The Sites
Templar & Hospitaller sites in Wales
A working gazetteer of the documented military-order sites in Wales. Every entry is labelled by the order that actually held it — Templar, Hospitaller, or Templar, later Hospitaller for houses that passed between the two after the suppression of the Templars in 1312. Sites without reliable documentary evidence have been left out.
Not sure of the difference? Read: Templars vs Hospitallers →
The Key Sites
The ones worth travelling for
Pembrokeshire
Templar, later HospitallerSlebech
The mother house of the Templars in Wales — a preceptory on the tidal Cleddau, granted by the Anglo-Norman lord Wizo before 1150 and continued as a Hospitaller commandery after 1312.
Pembrokeshire
Templar, later HospitallerTempleton
A whole village whose name — Villa Templi in the medieval rolls — records that the Templars once held it as a farming grange of Slebech.
Welsh Marches
Templar, later HospitallerGarway (Borderland)
Just over the border in Herefordshire, Garway is the most complete Templar church in Britain — and served the order's estates on both sides of the Welsh frontier.
Gower
Templar, later HospitallerSt Madoc's Church, Llanmadoc
The Gower's Templar church — a small medieval church at the tip of the peninsula, held as a Templar manor and continued by the Hospitallers after 1312 as a dependency of Slebech.
Gower
HospitallerSt Mary the Virgin, Rhossili
The clifftop church above Rhossili Bay — given, with Landimore and Llanrhidian, to the Knights Hospitaller of Slebech by William de Turberville in the 12th century.
Gower
HospitallerSt Cadoc's Church, Cheriton
A finely-built 13th-century church near the Burry stream — probably built by the Knights Hospitaller to replace the lost coastal church at Landimore.
Gower
HospitallerSt Rhidian and St Illtyd, Llanrhidian
The Hospitaller church of north Gower, with its massive fortified west tower and mysterious carved 'Leper Stone' in the porch.
Also on the map
Granges, chapels and outlying holdings
Smaller dependencies of Slebech commandery and the Hospitallers' Gower manor — attested in medieval charters and the 1338 Hospitaller survey, worth a detour if you are already in the area.
Pembrokeshire
Templar, later HospitallerFreystrop
A small parish on the west bank of the Cleddau, held as one of Slebech's dependent granges and listed under the commandery in the 1338 Hospitaller survey.
Pembrokeshire
Templar, later HospitallerRosemarket
A planned Norman-era village on the Milford Haven peninsula, held as a grange of Slebech commandery and named in the 1338 Hospitaller survey.
North Pembrokeshire
Templar, later HospitallerMaenclochog
An upland dependency of Slebech at the foot of the Preseli hills, held for its grazing and a small chapel and named among the commandery's members in later Hospitaller surveys.
Pembrokeshire coast
Templar, later HospitallerAmroth
A coastal manor on Carmarthen Bay held under Slebech commandery, giving the house a foothold on the sea for its wool and hide trade.
Gower
HospitallerLlanddewi (Gower)
A south-Gower parish run as a Hospitaller manor with Llanmadoc — the two together made up the Knights of St John's Gower estate, dependent on Slebech.
Gower
HospitallerSt Illtyd's Church, Ilston
A quiet 13th-century church in a wooded Gower valley, granted to the Knights Hospitaller of Slebech in 1221 and served from the commandery through the Middle Ages.
Gower
HospitallerSt John the Baptist, Penmaen
A Gothic parish church on the south Gower road, dedicated to St John the Baptist — the patron saint of the Hospitallers, who held the earlier sand-buried church on the Burrows below.
Gower
HospitallerSt Andrew's Church, Penrice
A 12th-century Norman church in the Penrice estate, given by the de Penrice family to the Knights Hospitaller of Slebech in the later 12th century.
Gower
HospitallerSt Cattwg's Church, Port Eynon
A 12th-century church at the south-western tip of Gower, whose advowson was given to the Knights Hospitaller of Slebech by Robert de Mare in 1165.
Gower / Glamorgan
HospitallerSt Michael's Church, Loughor
The parish church on the eastern edge of the Gower estate — its advowson given to the Hospitallers of Slebech by Henry de Newburgh between 1156 and 1184.