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Temple Church, Cornwall

I first visited Temple in July 1996 (See my article in TEMPLE 2, Yellow cover, page 14), I am sure that many other Templars have also been there, I know our Grand Prior has! It was sad to see the church and churchyard in such a neglected state - and I said so in the visitors' book. Although the church was built on land belonging to the Templars in the 12th century it had fallen into disuse and decay but was rebuilt in the last century. Some parts of the original Templar building were utilised in the new building and there is Templar acknowledgement in the stained glass windows. The church is little used today and it seemed it might be doomed again to its former state of disrepair.

In February of this year I received a letter from the Secretary of the "Temple Churchyard Group" who, in view of my comment in the visitors' book, thought I would like to know that a renovation/conservation project was being planned. She said "Those of us who live here are quite a self-contained community and we have been dismayed by the lack of care which has been afforded to the Church and Churchyard. We are now initiating a project to start to rectify this situation, providing all labour for this voluntarily." She then went on to itemise the work to be done, ending with "If your organisation felt able to make a financial contribution to this work we would be most grateful." As a result of this plea the Priory decided to send a donation of £100 to this appeal. Since then I have received a letter of thanks giving an update on progress.

I visited Temple again in August this year. Certainly effort is being made to smarten up the place and I think that our contribution to help restore a little of our Templar heritage was well worth while.

(Source: TEMPLE mag 5, 1998)

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