A Ledger of Tenures

Seven counties in Wales contained land held by the military orders, but the density of these holdings was lopsided. The Templars stayed almost entirely within the southern and western Marches. The Hospitallers eventually managed a wider network from the Monmouthshire coast to the uplands of Gwynedd. This gazetteer separates sites with secure primary evidence—mostly the 1308 inventories and the 1338 extenta—from places linked to the orders only by late folklore or place-name theory. Each entry includes the modern grid reference and a summary of the site's status at the 1340s consolidation.

Slebech, Pembrokeshire (SN 028144), was the primary Templar Preceptory and later the chief Hospitaller Commandery in Wales. The site consists of the roofless church of St John the Baptist. This building contains fourteenth-century stone and two worn effigies likely representing members of the Barlow family, who took the land after the Hospitallers. As an administrative hub, Slebech controlled the home farm, the Cleddau ferry, and a large network of Pembrokeshire granges. It is the most architecturally important site for the orders in the country.

Templeton, Pembrokeshire (SN 090075), was a Templar manor and a planned settlement for tenants before it passed to the Hospitallers. The name is its most lasting feature. The medieval village layout consists of a long, straight street with burgage-like plots, showing its start as a managed estate. No medieval buildings survive above ground. The site is a clear example of Templar land management in the Flemish colony of Rhos. Records from 1308 list a hall and a chapel, but both were lost to later rebuilding.

Llanmadoc and Llanddewi, Gower (SS 446934 and SS 451887), were Hospitaller acquisitions that the Templars never held. These two parishes formed a single manor on the western Gower peninsula. St Madoc’s church at Llanmadoc contains early Christian stones, but the 1338 survey confirms the Order of St John’s ownership. That document values the site for its pasture and tithes. The church at Llanddewi has been heavily restored. It keeps a fourteenth-century layout that matches the period of Hospitaller patronage.

Llanrhidian, Gower (SS 491922), often appears in old antiquarian lists as a Templar holding, but the 1338 survey shows it belonged to the Hospitallers. The site contains a massive, weathered stone called the Leper’s Stone. Some traditions link this to the Hospitallers' work with the sick. However, the evidence shows Llanrhidian was a source of money and tithes, not a medical house. The church is still used for worship. Victorian restoration has hidden most of its medieval features.

Kilsant, Carmarthenshire (SN 260191), is one of the few confirmed Templar granges outside the main Pembrokeshire group. It was a dependency of Slebech and appears in the 1308 inventories as a working farm. No medieval structures remain at the modern farm of Kilsant. The site proves that Templar interests reached east into the fertile Carmarthenshire valleys. The Hospitallers took control by 1313. It stayed a minor satellite of the Slebech estate.

Cardiff and Milltown, Glamorgan (ST 186762), provide the main evidence for the orders in the urban south. The Hospitallers owned property in the town and a manor at Milltown, now known as Roath. The 1338 accounts show this land produced burgage rents and crops. These holdings show how the orders fitted into the Norman urban systems of the Marcher lordships. All physical evidence disappeared when Cardiff expanded in later centuries. Only the documentary trail in the extenta marks their presence.

Dinmore and Garway sit in Herefordshire but were the main administrative links for the Welsh borders. Garway (SO 455224) is the most impressive site in the region. It has a circular Templar foundation under the current nave and a Hospitaller dovecote built in 1326. These sites are east of the modern border, but their influence on the Welsh estate was total. They provided the model for the architecture and management of smaller Welsh houses. The Garway chapel is a visual stand-in for the lost Templar halls of Pembrokeshire.

The surviving fragments of these estates, though often reduced to name and foundation, provide the essential map for understanding the military orders' permanent residency in Wales.