A 13th-century Templar hall at Strood that later passed through the hands of a disgraced Jacobean lord and a King's minister
Access uncleartemporarily closed while English Heritage takes back its running from Medway Council
One of King James I’s most powerful ministers, Robert Cecil, ended up owning this stone hall in 1603, after a Cobham lord was convicted of plotting against the king and had his property confiscated - one turn among many in a long chain of owners since the Knights Templar first held the site. The Templars, an order of fighting monks that grew rich protecting pilgrims bound for the Holy Land, had held the manor of Strood since Henry II granted it to them in 1159.
The stone hall itself went up around 1240, probably so travelling dignitaries had somewhere to stop overnight on the road along Watling Street between London and Dover. Its grand upper room, reached by an external staircase and set above a vaulted cellar, still has an ornate doorway trimmed with dark Purbeck marble, though only two knights are thought to have lived here at any one time, with a bailiff running the farm day to day. After the Templars were suppressed in 1312, the manor passed briefly to the Knights Hospitaller, then to the Crown, and by 1336 Edward III had handed it to a Cambridgeshire convent of Franciscan nuns as a source of income.
The Blake family, who owned Temple Manor through the 17th century, most likely added the brick wings you see at each end today. By the 1930s the surrounding land had become an industrial estate, and the hall itself fell derelict before the Ministry of Works restored it after the Second World War. Temple Manor’s management is currently moving from the council back to English Heritage and the site is closed for the handover, so check their page before you plan a visit. Rochester Castle and Rochester are a short way east, with Strood Station under a kilometre from the hall.
