Pembrokeshire
Templeton
Templar, later Hospitaller
A whole village whose name — Villa Templi in the medieval rolls — records that the Templars once held it as a farming grange of Slebech.
Templeton, a linear village a few miles east of Narberth, takes its name directly from the Knights Templar. In medieval documents it appears as Villa Templi — 'the Templars' town' — and it was worked as a grange dependent on Slebech.
The layout of long, narrow burgage plots running back from the main street is characteristic of a planned medieval estate village, and it is thought to preserve the shape the Templars gave it when they organised the settlement for arable farming.
After 1312 the village passed with the rest of the Slebech estate to the Hospitallers. There are no standing Templar buildings here today, but the plan of the village itself is the monument — one of the clearest examples in Britain of a landscape shaped by the order's estate management.
Visiting
Templeton sits on the A478 between Narberth and Tenby. Park in the village and walk the main street; the burgage plots are best appreciated from the churchyard.
Coordinates: 51.7900°N, 4.7325°W
