Temple Bruer today is a sad reflection of how it must have appeared in its heyday. With its two towers, the once great round church must have seemed very imposing to the locals, who would have been unlikely to have seen anything similar before. Even some of the larger local churches could not match Temple Bruer for its size and impressiveness. Today, all that remains is just one of the towers, some sketches of the ruins still standing at the end of the 19th century, and the results of two published excavations of the site. This is all there is of this great Lincolnshire historical site, in my opinion, possibly the greatest that anyone can see today.
Artist David Vale
David Vale's depiction of Temple Bruer is fabulous. It looks dark and mysterious, set in a lively village complex. For an alternative view, Heritage Lincolnshire commissioned a digital recreation of the church. The fly-through video of a colourful and bright interior gives a wonderful alternative perspective. See the Temple Bruer round church digital reconstruction or visit the Heritage Lincolnshire website for further information on their work.
Today, the site is one of the few left in Britain where any Templar remains can be seen. All that is left visible is the Southern of the two church towers. The picture above shows how it looked before restoration. The tower, today, is complete and has a roof. The small car park is situated on top of the round church, and people sensitive to such things have been said to have experienced strange sensations while sitting there.
Temple Bruer is situated in Lincolnshire in the middle of the great heath that lies South of the city of Lincoln. At the beginning of the 12th century, the heath would have been a formidable place, uninhabited and desolate. Around the middle of the 12th century, an estate of land was given to the Knights Templar by William Asheby. On this estate, the Templars built one of their round churches and formed the preceptory of Bruer. Bruer being the French word for heath. The diligent, hard-working Knights and their retinue set about transforming the bleak heathland into a productive, valuable estate. Wool was the major product, and it would have been sent from Bruer to local markets, with the bulk of the 'harvest' going to the port of Boston for wider distribution.
Bruer was the centre of Templar activity in the Mid Lincolnshire area. Under the control of Bruer were two other preceptories, those at Eagle and Mere. However, there is debate over whether Mere was a preceptory or just a large Manor house. Later, the preceptory at South Witham also came under Bruer's control.
To the South of the estate, around the hamlet of Byard's Leap area, the Templars would hold tournaments. The large expanses of flat heathland made the area ideal for such occasions. Tournaments at the time were not Hollywood-style jousting competitions but major mock battles fought between large groups of men. These were 'professional' affairs with the victors keeping captured equipment, horses, and hostages to be exchanged for ransom. The intention was to practice war, but men did get injured, and some died. It was possibly tales passed down from such events that account for the origins of the legend of Byard's Leap, with its story of a great leap by a horse.
Why did the Templars build one of their few but famous round churches on this site? Standard historical learning would have us believe it was simply because the order was gifted land there and the Templars built there. Yet they didn’t build round churches at every site they were gifted. In fact, England was blessed with very few of these intriguing structures. I think it is fair to say that this area of Lincolnshire must have held great importance due to the possibilities for creating wealth from farming wool and would, therefore, warrant close attention from the entrepreneurial Templars. Yet when we examine a little closer, it appears that the land gifted was covered in thick gorse and bracken, totally unsuitable for grazing, and had to be cleared before it could be used. Now, the Templars were not afraid of hard work, and no doubt they could see the future possibilities of the site. But Bruer is only a few miles from Lincoln, so why choose here to build their most important site for hundreds of miles why not in the city? They could have chosen an urban setting as they owned lands in Lincoln itself. However, it would be true to say that, with the exception of London and Cambridge, this was not normal for them. They always preferred country sites. Agriculture, after gifts, was their greatest source of income.
So why not choose Witham, close to the Great North Road, Mere with its plentiful water supply for fish breeding or closer to Lincoln at Eagle with its forests for hunting? No, the site chosen was Bruer; of all the sites available, it had to be Bruer.
Even today, when one examines the site of the Templars at Bruer, it makes no rational sense to build there. It sits in a hollow so that from a distance, only the top of the tower is visible, therefore, these towers were of limited strategic use as lookout points. It is possible that the site, because of its position in the hollow, was considered safe because it wasn’t visible unless very close to it. But if it had to be defended at any time, and remember that we are talking about a time in history when the country still experienced much internal strife, then it would have been in a poor position to do so. So what is the reason behind the positioning of the round church?
The answer, I believe, lies in the spirituality of the place and its geometric position in the Temple of Ana. The site is very accurately positioned, and when I say accurately, I mean that the centre of the round church sits on a line and is as close to the “ left shoulder” intersection of the pentagram as would have been practical to build. This position, at the intersection of two of the lines of a pentagram, is fascinating. The pentagram is unique; the points where the lines cross are mathematically very important. If one takes two of the lines of the pentagram that cross, the intersection creates an interesting phenomenon. The lines are divided at a point known in the art world as the golden section. This point is special because it creates a ratio, Phi, whereby the ratio of the length of the shorter part to the longer part is the same as the ratio of the longer part to the whole, and it is expressed as a number, and that number is 1.6180339. This number is fascinating, and it appears with regular monotony throughout nature. It is woven into the very fabric of the world that we live in. It is widely accepted that on their return from the Holy Land, the Templars brought with them knowledge of geometry. The concept of Phi would have been known to them, and therefore, they would consequently understand the importance of this site.
Bruer was situated at the golden section between the church of St Mary at Bloxholm and the church of St Helen at Brant Broughton. A straight line of 14.93 Km, accurately divided into mystic proportions by the round church at Temple Bruer.
The round churches of the Templars were unique; no other sect of Christianity set out to build such unusual structures. The importance of the shape of the structure, and the meaning behind the design, is all but lost to us today. In Britain, there are very few remains left for us to see. The complete churches left standing in London, Cambridge, and Northampton, have been heavily modernised, and little of the original remains save for the general outline of the building. The character, decoration, and original markings have been lost to time. In particular, Temple church in London has been totally face-lifted on a couple of occasions leaving nothing to see but perfect, gleaming white stonework. There are, however, remains that just give indications of the heretical or rather esoteric side of the Templars. At Garway on the Welsh / English borders, there are intriguing glimpses left behind in the now standard square church.
Once the Templars acquired the Bruer site, they made it their own. The great task of clearing the heathland was undertaken with their usual zeal and efficiency. Little is known of this stage of Bruer’s life, but from little acorns grew a mighty oak. Over time, the grand round church was built, and the necessary support buildings around it. Lodgings were built for the knights and retinue, a hospital and offices from which the clerical tasks were carried out. On the opposite side of the lane, following the banks of a now dried-up stream, a small village grew. Possibly starting with entrepreneurial types wanting to service the growing retinue of knights and attendants’ needs. Tradesmen such as Smiths and Farriers, Bakers, Butchers and probably candle stick makers moved in to take advantage of the accumulating wealth at Bruer.
Bruer grew and grew in size, stature, and wealth. The master of the preceptory, as it had now grown to be, was a man that wielded great power. He commanded all the local Templar properties and would have held great sway with the religious powers at the not-too-distant Cathedral. He would have been responsible for a very large business, and the income of his estates would have been considerable. At the time of the great audit in 1208, the preceptory at Bruer was valued in excess of £177 Per annum, second in size for all British Templar properties only to London. Therefore with its great wealth and its proximity to Lincoln, Bruer became a key Templar holding, and the Commander of the preceptory held an appropriate rank in the organisation.
Further evidence of the importance of Bruer can be gleaned from the evidence gathered by the Inquisition at the time of the sad demise of this great organisation. A brother John de Donyngton of the order of the Minorites, testified that a Templar veteran had told him that the Templars held four chief idols in England. One was held at London in the sacristy of the Temple; another at the preceptory of Bistlesham; a third at Bruere in Lincolnshire; and a fourth in a place North of the Humber, the name of which he could not remember. Whilst this report could have been a total fabrication, it certainly confirms the importance of the site.
Now, this evidence raises another interesting question surrounding the Templars and Bruer. If such an idol was held at Bruer, what could it have been? It is possible that the idol held at Bruer was a head, a sacred head. This may seem a bizarre claim to make, but there is compelling evidence to support my theory. The Templars en masse were accused of worshipping heads called Baphomet. This is one of the items included in the charges made against them by their accusers at their untimely end. The belief in the sacred power of heads is a very old belief indeed. It was thought that the knowledge and power of the original owner of the head were retained after death and that it would be passed on to the person that now held it. The imagery of severed heads arises in many different legends and myths, including the Grail Romances and, of course, the story of John the Baptist in the bible. The connection between the Templars and John the Baptist is well-documented and debated. So maybe the Templars at Bruer believed that the head they held was a genuine religious relic and that it was the head of John the Baptist. Religious relics were a fundamental part of religious life at the time, and the fact that more than one of these relics claiming to be the same thing existed seemed to cause no problem to the believers. So it may not have been the actual head of John the Baptist; it may just have been sufficient for the knights at Bruer to have believed that it was the head of the great man.
Knowledge of the head seems to have been fairly widespread, and I believe that the church at Bruer was known locally as the Temple of the Head. Again an amazing claim, but once more, there is evidence to support the claim in the records of the nearby Kirkstead Abbey, a Cistercian Abbey. It is recorded that an agreement was reached regarding rights of access to land between the monks at Kirkstead and the knights that dwell at the Temple of Aneheide. The Temple is a fair description of the church at Bruer; knights certainly occupied it, and this agreement regarded land owned by those knights. So why Aneheide? Well, I have two theories for this. Firstly we need to split the word in two. We then get Ane Heide. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Ane is an old English word for one or the singular, and Heide is again old English for Head! Simple, really, they were referring to the Temple of the Head. Alternatively, the word is also spelt Anaheide, which obviously breaks down to mean the Temple of the Head of Ana, the goddess to whom our great Lincolnshire temple is dedicated. Either way, this Temple was dedicated to a head. I am even prepared to go as far as to say that the round church was specifically built to house or honour a head.
Following the termination of the Templars, the property passed into the hands of the Hospitallers. Under who's charge, the preceptory at Bruer seems to have fallen into disrepair. The Hospitallers instead made their area headquarters at Mere. Why would they choose to do that? Bruer is a much more significant site. The round church and surrounding infrastructure would have been magnificent. The Hospitallers were no shrinking violets. So, it is intriguing why they chose to abandon the site. One has to wonder if it had associations which they wished to distance themselves from. When Henry VIII disbanded the Hospitallers, he sold Temple Bruer to the Duke of Suffolk
The importance of this site was widely known. In 1541, long after the site had been vacated and was already in a poor, uninhabitable state, the king of England, Henry VIII, decided to pay it a visit. Of all the places he could have chosen to stay, this must have been one of the least hospitable. It was said that there was enough accommodation for him and his retinue with the addition of tents to spend the night. It must have been very rudimentary, rough and ready. So why was the King of England so keen to spend time here? Why not spend the night at nearby Sleaford, one of the wealthy local landowner’s properties, or even Lincoln? Perhaps he was looking for the fabled head. Perhaps he sought information to give him power over the Catholic church. Or perhaps he just wanted to experience the site’s spiritual power. Whatever his motive, we will never know for sure, but we can be certain that he thought the place interesting enough to warrant a visit.
A 1540 valuation mentioned a farm site and the preceptory, with orchards, gardens and houses, a rabbit warren, 2000 acres of sheep ground and a windmill. The property remained a block until 1935, when it was split up and sold by Lord Lonsborough.
The decay of the round church and imposing towers was relentless. No one after the demise of the Templars felt the need to maintain or protect the buildings. Perhaps the owners were afraid of being associated with the heretic Knights, or perhaps they were afraid of the bad spirits left behind. Perhaps it didn’t make economic sense to maintain buildings that were no longer interesting to anyone. This decaying of the site strengthens the hypothesis that this was a special spiritual site. When the Templars left the site, their business acumen left with them. There was no longer a point to the existence of a village here. It was unsustainable. Was it that only the Templars could make a business successful here? No, this was a special site. Templar interest in it was spiritual, not commercial.
The site has been excavated twice. The first to excavate in 1837 was the Rev. G. Oliver, vicar of Scopwick. It would appear that the dig was actually performed by men supplied by Mr. Charles Chaplin. The Chaplins being a wealthy local family with centuries of connection to Temple Bruer and its surroundings. In his report of the excavations to the Lincolnshire Topographical Society, the Rev. Oliver clearly indicated that there was evidence of untoward goings on that perhaps supported the heretical claims against the Templars. During excavation, he said he discovered
“a perfect labyrinth of vaults and dungeons, and intricate passages.”
He goes on to say,
“some of these vaults were appropriated to uses that it is revolting to allude to.” And “altogether the ruins exhibit the woful symptoms of crime and unfair dealing”.
He claims to have discovered an immured body, the skeleton of someone bricked up behind a wall and left to die, and the burnt remains of skeletons that had suffered violent ends. The Rev. Oliver draws a plan of the uncovered footings and vaults and marks on it the places where these horrors were discovered.
The next dig at Bruer was conducted around 1907 by W H St. John Hope esq. He was somewhat more scientific and thorough in his approach than the Rev. Oliver, that was there 70 years before him. Hope used the findings of Rev. Oliver as his starting point for his own dig and struggled to find much that had been reported. He concluded that the Rev’s excavations must have been very superficial. Unfortunately, for those that are taken by the gruesome and lurid stories proposed by Oliver, he goes on to say,
“ The existence of Dr Olivers passages has always seemed so unprobable and unnecessary that I felt sure we had only to re-examine his evidence to find it capable of some quite simple explanation, and I have now given you the result” and further to say “From henceforth it is hoped we shall hear no more of them”.
So the tails of terrible practices at Bruer were put to rest, but of course they have not gone away and are regularly recounted when anyone writes of the site’s history. Myself included.
There is another interesting snippet about Temple Bruer, and that is its connection to the tiny church of Little Gidding in Cambridgeshire. In 1185 the church's owner, Maud Engaine, granted the church's income to the Knights at Bruer to help with their fundraising for the Crusades. This bequest led to some interesting patrons being associated with this little church. Starting in 1223 they were as follows:
1223 – The Bishop of Lincoln 1238 – Bro. Ro. Saumford, Master of the Knights Templar 1255 – Roscelin de Ros (See Brant Broughton church) 1276 - The Master of the Knights Templar 1277 - Rob. De Turville 1313 – The Bishop of Lincoln
So the patrons of this little church were quite powerful people and mostly connected in some way to the geometry of the Lincolnshire Star. For the mighty Bishop of Lincoln and the all-powerful Master of the Knights Templar to both sit as Patrons of this little church, there must be something special about it, but I have to admit I have not worked that out yet. I have spotted that rather interestingly if one draws a straight line from Lincoln Cathedral to Little Gidding church, it also passes through the round church of the Knights Templar at Bruer. Also, if one extends it further south, it reaches the original Temple Church in London. Little Gidding is very close to halfway between two of the main Templar establishments in England. Coincidence? Maybe. But very intriguing all the same.
There is, of course, also the connection between the Bishops of Lincoln and the Master at Bruer. In 1185 when the construction of the Cathedral as we know it was commencing, the almoner to Hugh, the then Bishop, was a brother Morinus of the Knights Templar. Whilst the Templars have been associated with the construction of many of the great gothic cathedrals across Europe, there has never been any suggestion that they put their hands in their pockets to help fund the building programmes. Usually, the almoner is responsible for distributing the alms or charitable donations to the poor. Still, at a time of great cost to the church, one has to wonder if this almoner was in place to oversee the collection of alms for construction works.
Footnote:
Around the late 1990s and early 2000s, I became very interested in all things Templar. I began visiting sites and accumulating information. At the same time, I became fascinated by the internet and websites. The information I found and the pictures I took were published on a website called thecyberfarm.com (do not attempt to visit this site now as it was taken over by hackers). My knowledge of managing websites was limited, and I managed to lose the web address. I then republished the information on a site called papadonkey.net The pages that I created ranked very highly on Google and were referenced in Wikipedia. However, due to a lack of updating and attention, the site never really developed, it slipped down Google rankings and diminished visitor numbers. Last year, 2022, I took the decision to delete the site. Some of the information in this post is taken from my old site, it is not plagiarised. The original Temple Bruer page can still be seen in the Waybackmachine.
Comentarios