Welsh Marches
Garway (Borderland)
Templar, later Hospitaller
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.
Garway is technically in Herefordshire, but its estates reached deep into the Welsh borderland and it is the most important surviving Templar building anywhere near Wales. The order was granted the manor by Henry II in about 1180 and built here one of only a handful of round naves ever raised in England, modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
The foundations of that round nave can still be traced on the ground beside the present church. The chancel arch and much of the twelfth-century Templar fabric survive intact.
The famous circular dovecote — dated by inscription to 1326 — is Hospitaller work built on the Templar site after the suppression, and stands as a quiet reminder that the estate simply changed hands rather than being destroyed.
Visiting
St Michael's Church, Garway, is open daily. The dovecote is a short walk uphill and can be visited by appointment through the parish.
Coordinates: 51.8867°N, 2.8281°W
