 52)
Richard Lovel, occurs 1273. (fn. 53)
Stephen, occurs 1292. (fn. 54)
Henry of Halton, occurs as custos 1308. (fn. 55)