Monument record GSG 009 - Manor Farm

Traces of ? moat - two arms, site just NW of GSG 003. Rammed clay areas, stone floors grouted in clay, wall footings, building debris and C13 pottery found during excavation. Site located on Temple Close Field adjoining Temple (now Northlands) Lane. Identified by Basil Brown as likely site of the Preceptory of the Knights Templars known to have bene at Gislingham - for alternative site see GSG 002 (S1, also see plan to rear of card index volume).
Earliest known record of the Knights Templars in Gislingham is a fine of 1224-5 between John & Alice Longus and Brother Alan Martell, master of Knights Templars (S2). Brother Thomas de Staunford 'preceptor domus milicie Templi' at Gislingham recorded 1305-6; 'Late Templar's manor' at Gislingham mentioned 1313-4 (S3). House possibly dissolved 1308, recorded as devastated in 1338 (S4). Land subsequently passed to the Knights Hospitallers at Battisford - see (S1).