Temple Balsall

East Window, Church of St. Mary, Temple Balsall, Warwickshire (lower half detail)

About the day
Not much in the morning. Come around 3:00 I took off in the direction of Temple Balsall and made off for the church before taking a wander past the new cemetery, into open fields. Surprisingly, the church was unlocked, and it was at my personal disposal.

Later that afternoon I was mighty cross to find I had inadvertently caught a cold by downloading 'Ads by SaferSurf'. Still ain't got rid of the bloody pest. AVG let the thing through. Best get the techie boys at work to give the laptop a health check.

In the evening I took a wander along a bank of the Grand Union Canal starting at Catherine-de-Barnes, still fuming about the virus. I knew I'd had difficulty capturing pictures in good light since the canal is for the very most part a channel below the level of the surrounding land, but I had a bit of fun getting close up the mallards sat on the bank, and snapping as they flew off into the water.

About the blip
Karen Ralls' 'Knights Templar Encyclopedia' records Temple Balsall in these terms:

'Temple Balsall is a remote village in the middle of the old Forest of Arden southeast of Solihull. The name Balsall comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning watery pastures. It was spelled Belesale in the 1185 survey, and was gifted to the Templars in 1146 by Roger de Mowbray, a major patron who also went on three crusades himself, having been captured by the Turks on his last, when he was more than 65 years of age. The Templars ransomed him, but he died soon after this and was buried in Palestine. Temple Balsall had become an English Templar preceptory by 1226, and was the major headquarters for other Templar lands in Warwickshire - namely, those of Cubbinton, harbury, Tysoe, Wolvey, Studley, Warwick, Chilver-scoton, Sherbourne, Fletchampstead, Temple Herdwicke, and others. It was quite a large complex, with domestic buildings including the Hall, the Preceptor's room built onto it, a pantry, buttery, kitchen, larder, bakehouse, brewhouse and a dovecote. On the whole, Temple Balsall seems to have been a favourite place for the reception of new members into the Order for novice Templars in England. By 1312, the time pf the papal bull that suppressed the Order, the lands of Temple Balsall had gone to the Knights Hospitaller. Few records have survived of their time of possession. The surviving Old Hall we can now see at Temple Balsall has an 18th century exterior, but the internal timbers are original, dated around 1180. The last church that the Knights Templar built in England is next door, called St. Mary's Church; it became a parish church in 1863. A panel in the stained glass east window shows a Templar Knight in armour and mantle, keeping watch over today's congregation.'

The east window is the work of James Powell's & Sons of Whitefriars and dates from 1907.

The detail in today's blip shows, L-R [1] a Templar (note the lamb and flag emblem above), [2] St. Augustine, [3] the Virgin and Child, [4] St Oswald, and [5] a Hospitaller (note 8-pointed cross emblem above, the maltese cross, originally the badge of the Italian Republic of Amalfi.

The window also records the names of local and templar worthies, L-R, [1] Thomas Docwra, AD 1501, [2] Lady Katherine Leveson AD 1674, [3] (no worthy), [4] Lady Anne Holbourne AD 1674 and [5] William Weston AD 1540.

Thomas Docwra (1458?-1527) became Grand Prior of the English Knights Hospitaller in 1501.

Katherine Leveson was born Katherine Dudley. Her mother was Alice Leigh, daughter of Sir Thomas Leigh of nearby Stoneleigh Abbey. Alice married Sir Robert Dudley of Kenilworth Castle on 11 September 1596 at Ashow, Warwickshire. Dudley was the son of Sir Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester and favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Katherine was therefore the favourite's granddaughter. She married Sir Richard Leveson who had sat in the Long Parliament of 1640 and was subsequently disbarred for raising royalist support during the Civil War. In 1645 he was captured at Lilleshall and imprisoned at Nantwich. Katherine and Richard are interred at the Church of St. Michael, Lilleshall, Shropshire. A codicil of 1670 to her will provided for the erection of 'an hospitale or almshouse'. Another codicil of 1673 provided for the minister to 'teach and instruct in learning twenty of the poorest boys of the inhabitants of Balsall Parish'. Katherine set up her Foundation in Temple Balsall in 1674.

Anne Holbourne was born Anne Dudley and was Katherine's sister. She married Sir Robert Holbourne a lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons 1640-2 and also supported the Royalist cause. Anne's will left £500.00 to restore the church plus £50.00 per annum for the minister.

William Weston succeeded Thomas Dowcra as Grand Prior in 1527. From 1529 the Hospitaller's privileges and exemptions began to be curtailed and made subject to increasingly burdensome taxation by the order of parliament, owing, in large part to the perceived conflict of interest owed to Henry VIII and the royal supremacy over the church to the convent. Generally speaking, the end came with the dissolution of the monasteries. The Order was dissolved 1540, though was rehabilitated during the reign of Queen Mary in the style 'Order of St John'. Weston died on Ascension Day, 7 May 1540.